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Promoters

Notable Boxing Promoters

In the boxing world, the promoters are the individuals and companies who sign fighters to contracts and then stage bouts and major events with them. While factually, promoters work for boxers, more often than not, it’s the promoters calling the shots, and in some cases, even earning the majority of the money, which is a shame.

But many promoters do their clients good, despite the negative reputation that the industry as a whole carries with the public. Some promoters even wield huge influence with the television networks, allowing them to showcase many of their fighters on slotted TV dates. Meanwhile, some promoters have good relationships with one another, while others have ongoing spats and feuds and refuse to work together.

Take a look at this list of notable boxing promoters and promotional companies, with some background and information on each.

American-Based Promoters

  • Banner Promotions
  • Official Website: www.banner-promotions.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Sergiy Dzinziruk, Dmitry Pirog, Demetrius Andrade, Juan Carlos Burgos, Cristobal Cruz, Cassius Baloyi

Banner Promotions is run by Arthur Pelullo out of Philadelphia. The organization was formed in 1987 and has worked with the likes of Diego Corrales, Larry Holmes, Ricky Hatton and Acelino Freitas, and has notably had a recent hand in many imports of top flight boxers from other countries looking to make their move to the United States boxing scene.

Brian Halquist founded his boxing promotional company in 1989. The company puts on both boxing and mixed martial arts contests, and has a partnership with the Emerald Queen Casino, in Tacoma, Washington. Appropriately, they are based out of the Pacific Northwest, one of the rare boxing organizations to have that sort of geographical positioning.

  • CES Boxing
  • Official Website: www.cesboxing.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010):  Peter Manfredo Jr., Matt Godfrey, Joey Spina, Aaron Williams, Jaime Clampitt

CES Boxing is run by Jimmy Burchfield, who was an international boxing judge for nearly a decade before opening CES Boxing in 1991. Classic Entertainment and Sports took off with the signing of Vinny Paz, and now promotes nationally, with a focus though on New England area fighters.

  • DiBella Entertainment
  • Official Website: www.dbe1.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Andre Berto, Sergio Martinez Celestino Caballero, Zsolt Erdei, Glen Johnson, Allan Green, Kermit Cintron, Peter Manfredo Jr.

Lou DiBella founded DBE after serving for many years as the HBO Sports, upon leaving he got some startup cash to sign prominent amateur boxers, including Jermain Taylor. That enabled the company to hit the ground running, and today still maintains strong ties to the network, with many television dates.

Don Chargin and his late wife, Lorraine, have been major players in boxing promotion dating back decades, working with legends like Muhammad Ali, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Danny “Little Red” Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Pipino Cuevas, and a host of others. Don promoted his first fight in the early 1950s, giving him 60 years in the business.

  • Don King Productions
  • Official Website: www.donking.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Devon Alexander, Cory Spinks, Daniel Santos, Luis Collazo, Nate Campbell, Miguel Acosta, Joseph Agbeko

Don King is undoubtedly the most famous boxing promoter across the world, and has been involved in boxing promotions for well over three decades. He’s also largely responsible for the negative connotation of boxing promoters, due to the controversies he’s been involved with. He’s nowhere near as prominent as he used to be, when all of the big stars like Mike Tyson called DKP home, although he still does have a large stable of fighters.

  • Gary Shaw Productions
  • Official Website: www.garyshawproductions.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Chad Dawson, Rafael Marquez, Vic Darchinyan, Andre Dirrell, Alfredo Angulo, Timothy Bradley, Yonnhy Perez, Ali Funeka, Sergiy Dzinziruk, Lateef Kayode

Gary Shaw Productions was founded in 2002 by Gary Shaw after his team with the New Jersey State Athletic Commission, and boxing promotional company Main Events. Gary Shaw maintains a strong presence on, and lots of influence with, the Showtime network.

  • Golden Boy Promotions
  • Official Website: www.goldenboypromotions.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Bernard Hopkins, David Haye, Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero, Jhonny Gonzalez, Chris John, Jorge Linares, Juan Diaz, Rocky Juarez, Librado Andrade, Saul Alvarez, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Jorge Barrios

Founded in 2002, and based out of Los Angeles, Golden Boy quickly rose to prominence with the star power of Oscar De La Hoya, and a tandem of other big name stars with their hands in the promotions. They have one of the largest stables of fighters, and get a ton of action on HBO.

  • Goossen Tutor Promotions
  • Official Website: www.goossentutor.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Andre Ward, Paul Williams, Chris Arreola, James Toney, Eddie Chambers, Beibut Shumenov, Shawn Estrada, Edison Miranda

Goossen-Tutor Promotions was founded in 2002 by Dan Goossen, with financial backing from Ronald Tutor. The company is based out of California. The Goossen family has a long history in boxing, besides Dan, Joe Goossen is a very prominent trainer.

  • Main Events
  • Official Website: www.mainevents.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Tomasz Adamek, Zab Judah, Joel Julio

Main Events was founded in 1978 by Dan Duva, and has a long and storied promotional history, formerly working with Arturo Gatti and Fernando Vargas, among others. Lou Duva was the trainer and manager for many of Main Events’ fighters.

  • Peltz Boxing
  • Official Website: www.peltzboxing.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Mike Jones, Rogers Mtagwa, Michael Stewart

Peltz Boxing is based out of Philadelphia, headed by J. Russell Peltz, who began promoting fights in 1969. He put on innumerable bouts in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and the rest of that area, working with many fighters from the region. In the past, Peltz Boxing worked with fighters including Marvin Hagler, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Marvin Johnson and Arturo Gatti.

  • Prize Fight Boxing
  • Official Website:  www.prizefightpromoters.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Anthony Peterson, Lamont Peterson, Fernando Guerrero, Shawn Porter

Headed by Brian and Russ Young, Prize Fight Boxing has been around for a decade, and has had a strong presence in the middle states, putting on many contests in Memphis and other locales. In the past, the company worked with fighters and events including Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Roy Jones and Jermain Taylor, including staging the huge Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis bout in 2002.

  • Star Boxing
  • Official Website: www.starboxing.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Demetrius Andrade, Jesse Brinkley, Delvin Rodriguez, Yan Barthelemy, Kevin Johnson

Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing is headed by… Joe DeGuardia. The company was founded in 1992, and is based out of the Bronx. It has a strong local and regional presence, as well as putting on larger shows nationally.

  • Thompson Boxing Promotions
  • Official Website: www.thompsonboxing.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Timothy Bradley, Yonnhy Perez, Juan Carlos Burgos, Josesito Lopez, Patrick Lopez

Founded in 2000 by Ken Thompson, Thompson Boxing Promotions is based out of Orange County, California. They put on local and regional shows as well as larger cards, and have a current deal with Fox Sports Espanol.

  • Top Rank Promotions
  • Official Website: www.toprank.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik, Juan Manuel Lopez, Antonio Margarito, Fernando Montiel, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Nonito Donaire, Joshua Clottey, Humberto Soto, Jorge Arce

Top Rank is one of the best known promotional companies across the world, and is headed by Bob Arum, who has been promoting since 1966. They have a lot of the biggest names in the sport, distribute their own Pay-Per-View shows, and also have an increasing tendency to keep their fighters in house. They have put on over 9,000 fights, and are headquartered out of Las Vegas.

The BPA is a new organization, founded in 2009, that features dozens of different boxing promoters working together to improve standards and help advance the sport of boxing. Currently, the organization is limited to promoters within the United States, although potential international expansion could be in the works for the future. President of the BPA is Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing, and members of the Board of Directors also include Lou DiBella, Art Pelullo and Don Chargin.

International-Based Promoters

  • Arena Box Promotion
  • Official Website: www.arenaboxpromotion.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Yuriorkis Gamboa, Odlanier Solis, Erislandy Lara, Breidis Prescott

Headed by Ahmet Öner and based out of Switzerland, Arena Box is most notable in the past few years for landing deals with some of the huge Cuban names that have defected to begin their professional boxing careers.

  • Frank Warren
  • Official Website: www.frankwarren.tv
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Amir Khan, Denis Lebedev, Michael Jennings, Kell Brook, Derek Chisora, Nathan Cleverly

Frank Warren is the big boy of British boxing promotion. He is also as well known for his large stable as far the disgruntled stars who end up going elsewhere. Warren has a deal with Sky Sports for televising his fights.

  • Hennessy Sports
  • Official Website: www.hennessysports.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Carl Froch, Junior Witter, John Murray, Tyson Fury

Based out of the UK, Hennessy Sports also has a Canadian arm. The company is headed by Mick Hennessy, and has a long-term exclusive television contract with ITV sports.

  • Interbox
  • Official Website: www.interbox.ca
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Lucian Bute, Adrian Diaconu

Headed by Jean Bedard, Interbox is a Canadian boxing promotional company, which holds many events at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

  • Sauerland
  • Official Website: www.boxen.com
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Marco Huck, Alexander Povetkin, Steve Cunningham

Started in 1980 by Wilfried Sauerland, Sauerland has a large stable of prominent fighters, and works with prominent German trainer Ulli Wegner. Sauerland played a large role in the Super Six Tournament, with two of the original six participants.

  • Universum Box-Promotion
  • Official Website: www.boxing.de
  • Notable Current Fighters (as of late 2010): Marcos Maidana, Ruslan Chagaev, Sebastian Zbik, Zsolt Bedak, Denis Boytsov

Universum Box-Promotion is based out of Hamburg, Germany, and is headed by Klaus-Peter Kohl. The organization primarily has German and Russian fighters under its banner, and works prominently within Europe.

This is far from a comprehensive or complete list of all of the boxing promotional companies that exist. However, it includes most of the big names that you should be familiar with, both American and international, and should help serve as an introductory background to the world of boxing promotion. If you notice a boxing promotional company that is missing, including your own, then please send us a message and we’ll add it up to the page as soon as possible.