Top Rank and Golden Boy polarize boxing community, continue to hurt the sport
Fettered, starved relations between Top Rank Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions continue to devastate the sport of boxing.
The discord, as per custom in business, is a question of money—in this case, millions of dollars—to which Golden Boy feels entitled.
Golden Boy CEO Oscar De la Hoya filed a second lawsuit against Top Rank recently, claiming that they've been engaged in racketeering and fraud in bouts involving seven-division titlist Manny Pacquiao.
A lawsuit in 2007 concerning Pacquiao’s rights as a fighter concluded with Top Rank assuming control, but with Golden Boy entitled to a certain percentage of Top Rank’s earnings on Pacquiao.
It’s this percentage that’s in question. Golden Boy says Top Rank came up with phoney expenses and excuses to underpay its rightful portion of the profits.
The dispute has historical underpinnings which personalize and complicate matters. De la Hoya and Arum were once partners, back when De la Hoya was fighting. From his first professional fight in 1992
into his later years, the two were on good terms. De la Hoya even continued to fight under Top Rank once Golden Boy was inaugurated in 2002.
Since then the imperatives of economics and business have made enemies out of friends.
Much of the trouble initially stemmed from Pacquiao himself, who, in 2006, signed with both companies. Whether he therefore deserves blame for the ongoing turmoil, is debatable.
Following the agreement in 2007, Golden Boy and Top Rank managed to work together to forge some good shows, including bouts between Shane Mosley (Golden Boy) and Miguel Cotto (Top Rank), Bernard Hopkins
(Golden Boy) and Kelly Pavlik (Top Rank), Mosley and Antonio Margarito, and Pacquiao’s bout against Ricky Hatton in early 2009.
The thing is, that Hatton-Pacquiao bout was the last time the two have been willing to come together to promote and put fighters together. It’s true that a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao mega-fight attracted
both companies to that table, but that fight dissolved sensationally.
Under the current agreement between the two, Golden Boy handled finances when Pacquiao took on a Golden Boy fighter (Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Hatton), whereas Top Rank handled the books when Pacquiao
went against a Top Rank guy (David Diaz, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey). These are the bouts in question.
Golden Boy says accounting numbers were intentionally incorrect to cheat them out of their entitlements.
As a response to the discord, and for financial reasons, promotional companies have started dealing in-house with greater and greater frequency.
The logic is simple. By placing two prospects together under the same banner, promoters don’t have to split profits with another promoter. They can also engineer the career paths of their best prospects.
Since Hatton, Top Rank has put Pacquiao against Cotto and Clottey, both Top Rank fighters. Ditto the upcoming Antonio Margarito bout.
On Golden Boy’s side, the same holds: Mosley, post-Margarito, has taken on Mayweather (Golden Boy affiliated) and Sergio Mora (Golden Boy). There are other examples of in-house fights too, like Juan Manuel
Marquez, who hasn’t taken on a Top Rank representative since Pacquiao in 2008.
Some of these are good fights, but how long can Top Rank and Golden Boy go on avoiding each other? The results inevitably are that top fighters don’t get to fight each other.
The problem is there’s a simple incentive to in-house fighting: they’re easy money makers, without having to split anything.
Boxing promoters don’t really care about giving fans great fights.
They care about lining their wallets.
There are promotional pluses to in-house fighting, but downsides for the fans. One such is that due to the new lawsuit between the companies, one can be sure they won’t be working together anytime soon.
This has a profound influence on the boxing world.
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