To forgive is divine, they say. Perhaps that explains the longevity of Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum, who considered the wealth of possibilities in making fights with Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions and said, “I’ve never had any real problem doing business with them.”
Setting aside acrimony that has heightened and waned like ocean waves over the past two decades, the sides did get together to make the most lucrative prizefight of all time (Floyd Mayweather Jnr vs. Manny Pacquiao in 2015) and two parts of the heavyweight trilogy between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.
Now, the powerful fight promotions find themselves incentivized to partner once more in an effort to stage an abundance of cross-promoted bouts in the U.S. that will slow the stream of glamour fights defecting to Saudi Arabia with less American attention.
The matter came to a head recently when Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh staged a talent-filled, seven-fight February 22 card that included the Dmitry Bivol-Artur Beterbiev undisputed light-heavyweight championship fight, a lightweight title defense by pound-for-pound elite Shakur Stevenson, a middleweight title bout and an epic opening match between light-heavyweights Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi, yet drew just a reported 45,000 pay-per-view buys on DAZN.
One week later on Prime Video, a lightweight title defense in Brooklyn by PBC’s unbeaten WBA champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis generated a reported 260,000 buys even though challenger Lamont Roach Jnr was a 16/1 betting underdog.
“There’s no question about it,” that fights are better received when staged in the U.S., Arum told BoxingScene Tuesday. “With the time difference, doing the fights outside the U.S. shouldn’t be something that is done with great frequency. Every once in a while? OK. But the fans are here and America deserves a robust fight schedule here in the U.S., just as the U.K. fans deserve a busy schedule over there.
“If you don’t do good fights in the U.S., then boxing will die and wither away. So I’m absolutely in favor of trying to make the best fights we can here.”
Beyond staging his own shows, as Arum is doing with smaller cards on consecutive weekends in Las Vegas this week while returning there again May 4 for Naoya Inoue’s defense of his undisputed junior-featherweight reign versus Ramon Cardenas, Arum is intrigued by future unions with PBC.
One seems automatic, as PBC’s unified junior-middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora is headed to a WBO mandatory title defense against Top Rank’s No. 1-rated contender, unbeaten Xander Zayas.
PBC’s newly belted WBC featherweight champion Stephen Fulton has also expressed interest in meeting Top Rank’s WBC super-featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster.
“Whenever it’s right, we’ll work with anyone,” said Tom Brown, the head of TGB Promotions, which stages many of PBC’s top bouts. “If it’s the right fight, we’re more than happy to work with Top Rank.”
That was the topic of conversation at a Friday lunch in Las Vegas that included Top Rank Vice President of Boxing Operations Carl Moretti, company attorney Jeremy Koegel and PBC representative Luis DeCubas Jnr.
“We talked about Fundora-Zayas and a bunch of fights … let’s see if they can come together,” Moretti said.
Even as he launches the new TKO boxing venture funded by Alalshikh, UFC CEO Dana White has discussed the importance of placing big fights in the U.S. – something he’s expected to do with the September 13 Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford undisputed super-middleweight bout.
Alalshikh, meanwhile, is bringing a stacked three-fight card that includes Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney to New York’s Times Square on May 2 and he’ll start the May 3 Alvarez-William Scull undisputed fight in Saudi Arabia in the evening U.S. time.
While Top Rank and PBC have sent fighters to participate on Saudi-funded cards, the preference for the benefit of their business models is to produce their own cards with the largest live and television audiences possible.
The potential matchups are enticing, including a “Tank” Davis meeting against Top Rank’s three-division and lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko or its new WBO lightweight champion, 2021 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Keyshawn Davis, Top Rank’s WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman versus PBC’s WBC champion Mario Barrios Jnr., Top Rank’s 140lbs champion Teofimo Lopez versus PBC’s new WBA champion Gary Antuanne Russell and Top Rank’s unified middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly versus either of PBC’s middleweight champions, Carlos Adames or Erislandy Lara.
“Our business is making fights and PBC has good fighters we can make those fights with,” Arum said. “Essentially, we’ll work with anyone.”
Moretti said the Top Rank-PBC talks were fruitful from the standpoint both sides resolved “we’re in the same boat … at least we’re having a conversation.
“You look in-house first to see if you can make a quality fight for two of your fighters – that’s checking both boxes,” Moretti said. “But if you can look elsewhere and find a bigger, better fight, that’s what you look for.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.
