Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander fight in big trouble, Shaw wants contract extension
by Scott Christ on Sep 14, 2010 3:34 AM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com is reporting that the proposed January 29 fight between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander is in "serious jeopardy," as Bradley's promoter Gary Shaw is looking for his fighter to sign a contract extension before the fight can be finalized, which Bradley is refusing. Bradley's current contract with Shaw expires in May 2011, and the fighter would like to explore his options and entertain other offers when it does expire.
We've seen this tactic used before by other promoters, notably Don King in recent years. King will often all but hold a fighter hostage, then find good fights for him providing he'll sign a contract extension, or if he won't, will let him sit on the sidelines, gather some rust, and wait for the deal to expire.
If Bradley won't sign the extension, it might mean that we don't get Bradley-Alexander, which is a much-desired fight and really big money for both of them, because HBO badly wants it. It will also all but completely assure Shaw of losing Timothy Bradley when the contract is up. It's not like there'll be a shortage of suitors for an undefeated, talented young fighter whose desire to face top opponents is quite real. Even though Bradley isn't a draw anywhere (even at home), that stuff can be fixed by the right promoter doing the legwork. I'd imagine all the other notable American promoters -- Top Rank, Golden Boy, King, Lou DiBella -- would be thrilled to try to sign Tim Bradley.
Reeno also reports that Golden Boy might be the front-runner, as they've been rumored to have already been in contact with the fighter. It might be the move that makes the most sense. Golden Boy is based in California, where Bradley is from, and they run plenty of shows out there.
I'd hate to lose Bradley-Alexander in the short term, but really this might just be what has to happen overall. Gary Shaw has done a good job with Tim Bradley in a lot of ways, and I certainly don't want to make him out to be the big bad guy here. If the reports are true, you have to remember that it's a business for the fighters, and it's also a business for the promoters. Shaw is not doing anything particularly unusual if this is the case, as much as it may be off-putting. For Golden Boy or any other suitor, you already know HBO is interested in investing in Bradley's career, which is a big green light to roll out the red carpet. Hopefully this will settle itself one way or the other and we still get the Bradley-Alexander fight, but right now it's definitely not looking very good.
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Could HBO make this go away?
If they said “Gary, you let this deal expire we will never put another one of your fighters on HBO,” then I would think that Gary would back down from the contract demands. Maybe if you wanted your fighters to stay with you, then you would do a bit better at promoting them locally (I mean Dirrell, Bradley, and Dawson are all top talent and can’t draw flies to a fire. At some point you got to think that Shaw just kind of sucks promoting local talent).
its weird
that he’s got those 3 really talented fighters at the same time and they all can’t draw, surely he can’t be as abysmal at his job as all that?! Maybe its more down to personalities. Anyway it makes far more sense for him to take his cut of the biggest fight Bradley’s been in and let him go, rather than derail the thing and have him go after it expires anyway. That would make more sense, so I hope that however bad it looks now, common sense prevails in the end.
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘’Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'’ (Bernard Hopkins)
You, sir, are absolutely right. Shaw should just do his job and get the deal done. It’s not like he had already built Bradley to superstardom, for him to demand contract extensions and stuff. He has hardly done his job of promoting him.
by erasedcitizen on Sep 14, 2010 10:05 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
BrianBrock is rarely wrong.... :)
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
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Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
Good points on promoting prowress, Waldo
Is it Shaw or is Brian closer to the truth when he speaks about (ring??) personalities?
I would think that at least locally, if one has a top fighter, one should be able to build a following, but. …
by Don From Prov on Sep 14, 2010 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions
It may be a personality thing if it were one or two fighter, but having three fighters with the same exact problem seems to point to the promoter. Certain things point to Shaw being awful as a promoter, especially during the fight camp 360 episodes and the super six as a whole.
First Dirrell gets robbed in England and yet Shaw doesn’t seem to take much offense to it. Then his fighter gets a DQ (which in most betting games counts as a KO) yet somehow only gets 2 points with not much talk from Shaw. He did get a fight at home but there may have been 6 or 7 people at the fight. Finally he complains about the Ward fight but offers absolutely no realistic solution for a location. So yeah, expect for that deal with Showtime for a while, Shaw really sucks.
As compared to other small promoters like Goossen, Shaw is awful. Goossen has done a good job getting Ward a nice home crowd, Arreola went as far as his laziness would take him, Miranda has done pretty good for being a one-punch fighter and the list goes on.
by Waldo Rastel on Sep 14, 2010 2:26 PM EDT up reply actions
First Dirrell gets robbed in England and yet Shaw doesn’t seem to take much offense to it. Then his fighter gets a DQ (which in most betting games counts as a KO) yet somehow only gets 2 points with not much talk from Shaw. He did get a fight at home but there may have been 6 or 7 people at the fight. Finally he complains about the Ward fight but offers absolutely no realistic solution for a location. So yeah, expect for that deal with Showtime for a while, Shaw really sucks.
This:
is quality. :)
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
(I mean Dirrell, Bradley, and Dawson are all top talent and can’t draw flies to a fire. At some point you got to think that Shaw just kind of sucks promoting local talent).
I didn’t even know Shaw had these fighters. All of these guys are pretty good fighters but are complete nobodies to the outside world. None of these fighters can seem to generate any type of buzz towards them, but hey that’s the promoter’s job.
Drop Shaw and hook up with Golden Boy.
he’s strong arming a guy who he agreed to promote/get fights.
there’s nothing wrong with that?
he’s not doing his job to strong arm a guy who’s made him money in one of the toughest, most physically punishing sports there is.
yeah, and the fact that other promoters do it doesn’t mean he’s not a scumbag for doing it too.
Gatti. Dekkers. Pele. Aoki. Kang. Vanderlei. Basillio. Harry Greb.
by theworldsoldestsport on Sep 14, 2010 11:32 AM EDT reply actions
I just don’t go nuts to make anyone the boogie man in these situations until there’s more than the initial report. It’s a shit tactic, but I’m not disgusted by it because it’s a business tactic. It’s not new and doesn’t surprise me, so I can’t really come up with any great disgust (yet). I do think Shaw should just get the fight done and accept the reality that he’s going to lose Bradley in May, because his losing of Bradley in May is a lot to do with his shortcomings as a promoter. He’s done well with Bradley on TV (Golden Boy, though, can do better), but terrible as a live promoter. Same for Dirrell and Dawson, as others have mentioned. If the fight gets officially scrapped over this, there will be more.
Bad Left Hook
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by Scott Christ on Sep 14, 2010 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Was Bradley, in fact, working as a waitress in a cocktail bar?
Just asking….
Most fight fans would not spend a dime to watch Van Gogh paint 'Sunflowers', but they would fill Yankee Stadium to see him cut off his ear. (Bill Nack)
There are two sides to every story….but the only one that counts here is Bradley’s. And thus far, we don’t know for certain what his beef is with Shaw. It is easy to criticize promoters in general andI have no doubt that Shaw has his flaws and limitations. It is also probable that without Shaw’s early belief and confidence in TB, we wouldn’t know who Tim Bradley is today. Without that investment, there is a great likelihood that kids we pay to see would never be seen.
So Shaw is no angel….but neither is Bradley.
More often than not, agents and managers live and die by the creed : “no good deed goes unpunished”. Talent, in this case Bradley, quite often shoot the messenger before reflecting on themselves and their role when things don’t go as they demand. But hey, this is the business that they have chosen.
It is also probable that without Shaw’s early belief and confidence in TB, we wouldn’t know who Tim Bradley is today.
Yeah I’m going to go with no on that one. Bradley had 145 amateur fights with only 20 losses, ranked 3rd in the nation when he went pro, and got 2nd in the 2003 golden gloves only losing to Berto. With all of those things going for him I don’t think Shaw was really taking a huge risk on Bradley, and it is fairly safe to say someone with a decent LA-base or someone like Goossen would have picked him up.
Look it is easy to criticize promoters in general but I’m just trying to compare Shaw to the other promoters, which seems pretty fair. And to be fairly honest, Shaw is a really, really, really bad promoter. He has one, maybe two, fighters who I would even mildly consider a draw: Rafa Marquez and Evil Vic (and this is a bit of a stretch).
by Waldo Rastel on Sep 15, 2010 4:48 AM EDT up reply actions
He relies on promoting through TV
And just doesn’t focus much on the live gate. No promoter gets more TV dates relative to the size of his stable.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
When I said :'Shaw's early belief and confidence' In TB
I might just as well have said ‘and Bradley’s in Shaw’. It works both ways. Both parties invest in each other or, as you said, take a risk’ together.
It is one that is very often forgotten, usually by the talent, less so the agent. The agent knows what his costs were and exactly what he did or did not do in investing in a prospect. Or at least he should. The talent may acknowledge the synergies at the beginning but they are usually the first to forget.
We’ll eventually find out what the beef was with these two…..but when a guy has developed a name, reputation and demand like Bradley, it is not an accident. He did the fighting….but someone managed to get a sequence of progressively well matched bouts seen by a whole lot of us.
If we didn’t see it live, we didn’t have to. Many were widely televised.
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