Has this been posted already? I can't see it but I just stumbled on it on youtube. <iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R5WPQ-IweIM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Bradley is refreshingly honest and frank.
that he wants out from shaw to get with a real promoter. he doesnt wanna risk his position and possible fights with mayweather jr or pacquiao. that he gets 1.2 mill no matter who he fights next on hbo and khan wont pay much more. that cameron dunkin is advising him to pass on the fight
it's funny that a lot of fighters go through gary shaw before hooking up w/ golden boy or top rank. i dont get it. is he like a stepping stone promoter who ends up fucking you when you're about to reach the big money level. mosley, wright, and lacy all left him at one point after a dispute. donaire left him too right? is dawson still w/ shaw?
Shaw doesn't actually "promote" fights. He gets TV stations to give him money, collects site fees from casinos and sets his guys up with mid-level television fights, with as little effort as possible. Most Shaw Promotion fights that aren't affiliated with one of the big boys usually end up playing to empty venues, as he doesn't really give a fuck about the live gate. Fighters have to leave to go up to the next level. The last time he promoted Dawson in his own home state in CT, the half arena they had roped off for the fight, wasn't even half full. The promotion was completely nickel and dime. No souvenirs, not even a score sheet handout so you could figure out who the undercard fighters were.
I think we can pretty much bank on the fact that guys fighting for Shaw are not going to (nor can expect to) make the coin they can for Top Rank or G. For reasons unknown to me, Shaw simply doesn't have the relationship with the cable networks that G and Top Rank do. This means less budget for promotion, which means less return on investment, which means smaller purses, less exposure, and really, unfortunately, it means being on the wrong side of the street when it comes to the establishment. There was an interview not long back with Kathy Duba in which she summarized the situation perfectly, which is basically, that if you're not G or Top Rank, you're forced to take a more grass-roots approach to promoting fighters. And while this can be a gate-way for fighters, as it no doubt can for Bradley, it's simply not the landing place top fighters have in mind. Not when they can be shrouded in attention, fame and larger purses working for the likes of G and Top Rank. The other thing, which is a total crime, is that the smaller out-fits end up having to match their fighters tougher in order to gain them exposure. Which of course cuts short in many cases their fighter's stardom, or even worse, derails it when a would-be champion is matched too tough too soon because he and his promoter need to make some money. The antithesis of this, the nearly perfect example of why fighters want to fight for Top Rank or for G, is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The guy is awful, with barely an ounce of talent. But because he has a promoter who could finance meaningless PPVs after meaningless PPVs, he's managed to become a profitable attraction is my guess, beating up guys half his size, able to win fights, despite having the skills of a club fighter. By the way, did anyone happen to hear Teddy Atlas declare last Friday Night, prior to the Chavez fight, that Chavez Jr. would be the smaller guy? I knew then he was full of shit and wondered if he's beginning to lose interest in the sport, having made such an absurd characterization. Any way, point is, Top Rank and G have the smoke and mirrors, the political influence, and the global connections to basically run the sport themselves, and thereby dictate its outcome to a great extent, when its financially beneficial to do so. Shaw and other less notables? They can play to niche markets like the bantam-weights, but even there, I won't be surprised to see Agbeko/Mares never materialize, and for Donaire to fight none of the fighters involved in the tournament (despite his claiming his intention to do so).
Damn. That's a pity. Personally, I was hoping he was prejudiced against Khan and his sort. This business rationale of his may be sound but it won't sell many papers or tickets. Timmy needs a hook, an angle, all of his own. Looking like an ovoid Marvin Hagler and fighting like Evander Holyfield on sleeping tablets isn't cutting it. Now, if Timmy had come out and said: "Personally, I don't care much for his sort, what they done on 9-11 and all, and he is also on PED's, who does he think he is, I'm from here, he just lives here" then I would have declared Timmy to be a hero of his time and era. Instead, Timmy came up with some boring shit about Fatty Shaw and money.
:bears: :bears: :bears: In the immortal words of Edward Bernays: People are thick cunts. Chavez is a drug-cheat. If hopeless Mexican fighters were imported into Europe to have their paper titles taken off them in front of baying, adoring audiences by juiced-up talentless bums then there would be a furore about Nazi's and racism. Hell, when DM lost to Gonzalez, the motherfuckers forgot that Gonzalez was "never going to win in Germany" to begin with. :wack: But a guy like "Son of the Bell-End" can do just the inverse of that, in America, to great acclaim and financial gain, at the expense of more legitimate fighters, and its all good. I said before and I say it again, I never thought that my once-blind faith in the USA would be eroded through the somewhat benign medium of boxing, and following boxing, but it has. I just see a lot to dislike. Teddy Atlas is bullshit merchant, a hot-head who would have been slung on the scrap heap in Europe a long time ago. But in the States, he is "passionate" and "well-regarded". Mike Tyson was laughing at him again on Graham Bensinger the other day. Fuck Atlas.
