PBC-UFC-Fox-Boxing Rumour Mill?

[Enlightened-One]

I don’t know how true this story is, which has been discussed on several MMA websites since last month, but it is alleged that the UFC are trying to renegotiate their TV deal with Fox and are asking for $450m, which they will use to establish UFC boxing, using Al Haymon’s PBC stable of fighters…

"Zuffa Boxing bailout? The potential 2018 fight with Fox, UFC, Al Haymon vs. ESPN & Bob Arum"

The biggest UFC story for 2018 may not even involve the Ali Act being amended to cover MMA. No? What could possibly be bigger? A marriage between UFC & Al Haymon that would create a two-headed enemy against Bob Arum.

2018 is now the year of a potential boxing war between ESPN & Top Rank (Bob Arum) vs. Fox, UFC, and Al Haymon.

Haymon needs promotional vehicles to keep his fighters active to fulfill contractual obligations and to recruit new talent. Enter UFC Boxing.

UFC Boxing is a negotiating carrot that appears to fit the agenda of Fox Sports. Fox inks a new deal with UFC and here comes UFC Boxing as a promotional banner to book fights involving Al Haymon guys. It’s a win-win-win scenario for all parties involved. Fox gets boxing action, UFC gets to diversify their portfolio, and both UFC & Al Haymon get to recruit boxing talent that may have signed with another promoter — like Bob Arum.

For the record, the PBC already has a TV deal with Fox.

Thoughts?

[Oiky]

UFC is really pushing this boxing thing then

Good luck to em

Weird pairing though isn't it, be interesting to see how it plays out

[Perseus]

I hope this goes forward just to see what happens.
If it's a colossal flop so be it but it has the potential to be a massive success and great for boxing.

[Oiky]

I'm all for it tbh

[Enlightened-One]

The PBC’s business model was heavily-influenced by Zuffa’s UFC and was also praised by Dana White.

Dana White initially started his career working with boxing. Floyd Mayweather and Al Haymon have known him for more than twenty years.

Haymon-White-Mayweather-UFC obviously worked together very successfully to orchestrate the May-Mac PPV event.

The UFC and also the PBC both currently work with Fox.

Dana White has been talking about a potential move into boxing for quite some time.

Al Haymon needs to work with as many promoters as possible to keep his massive stable of fighters active, but the PBC boss tends to refrain from doing business regularly with promoters that have previously filed lawsuits against him (i.e. Main Events, GBP, Top Rank, Roc Nation etc.). Nobody from the UFC has done that and Zuffa and Fox have a lot of money in their war chest, whilst the PBC’s funds are diminishing, because they haven’t got a TV deal.

There are no financial, legal or political barriers that obstruct the creation of UFC boxing, unless Fox declines the terms of the UFC’s contract renewal.

The only question I have about this situation relates to the status of PBC if the “UFC Boxing” is created… Fox aren’t likely to televise both PBC and “FC Boxing” brands on their network, as they’ll essentially be rivals. So why would Haymon agree to work with the UFC if it leads to the downfall of the PBC (or at least adversely affect it)?

Will the “UFC Boxing” essentially be a completely separate business entity to the PBC? Will the UFC acquire the PBC? Will the “UFC Boxing” and PBC businesses merge to become a single rebranded business entity ran by Haymon and the head honchos at Zuffa?

[TheGingerBomber]

If the fans, fighters & promoters are all happy with the finished article, there'll be no complaints. Dana n' co. may be able to bring back boxing big style.

[klitoris]

PBC makes me want to throw up.

We just had probably the best boxing year since like the 90s, and none of the fights were from PBC.

So can we bury PBC and never dig it up from the grave?

[Enlightened-One]

PBC makes me want to throw up.

We just had probably the best boxing year since like the 90s, and none of the fights were from PBC.

So can we bury PBC and never dig it up from the grave?

Without doing any research, from the top of my head, Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia?

What about the 154lbs triple-header that took place on the same fight card:

• WBC champion Jermell Charlo vs. Erickson Lubin (18-0, 13 KO)
• WBA “Super” champion Erislandy Lara vs. Terrell Gausha (20-0, 9 KO)
• IBF champion Jarrett Hurd vs. Austin Trout (30-3, 17 KO)

Do you need me to list more? Have HBO done much better (in terms of volume and consistency of the quality of their fight cards)?

[jamamb]

i think a lot of pbc haters are consciously or unconsciously biased due to a black man having power and a talent loaded stable of primarily black and hispanic boxers. other organizations , stations, etc put on shit all the time but get nothing likethe hate pbc does. and ya lets just ignore all the good pbcfights and cherrypick the not so good ones

if this goes ahead i hope boxings better for it

[BAD INTENTIONS]

i think a lot of pbc haters are consciously or unconsciously biased due to a black man having power and a talent loaded stable of primarily black and hispanic boxers. other organizations , stations, etc put on poo all the time but get nothing likethe hate pbc does. and ya lets just ignore all the good pbcfights and cherrypick the not so good ones

if this goes ahead i hope boxings better for it

Nooooooo!
Don’t say this here.
They’ll just call you racists and say there’s no racism.
They will then ethnicize all of your comments that fit their portrayal of you.

The PBC is just the worst. Boxrec fact.
There’s even a vocal person here who claims Arum has the most integrity and is the best promoter.

So just leave it alone. Trust me.

[BAD INTENTIONS]

PBC makes me want to throw up.

We just had probably the best boxing year since like the 90s, and none of the fights were from PBC.

So can we bury PBC and never dig it up from the grave?

Without doing any research, from the top of my head, Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia?

What about the 154lbs triple-header that took place on the same fight card:

• WBC champion Jermell Charlo vs. Erickson Lubin (18-0, 13 KO)
• WBA “Super” champion Erislandy Lara vs. Terrell Gausha (20-0, 9 KO)
• IBF champion Jarrett Hurd vs. Austin Trout (30-3, 17 KO)

Do you need me to list more? Have HBO done much better (in terms of volume and consistency of the quality of their fight cards)?

Have you not read any of my amazing replies over the years about this topic.
I even created a thread directly comparing EVERY major US promotion to the PBC.

The PBC had more fights and more quality fights.
The topic got a few responses and then faded away.

But put a critical topic about PBC and everyone comes out citing financial “facts”
they “know” about PBC operations. Normally those “PBC is dead” threads were immediately followed by the PBC announcing a bunch of fights. Even Rafael had it happen to him where he wrote a whole PBC expose that they’d shut down, and then a week later the PBC announced like 20 fights.

Just a bunch of sorry racists.

[Enlightened-One]

PBC makes me want to throw up.

We just had probably the best boxing year since like the 90s, and none of the fights were from PBC.

So can we bury PBC and never dig it up from the grave?

Without doing any research, from the top of my head, Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia?

What about the 154lbs triple-header that took place on the same fight card:

• WBC champion Jermell Charlo vs. Erickson Lubin (18-0, 13 KO)
• WBA “Super” champion Erislandy Lara vs. Terrell Gausha (20-0, 9 KO)
• IBF champion Jarrett Hurd vs. Austin Trout (30-3, 17 KO)

Do you need me to list more? Have HBO done much better (in terms of volume and consistency of the quality of their fight cards)?

Have you not read any of my amazing replies over the years about this topic.
I even created a thread directly comparing EVERY major US promotion to the PBC.

The PBC had more fights and more quality fights.
The topic got a few responses and then faded away.

But put a critical topic about PBC and everyone comes out citing financial “facts”
they “know” about PBC operations. Normally those “PBC is dead” threads were immediately followed by the PBC announcing a bunch of fights. Even Rafael had it happen to him where he wrote a whole PBC expose that they’d shut down, and then a week later the PBC announced like 20 fights.

Just a bunch of sorry racists.

You’re absolutely right. People are either stupid or ignorant!

They’re moaning about the PBC, claiming that it makes them want to “throw up” and that none of their bouts could be considered amongst the best or the highest-profile of those that took place during 2017, whilst conveniently forgetting that it’s being shown on free-to-air TV, coupled with ignoring some of the following fights we’ve witnessed this year:

• James DeGale vs. Badou Jack
• Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz
• Danny Garcia vs. Keith Thurman
• Andre Berto vs. Shawn Porter
• Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia
• Kell Brook vs. Errorl Spence Jr.

Yet the very same sort of people strangely refrain from criticising HBO! FFS!

[Enlightened-One]

The PBC’s business model was heavily-influenced by Zuffa’s UFC and was also praised by Dana White.

Dana White initially started his career working with boxing. Floyd Mayweather and Al Haymon have known him for more than twenty years.

Haymon-White-Mayweather-UFC obviously worked together very successfully to orchestrate the May-Mac PPV event.

Dana White has been talking about a potential move into boxing for quite some time.

Al Haymon needs to work with as many promoters as possible to keep his massive stable of fighters active, but the PBC boss tends to refrain from doing business regularly with promoters that have previously filed lawsuits against him (i.e. Main Events, GBP, Top Rank, Roc Nation etc.). Nobody from the UFC has done that and Zuffa have a lot of money in their war chest...

There are no financial, legal or political barriers that obstruct the creation of UFC boxing...

The only question I have about this situation relates to the status of PBC if the “UFC Boxing” is created…

So why would Haymon agree to work with the UFC if it leads to the downfall of the PBC (or at least adversely affect it)?

Will the “UFC Boxing” essentially be a completely separate business entity to the PBC? Will the UFC acquire the PBC? Will the “UFC Boxing” and PBC businesses merge to become a single rebranded business entity ran by Haymon and the head honchos at Zuffa?

It seems like an ideal time to resurrect this old thread from 2017 based on the following article that has just been published:

"Dana White ‘guarantees’ Al Haymon partnership"

Dana White has opened up on his relationship with boxing’s premium promoters. The UFC President recently reiterated his plans on crossing over from the MMA world in order to force through the fights which need to be made in boxing.

He has opened up on the likelihood of working with PBC and Matchroom Boxing, who are currently competing against each other for ratings stateside.

Rumors have been floating around about the prospect of White buying out Al Haymon’s PBC, which includes pound-for-pound stars Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr. and Deontay Wilder.

White has now responded to the speculation as well as addressing his relationship with Eddie Hearn after his compliments towards Anthony Joshua after his victory over Wladimir Klitschko received a frosty reception from the Matchroom mogul.

Speaking to Sirius XM Fight Nation in a recent interview, he said: “Listen I have a really good relationship with Al Haymon. I think Al Haymon is brilliant. And I like some of the moves he has made. Some of the things that he has done. “I can guarantee that I’ll be working with Al Haymon.”

After confirming his intentions to break into the boxing market and fix a ‘broken model’, White has spoken about the Zuffa Boxing banner.

Now that he’s hit the half-century milestone, White wants to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

“Zuffa is the parent company of the UFC. It was just a working title and we were goofing around with it. Obviously this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and I think right now the time is right.

“Not only for where the sport is but for me personally and professionally right now is the time. It’s now or never.

“I just turned 50 and signed a seven-year deal with these guys. Boxing is a big part of our plans.”

Thoughts?

[MATTPRENTICE]

I doubt White will find much success in boxing. Managers won't tolerate a boorish promoter bullying their clients into unfavorable matchups and taking an 80% cut of the money.