By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn is expressing confidence that the huge heavyweight unification fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder will take place before the end of the year. Hearn says he’s spoken with Showtime and Wilder’s adviser Al Haymon and he likes the chances of it happening.
By Jeff Aranow: Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum has reportedly settled his $100 million lawsuit with Al Haymon, the creator of Premier Boxing Champions as of Thursday. It’s unclear what the settlement was in the lawsuit being dropped. The 84-year-old Arum’s lawsuit was a federal anti-trust lawsuit.
The lawsuit wasn’t dropped due the potential for a big money rematch between Floyd Mayweather Jr., who works with Haymon, and Arum’s fighter Pacquiao. A lot of boxing fans thought Arum had used bad timing in initiating the lawsuit after the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight last year because they felt it might get in the way of a rematch between the two fighters.
Pacquiao recently captured a seat in the senate in the Philippines, and it’s unlikely that he’ll have the time or the inclination to return to the ring to fight Mayweather or anyone else that Arum could potentially match him again.
By Rick Jones III: The last 20 years boxing has been held by it’s throat by Floyd Mayweather Jr. The boxer that considers himself “The Greatest Of All Time,” had a real tight grip on the sport of boxing. The boxer then retired as of Sep 12th of 2015, which I have marked on my calendar the day boxing was reborn and possibly the best thing that has happen for the professional sport.
The pay-per-view numbers finally came out for the Gennady Golovkin – David Lemieux fight, which hit a little bit over 150,000 buys on HBO last Saturday night. So does that mean that the famous Triple G is not worthy of the throne Mayweather Jr. left behind? No…HELL NO! What this means is that the sport of boxing is actually level and balanced.
By Gav Duthie: From what I can see regarding boxing politics it often seems to go one step forward and two steps back. I was positive at the back end of last year when after Richard Schaefer’s departure from Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya said he would do all he can to improve the relationship with Bob Arum and Top Rank.
By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: For a man that is rarely seen, he sure has a great impact on boxing. Thanks in part to Main Events Kathy Duva, who struck a deal with NBC to bring boxing back to regular TV and attract the casual fan. Haymon will attempt to pick up where she left off. He’s off to great start with his series Premier Boxing Champion series set up on NBC and his deal with Spike TV.
By Dan Ambrose: In a surprising move, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya has reportedly sold the contract for Golden Boy fighter WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 KOs) to adviser Al Haymon for an undisclosed amount of money, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
Santa Cruz, 26, has a large fan base in the United States, and he was still under contract until 2016. Rafael is saying that De La Hoya sold the contract because he was frustrated at being unable to set Santa Cruz up with big names like WBA/WBO 122 pound champion Guillermo Rigondeaux due to Haymon, who was already Santa Cruz’s adviser, blocking the fights.
By Dan Ambrose: In a rather unusual move, the high powered adviser Al Haymon has added 34-year-old former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (31-2, 24 KOs) to his stable of fighters, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. Bute, ranked #15 by the WBC at light heavyweight, has lost two out of his last three fights, and he’s seen by a lot of boxing fans to be past his prime and on his way down.
At 175, it’s difficult to see what Bute can accomplish in this weight division.
”Add another one to the list. Lucian Bute has signed with Al Haymon. #thankAlHaymon,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter.
By Chris Williams: Golden Boy Promotions has settled their legal issues with former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, according to Lance Pugmire of the LAtimes.com. As a result of the settlement, Golden Boy Promotions will be losing Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia and Daniel Jacobs to manager Al Haymon.
Golden Boy will still keep Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse and Leo Santa Cruz, even though all three of them are now being advised by Haymon. They’re still under contract with Golden Boy at this time. Whether that will stay that way once their contracts end is unclear.
By Allan Fox: In a move that is probably 2 fights too late, former WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-3, 17 KO’s) has signed with adviser Al Haymon to help manage his sagging career. Dawson, 31, has lost his last two fights both by knockout to Andre Ward and Adonis Stevenson. He’s not looked good in the ring in quite a while, even before his losses to those two fighters.
At one time, Dawson was considered to be the best fighter at 175, but he failed to do much with his career other than fight a lot of older guys like Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver and Bernard Hopkins.
By James Connell: Amid all of the bluster, discussion and hype that has been floating around the boxing world after Adrien Broner’s appearance on Showtime last night during the Deontay Wilder undercard, I can’t help but be drawn back into thinking about his previous fight in New York against the then WBA Welterweight champion: Paulie Malignaggi.
Before I go on to talk about Malignaggi, let’s cast our minds back to that fight. I’ve seen a lot on twitter, and the web in general, claiming that fight as an unimpressive, but undoubted victory for Broner. I’m risking the chance of re-opening that wound here, but I personally scored it 115-113 in favour of Malignaggi.