I think the reason some of the other promoters and networks have gone at Haymon and PBC is because he represents a shift in the guard. Haymon is empowering the fighters, giving them control over their career, and more control over their finances. The guys that have been going at him play the fighter needs a promoter to make it to the top game. I don't know if Arum is cheating his fighters like Don King was, but he certainly is on the "I get you fights, so you play by my rules" motto.
At some level, we need a best of both worlds, a major reason I was hoping Schaefer would show up at PBC. PBC does a great job making their fighters happy and giving them control over their careers. Definitely better than the other promoter's who dictate terms to their fighters. The other promoter's by playing by those rules have such an investment in each fighter that they build up and promote their fighter's better than PBC. PBC really needs that, start to build fighters up, set up fights with more career defining intentions, and start to build momentum of a plan on how to really mold fighters careers. That is one of the few things I think PBC is lacking right now and would be a major blow to other promoter's. I think they already feel threatened enough by Haymon they are scared that they were once the powerful old guard that ran the industry and that could change.
If Haymon has everything dialed in, it becomes less about what the promoter's will do for the fighters, but rather what the fighters want to do for themselves. You can see that is working in that every report from fighters say that Haymon gives you a list of your options and you get to pick what you want. So far I don't think that has been as effective as if they had someone there to help push or talk with fighters more about building towards something bigger (if they do I hadn't heard about it and it doesn't seemed to be employed heavily). Right now it seems like fights are one offs and a lot of fighters are taking easier career paths than if they were pushed a bit or convinced of why something would be better for them.
The reality is I do criticize PBC because they are not perfect, just like HBO or Showtime is not perfect. You can see that PBC has the opportunity to be what we all have been hoping for - more access to fights, more active fighters, better matchups, and no cross promotional/network divides to keep us from missing out on great fights. Obviously Haymon and his investors have a plan in place to target these opportunities. I think the criticism that goes towards PBC is that it has been a slow go so far, but we should know better, boxing is too politically aligned that any changes were going to take time and have to gain momentum that put the people holding the sport back into a position where they had to change for their own survival.
