A handful of boxers affiliated with Premier Boxing Champions will be appearing on this Saturday’s pay-per-view card from Los Angeles, which is bankrolled by Riyadh Season, the Saudi Arabian entity whose entry into boxing is changing the sport.
But will that lead to more interaction between PBC and Riyadh Season?
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I think this was a card of opportunity in a lot of ways,” said Tim Smith, the vice president of communications at Haymon Sports, speaking to Kurt Emhoff on the Boxing Esq. Podcast. Al Haymon, a longtime boxing adviser, is the founder of Premier Boxing Champions.
“We didn’t really have anything going in August, and these guys need to get back in the ring,” Smith said. “There are spots available, and they were able to fill those spots. I don’t know what the future holds for that. I’m not [the person] negotiating fights. It’s not my job.”
Smith said Saturday’s L.A. show counters the argument that PBC only wants its fighters on PBC shows.
“Contrary to popular belief, we’ve never been against letting our guys go out and make money when there’s an opportunity for them to make money,” Smith said. “I think we’ve had guys that have gone to fight other people on multiple occasions. We were talking [earlier in the podcast] about Andy Ruiz. There’s a case where this guy had literally just signed with PBC [in 2019] and the opportunity comes along for him to fight Anthony Joshua for a world title. And he goes and makes that fight, makes some money and makes a name for himself. You can’t stand in the way of guys being able to go out and make money. If they’re not getting screwed over in the deal, then God bless them. They always know they can come back, and they have a home.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean a Gervonta Davis or David Benavidez will perform on a Riyadh Season card, Smith said.
“I guess anything is possible. I wouldn’t think that would happen, because I think we would do whatever we could to make sure that we provided them the opportunity to make the kind of money that somebody else would offer him,” Smith said. “Those guys are pay-per-view stars. They’re pay-per-view attractions. Anything is possible. How probable it is, I don’t know, but anything is possible.”
Smith also bristled at what he believes is a double standard regarding how some people are responding to the Riyadh Season plans for boxing – which includes relationships with several other promoters such as Top Rank, Golden Boy Promotions, Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions – as contrasted with how they reacted to PBC’s own moves in the sport.
“There were some rumors that PBC was going to be a league, and I just remember how everybody reacted to that,” Smith said. “Here somebody is talking about forming a league and [there is] not nearly the kind of negative reaction that the PBC got when they were talking about forming a league.”
Smith said he’s intrigued by the Saudi entry into boxing but that he’s also waiting to see what happens.
“I know they have a lot of money, and I know the guy who’s the head of it, he just wants to see great matches and everything like that,” Smith said. “Hey, God bless him if he wants to go out and spend his war chest on that.
“We’ve just sort of always seen these things. I take a wait-and-see attitude. I’ve seen this before. When Terence Crawford, the first time the Errol Spence fight fell through and he went [and fought David Avanesyan] on BLK Prime, and [there were] all these rumors that BLK Prime was primed to take over the business. And then there was Triller that was supposed to be taking over boxing, because they had a war chest and they were going to be doing concerts and boxing and this whole entertainment thing, and they were going to do something different that nobody had ever done before. … That sort of never got off the ground.
“PBC has been around for 10 years. I know a lot of people want to see us going away, and there’s always talk about our demise. But we’re still here. Obviously, I’m biased, but in terms of quality, I think we put on the best boxing cards that are out there. All the cards that we put on this year have been quality cards from top to bottom. Stacked cards with the idea that, if you’re asking people to pay a premium for something, then you have to give them added value. Who’d have thought you’d have a card with Tank Davis and David Benavidez on the same card? That would’ve been unheard of, but there they were.”
Smith recognizes that there are goals for Riyadh Season beyond the business of boxing. The podcast interview didn’t delve into sportswashing, however – the premise that Saudi Arabia’s financing of sports and sports entertainment is to distract from the narrative about the country’s human rights record.
“Their whole thing is getting people to come to Saudi Arabia as tourists,” Smith said. “I read this story in the New York Times where they were spending $800 billion on building resorts and all these fancy places on the Red Sea and turning the desert into an oasis. And they’re doing sporting events, they have soccer leagues and stuff like that, golf. I would imagine that the directive would be to bring as many big boxing matches as they can to Saudi Arabia for tourism. I think fans want to see those matches, but in terms of being able to attend them, how many people can actually get on the plane, fly to Saudi Arabia and afford to pay for being in those places and see those matches live?”
Smith says he’s not aware of any deal between PBC and Riyadh Season akin to those announced with the other promoters.
“I would be the last person that would know, because then they would be saying, ‘Write the press release.’ That’s when I would know. We would’ve known by now if it had come to fruition.”
And he had no criticism for those promoters who are now working with the Saudis.
“Everybody makes a decision about their own business and what they need to do to make their business work and how they want to run their own business,” Smith said. “If that’s what they need to do, if that’s what they wanted to do, I can’t speak against that, because they know their business and they know what they have to do.”
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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