In the wake of the recent Floyd Mayweather poll debacle, its time to define what was really taking place there. For those not in the know, Floyd Mayweather put out a recent poll question asking whom he should fight next. The move was made to curb the backlash over the perceived opponent being the undeserving Amir Khan. Khan won some polls, lost others, and now there is controversy that is was all a hoax. Mayweather has made a career of doing things his own way, and being very successful at it. However, this move may have backfired a bit.
Bob Arum is from the old guard... fighters are indentured servants to him, and they should do their jobs, and fight. The trouble with this, is with the recent inventions of social media, and the very public way in which all business is done, nowadays, is that the fans and fighters are now privy to details that would not have otherwise been made public. This does not mean that deals are not still done in silence.
Al Haymon has managed to make his entire presence a huge one, from a virtually invisible platform. The downside to everyone knowing your business is they see all the inner workings, and can create doubt and bad PR for you. The upside is that you have the chance to adjust, relate, and have instant feedback from the market you are trying to get dollars from. The younger promotional outlets, rather than be frustrated by this change, are attempting to break it. Yet, to do so, opens them up to ridicule, and an agenda that does not care about their bottom line.
Fight fans have every right to not care about anyone's individual pocketbook. This is especially true of promoters, who are often rich men before they enter boxing, and their insistence on making fights the public don't want is met with disdain. Their greed also leads to lousy decisions, and fighters ending up broke after what should have been lucrative careers. However, our differences over where the money goes should not get us as fans excited enough to believe that we should have a giant matchmaking say in a fighter's career. As Miguel Cotto so intelligently put it, "Are the fans going to take care of my family, if I die in the ring?"
If we had our way, we'd ruin every prospect, bankrupt every promoter, and have most fighters babbling by the end of their short careers. We want action, and activity, and plenty of it. Now, a balance must be struck.. promoters should give the fans what they want in as many instances as possible. However, when something makes perfect sense in that it makes perfect dollars for all involved... we need to understand that there is no way the powers that be are going to let us make business decisions for them, any more then we should let them decide which fights we watch. That is our power... and we should use it more often.
Chris Strait
www.convictedartist.com
