Bob Arum's Top Rank Wins 2011 Promoter of the Year (Bad Left Hook Boxing Awards)

by Scott Christ on Jan 1, 2012 6:34 PM EST in Boxing Commentary & Opinion

Despite criticisms of his promotional style, Bob Arum is still the best in the business, and Top Rank has been named the Bad Left Hook 2011 Promoter of the Year. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Bob Arum may be a lightning rod for criticism, but it still is easily argued that nobody puts on a big event the way the now 80-year-old head of Top Rank does, and thanks to his big fights and a strong stable of fighters, as well as the increasing input of Todd duBoef, Top Rank Inc. is the winner of this year's 2011 Bad Left Hook Promoter of the Year award.

Here's the full breakdown:

Promoter	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Top Rank Inc	5	5	1	41
Golden Boy Promotions	3	1	3	21
Matchroom Boxing	2	1	1	14
DiBella Entertainment	0	3	2	11
Frank Warren Promotions	1	0	2	7
Teiken Boxing	0	1	1	4
Main Events	0	0	1	1

Top Rank pretty widely outpaced Golden Boy Promotions, the other power broker in American boxing, and it's easy to understand why. Of the four truly major pay-per-view events in 2011, three came from Top Rank (Pacquiao vs Marquez and Mosley, Cotto vs Margarito), and the company just had a better year overall than their rivals.

But it will be interesting to see what happens in 2012. Golden Boy is still hurting for marquee stars, but Canelo Alvarez is emerging as a serious draw in both Mexico and the United States, and could be a big-money player for many years to come. Top Rank counters Alvarez with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, himself already a star, but in the minds of most, doesn't have the long-term boxing future of Alvarez.

Both companies' top stars are aging, as Pacquiao and Cotto are into their 30s and both are looking to strategically cash out of the sport in the coming years. Golden Boy seemed to have another young star on the rise in Amir Khan, but Khan lost to Lamont Peterson in December, and perhaps even worse, he took a big PR hit with what was seen as overstated whining after the fight.

Another area where Top Rank excelled this year was moving their online presence into the last decade, which reportedly was duBoef's doing. Their web site became far better, and their streaming video was dramatically improved. The company consistently showcased their off-TV undercards for free to diehard boxing fans who wanted to see them, which is something everyone should be doing but hardly anyone does.

Top Rank appears to have a firm upper-hand heading into 2012, but the boxing game can change very quickly, so you just never know. Golden Boy definitely needs some young fighters to catch fire, but then so does Top Rank.

Coming in in third place was Eddie Hearn's aggressive Matchroom Boxing division of Matchroom Sport. The small but high-end group got big fights out of Carl Froch, who signed in the middle of his Super Six run this year, and got big chances for the likes of Darren Barker and Paul McCloskey. With domestic stars Gavin Rees and Lee Purdy also under contract, as well as potential world stage prospect Kell Brook (the current true future of the company), Matchroom is sitting pretty heading into 2012, and made some big waves in UK boxing.

Also receiving support were DiBella Entertainment, Frank Warren Promotions, Japan's Teiken, and Main Events.

Voters for the 2011 Bad Left Hook Boxing Awards are Scott Christ, Andrew Fruman, Brickhaus, Matt Miller, James Foley, Sean Mills, Ryan Bivins, Waldo Rastel, Kory Kitchen, Matt Mosley, Oli Goldstein, Nick Foxx, Chris Celletti, Sidney Boquiren, and Corey Erdman.

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I had Matchroom as Promoter of the Year - largely based on their rapid rise and ability to maximise resources - but Top Rank was comfortably the best American-based Promoter.

I don’t really know what Golden Boy did to deserve second place in a year where some of their most-vaunted prospects all took hits, from Canelo’s poor competition to further losses for Amir Khan and Jorge Linares. They lost Juan Manuel Marquez, and when you add in the fact that Oscar De La Hoya successfully alienated Arum and co all over again by the close of the year, it was a pretty miserable showing by GB, as far as I’m concerned.

"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."

by Oli Goldstein on Jan 1, 2012 6:57 PM EST reply actions

+1

I don’t even know if you could say Golden Boy treaded water in 2011. It was a pretty shitty year for GB.

by Sammlung on Jan 1, 2012 8:16 PM EST up reply actions

GBP had a horrible year

Hell, two different marquee fighters left them to get fights made that GBP couldn’t do on their own, and I’m not sure they even picked up any decent free agents. One of their two biggest new fighters lost. They put on one great card all year, but financially it flopped on the PPV. Other than increasing the prominence of Canelo and Mares, I can’t think of much good they did. They have a solid argument for being the WORST promoter of the year.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jan 1, 2012 8:49 PM EST up reply actions

Picked up Devon Alexander and Humberto Soto.

Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."

by Scott Christ on Jan 2, 2012 6:06 AM EST up reply actions

I was going to mention them but you beat me to it.

Alexander is a real project who, if not handled well, could easily be relegated to a local attraction in St Louis.

Soto is a very talented guy who just doesn’t seem to like to fight as much as one might hope. He should IMO be a contender but he fughts to infrequently.

"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali

by pakinpower on Jan 2, 2012 3:44 PM EST up reply actions

He fights all the time. The problem is the competition.

Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."

by Scott Christ on Jan 2, 2012 6:16 PM EST up reply actions

I went Top Rank, Matchroom, Teiken for the record.

Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."

by Scott Christ on Jan 1, 2012 7:05 PM EST reply actions

ditto

But I had Matchroom and Teiken flipped. I love how Teiken FINALLY branched out and put on some cards in the US, and not only that, but made the most of that opportunity, with a few of their guys pulling off high profile upsets. Shimoda lost to Ramos, but you can’t win them all.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jan 1, 2012 8:47 PM EST up reply actions

No Sauerland at all?

Sauerland isn’t even among the top candidates?
I don’t like Sauerland, as they often fraudulently take care that the boxers, who they want to win, win in fact (Huck vs. Lebedev, Helenius vs. Chisora, Britsch vs. Lyell etc…) but still they have a lot of champions and top-ranked boxers in contract.

by Rudi.ru on Jan 2, 2012 2:57 AM EST reply actions

they often fraudulently take care that the boxers, who they want to win

Yeah that would be why. That and the not so good job they did with Kessler and AA.

"The bell that tolls for all in boxing belongs to a cash register."
-Bob Verdi

by Waldo Rastel on Jan 2, 2012 3:03 AM EST reply actions

its obvious

Top rank has been established a Hell of a lot longer than GBP has. Of course Top Rank is way more seasoned then them. For being a young company GBP sure does have alot of TV AIR TIME! Yes Top rank did have the better year. How long will GBP play second is my question

by DiE_HARDFER on Jan 2, 2012 3:56 AM EST via mobile reply actions

If we are dogging GBP, then surely Matchroom had a terrible year too? Most of their fighters lost in the big fights ie; Froch/Ward, McCloskey/Khan, Barker/Martinez, etc.

by Shitali Klitschko on Jan 2, 2012 3:33 PM EST via mobile reply actions

Big difference. Matchroom don’t have the leverage globally to really pick and choose, at world level, who their fighters face. As such, just getting domestic guys without any sort of appeal outside the UK onto the big stage was a huge achievement. Darren Barker main evented on HBO; Kell Brook fought the co-feature to Froch-Ward in NJ; McCloskey was televised on HBO. Eddie Hearn did a storming job getting those guys into the public eye – you’ve only got to look at Froch’s dramatically increased fanbase and name value in the UK to see what Hearn and Matchroom have done for him.

18 months ago, Matchroom were a minor player in British boxing. Now, they’re the biggest promoters in the UK with the most potential to offer their fighters world title shots. Pretty fantastic year, as far as I’m concerned.

by Oli Goldstein on Jan 2, 2012 5:12 PM EST up reply actions

The fact they signed Froch and Brook

And have probably emerged as the second best promoter in Britain (Behind Frank Warren) makes them big. They really have emerged as a real compeiter to Warren

by Sweet science on Jan 2, 2012 5:13 PM EST up reply actions

They came out of nowhere to suddenly become the clear #2 promoter in the UK

And signed a lot of big names like Froch and Brook, plus have been able to get their guys good TV spots. That was my rationale anyway.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jan 2, 2012 5:57 PM EST up reply actions

I would also dare add Dan Goossen up here.

First of all he’s got Andre Ward, who might well be the next all-time great and was most people’s fighter of the year. More importantly, he inked Ward to an extension of his contract, absolutely great sign by Goossen.

Also, Rico Ramos had a great result pretty much out of nowhere this year.

Goossen also successfully managed one of the biggest robberries of the year in Paul William’s return. That match was all Goossen, Williams didn’t help that result at all. Although it caused public outrage, the truth is it prevented Williams from falling off the map. After two clear defeats everyone would have branded him finished, but now people want to see him just to see him get beat. Williams got promoted back into a fighter of interest.

And Chris Arreola also reconstructed himself into a contender at heavyweight so, really, good job on earning credibility for his fighter over the course of one year.

Having said that, I hope both Bob Arum and Dan Goossen choke on their meals every time they are mentioned. What has been good business for them has been bad business for a lot of honest folks. I honestly seriously hope all promoters mentioned here end up in the worst of bankrupcies imaginable.

by Radu on Jan 3, 2012 6:13 PM EST reply actions