"You see, a fight such as this needed a promoter involved to bring out the fans that want to see if this is going to be a fight. A fight that is already difficult needs a promoter. If you take Mayweather and put him against Pacquiao, you can promote that, but if you make a fight that's difficult, that's when your expertise has to come outÂ… as much as I respect Golden Boy Promotions, you can check their track record. That which was difficult, they couldn't do. That's when you need a real promoter. A real promoter comes in when it's difficult. A real promoter finds a way of getting it done. You don't have that in this fight. The fight is not drawing anything and the timing is wrongÂ… The problem with this fight is Golden Boy's interest is only in Bernard Hopkins. It's very difficult for them to blow up Roy Jones Jr. That's the number one problem with this promotion, so even if they had what I just mentioned, they can't use it because it will look like they're against Bernard. It's a one-sided fight and a one-sided promotion," stated promoter Murad Muhammad as he shared his thoughts on the lack of interest in the long-overdue rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. Check out what he had to say about where they went wrong in promoting a fight between two legends and future Hall of Famers.
PC: I'm hearing some not so good numbers on the turnout at the Jones-Hopkins weigh-in. I'm hearing a little over 200 fans and about a dozen media outlets. Why do you think that's the case?
MM: You have a new trend going around all of a sudden in boxing and that's fighters thinking they are promoters. It's very rare that you will see a boxer successfully promote his own fights. It's in their blood to be fighters. As a promoter, it's in our blood to be promoters. Seth Abraham said it well when he said that there are only 3 promoters that create. He used the word "create" and that separates us from agents, brokers and wannabes. You see, a fight such as this needed a promoter involved to bring out the fans that want to see if this is going to be a fight. A fight that is already difficult needs a promoter. If you take Mayweather and put him against Pacquiao, you can promote that, but if you make a fight that's difficult, that's when your expertise has to come out. There are only 3 of us that have that ability; that's Don King, Bob Arum and myself, Murad Muhammad. We have proved that over and over. We take that which is insignificant, magnify it to be significant and sell it to the world despite its insignificance. The reason being? I will give you a metaphor.
Marvis Frazier, to me, was one of the best fighters I have seen come along in a long time. He was Joe Frazier's son. I made him a millionaire by paying him a million dollars to fight Larry Holmes. The world didn't see him fight any of his first fights, but the world watched him get knocked out in the first round by Larry Holmes. And then he went on to fight Mike Tyson. I asked Joe [Frazier] not to let him fight Mike Tyson on CBS because I knew if he waited just a fight or 2 later, HBO would have paid us a great deal of money for the name Frazier. Joe seen himself in Mike Tyson and he was somewhat subconsciously jealous. And that's a normal reaction. He was jealous and he felt like he was going to prove that Mike Tyson was not Joe Frazier and he put his son in there too early. So the world saw Marvis get knocked out in 2 fights. The public kept saying Marvis Frazier can't fight. Well, that's a lie. He wouldn't have gotten past any heavyweights in that day and age if he couldn't fight, and more important, he was able to beat "Bone Crusher" [James Smith] on CBS.
Well, Roy Jones Jr. got knocked out in the 1st round and they came back with him fighting Bernard Hopkins, and now the people are hot. They are angry because Roy Jones Jr. got knocked out in the 1st round and according to the public, Roy should retire. On the other hand, Bernard Hopkins has been winning. He lost a few, but they accept Bernard as a decent fighter with a few more fights left. So when the fight was done, HBO was smart. People have to understand that HBO cannot say no to Golden Boy. Golden Boy has brought some of the largest fights in revenue to HBO. De La Hoya vs. Mayweather grossed over $150 million, so you can't say to Golden Boy, "I'm not going to give you my network." But the reason why HBO was able to do so is because HBO said, "You pay all of the expenses and I'll give you my network." So we can't be upset with HBO for doing that because it may end up being a good fight.
I will give you another scenario. Nobody wanted Mike Weaver vs. Larry Holmes. Nobody bought the fight, so Don King had to do the fight off of TV and televised it himself, and it ended up being a blockbuster. Weaver had Larry out in the 9th or 10th round, I can't recollect. He was about to knock Larry out until he [Larry Holmes] heard his brother holler, "Big Jack." That meant the uppercut. Larry threw the uppercut and turned the fight around. So they bought that fight and paid big money for a fight that nobody wanted. Well, this is modern technology, so Golden Boy comes in and says, "I will pay whatever it takes to put this fight on." They owe it to Bernard Hopkins to give him a fight that he wants. The problem is, as much as I respect Golden Boy Promotions, you can check their track record. That which was difficult, they couldn't do. That's when you need a real promoter. A real promoter comes in when it's difficult. A real promoter finds a way of getting it done. You don't have that in this fight. The fight is not drawing anything and the timing is wrong. When I asked Sugar Ray Robinson why did he knock so many of his opponents out, he said, "Timing!" Timing is everything.
PC: So you feel Golden Boy is just rewarding Bernard, but truly have no interest in promoting this fight?
MM: When I say promoters and creativity doesn't exist anymore, it's because Don King, for whatever reason, is low key, Bob Arum is still in the Mexican business, outside of Pacquiao, and I decided to take a few years off. Outside of that, boxing has went down. At one time, the networks did not let you promote unless you had the ability. The problem with this fight is Golden Boy's interest is only in Bernard Hopkins. It's very difficult for them to blow up Roy Jones Jr. That's the number one problem with this promotion, so even if they had what I just mentioned, they can't use it because it will look like they're against Bernard. It's a one-sided fight and a one-sided promotion. And I told Roy that you never go to the dance by yourself because if so, you will look like the odd ball. You need someone promoting you. Well, the difference for me and all of them is I always made the guy on the other side very significant. Even to the point where guys have come to me and said, "You're promoting me better than my own promoter." That's because I'm selling to a third party and that's the viewing audience. You must paint the attributes of both athletes and sell it to the world. Every time a fighter goes out there with his own promoter, who doesn't have a track record, they leave millions of dollars on the table; millions! Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright, Floyd MayweatherÂ…I could go on and on. All of them that chose to be their own promoter, check the record and multiply it by 3 and that's how much they left on the table.
So I say to them, "What is the purpose of trying to be something you're not?" If this was jets flying in the sky, I guarantee you neither one of them would try to be a pilot if they never flew a helicopter. But because it's their own lives and they have become their own bosses, they make a decision that comes back to smack them in the face. The problem with this is the African American not only needs money for their immediate family, but the city in which they are from or where they live can use a great deal of money that they are leaving on the table and that's my humble opinion.
PC: So what separated you and Roy Jones Jr.?
MM: That is correct. Roy Jones Jr. said to me, "Murad, I'm going to do my own thing. Your name is dominating my name and you're a good promoter. I can't knock you, we were very successful, but I want to do this myself." I said, "Son, you're not going to be able to do this yourself and fight too because you are dealing with two entities; two entities that's born and gifted. If you decide not to fight, you might be a good promoter, but to be a promoter and a fighter is not going to work." If you check Roy Jones' track record, anything he did himself he failed. He failed tremendously because he was doing two things at one time. He may not like everything that his father said, but his father said something very profound. He said, "If my son was to stop paying attention to everything other than going in that ring and giving 100%, we can win." That was a profound statement. You can't do both. So now, Roy takes on another fight and he makes his own decisions for this fight. Not to say that he didn't make decisions when he was with me, but I was able to give him logic and pull his coat. See, in the streets, we call it coat pulling. Jesus had 13 disciples and Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, had 5 companions. You can't be out there by yourself and not have someone with the ability to tell you what you should not do. So therefore, everything that he did that I asked him not to, he ended up on the wrong side of the fence. I told him not to go to Australia and fight Danny Green. He said, "But I can beat him and make history." I said, "Roy, every time you went to make history, you lost. You don't need to make history now; you need to make all of the money you can make. There is a big difference between money and history. Forget the history, get the money; show me the money. If you are rich, then get it for your children and if they're set, then get it for their children." When you think like that, then you have something to work for. I told him, "Now, you got Bernard wanting to fight you. Go make the deal with Bernard and forget Australia." He said, "When I go to fight the kid in Australia and beat him, I will make history because I never had a cruiserweight title and I will be a bigger draw." I said, "Why would you burn $10 million to look for $3 million?" It didn't make any sense. At least he called, but he didn't take my advice. And surely, what I thought would happen happened.
PC: Do you think this is a case of fool me once? Has too much time passed between fights for this fight to be relevant?
MM: We came together four times to make the fight with Hopkins. Four times we produced the money. A critic said, "How can Murad Muhammad produce the money when he couldn't do this and he couldn't do that?" It's amazingÂ….I am human; even Adam slipped. But the greatest thing about Adam is he repented. The greatest thing about man is that he gets up when he slips. At least he falls toward the direction of his goal. He has a short time when he gets up. In my entire career of 35 years of continuity, I have never promoted a fight and cancelled it. Not one. In all of my fights, I produced and paid big money to all of my athletes. I created the money. No one has given me anything. I created it from day one, no private sector, no private individual or bank. No one has given me anything. It was sweat, blood, tears and my creativity that created the money. When they took the statistics and said that I grossed over a billion dollars in this industry, that is correct because I made a whole lot of millionaires by doing the right thing. So what happened with the public? They are your assets. We are in the people business. They said we're going to do Roy vs. Hopkins once, twice and the third time, you're out. The timing was wrong for this fight to take place. If in fact you're going to do itÂ…I'll give you a good scenario.
When I was bringing Saud Muhammad into the hotel in Atlantic City called The Golden Nugget, they said to me, "Okay Murad, you got one week to go. Find me a place to put this fight." I read in the paper that The Golden Nugget had just received their license. They were approved, or getting ready to be approved. I called the boss and I said, "How would you like to let the world know that you've been approved?" He said, "Murad, we haven't been approved until Tuesday." I said, "Yes, but on Saturday, you can tell the world that you have been approved." He said, "What happens if we don't get approved?" I said, "You shouldn't think negative." He said, "Alright, you got yourself a deal." I called ABC. I said, "ABC, I got my place." They said, "Where?" I said, "The Golden Nugget." They said, "Murad, you can't go there. The ceiling is too low. Anything lower than 18 feet, we are not going to be able to shoot it." I said, "Let me ask you a question, can NBC do it?" They said, "No." I said, "Can CBS do it?" They said, "No." I said, "Then what makes you an expert? You should be able to do the impossible." He said, "You got it." The fight took place live on that Saturday in living color, shot by ABC. When the fight was over, he walked over to me and said, "Now, am I an expert?" I said, "Yeah!" He said, "Don't ever bring us back here again." (Laughing).
What I'm saying to you is an expert is supposed to take a lemon and turn it into lemonade. You don't have that kind of continuity. Taking a fight such as this and promoting it, no one is going to turn you on. I would have taken this fight to Haiti. Forget what may happen; you bring in Haiti. Why? Because Haiti can use the money. We would put X amount of money on the dollar to go directly to Haiti. Now you have millions of people saying, "You know what? I'm not going to wait until next week because I'm going to pay a little bit more, but at least I'm going to help a country that had a tragedy." Those are the creativities that promoters come up with and that just came up in my head. There would have been a lot of other things that I would have done to make this fight acceptable, and then I would have turned to the people that have followed Roy Jones Jr., who got off the ground and won the fight, who was in some tough fights and won, and who did something that no one had done in over 106 years, winning the heavyweight champion of the world coming from middleweight. I'm asking you to give him a chance to see if, in fact, he can pull it off again. Then the whole promotion changes. If you don't have creativity and promoters that know how to do what they are supposed to do, then the promotion is in trouble and possibly could fail miserably. People should check the track record and stop listening to these novices and these people that can't even speak English and resort to cursing because that's all they know how to do because they run out of words. Stop listening to that and go check the track record. When you do that, you will find out there was only 3 creators in this game and I was one of them. But that's just my humble opinion!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]