{"id":6381,"date":"2010-12-29T21:46:41","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T02:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=6381"},"modified":"2010-12-29T21:51:27","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T02:51:27","slug":"the-survival-of-boxing-promoter-lou-dibella-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=6381","title":{"rendered":"The Survival of Boxing: Promoter Lou DiBella Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Exclusive interview by Marc Anthony<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t blame Manny Pacquiao for not taking that fight. I don\u2019t criticize him for not doing that fight. Simply, Sergio Martinez is bigger and better.\u201d \u2013 Lou DiBella <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Success doesn\u2019t just end and start with boxing. Promoter Lou DiBella is the owner of the successful Richmond Flying Squirrels as well as a graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n

For eleven years Lou DiBella was HBO\u2019s Boxing Senior Executive leading to the very successful \u201cBoxing After Dark\u201d show, and gaining some of the best ratings to date.\u00a0Currently he is CEO of DiBella Entertainment and promoter for hot Superstar Sergio Martinez, Andre Berto and current Super Six tournament Semi Finalist Glen Johnson to name a few under the DiBella banner. <\/p>\n

Having a chance to speak with Glen Johnson and Sergio Martinez, they both agree that DiBella is a great promoter: To quote Glen Johnson, speaking about his relationship with Lou DiBella, \u201cyou know they stick with me and they didn\u2019t toss me to the sidelines like a lot of promoters do. Once a fighter gets a couple of losses on their record, you know they toss him and jump on to \u2026 the next undefeated fighter so I am very thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

MA: How did you become the owner for the Richmond Flying Squirrels?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got involved in minor league baseball about eight years ago or nine years ago when I made an investment in the Altoona Curve of Pennsylvania, which was a Pittsburg Pirates AA team. My friend Chuck Greenberg was putting the deal together and actually Chuck is the guy who bought the Texas Rangers with Nolan Ryan. But, I made a small investment in the Altoona team and then I decided that I wanted to own and operate my own team. And I bought, with investors, the Norwich Navigators which was an AA San Francisco Giant team in Norwich Connecticut.<\/p>\n

We later changed the name to the \u201cConnecticut Defenders\u201d and then, just this past year, we moved to Richmond. Richmond is a gold market; it\u2019s one of the best markets for minor league baseball. In Connecticut, we were lagging way behind in terms of attendance, because of weather and location of the stadium. In Richmond, we lead the eastern league in attendance per game; we lead the eastern league in total attendance. We lead all fifty something minor league teams in the country in merchandise sale. So the Richmond Flying Squirrels is one of the most successful teams in Minor League baseball. That\u2019s the story of the Richmond Flying Squirrels.<\/p>\n

MA: What\u2019s a typical day like while promoting a big fight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The typical day is, you spend ninety percent of your time on the phone and I would say ninety percent of your time is involved in discussing stuff that never happens. It\u2019s a very time consuming business in the sense that you can\u2019t really go 9-5 or 9-6 because you have people calling you from all over the world; you really can\u2019t turn your cell phone off.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very difficult to if you\u2019re going to maintain a successful operation. It\u2019s a lot of schmoozing with a lot of negotiating and right now it has become increasingly more difficult with certain promoters not doing business with other promoters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very difficult to make the big fights. A lot of times fans are frustrated but they don\u2019t understand a lot of us promoters are frustrated because we can\u2019t get big fights for our fighters. So it\u2019s a frustrating business. One of the reasons that I am very happy that I am the Managing Partner\/ President of the Flying Squirrels is that it gives me something else to focus on other than boxing. Because, right now being in the boxing industry is very frustrating. You\u2019re trying to do your best to whip up public interest and create fans in an environment where the sport is fading and it\u2019s been fading pretty consistently for over a decade. So it\u2019s very frustrating particularly when you love the sport.<\/p>\n

MA: Martinez-Williams \u2013 did 1.3 million viewers, do you view that number a great success?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I was very happy that it did a good rating and a big audience on HBO. Because I think that helps the sport. And also the sensational knockout, I think multiples of that 1.3 million saw the knockout on YouTube or by getting it sent to them virally by other sports fans. The knockout was something that was a water cooler conversation at businesses.<\/p>\n

Anything that gets the general public discussing boxing\u2026people were saying: \u201cMy God, did you see that knockout on HBO the other night?\u201d That kind of buzz is great for the sport!<\/p>\n

MA: Being that boxing is a very popular global sport, do you see it being profitable to market\/package over the internet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to have to look for new media and look for other ways of making money. The international marketplace is extremely important, particularly as the sport is having its challenges in the US. We don\u2019t have a competitive heavyweight. The heavyweight division\u2019s last championship fights, I don\u2019t know how many, have been on ESPN3. That\u2019s a big problem for the sport. There is no interest in the heavyweight division in the United States right now because there are no American heavyweight champions.<\/p>\n

Also, the fights that should be happening are not. Often the fights that are happening are the fights that the fans are not really clamoring for. So it\u2019s become very frustrating. It\u2019s frustrating for fans but it\u2019s frustrating for people like myself whose lives are invested in this sport. We are not watching the sport on an incline, we are watching the sport on a decline.<\/p>\n

MA: You created the \u2018Boxing after Dark\u201d series. Are you happy with the way it is now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the people on HBO are doing the best they can with it. There has been some really good boxing on that show lately and I think the people at HBO are doing the best they can.<\/p>\n

MA: Many consider Manny Pacquiao unbeatable. What would Sergio Martinez do with him if they were to meet at a catch weight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course Manny Pacquiao is beatable. And frankly if he keeps fighting guys bigger then himself he is going get beat. He is a great fighter, but of course he is beatable. He is not beatable by the Joshua Clotteys or the Antonio Margaritos, but if he got in there with Mayweather, Sergio Martinez, or Marquez, he is beatable.<\/p>\n

With Martinez we would come down to 154, but obviously Manny is too small if he is going stay at 147. Honestly, I don\u2019t think it would be a competitive fight. With Sergio, it would be a physical mismatch and Sergio would dominate him\u2026 maybe knock him out. I don\u2019t blame Manny Pacquiao for not taking that fight. I don\u2019t criticize him for not doing that fight. Simply, Sergio Martinez is bigger and better.<\/p>\n

Manny can beat 154 pounders who are slow, shot and straight in front of him, but Manny is not a huge guy. So if he tries to get in there with a guy like Martinez he would have a lot of problems. If he tried to get in there with Paul Williams, he would have a lot of problems. I think he is too small for those guys.<\/p>\n

If he wanted to take on a challenge at 154 or if he wanted to fight at 155 to win a middleweight title, I would be thrilled. But I don\u2019t expect him to do that, I think he, Freddie and Top Rank know that he is not big enough and the fight would be physically impossible for him.<\/p>\n

MA: In closing Lou, thanks for your time today for RSR.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anytime, I enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

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Exclusive interview by Marc Anthony \u201cI don\u2019t blame Manny Pacquiao for not taking that fight. I don\u2019t criticize him for not doing that fight. Simply, Sergio Martinez is bigger and better.\u201d \u2013 Lou DiBella Success doesn\u2019t just end and start with boxing. Promoter Lou DiBella is the owner of the successful Richmond Flying Squirrels as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,460,477,578,647],"class_list":["post-6381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-lou-dibella","tag-manny-pacquiao","tag-promoter","tag-sergio-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}