One of boxing’s most experienced promoters has joined forces with an emerging promoter/media company that has an ambitious global game plan.
Lou DiBella and Probellum president Richard Schaefer have informed BoxingScene.com that their companies will work together to promote some of DiBella Entertainment’s boxers in a partnership that they believe will be mutually beneficial in the coming years. Neither DiBella nor Schaefer would confirm which DiBella boxers would be showcased on Probellum cards, but the new partners consider each other valuable in part because DiBella has a history of finding fighters from countries outside of the United States and United Kingdom in which deep-pocketed Probellum is committed to promoting and televising boxing.
“I want to emphasize that this is a working relationship, a partnership,” DiBella said. “I didn’t sell my company. I’m involved on all of the fighters. The fighters that we’re going to announce we’re working together on in the future will be on a co-promotional basis. But it’s nice to have people call you and tell you that they’re interested in your expertise and believe that, you know, you can help them execute a plan and a business model that actually is something that I think can work. These guys are making deals all over the world with regional and local promoters that have TV deals in countries all over the world. They’re creating sort of an international syndication of promoters, including some friends of mine, including Yvon Michel in Montreal, and other promoters around the world that I’ve worked with in the past.
“They’re gonna have access to a lot of content and they’re well-capitalized. All of that stuff is appealing to me. And in this marketplace, where you have [competitors with] exclusive [TV] deals and often promoters build up an asset and have no place to bring them, someone coming into the marketplace with a global strategy and a willingness to work with other people, but not swallow them up or put ‘em out of business, is really appealing.”
Probellum has announced the signings of WBC bantamweight champ Nonito Donaire, former WBA super lightweight champ Regis Prograis and former IBF flyweight champ Donnie Nietes since it launched in September. DiBella was Prograis’ promoter for most of his career, whereas Donaire was represented by Ringstar Promotions, the company Schaefer owned before he became Probellum’s president.
Schaefer and Harrison Whitman, a former Top Rank attorney who is now Probellum’s chief strategy and legal officer, are currently negotiating with several suitors to secure the company a television deal in the United States. Once that broadcast partnership is secured, DiBella and Schaefer will promote Probellum shows in the U.S.
“This ties in with our initial announcement back in September, when we started with Probellum,” said Schaefer, the former CEO of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. “We said in our first press release that we wanna build bridges among promoters, that we wanna unify and not divide. And we sort of did exactly that. Since then, we executed I think like 25 strategic relationships with some of the leading promoters outside of the UK and the U.S. We focused first on the other markets, which have sort of been a bit neglected. Everyone talks about the U.S. and the UK, but boxing is such a global sport that we said we wanna unify these promoters and bring them under one umbrella. For example, Yvon Michel in Canada, Peter Rivera in Puerto Rico, and promoters in Mexico, Colombia, Russia, the Baltic region, the Dominican Republic, Australia and on and on and on, basically on all continents.
“These are formal relationships where we support these promoters. We don’t wanna push them out. We don’t wanna buy their business. No, we wanna work with them and we co-promote some of the fighters they have. With Lou, this is an extension of this. Obviously, we were not gonna ignore the two biggest markets for boxing – the U.S. market and the UK market. So, we’ve had conversations with Lou for a while. And we’ve had ongoing conversations with other promoters in the United States, who we want to work together with and build these strategic relationships.”
Though it isn’t clear which of DiBella’s fighters will be part of his company’s alliance with Probellum, the longtime promoter and former HBO Sports executive’s extensive roster includes IBF/WBA/WBC franchise/WBO lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr., WBA world welterweight champ Radzhab Butaev, former IBF lightweight champ Richard Commey, junior middleweight contender Charles Conwell, multi-division women’s champ Hanna Gabriels, heavyweight prospect Bakhodir Jalolov, light heavyweight contender Radivoje “Hot Rod” Kalajdzic, super middleweight contender Steve Rolls and light heavyweight prospect Joe Ward. Jalolov, who won a gold medal for Uzbekistan at the Summer Olympics in August, fought on a Probellum card December 11 in Dubai.
“What was attractive to us with Lou is, obviously, his standing in the sport,” Schaefer said of the Harvard Law School graduate. “He’s one of the most recognized promoters in boxing. He has a tremendous track record, going back to his days at HBO. He is very good at identifying new talent globally. He has done that over and over again. He has an eye for talent that goes a bit under the radar. Then, of course, he has the experience to promote at the absolute highest level, whether it was with Jermain Taylor or Bernard Hopkins [whom DiBella advised] or others.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.