By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford disagrees with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya about his view that fighters should have good management that looks out for their careers. Crawford wants fighters to be at the table.
What De La Hoya says makes sense because quality management is vital for fighters and their careers, as you can’t let them make decisions that could ruin things. De La Hoya made $200 million during his career, and he did that by following advice from his management. How much has Crawford made?
Not nearly that much, so should he be the one steering his career? He’s 36 and has only had one big fight during his 15-year career. In contrast, look at De La Hoya’s resume. It’s filled with big names from top to bottom, and why is that? He had good management, and he was willing to listen to them.
Crawford feels that fighters should be at the table to assemble fights and guide their careers. It sounds good, but it will never work if the fighters drag things out because they’re hard-headed.
You can’t have a fighter in negotiations for an entire year because they’re stubbornly insisting on a small point and wasting a lot of time they could have spent fighting other fighters.
If a fighter is going to lock themselves in a protracted negotiation because they think they know better, they’ll miss out on a lot of fights that they could have taken. For example, Crawford could have fought three or four times and made more money during the year that he spent negotiating with Errol Spence Jr.
Oscar De La Hoya: “Salute Showtime for their near-40-year commitment to the sport I love. I am hopeful that we promoters can use this unfortunate situation to put our differences aside and start working together more often to help make more of the bigger fights and grow our sport.”
Oscar is right. Promoters need to work together to help build the sport and not just work with fighters from their own promotional company. In other words, there needs to be more cross-promotional & network fights.
Terence Crawford: “If boxers aren’t at the table, it isn’t going to work.”
What if that boxer only wants specific cream-puff type fights, or what if they only want PPV-level opponents, which aren’t available to them? What happens then? The fighter ends up sitting for years, doing nothing.
De La Hoya: “Respectfully, I disagree. Fighters should hire smart, competent representation that will look out for the best interest of their client, and fighters should worry about the small window of opportunity that they have to fight as many times as they can in their careers.”
Crawford: “I say we need boxers at the table, and Oscar De La Hoya says, ‘Sit down and shut up.’ Do you really think we’re better off if you’re running things? You don’t get it. We need to do things differently, like other sports. We have the power, and y’all can’t keep us from using it.”
