Al Haymon has become an almost mythical figure in world boxing, never heard in an interview to date, hard to see, hard to know who he is.
This is despite Haymon still arguably being the most powerful man in world boxing, and also in spite of recent reports that suggest his Premier Boxing Champions venture might be fizzling out a tad.
By all accounts Haymon is a man loved by fighters, his clients, whom he negotiates considerable pay days for on a regular basis as their adviser.
But not much is known about Haymon in reality.
However Eddie Hearn when speaking to Kugan Cassius of IFL TV this week gave an interesting insight into his first ever meeting with Haymon as a character, a few years back:
“When I first met Al Haymon I flew to LA to try and do the Froch-Chavez deal, and I was sitting under shutters on the beach on Santa Monica and he came in, and he was wearing a hat and a t-shirt and I was like, is that Al Haymon? We had a very nice conversation. Very bright man.”
Speaking on what he thinks Al Haymon’s business strategy since his rise to power in the sport in recent years Hearn said:
“The problem with Al Haymon is he’s giving his fighters, or has been, too many easy fights for too much money. Now that’s all changing.”
He continued:
“The PBC model is changing, at first it was – have the money, have the money, this fight, this fight. Now its – no, you have the money if you are in the proper fights. And that’s how it should be.”
There is growing speculation within the game that the Premier Boxing Champions series is on the decline, brought about by reports of recent poor performance from Haymon’s mutual funds backers Waddell and Reed – an American asset management company.
Boxing fans will hope that Haymon’s PBC venture doesn’t fail however, given the amount of exposure on network TV it has given the sport in recent times in the US.
With the UK market now becoming the dominant force in professional boxing as things stand in 2016, it will be interesting to see if and when Haymon decides to take the PBC overseas, as well as remaining in the States.
(Image source and credit: YouTube and Boxrec.com)
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