Essential The Official Boxing Random Thoughts Thread...All boxing heads ENTER.

aceboon

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i hope theres an end game for all the young american prospects that eddie signs..some sort of ROI..he's going to need them if he wants to get a more solid footing in america
They're all mid to me, he doesn't have a prospect on the level of the top guys at Top Rank and PBC.
 

reservoirdogs

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Nice one but again I'm shaking my head how amateur boxing have these p*ssy rules for stoppages. They stop fights for anything. Cruz could have continued as I see, they'd easily let that further if it's the pros. Now he might have been knocked out right after but that's part of the game, let them die on their shields if they want to and let them try to come back if the can.
The other kid was done for good though that would have been a stoppage in pros too.
 

reservoirdogs

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Yeah Hearn doesn't seem to have the top US prospects, PBC neither, TR does but nowadays Bob Arum is like a time bomb, I can see some of them ending up elsewhere...

Hearn might as well sign Keyshawn Davis, he already appeared on 2 Matchroom cards
 

Dallas' 4 Eva

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Yeah Hearn doesn't seem to have the top US prospects, PBC neither, TR does but nowadays Bob Arum is like a time bomb, I can see some of them ending up elsewhere...

Hearn might as well sign Keyshawn Davis, he already appeared on 2 Matchroom cards

They all have good prospects, Bob just aint gonna keep his very long. Seems like Teofimo and Shakur gonna be wise and leave him. I don't see Ennis or Gary Antoine Russell leaving PBC(I don't consider Tank a prospect anymore), and Haney and Garcia happy on DAZN.
 

reservoirdogs

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They all have good prospects, Bob just aint gonna keep his very long. Seems like Teofimo and Shakur gonna be wise and leave him. I don't see Ennis or Gary Antoine Russell leaving PBC(I don't consider Tank a prospect anymore), and Haney and Garcia happy on DAZN.
I didn't count Haney, Ryan, Lopez, Shakur and Ennis (is Ennis even a Haymon fighter though?) now just like I didn't count Ortiz or Colbert. They all are at least contenders imo.
GRJ's brother is a good shout, I like both the more boxer one at 122 and the block head one at 140 that fights super aggressive and entertaining.
 

Dallas' 4 Eva

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I didn't count Haney, Ryan, Lopez, Shakur and Ennis (is Ennis even a Haymon fighter though?) now just like I didn't count Ortiz or Colbert. They all are at least contenders imo.
GRJ's brother is a good shout, I like both the more boxer one at 122 and the block head one at 140 that fights super aggressive and entertaining.

That block head one at 140 apparently beat Ennis 3 times in the amatuers.
 

FreedMind

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I finally gave in and looked up wtf was up with Ennis' promotional/manager situation. His name had been embroiled in stories of promotional disputes long enough for me to be shocked to learn that he's only 23.

So it looks like Cameron Dunkin is his promoter, and his father is his trainer/manager. Boots is in a peculiar situation where he's positioned himself as a contender, but his hype is barely registering. Showtime needs to lend Dunkin a helping hand and help with making him a household name on their network.

I found this article, someone post it so us poor people can read it.:feedme:
 

reservoirdogs

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I finally gave in and looked up wtf was up with Ennis' promotional/manager situation. His name had been embroiled in stories of promotional disputes long enough for me to be shocked to learn that he's only 23.

So it looks like Cameron Dunkin is his promoter, and his father is his trainer/manager. Boots is in a peculiar situation where he's positioned himself as a contender, but his hype is barely registering. Showtime needs to lend Dunkin a helping hand and help with making him a household name on their network.

I found this article, someone post it so us poor people can read it.:feedme:
Copped it when it was 2 dollars a month for half a year :lolbron: Shouldn't be doing this but fukk it :heh:

‘I’d be in hell in minutes:’ How Boots Ennis’ promoter left his deceptive past and delivered Showtime its next star

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By Lance Pugmire Apr 9, 2021
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Philadelphia’s unbeaten welterweight Jaron “Boots” Ennis is ascending toward title contention, and a lot of that success stems from the joint reascent of a hardened fight man and the Showtime executive determined to reestablish his network’s relevance in the sport.

The 23-year-old Ennis (26-0, 24 KOs) will face his most distinguished opponent yet Saturday night on Showtime when he fights former 140-pound world champion Sergey Lipinets (16-1-1, 12 KOs) in the main event at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.

Guiding Ennis to that prominent platform has been the work of 64-year-old manager-turned-promoter Cameron Dunkin and the president of Showtime Sports, Stephen Espinoza.

Dunkin’s return to the network comes after the crumbling of his once powerful stable that included welterweight champion Terence Crawford, former two-division champion Timothy Bradley Jr. and former four-division champion Nonito Donaire.

Espinoza has been left to make sense of Premier Boxing Champions head Al Haymon shifting an abundance of his fights off Showtime to FOX amid a changing broadcasting landscape that forced former rival HBO to abandon its involvement in boxing after more than 40 years.

“We’re willing to go into every gym we can to find the best talent, and on that search, you can do a lot worse than to have Cameron Dunkin co-signing on ‘Boots’ Ennis,” Espinoza said. “It’s good to diversify and look for a variety of talent and we’ve always been about giving fighters a place to grow.”

Dunkin has also brought Showtime the 21-year-old 140-pounder Brandun Lee (22-0, 20 KOs), a personable Southern California fighter with Korean and Mexican roots. Last month Lee delivered a highlight-reel third-round knockout in the main event of Showtime’s “ShoBox: The Next Generation,” the series where Ennis shined and has now graduated.

While Espinoza’s climb back has been a business-based recovery, Dunkin’s was far more personal. Dunkin said he was struck by a religious epiphany following his 2013 split with Bradley over the negotiations for Bradley’s 2014 rematch with Manny Pacquiao.

“Oh man, was I a bad guy. I did a lot of bad things,” Dunkin said. “I never took money from a fighter, but the lies I’d tell to get fights done, the cons, all of these things … (I conned) whoever I had to to maneuver and get them the most money.

“But all I was thinking back then was, ‘If I was to die right now, I’d be in hell in minutes. Not minutes. Seconds.’ I got to the point where I told myself, ‘I’m not going to do boxing unless the Lord allows me to do it.’ And I was like that for about three years.”

Dunkin continued collecting a handsome 15 percent cut in co-managing rights to Crawford through 2017 and he represented former lightweight champion Brandon Rios in his 2015 loss to Bradley. He was otherwise on a boxing hiatus, separating from about a dozen others, including James Kirkland, who fought Canelo Alvarez in 2015.

Hunkered down mostly at his Las Vegas home, Dunkin said he prayed daily and maintained a ritual following Messianic Judaism, attending a place of worship each Friday and meeting twice weekly with ministers.

Part of his devotion was to repent, and Dunkin came to a staggering count as he calculated his deceitful and bitter dealings in the unscrupulous business of fight making.

“When I sat down to do my forgiveness prayers for hating people, I found I had more than 350 people I hated,” Dunkin said. “It was bad, brother. I had to sit there and say, ‘Lord, forgive me for all my deceit.’”



Cameron Dunkin’s stable once included some of boxing’s biggest stars. (Courtesy of Cameron Dunkin)
The wronged included Bradley’s former promoters, Ken Thompson and Gary Shaw.

In 2011, Dunkin caused an uproar before Bradley’s 140-pound unification victory over Devon Alexander outside Detroit by telling a reporter that Shaw was absconding with a massive $600,000 cut thanks to a lucrative Pontiac Silverdome site fee, which Dunkin claimed Shaw had hid from Bradley.

“I’ve never even seen Don King do something like this,” an outraged Dunkin complained then inside a stadium suite. Shaw, meanwhile, wondered why the manager settled for a guaranteed $1.1 million purse for Bradley instead of pursuing a richer percentage of the pie that would’ve included HBO license and site-fee money.

Reflecting on that episode, Dunkin says, “I was probably lying. I told so many lies those days I couldn’t keep up with them.”

Dunkin was once especially close to veteran fight promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank, and Bradley said he suspects strengthening that bond for his other fighters’ benefit shaped the manager’s bizarre suggestion for Bradley to return the WBO welterweight belt he won from Pacquaio because of the highly criticized scorecards of judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross in 2012.

“Would you remain with a manager trying to convince you to give the belt back, saying, ‘I’ve got an idea that would ease all of this (scandal) … ?’” Bradley asked The Athletic.

Dunkin says he doesn’t remember suggesting that to Bradley. He said his behavior as a manager was rooted in the thinking that you do anything to get a bout done and get fighters paid.

“But when I thought of the Lord and then read what he says … if you don’t have him, you’re going to hell. When I started understanding that, I said, ‘I need him to let me back in.’”

Yet, skepticism of Dunkin remains from Ennis’ original promoter, Chris Middendorf. In a civil trial scheduled to begin May 17 in Iowa, Middendorf is seeking to return to promote Ennis and collect more than $300,000 in stipends and bonus money he paid the fighter.

Dunkin, with Ennis’ backing, claims he is Ennis’ rightful promoter.

Both Dunkin and Middendorf expressed confidence in achieving a courtroom triumph.

“There was a time (before joining forces to promote Ennis) when I was complaining to Cameron about all the lying in the sport, and he told me, ‘I wish you’d have been there with me at my bedside at 4 a.m., when I was kneeling and praying, ‘Lord, please don’t let me lie again,’” Middendorf said. “I’m sorry to say this, but I can get emotional. I cry at stuff. And I fukking believed him.”

Dunkin and Bradley also remain estranged, but Dunkin says he’s willing to make amends when he can.

He said he apologized to promoter Thompson for manipulating Bradley’s move to Top Rank, and “(Thompson) looked at me like I was crazy and walked away. Arum called me a Jesus freak, and I said, ‘That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.’”

Arum who is devoutly religious himself, denies ever calling Dunkin a “Jesus freak,” saying the claim “hurts him deeply.”

Dunkin said he crossed paths with Gary Shaw at a New York news conference and “looked at him, stuck out my hand and said, ‘Gary, I am so sorry for what I did to you. It was so wrong. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. What I did to you was horrible.’”

During his boxing hiatus, Dunkin said he would occasionally ask in prayer, “Lord, should I be in boxing again?”

“All of a sudden,” he said of the 2016 call, “my phone rang.”

It was an old acquaintance, Ennis’ father-trainer-manager, Derek “Bozy” Ennis. He asked if Dunkin had watched “Boots” at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where the son fought well but was ultimately eliminated by featherweight world champion Gary Russell Jr.’s younger brother, Gary Antuanne Russell.

“I’m not watching,” Dunkin answered, “but I heard he’s sensational.”

“Cam, I want to work with you,” said Bozy Ennis, who had also trained two other boxer sons, Derek Jr. and Farah.

“Bozy, the money you’ll be getting offered with all these rappers (like Jay-Z) in the sport … ,” Dunkin replied.

“I’ll work it out with you, Cam. I’ll work it out with you,” the elder Ennis said.

That comment stopped Dunkin in his tracks, he said.

“So, I knew it was the Lord. Anyone else would’ve gone to grab the money,” Dunkin said.

Because he was still collecting his 15 percent from Crawford, Dunkin had enough in the bank to split the $300,000 signing bonus with Middendorf, even as a memory of Dunkin’s prior stint in the sport was about to smack him in the face.

Surprised to hear that Crawford and his trainer-co-manager Brian “BoMac” McIntyre were being summoned to Top Rank’s Las Vegas office for a 2017 meeting, Dunkin appeared and said he was greeted by a cold shoulder from the promotional team.

“I stood there looking like an idiot, no one even saying hi to me, them looking at me like, ‘What are you doing here?’” Dunkin said, thinking, “When I get out of this, I never want to go through this again.”

Since Crawford was also paying McIntyre a 15 percent cut, Dunkin claims the meeting was called to suggest the now-three-division champion get rid of Dunkin to increase his earnings.

“So, I took two (percentage) points instead of 15 – that’s a lot of money – and I was out of boxing,” said Dunkin. “They all thought I was dead from there.”

Dunkin claims he’ll collect the two percent cut of Crawford purse money through the end of the welterweight champion’s Top Rank contract in September. He expressed doubt that Crawford will fight Manny Pacquiao in early June because of the expense, with industry sources indicating Pacquiao is commanding $40 million, and Crawford is asking for $12 million.

“I did a lot of things wrong, but I did a lot of things right,” Dunkin said. “Every one of those kids I managed made a boatload of money.”

His reputation preceded him again when Lee’s father, Bobby, contacted Dunkin, praised him for his work with Bradley and asked him to guide his son’s career.

“I feel that without Cameron Dunkin, my career would not be where it is,” Brandun Lee said. “He takes care of me as a person and as a boxer.”
Ennis declined to discuss Dunkin’s legal dispute with Middendorf, but he expressed satisfaction with his position in the hands of Dunkin and Showtime.

“I’m on a different level right now and this fight right here is going to take me to being an elite guy — being sharp, on point and getting a knockout,” Ennis said.

Dunkin is additionally encouraged by the prospects of some other young unbeatens in his D and D promotional stable, including welterweight Brian Norman Jr. (19-0, 14 KOs) and lightweight Bre-Yon Gorham (8-0, 7 KOs).

“This started with these dads just wanting me to protect their sons,” Dunkin said of Ennis and Lee. “And look at both of them. They haven’t been defeated. They haven’t had a bloody nose, a red mark or suffered a scratch. It’s amazing, and I have the feeling I’ll soon have the best talent in the world, better than everybody.”

Because of the alliance with Espinoza, Dunkin vowed to give Showtime the first crack at retaining his prospects, including a new crop of talented American amateurs he expects to promote.
 

reservoirdogs

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Stephen Espinoza sees ‘Boots’ Ennis as a key part of Showtime’s future. (Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)


Showtime’s Espinoza, meanwhile, has endured that parallel feel of weathering the unpredictable events of boxing.

Since the 2018 union of Premier Boxing Champions and FOX, PBC head Haymon – considered the sport’s most powerful man – has steered bouts in the glamour heavyweight and welterweight divisions to FOX.

With streaming service DAZN offering unprecedented millions to land heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez, Espinoza awoke to a new day from the time he had Floyd Mayweather Jr. beside him, making record-breaking events against Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor.

“Boxing is called the wild, wild west, and it’s a dog-eat-dog market in every sense of that analogy — even more with new networks, platforms and technologies coming into the sport, some spending irrational amounts of money and adversely affecting the market.

“Competitively, we’d love to have every star fighter on the network and we all get a little jealous watching another good fight on another network. That just makes us redouble our efforts and continue to work hard to find the next generation even while enjoying the current generation. You can never have too much talent. So someone like Cameron who can find good, young talent and develop them into major stars is a really valuable resource in this type of market.”

Ennis is far from a household name, of course, but he and Lee have helped provide substantive, non-PBC programming for Showtime, which could be strongly positioned to realign more fully with PBC.

Despite a previous statement by FOX that it intends to remain with PBC “throughout our contract,” there’s been some industry speculation that FOX could exit from its PBC deal by year’s end.

A FOX spokesman declined further comment on the matter.

Espinoza would only comment generally on the topic, stressing he believes it’s in the sport’s interest to stage fights on at least two major platforms and co-exist cohesively as the NFL does on FOX, ESPN, CBS and NBC.

“PBC has its own business to run,” Espinoza said. “I would love to have all the talent, and if there’s an opportunity to consolidate with the talent, that would be great.”
Haymon would certainly take a liking to a potential working relationship with Showtime’s new young diamonds, Ennis and Lee.

Espinoza said he’s proud of the way Showtime has persevered through the difficulty, highlighting Ennis and Lee as products of the 20-year institution “ShoBox,” cared for so attentively by Gordon Hall, the network’s senior vice president of production and executive producer of the series that has spawned 84 world champions.

Espinoza said he appreciated Dunkin coming to Showtime first about the still-developing Ennis, urging he and Hall to “keep an eye on” the rare talent before they aligned.
“With ‘Boots,’ it was clear he had the rare combination of speed and power and then he matured into his strength while stopping guys decisively, and that’s really what gets everyone’s attention,” Espinoza said.

“A lot of managers and promoters say those things to us, but Cameron has that great track record of having such a great eye for talent, and regardless of your opinion of him and where he’s been, when he said that, we paid attention. We’re glad we did.”

The timing of the union, after all, was perfect – as perfect as boxing gets, anyway.

“The business of boxing is unpredictable and crazy at times,” Espinoza said. “There were times we looked at it and it seemed like a really difficult task to navigate, but the reality is we’ve been here for 35 years.

“We have a lot of institutional knowledge, a lot of experience in riding out the sport’s ups and downs because we’re committed. Perspective is what helps most. At the end of it, the smart, rational people win out, and that’s why we’ve survived so long – by keeping that perspective and being committed to the best ideals of the sport.”
 

FreedMind

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:whew:

That article is nuts. Thanks @reservoirdogs .:salute:


I don't feel very confident that Ennis' promotional issues are done with now though.:heh:

It's interesting that we also get a glimpse into the trouble Espinoza is having to deal with as well, with PBC seemingly starting to pivot towards Fox as a preferred network.

Edit: All the speculation and rumors in this article.:whew: Fox potentially not opting to renew it's contract with PBC?
 
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