Arum Thinks COVID-19 Will Change How Fighters Work Contracts
The first thing that boxing fans envision when pondering what fights will be like without an audience is a hollow and boring environment. The first thing that promoters and boxers think is, ‘who is going to pay these bills?!’ It’s no secret that the live gates in boxing provide an awful lot of grease to the overall gears of production.
So when it comes to big time marquee bouts in particular, the monies brought by those fans that physically show up represent a critical portion of the pie. Therefore, one could theorize that excluding fans poses a gigantic threat to the finalization of the most desirable fights. After all, what top name in the game do you know that wants to fight in pay-per-view level bouts for notably less money?
Luckily, this dreary issue may never come into play.
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Ever since the sporting industries were forced into this unwanted standstill, they have plotted their return. And while boxing staples such as Top Rank founder Bob Arum have never experienced COVID-19, they have had to deal with other last minute crises. This is exactly why Arum is confident that his beloved sport will be able to roll with the punches in this instance as well.
When it comes to arenas devoid of spectators, Arum does acknowledge that accommodations will have to be made. However, the legendary promoter doesn’t believe that it will be the end of the world, or even that big of a deal to get around, as he explained in a recent interview on with Sports Illustrated.
“The fighters would take less of a guarantee and more of the upside. For example, that’s how we did it with Marvin [Hagler], that’s who we did it with [Oscar] de la Hoya, that’s how we did it in the past. They take reasonable guarantees and a big up side, so that if a fighter, for example, says, ‘I want to make 20 million dollars.’
Okay, then we’ll figure out what is a safe amount to guarantee him whether that is 5 or 7 million, give him a big share of the upside and if he is right that the fight will perform in a particular way then he’ll make his money or maybe more. Like Marvin, who fought largely on percentage in his fight with Ray, ended up making almost twice as much.”
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Hopefully, everything will work out smoothly and we will all get the bouts that we want. But at the end of the day, Bob Arum is a businessman and he understands that not every fighter is going to want to give up their guarantees.
In fact, one of his own fighters, WBO world welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (36-0, 27 KO’s) has expressed his desire for more money if there is no audience. Having thought of this beforehand, Arum is already prepared to play a hardball.
“Again, some fighters have different views and after we talk with them, if those views make it impossible to use them ‘next man up!’ Nobody in this situation is indispensable… again the fighters that I envisage will be fighting for a place on these cards. If a fighter said ‘no, I don’t want to fight without an audience, pay me more or I just won’t fight,’ that’s okay! I respect that, ‘next man up!’ No one is indispensable in this environment.”
By taking this standpoint, it will be fun to see who fights first and what accommodations will be made by fighters and promoters alike.
By: Bakari Simpson
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