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 โย 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 โย 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 โย and will continue โ to offer nothing. In the end, Watson was never the man they nickname โThe Ghostโ but just another of the masses following his lead; โThe Ghostโsโ power, and reputation, it seems, continues to increase.
At presentย Haymonย โย for the sake of clarification,ย officiallyย a boxing manager โย 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 Haymonโs 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 worldโs finest fighters from HBO (once labelled โHaymonย Boxing Organisationโ by critics) to Showtime โ one which effectively shifted boxingโsย 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 โย 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 โย not that by now that was ever in doubt โย 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 OโJays grew to such an extent that the lead vocalist Eddie Levert describedย Haymonย as being โalmost 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.
โYou 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 Entertainmentโs 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 โย there are quotes attributed to him in which he claimed he โcould run boxing if he wantedโ ยญยญโ he wouldnโt somehow have made his way.
Described by OโJays singer Levert as a mummyโs boy, one obstacle may have arrived in his motherโs disapprovalย of the sport but he overcame this by sending his siblings to distract her during certain fights to hide his involvement. Despiteย Haymonโs intentions, his profile is such that that now wouldnโt be possible, and perhaps thatโs partlyย becauseย of him. Quite simply, he does well for his fighters: thatโs largely why so many of the best โ and where Mayweather is concerned, the very best โ work with him.
Whatโs best for a fighter is, of course, often in conflict with whatโs best for the sport as Adonis Stevensonโs move to Showtime from HBO and therefore away from a compelling shootout against Sergey Kovalev ably demonstrates, but if it means ensuring a fighterโs 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 shouldnโt 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, itโsย 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 itโs 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 โย unlike with other promoters, money isnโt the overwhelming motivation โย though it just as easily could stem from his roots.
Perhaps the reasonย Haymonโs mother opposes boxing is because another of her sons left the sport with so little reward. In Bobbyย Haymonโs 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 Americaโs (BWAA) Manager of the Year, when heโs counting the cash today.
Virtuous as that seems, there is a reason โ beyond basic jealousy โ that others criticiseย Haymonโs work, even if it wouldnโt benefit them to join Top Rankโs Bob Arum, who once called him โa 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 โย a managerโs role is to work for the fighter and a promoterโs interests are his own โย Haymonโs 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 โย Lou DiBella, Gary Shaw and Dan Goosen have looked others โย 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 โย the only other fight figure who can realistically be considered to share or even exceedย Haymonโs influence โ were to seek another manager but that remains as likely as him conceding the majority of a fightโs purse. The welterweight, afterย all, once said: โIf I would have hadย Alย Haymonย from the beginning, I probably would be a billionaire right now.โ
By boxingโs 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 Haymonโs role was crucial, and aย lawsuit from Bad Dog Productions against him thatย alleges tortuous interference with contract.
Lou DiBella, who has been both HBOโs major boxing player and a promoter within the sport, supportsย Haymonโs model. โTake a look atย all the rules that govern boxing,โ he told Boxing News. โWhen 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.
โI didnโt 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 Iโm not sure atย all that thereโs anything wrong with howย Alโs operating.
โForย all of these people squawking about everything thatย Alโs doing thatโs wrong, when I look at the laws I donโt see much of an issue. Hereโs 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 โย not one โย I havenโt heard one person in the industryย allege thatย Alย Haymonย exploits his fighters. Frankly, I canโt think of a manager or an advisor that has more loyalty from his fighters thanย Alย Haymon.
โFrom a promoterโs point of view, heโs 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 promoterโs profit. But no promoter is forced to do business with him.
โTo 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.
โA managerโs job is to get his fighter the most money for the least risk. Thatโs 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 fighterโs 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 heโs โThe Ghostโ, a figure absent in vision but never in deed, one the worldโs leading fighters are guided by, the puller of so many significant strings.
โThe 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,โย Haymonย said in 2005 when he was first named the BWAAโs Manager of the Year, and heโs 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 canโt predict or even see?