What had been rumored for the past several months was officially announced a couple of days ago: Golden Boy Promotions has entered into a deal with ESPN to have fight cards televised internationally on its various platforms, which will begin on March 23 from the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
While Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is its clean-up hitter, Golden Boy still needs to fill out the rest of its lineup around him and it has a deep roster of young talent – which includes Christian “Chimpa” Gonzalez, Hector Tanajara, Diego De La Hoya, Edgar Valerio, Cesar Diaz, Luis Coria, Ryan Garcia, Rashidi Ellis, Lamont Roach, Vergil Ortiz, Jason Quigley, Emilio Sanchez, Alexis Rocha and Joshua Franco – that will now have an opportunity to develop their careers in front of a significant audience.
“It’s big; it’s big,” said Eric Gomez, president of GBP, of their agreement with “The Worldwide Leader in Sports and Entertainment,” who understands that, to whom much is given, much is expected. “We feel we have a big responsibility to the fans, to boxing, and we want to make some great fights. There’s a rich history with ‘Friday Night Fights,’ for many, many years, and we just want to follow in that tradition and try to maintain the standard for boxing on Friday nights.
“This deal varies; there’s going to be some Saturdays, some Thursdays, for the first year, but we want to try to follow the guideline of what Friday Night Fights were.”
For many years Friday Night Fights on “The Deuce” was a weekly tradition that served as an important springboard for a multitude of future world champions. That series came to an end in 2015 as it was swallowed up by Premier Boxing Champions (which still has dates remaining on the network).
The success of this new series will really depend on one thing and one thing only: the fights. And the reality is, for the best match-ups to happen, Golden Boy must be willing to reach across the aisle and work with other promoters. This cant be, as J Russell Peltz would call it, “Cowboys versus Indians,” in which you know the red corner will always best those in the blue.
Gomez promises, “We will work with anybody, any promoter. We want to make the best fights. So we’re willing to work with anybody; we’ve been doing it for the last couple of years and if the right fights come along, why not? We want to make great fights and we understand that, to make great fights, you need help. You do need to work with other promoters and we’re willing to do that.”
Looking at the recent track record, Golden Boy has been engaged in significant co-promotions over recent years with pairings such as Lucas Matthysse-Ruslan Provodnikov, Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux (and now Lemieux-Curtis Stevens), Sullivan Barrera-Vyacheslav Shabranskyy and Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido.
More than ever, boxing needs promoters to work with each other and become, as Abraham Lincoln once described, “a team of rivals” for the good of the sport and its fans. In an era when the business has become more fractured than ever, cooperation is vital. “That’s how you get the best fights done. I think when you have a promoter that has developed a fighter, brought them along, done their job – and you’ve done your job – that makes it so much more intriguing. There’s so many angles, better story lines to the fights, to promote them. I just think you’re going to get the best of the best, and you might have some guys that might stand out in your stable, but they’re not always the best because there’s other promoters and they’ve done their jobs with their fighters. So I enjoy it; I have no problems working with anybody,” stated Gomez.
This simply can’t become what the Top Rank Promotions deal with Versus became or to which other exclusive output deals of the past have been relegated.
“(Golden Boy CEO) Oscar (De La Hoya) has instilled that in us and we’ve really kept to that. ‘Let’s work with everybody, make the best fights.’ Some of these other promoters, they have fighters that they have taken the time to develop and they’re at a certain point where they’re ready to challenge and – same with us – we’ve developed kids and they get to a point where they’re ready to be challenged. So when you talk to boxing organizations, the top ones in the world, they don’t rank by promoter – they rank them by ability. Sometimes there’s fighters in there that don’t belong to you. So, to match up the best against the best, everybody wins,” continued Gomez.
Having Golden Boy boxers lose occasionally on this series wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Bottom line, this just can’t be a portal for house fights to build records. Real, authentic, athletic competition will be vital but, of course, some of that will be dependent on just how much money they will have to work with to make compelling bouts on a consistent basis.
When asked of the budget at hand, Gomez says, in comparison to the past monies available on Friday Night Fights, “It’s a little better but we’re going to have to be creative, when you go to venues that have site fees and we’re in the process of getting few more sponsors. It’s a better budget than what it was in the past before Friday Night Fights went away. It’s a little bit of a better budget and I think we think we can make competitive fights.”
For the past couple of years, Golden Boy has worked with RingTV.com to stream their fights from the Belasco Theater and Fantasy Springs, in its developmental series. So what happens now?
“There’s some ideas; we’re going to adjust but there’s some ideas we’re working on,” said Gomez. “It’s not confirmed yet but, in the next coming weeks, we’ll make a determination but there’s some ideas on how to work it to keep that going because it’s been very successful.”
These particular cards – which have also been televised by Spanish network EstrellaTV – have taken place, for the most part, in the state of California. But, for ESPN, Golden Boy will be hitting the road. Gomez says, “We’re going to go national. We’re looking to go East Coast, Midwest; we’re planning to go to Chicago. We’re also talking to a few venues in Florida, definitely New York, Boston, definitely Philadelphia, (Las) Vegas. We’re going to take it all over the place.”
This much is clear: This company – which many left for dead at the beginning of 2015 after the settlement with its former CEO Richard Schaefer and a mass exodus of talent – is here to stay.
“Oscar has a vision; our Golden Boy brand is a strong brand and we’re just doing our work. We’re working hard and that’s what were doing and, if you work hard, things happen; opportunities come,” said Gomez, who says this deal took about six months to consummate. “And we’re ready for them. We’re ready for all these opportunities. It’s been a lot of hard work these last couple of years but we’re all for it. We want to take it head on. That’s how you get things done.”
PBCRASS
I find it interesting and ironic that, in light of Angel Garcia’s latest antics (which can be found all over YouTube) this past week at the press conference to formally announce the Danny Garcia-Keith Thurman fight on March 4 at the Barclays Center – where he did his usual shtick and dropped a few N-bombs – you now see stories calling for his banishment and how he needs to be disciplined for crossing the line.
Uh, excuse me but have you not been paying attention to this guy’s act? He long ago trampled and crossed that line in the lead-up to fights against Amir Khan and Zab Judah (where he first dropped THE word – you know which one), in which everyone found it amusing and nervously laughed along with it. Hey, he’s just promoting the fight and, after all, it’s boxing, right?
To paraphrase a memorable riff from Chris Rock: Angel Garcia didn’t go crazy; Angel Garcia went Angel Garcia.
Hey, listen, as the son of an immigrant (who had to apply for citizenship to this great country), I’m not any more or less offended by Mr. Garcia than I was before. He is what he is – the lowest common denominator of society that just happens to have a gene pool that could produce a pretty good prizefighter. But save all the (faux) outrage, this is what was harbored and tolerated (perhaps even enabled) for years. This is who you placated and, to a certain degree, to whom who you marketed. (Remember when the PBC was going to “class up” boxing?)
This has momentarily overshadowed a very good match-up that should be lauded but this has to be asked: For all those so offended and offering rebukes of Garcia, how many of them will pull their association from this event or decide not to attend or watch it?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
You’re stuck with him. Deal with it.
FINAL FLURRIES
Gomez says, in 2017, GBP will do between 45 and 55 cards…Rob Brant and Skender Halili scored stoppage victories on Friday night in Hinckley, Minnesota…Danny Roman made a real statement in beating Adam Lopez on “ShoBox”…Kenneth Sims Jr. sure gets hit a lot for a “slick” boxer…Glad I bought an umbrella a few weeks ago…RIP to Edwin Pope, who, for years, was the voice of the Miami Herald. He was a true sportswriting giant…This Falcons offense is the perfect blend of system and blue-chip talent…The Patriots are like the Microsoft of the NFL; aren’t they?…I think Atlanta-New England is a great Super Bowl match-up…I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet (a lot) at twitter.com/steveucnlive. I also share photos of stuff at instagram.com/steveucnlive and can also be found at tsu.co/steveucnlive.
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