Al Haymon: The Mysterious Face of Boxing
By Eddie Sanchez
“First I want to thank god.. I want to thank Al Haymon..” Danny Garcia went on to say after winning the biggest fight of his career against Lucas Matthysse in 2013. In each of his wins since, like every other boxer under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), he has taken the time to thank the man behind his exposure and paydays.
PBC has been reintroduced into the news cycle recently by confirming a gauntlet of intriguing matchups the rest of 2020. While there are still some dominos that need to fall with their higher-profile stars, this is an opportune time to discuss Al Haymon’s impact within the industry.
Al Haymon is best known as Floyd Mayweather’s top advisor, who helped navigate back from retirement when he signed with Showtime. Haymon, along with Sam Watson, his longtime business partner, and Leonard Ellerbe, Floyd Mayweather’s personal business partner, parlayed their individual successes when Mayweather and the other top stars formally under Golden Boy defected to PBC in 2015.
Al Haymon up to that point was the mystery man behind Money Mayweather among others, but this move was monumental in reorganizing and reclassifying where the elite promoters stood in rank and influence.
That stable includes Deontay Wilder, Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, the Charlo brothers and more recently, Manny Pacquiao, among others. The list of others alone would rank as a premier stable of talent, but from top-to-bottom, PBC is elite.
For a man this heavily invested in the industry and to be affiliated with some of the top stars in the sport, it is interesting how little the public knows of him and not just about him.
Al Haymon’s influence stems from his background in the music industry where he and his business partner Sam Watson promoted iconic stars such as New Edition, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and Rick James.
Upon graduating from Harvard Business School, Al Haymon had successfully entered the music-entertainment industry with multiple live promotion companies that included coordinating production, advertising, marketing, etc. It was clear that he understood the entertainment industry and the importance of live-event production. This knowledge helped immensely as he gravitated towards boxing which is a sport that has no sole organization, but rather is made up of independent contractors.
At the turn of the century, when he ventured into boxing, he managed Vernon Forest’s career until he took over as a business advisor for Floyd Mayweather. His reputation as a manager and advisor is mixed in that his fighters are given the platform to take on lesser competition, while still maximizing their income. Fans have grown to have some distaste, but his influence is necessary in a sport with no governing body to support fighters.
Since entering the boxing industry, there has been essentially no interaction between himself and the media. For a sport that prides itself on self promotion and theatrics, it’s honestly amazing to see Haymon so successful with zero public interaction. Sam Watson conducts all interviews on behalf of PBC leadership and Watson’s two sons stay camera ready with ring appearances pre and post fights.
Over the years the public has come to take Haymon’s mysteriousness as a factual consequence, but it would still be nice to get an inside look behind the scenes. Unfortunately, this will likely not happen for some time. It is known that he values his privacy so much, that he would prefer to not be mentioned in a complimentary style. He is strictly here for business and prefers to keep it that way.
Haymon and the Watson family have a great business relationship and have found much success in boxing. It will be interesting to see how they navigate in the streaming era, although DAZN is currently struggling with cash flow issues. Their situation might provide an opportune time for the two powerhouses to co-promote.
PBC fighters fight exclusively on Fox and Showtime. Given the competition with ESPN+ and DAZN, it will be interesting to see what types of partnerships they make promotional wise going forward. In the immediate future, we can expect Fury-Wilder 3 by early-2021 at the latest. Other possible co-promotion opportunities would likely be with Gervonta Davis, assuming he beats Leo Santa Cruz (should not take this assumption lightly by the way), and (hopefully) with Errol Spence and Manny Pacquiao. There are high profile potential matchups within their respective divisions on the other side of the promotional pond.
Given the success Al Haymon has found in his career, one must think that he will continue to steer his fighters towards the right matchups financially. Despite the criticism he has faced in the past, the current climate has provided opportunities for his promotion to take advantage.
What are your feelings about Al Haymon? Do you think he has left a positive impact on boxing?
