SAN DIEGO – With fierce, new competition, a new boss pushing a revived agenda and fighters expressing a newfound push for big fights, the days of promoters cautiously steering their fighters and over-marinating bouts ripe to be made are no longer boxing business as usual.
“There’s absolutely no way we can operate like that any longer, and DAZN has communicated that to us as we meet with them frequently – we need competitive fights, and need to work together,” veteran promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank told BoxingScene Thursday.
As the new Saudi Arabia-backed, Dana White-Nick Khan-led Zuffa Boxing promotion is aggressively compiling fighters and seeking to follow the philosophy of powerful Saudi boxing financier Turki Alalshikh in staging anticipated showdowns, legacy promoters Top Rank and Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions have inked new streaming deals with DAZN this year.
Joining England-based Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions along with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, Top Rank and PBC previously drew boxing industry criticism for keeping their top fighters in-house and moving them over-deliberately.
Arum accepted that, adding, “It wasn’t as bad as what some made it out to be, and another company was worse than us,” a clear reference to PBC.
Yet, starting this weekend with a Saturday night card in San Diego, PBC has an ideal opportunity to prove that it’s getting the memo as its WBC interim middleweight champion, Jesus Ramos Jnr 24-1 (19 KOs), meets Kazakhstan’s Meiirim Nursaltanov, 20-0 (11 KOs).
The WBC has ordered that the winner will next fight its full champion Carlos Adames, 25-1-1 (18 KOs), who has fought his past seven bouts under the PBC banner.
Beyond that, PBC is working on a title defense by its WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara of Cuba versus Australia’s former 154lbs champion Tim Tszyu while its unbeaten No. 1 contender Yoenli Hernandez is the No. 1 WBO contender to champion Denzel Bentley.
And looming in the division are PBC’s former undisputed 154lbs champion Jermell Charlo and Golden Boy’s unbeaten WBC interim 154lbs champion Vergil Ortiz Jnr.
In other words, time is of the essence to obey the DAZN creed and make the glamour-division bouts that will entertain and boost the business.
“I haven’t felt pressure or seen it… when the fight’s right, 100 percent [we’ll make it]. It’s got to be right for everyone,” said Tom Brown, head of TGB Promotions, which handles Saturday’s card and the other PBC shows. “[Middleweight] is one of the divisions, [where PBC can script high-quality fights]. We’ll see what happens with this Ramos fight, because Adames has to fight him or Ramos [in Saturday victory] is the new champion.”
Of course there’s some wiggle room in some of Brown’s promoter-speak, but that’s a hard habit to break from the decades of keeping fighters pinned to a specific broadcast partner while remaining in the company to ensure a championship belt doesn’t escape to a rival.
Now that the longtime rivals are working under the same DAZN roof, the incentive to strike deals and arrange the best fights is rich.
Brown said the only update on making bouts featuring Lara, Tszyu, Charlo and Ortiz qualifies as just “banter” for now, pointing out that while Golden Boy wants Ortiz to fight in November, it has yet to propose a financial package for a bout with a PBC opponent.
Given that Texas’ Ortiz is after a high-profile bout after losing touch earlier this year for a date with unified 154lbs champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis over a now-resolved contract squabble with Golden Boy, there’s seemingly no choice but to bargain or resort to a frustrating mismatch and days of old.
Meanwhile, Ramos, 25, is among the breed of fighters pushing for the smoke, per se.
Not only does he become a champion or land a title fight by defeating Nursaltanov, he heard unbeaten Hernandez say something disparaging and wants him for a unification should the Cuban defeat England’s Bentley.
Ramos, the nephew of former welterweight title challenger Abel Ramos, has won four consecutive bouts, including a unanimous-decision triumph over Shane Mosley Jnr in December, since dropping a unanimous decision to Erickson Lubin in 2023.
“Getting through those fights, digging deep and really getting to know who I am, it changes you when you get out of the ring,” Ramos said. “You start believing [in yourself] and carrying yourself differently. In my last fight with Shane Mosley Jnr, I overcame a lot of hurdles. Knowing that I can compete with these guys, along with the maturity, helps.
“I train hard, and know I work hard with no distractions… I’m confident. No one outworks me.”
It leads him to raising his voice on the topic of the sport’s progression. Enough with the hesitation as a fighter’s career advances. Let’s cut to the chase.
“I’m excited, and that’s the type of energy I’m trying to bring to this sport,” Ramos said. “I don’t want to wait some of these fighters out and fight them in 5, 10 years. I want to fight them now. I want to beat them now – when I’m in my prime and they’re in their prime. That’s when it matters. Fights now are all legacy fights. That’s what I want.”
