With news that the rumored Manny Pacquiao –Terence Crawford June 5, 2021 match has fallen through, Bob Arum and Top Rank Boxing (“Top Rank”) has once again shown that they can no longer secure the type of mega-events that they have been known for promoting over the past 50 years. Arum, who is nearly 90 years old, seems to continue to struggle to close the big fights for Top Rank fighters. Other than the two Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury fights, (which Premier Boxing Champions (“PBC”) initiated with team Fury only to have Arum and Top Rank sign Fury in the middle of negotiations for the 1st fight), Top Rank has promoted relatively lesser profile and smaller revenue-generating shows as compared to PBC and Matchroom Boxing (“Matchroom”) since losing Manny Pacquiao to PBC in 2018. Since that time, most Top Rank shows have been on ESPN or ESPN +, which reportedly, have not generated the type of revenue that other shows put on by promoters like Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions (“PBC”) or Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing (“Matchroom”) have generated via pay per view (“PPV”) and streaming media platform DAZN. While Arum continues to scoff at the long-term viability of these models, PBC has continued to rack up significant numbers for their fighters via Fox and Showtime PPV, while Matchroom’s deal with DAZN continues to generate significant cash for Matchroom’s fighters.
If the end of Top Rank’s dominance of the sport is indeed near, Bob Arum has no one to blame but himself. His inability to adapt to the changing landscape of the sport including, the shift in the power dynamic between promoters and fighters, the increasing influence of managers and advisors in the sport, and the change in the model for how fights are financed, has left Top Rank as an observer of the major happenings in the sport. When Arum engineered a massive 7 year 360 deal with ESPN in 2017, it was assumed that the deal would open up more opportunities for Top Rank fighters to secure lucrative opportunities across ESPN’s traditional and digital media platforms. Instead, from the outside, Top Rank’s fighters do not appear to have capitalized on the deal in any meaningful way. With PBC and Al Haymon having locked up much of the top talent in the sport, and Eddie Hearn with a sizable portion of the talent as well, Top Rank has been forced to develop their fighters moving them slowly but steadily up the ranks. Top Rank’s top star Terrence Crawford has fought only twice on PPV generating less than an estimated 200,000 buys in total for both fights combined, while Errol Spence Jr., Crawford’s top rival over at PBC has generated nearly 300,000 buys in almost every PPV event that he has participated in as the headliner. Top Rank’s other top star, lightweight Vasyl Lomachenko, has not fared any better. While Lomachenko’s recent fight with Teofimo Lopez drew a reported 4.2 million viewers on ESPN, Top Rank has not been able to capitalize on that success by putting Lomo or Lopez in any mega fights since their fight in October of 2020. Without any PPV revenue, Top Rank has continued to follow the traditional boxing promotion model that relies on live gate ticket sales, and ESPN license rights, a model that has been devastated by the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past few years, Arum has made a series of gaffes causing many to question whether Arum is still on top of his game at Top Rank. Starting with a bizarre attack on Al Haymon during a press conference, questioning Haymon’s actual existence, and then calling him a “cancer on the sport”; Arum has lashed out at nearly everyone in the sport. In an interview with a writer for Boxingscene.com, Arum lashed out at boxing fans telling them to go “f*** themselves” after the writer queried Arum about the fans’ desire for Arum to make the deal for a fight between Errol Spence Jr. and Terrence Crawford. In another interview, Arum insinuated that Al Haymon was using race against him to prevent Arum from signing top black fighters, saying that Haymon uses the “don’t listen to the white guys” logic. Arum has even lashed out at his own fighters under contract with Top Rank, something that is almost unheard of in a sport built around relationships. Arum harshly criticized Terrence Crawford for being difficult to promote, claiming that he lost enough money on Crawford to “build a house in Beverly Hills,” even threatening to wash his hands of any future fights involving Crawford. He also lashed out at his newest star Teofimo Lopez, aggressively criticizing Lopez for his purse demands for a fight against George Kambosos, a fight that went to a purse bid that was ultimately won by the new media platform Triller. Lopez shocked the boxing world by engineering Triller’s participation in the purse bid for the Kambosos fight by turning down all Top Rank’s offers for the fight, which allowed Triller to ultimately submit the highest bid of $6 million. Arum argued that Top Rank’s low bid for the fight was due to the lack of potential revenue that the fight would generate. Lopez proved Arum wrong by securing the deal with Triller which will earn him the highest purse in his entire career.
With poor relationships with PBC’s Al Haymon and Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn who Arum accused playing of games by submitting a bid for the Lopez-Kambosos fight, as well as his own fighters, Arum does not seem to have many solid relationships with the emerging power players in the sport. This makes it difficult for Top Rank to negotiate many of the super fights that fans want to see. And, with the recent failure of the Pacquiao-Crawford fight, and Top Rank’s inability to close the deal on an Anthony Joshua-Tyson Fury fight (despite persistent rumors and reports to the contrary), a Spence-Crawford fight, or even a Crawford-Sean Porter fight, Top Rank has shown an inability to close the deal on the most meaningful fights with the biggest stars in the sport. This must be frustrating for Top Rank’s fighters, especially since their peers over at PBC and Matchroom are raking in the dough. Terrence Crawford’s peers in the welterweight division (i.e., Errol Spence, Shawn Porter, and Keith Thurman) have all faced each other in large fights on PPV and broadcast networks with a far larger reach than ESPN and ESPN+. With Terence Crawford’s contract with Top Rank reportedly set to expire in or around October of 2021, and Teofimo Lopez’s team publicly expressing a desire to leave Top Rank as soon as possible, this might very well signal the beginning of the end of Top Rank’s run at the top of the sport of professional boxing.
THE BIZNESS OF BOXING 