Who is Al Haymon?

This profile was originally published in Boxing News magazineย as we ask who is Al Haymon?

IT perhaps says much aboutย Alย Haymon, and the mystery and shadows behind which he works, that Sam Watson is often wrongly believed to be him.

That, as yet, the recently establishedย Haymonย Sports has no officialย function. That in a sport where television and exposure isย almost everything โ€“ย where there is an embedded culture in which unnecessary figures and sycophants shamelessly vie for the briefest role in a ring-walk or appearance in the ring โ€“ย Haymonย isย almostย always nowhere to be seen.

In a world where hyperbole and bombast often entirely offset the absence of an actualย talent,ย Haymonย settles for silence, content as the omnipresent puller of so many significant strings, like a Roman emperor casually directing his people.

While elsewhere words are consistently offered, actions often absent and propaganda routine,ย Haymonย โ€“ publicly at least โ€“ beyond engineering his latest fight or far-reaching ploy, continues โ€“ย and will continue โ€“ to offer nothing. In the end, Watson was never the man they nickname โ€œThe Ghostโ€ but just another of the masses following his lead; โ€œThe Ghostโ€™sโ€ power, and reputation, it seems, continues to increase.

At presentย Haymonย โ€“ย for the sake of clarification,ย officiallyย a boxing manager โ€“ย representsย almost 40 significant fighters. Two of those, Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana, had the richest rivalry of 2014.

Within that diverse collection of world titlists and nationalities lies a microcosm forย Haymonโ€™s unique influence on the sport: no weight division appears too light or heavy, no fanbase or background โ€“ Beibut Shumenov of Kazakhstan is another in his stable โ€“ too extreme.

In the same way his manoeuvring of so many of the worldโ€™s finest fighters from HBO (once labelled โ€œHaymonย Boxing Organisationโ€ by critics) to Showtime โ€“ one which effectively shifted boxingโ€™sย televisualย balance of power overnight โ€“ showed him to be as influentialย as he is potentially political,ย Haymonย continues to prove as unpredictable as can be.

For now,ย all it seems we know beyond doubt โ€“ and unlessย Haymonย or a greater authority with an interest beyond boxing decides otherwise, this is how the reality is likely to remain โ€“ย surrounds his immediate boxing interests and his particularly prosperous past.

The younger brother of welterweight journeyman Bobby, 21(9)-8(2)-1,ย Haymonย grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and was intelligent enough โ€“ย not that by now that was ever in doubt โ€“ย to work his way into Harvard University where first he studied economics and then earned a masters degree in business administration.

It was there that perhaps the first indications of his entrepreneurialย spirit, independent thought and inner conviction emerged:ย Haymonย used his student loan to fund his first show in music, the first industry in which he would become such an impressively powerful player and wherein there lie so many parallels with his 14 years in boxing.

After graduating and then returning to Cleveland, his relationship with The Oโ€™Jays grew to such an extent that the lead vocalist Eddie Levert describedย Haymonย as being โ€œalmost like bloodโ€.ย Alongside another long-termย ally in music, Phil Casey,ย Haymonย built 14 businesses andย alongside that sameย ally is estimated to have staged over 1,000 concerts while working with Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Boyz II Men and more.

In what was traditionally considered a disorganised trade,ย according toย Haymonย himself from a highly-uncharacteristic interview dating back to 1992, he and Casey together grossed $60million (ยฃ35.53m) only one year previous.

โ€œYou could say the African-American concert world was divided in two camps:ย all the promoters who were trying to beatย Alย [Haymon], and him,โ€ Jack Boyle, once the chairman of concert specialists SFX Entertainmentโ€™s live music group, told theย New York Timesย in 2011 โ€“ a view, it could reasonably be argued, that reflects his position today.

Sam Watson has, since 1980, and to his benefit, been in theย Haymonย camp Boyle refers to having first met the power broker while employed by Motown Records. Before both became established in boxing by working with the late Vernon Forrest from around 2000, however (the exact date remains unclear),ย Haymonย delved into television production and became credited as the producer of 10 programmes.

Logic suggests that without Forrest becoming the first fighter to work withย Haymonย โ€“ at the time the welterweight was not then a world champion though he became one by June the following year โ€“ it is possibleย Haymonย may never have entered the sport he has so convincingly shaped but it is unthinkable that given his obvious drive โ€“ย there are quotes attributed to him in which he claimed he โ€œcould run boxing if he wantedโ€ ยญยญโ€“ he wouldnโ€™t somehow have made his way.

Described by Oโ€™Jays singer Levert as a mummyโ€™s boy, one obstacle may have arrived in his motherโ€™s disapprovalย of the sport but he overcame this by sending his siblings to distract her during certain fights to hide his involvement. Despiteย Haymonโ€™s intentions, his profile is such that that now wouldnโ€™t be possible, and perhaps thatโ€™s partlyย becauseย of him. Quite simply, he does well for his fighters: thatโ€™s largely why so many of the best โ€“ and where Mayweather is concerned, the very best โ€“ work with him.

Whatโ€™s best for a fighter is, of course, often in conflict with whatโ€™s best for the sport as Adonis Stevensonโ€™s move to Showtime from HBO and therefore away from a compelling shootout against Sergey Kovalev ably demonstrates, but if it means ensuring a fighterโ€™s income is prioritised over that of the promoter, television network andย Haymonย himself โ€“ something as admirable as it is unusualย โ€“ the open secret is that he is the best.

Regardless, it shouldnโ€™t be overlooked that a fighter runs the risk of being left in the wilderness if he chooses to work elsewhere โ€“ to again cite Mayweather as an example, itโ€™sย almost inevitable he will be matched only withย Haymon-managed fighters unless he unexpectedly demands otherwise โ€“ but the fact remains as unchanged now as it did from his time in music: he delivers.

Then it was inverting the formula so that musicalย acts took the majority of the income their performances generated when previously the music promoters did, and now itโ€™s the same for boxing.

That SFX paid him millions when they bought outย Alย Haymonย Enterprises between 1999 and 2010 will have contributed to that โ€“ย unlike with other promoters, money isnโ€™t the overwhelming motivation โ€“ย though it just as easily could stem from his roots.

Perhaps the reasonย Haymonโ€™s mother opposes boxing is because another of her sons left the sport with so little reward. In Bobbyย Haymonโ€™s last fight he was matched with Sugar Ray Leonard, then only in his second year as a professional, in front of a crowd of 15,272, and left with only a controversialย stoppage defeat and the minority of the money. That memory may remain with and motivateย Haymon, twice the Boxing Writers Association of Americaโ€™s (BWAA) Manager of the Year, when heโ€™s counting the cash today.

Virtuous as that seems, there is a reason โ€“ beyond basic jealousy โ€“ that others criticiseย Haymonโ€™s work, even if it wouldnโ€™t benefit them to join Top Rankโ€™s Bob Arum, who once called him โ€œa Machiavellian SOBโ€, in publicly doing so.

The Muhammadย Ali Act, a 14-year-old federalย law, was established both to protect modern fighters and, in theory at least, to structure a sport in which there is often chaos, partly with the intention of separating promoters and managers (there is no such legislation in the UK). While licensed in Nevada as the latter โ€“ย a managerโ€™s role is to work for the fighter and a promoterโ€™s interests are his own โ€“ย Haymonโ€™s work should strictly recognise that but it is the opinion of many that he is a hybrid inย all except name.

Schaefer through Golden Boy long appeared one majorย ally โ€“ย Lou DiBella, Gary Shaw and Dan Goosen have looked others โ€“ย asย Haymon, his critics contend, uses others as promoters on paper while he consistently has control behind the scenes.

That control could yet be rivalled by another if Mayweather โ€“ย the only other fight figure who can realistically be considered to share or even exceedย Haymonโ€™s influence โ€“ were to seek another manager but that remains as likely as him conceding the majority of a fightโ€™s purse. The welterweight, afterย all, once said: โ€œIf I would have hadย Alย Haymonย from the beginning, I probably would be a billionaire right now.โ€

By boxingโ€™s context of probabilities, Mayweather seems certain to have each of his last fights underย Haymon, meaning the only other imaginable disruption to his control would come via an intervention from the law.

There was the arbitration between Golden Boy and Schaefer in whichย Haymonโ€™s role was crucial, and aย lawsuit from Bad Dog Productions against him thatย alleges tortuous interference with contract.

Lou DiBella, who has been both HBOโ€™s major boxing player and a promoter within the sport, supportsย Haymonโ€™s model. โ€œTake a look atย all the rules that govern boxing,โ€ he told Boxing News. โ€œWhen I first got out of HBO, my thought process was I was gonna make the television deals, be an advisor, negotiate with the various revenue streams, and use the promoter to do what a promoter needs to do.

โ€œI didnโ€™t believe that that was against any law. Now, I was stopped from doing that. But I still believe that what I intended to do back then should have been permissible, and when I look at the laws now Iโ€™m not sure atย all that thereโ€™s anything wrong with howย Alโ€™s operating.

โ€œForย all of these people squawking about everything thatย Alโ€™s doing thatโ€™s wrong, when I look at the laws I donโ€™t see much of an issue. Hereโ€™s the most important thing: theย Ali Act was designed to protect fighters. Most of the laws governing boxing are designed to avoid the exploitation of fighters. I have not heard one fighter โ€“ย not one โ€“ย I havenโ€™t heard one person in the industryย allege thatย Alย Haymonย exploits his fighters. Frankly, I canโ€™t think of a manager or an advisor that has more loyalty from his fighters thanย Alย Haymon.

โ€œFrom a promoterโ€™s point of view, heโ€™s not easy to negotiate with. He understands the economics of the industry. He understands that promoters have to make money too but at the same time, he wants the majority of the money to be paid to the fighters, and he can be hard on the promoter in terms of the promoterโ€™s profit. But no promoter is forced to do business with him.

โ€œTo single outย Alย for making shitty matches [such as Danny Garcia v Rod Salka] is a joke, because shitty matches have been made for generations.

โ€œA managerโ€™s job is to get his fighter the most money for the least risk. Thatโ€™s just a fact.โ€

As with music,ย Haymonย partly made his way in boxing because there are so few obstacles to entry. There remains no effective vetting process surrounding a fighterโ€™s representatives and as such anyone can be called an advisor. In the boxing world before the turn of the millennium,ย Haymonย was once barely known so in that respect thatย also applied to him โ€“ the only difference is that others entering the businessย neededย to make a success of boxing and for him that was never the case.

Now heโ€™s โ€œThe Ghostโ€, a figure absent in vision but never in deed, one the worldโ€™s leading fighters are guided by, the puller of so many significant strings.

โ€œThe stars are the fighters and, personally, I think it takes away from the sport when managers and promoters stealย away attention from these talented young men, who do something very dangerous for a living,โ€ย Haymonย said in 2005 when he was first named the BWAAโ€™s Manager of the Year, and heโ€™s barely uttered a word in public since.

Inย almostย all industries, you can defeat the competition with greater resources, a superior business plan or by outsmarting your biggest rivals butย Haymon? How do you compete with someone you canโ€™t predict or even see?

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