"Billy is independent. He's been really extraordinarily heplful, as you can see, in having these fighters enter into agreements with us and ESPN. He has the confidence of Todd [DuBoef] and myself and everybody here at Top Rank, and most importantly, the confidence of the guy who is the head honcho of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro...Billy has been successful in conveying to them what ESPN and Top Rank is prepared to do for a particular fighter; not only the money, but the exposure and the plan," stated Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, who recently spoke to FightHype.com about some of the recent additions to the Top Rank/ESPN family and the man responsible for making it happen. Check it out!
BT: Bob, congratulations on the recent addition of Tyson Fury to the Top Rank/ESPN family. I don't think anyone saw that one coming, especially since it looked like they were close to finalizing the rematch with Deontay Wilder. Can you give us some insight on how that came about?
BA: The Deontay Wilder fight with Tyson Fury is something that we would love to do, and that's a real goal and it's something that we will do. Billy Keane, who is a very, very close friend of Jimmy Pitaro, the head of ESPN, was doing something totally different in the Mideast with MTK Global and it was obvious that Tyson Fury could be in play. So Billy talked to Tyson Fury and explained what it would mean for him to come with Top Rank and get the exposure that ESPN, the greatest megaphone in sports, could give him. Fury, from what I know about him, has a lot of characteristics, as far as charisma and marketability, that we had with George Foreman during his comeback, which culminated in him knocking [Michael] Moorer out for the heavyweight championship. He's a similar type of guy, somebody who doesn't take himself all that seriously, like George didn't. When people would say George was fat, he had a waiter bring in a tray of cheeseburgers, or that he was too old, he said that age was just a number. Now Fury will come across to the public, not the same, but in a similar way that George did, and therefore the goal is, not just boxing fans, who really constitute a relatively small percentage of the people who follow sports, but we want everybody that follows sports who may not have seen a boxing event in years, we want them to be intrigued by this guy, to know who this guy is, and to build up a tremendous following for him in the United States. That's really our goal. When Billy was talking to him, you know, Billy is not an employee to Top Rank. He's a free agent. When he came back and talked to us about his conversations with Tyson Fury, we said we could offer him X and Y, and then when Billy offered that, he was talking to Top Rank. In other words, he is not a guy who makes up a number and then comes back to Top Rank and says, "We need this number." When he offers a fighter something, it's with the the approval of not only Top Rank, but ESPN.
BT: I've heard the name Billy Keane before, a few years ago actually, so I know he's been around boxing for awhile. Was he also instrumental in the Carl Frampton signing or securing Amir Khan's services for the Terence Crawford fight?
BA: Yes. When we were trying to make Crawford-Khan, we were having difficulties with Khan because he was in Pakistan, he was here, he was there, and frankly, we have so much on our plate that we can't spend the days and weeks with a fighter that Billy did with Amir Khan. That was the craziest negotiations. Every time Khan asked for this extra and that extra, Billy would call us up and we'd either say, "Okay, you can offer it to him" or "No, you can't!" He really put the hours and the days and the time in with Amir Khan, and that eventually led to a contract with Khan to fight Terence Crawford. As far as Frampton is concerned, Billy has this great relationship with MTK Global and they manage Frampton, so he was able to, on behalf of ourselves and ESPN, work out a deal with MTK Global and Frampton, which brought Frampton over to us at ESPN.
BT: Does Billy work for Top Rank or ESPN?
BA: Billy is independent. He's been really extraordinarily helpful, as you can see, in having these fighters enter into agreements with us and ESPN. He has the confidence of Todd [DuBoef] and myself and everybody here at Top Rank, and most importantly, the confidence of the guy who is the head honcho of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro. I can tell you about 10 other fighters that Billy is talking to now and hopefully he'll be successful with most of them. He's not going to hit 100%, but Billy has been successful in conveying to them what ESPN and Top Rank is prepared to do for a particular fighter; not only the money, but the exposure and the plan. Billy is equipped, when he's talking to all of these fighters, with a plan. It's all well and good to say to a kid, "Hey, we'll give ya X million dollars for one fight." That doesn't take a lot of ingenuity. But when you come out with a plan that he has talked to us about and talked to ESPN about, that plan is real, that plan is achievable, and a kid who signs on is going to get just what is laid out in that plan.
BT: Given the politics in boxing between the major players like yourself, Al Haymon, Eddie Hearn, and others, is it helpful to have a third-party like Billy, someone who is independent, but has the flexibility and the connections to speak with both promoters and networks?
BA: It certainly is. Billy can talk to them about what he's accomplished, what he's about to accomplish, and offer them a plan that is not only feasible, but it is the best type of path for the fighter to take. Now some fighters, no matter what he says, are going to say no and we understand that. The one thing that Billy knows and we won't tolerate is to interfere with anybody's contract. In other words, if he's talking about fighter X and the fighter has 6 more months with Eddie Hearn and DAZN, we would only be talking to that fighter about what would happen once his contract expired with DAZN and Eddie Hearn. We're not going to be out there trying to interfere with anybody's contract. We were never about that and we're not going to be about that and certainly ESPN wouldn't tolerate that.
BT: One last question on the subject. You mentioned DAZN. Deontay Wilder just turned down a massive offer from them. I assume the thinking is that he'll make more money going the more traditional route of pay-per-view. When you talk about ESPN having an "achievable plan" for fighters, is that because they offer the best of both worlds, meaning they have a streaming app, ESPN+, but they also have their cable channels and they're still in the PPV market?
BA: You see, you can't compare DAZN with ESPN and ESPN+. Even though ESPN+ and DAZN are streaming services, DAZN has no megaphone. They don't have any linear platform. It's very, very difficult for them to publicize an event. You know, they can spend multi-million dollars advertising and so forth, but that's not the same. Now when you have ESPN, even if the fight will be on ESPN+, with ESPN's megaphone, I mean every sports fan in a course of a day probably is on ESPN, so that megaphone is really something special and that's what these fighters need. You have to have the vehicle to become well-known and one of the big vehicles to become well-known is a linear platform when you're interviewed and you're on special shows like First Take and so forth. If you're on DAZN, you don't have that linear window. If you're on with PBC, Showtime, you really don't have that window; Fox, you're beginning to have that window, but again, FS1 doesn't get very many people watching it. Fox has a lot of people because it's linear platform, it's one of the major networks, but they have entertainment, they have everything else, and therefore they can't devote the time and effort to a fighter, to an event like an ESPN, which has seven channels and is talking sports 24/7. Big, big difference!
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