Three years ago promoter Gary Shaw had Jeff Lacy, Winky Wright, and the late Diego Corrales as champions and was considered by many as the Promoter of the Year. This year he has Chad Dawson, Vic Darchinyan, and Timothy Bradley as belt holders and you could make a solid argument that this is a superior trio. In addition, as always he has a solid group of young contenders in his stable awaiting their turn to make their mark.
Considering the competition provided from Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, two companies with deeper pockets and rosters full of superstars, Gary Shaw Productions continues to thrive because no one in the game can reload talent as quickly or as well as they do.
Shaw is a controversial character to many. It seems as if there is little middle ground with him–you either love him or you hate him. The MMA crowd, represented by the bloggers seems to be the most brutal for some reason, but they appear to be equal opportunity haters. From what I’ve read, hate is their main purpose in life.
As far as EliteXC goes, Shaw declined comment except to say that handling both sports was “life consuming.” The company recently went belly up after a controversial third show on CBS. Despite favorable ratings, financial problems and questionable ethics placed the company on death watch. This was several months after he was inexplicably reassigned from president to consultant, which means they had to pay off his contract.
Still he was nowhere to be found for both the second and third CBS shows, yet was the target of uninformed bloggers seeking a scapegoat.
“You have to have a thick skin or you’re not going to make it,” Shaw told us in a recent interview. “I think most people don’t know who I am, how much I care about my fighters and the fight game. Sometimes I’m even surprised myself at how many detractors I have. It doesn’t fit how I see myself.
“I’m just a down to earth guy who goes shopping with my wife every Sunday morning. I fly under the radar. My greatest pleasure is my grandchildren and my downtime is in my backyard.
“I can walk into a room and fighters walk up and hug me and that’s when you forget about the detractor who called you a fat slob.”
THE BOOK ON REBUILDING ACCORDING TO SHAW
No other company, with the possible exception of Top Rank, develops young fighters as well as GSP. So how does he reload with such consistency?
“I have friends out there who help me and continually point me to talent,” Shaw replied. “I think I have an eye for talent. I think I’ve proven it. I’m almost the farm team for Golden Boy.
“Once I put my nose to the talent, I believe I can bring someone to the top. I’ve taken fighters who no one else wanted and built them into budding stars.
“As soon as I saw [Alfredo] Angullo I knew how special he was outside the ring. I didn’t know how special he would be inside the ring.”
Shaw is now sky high over the 154 pound Angullo. He would like to match him with Ricardo Mayorga in February on HBO, a considerable vote of confidence for a guy with 14 fights. Shaw believes his guy will win and it will be a fan friendly fight.
If he can’t get Mayorga, he’ll take Sergio Mora or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the latter I would think to be highly unlikely unless Angullo is willing to change his name to Clay Aiken.
One junior middleweight that Shaw has no interest in is James Kirkland, who left GSP several months ago and has since signed with Golden Boy.
Shaw had filed a lawsuit on the matter which he now says has been settled. Nevertheless he said, “No, not yet because my guy is now the star. So Kirkland has to go to the back of the line to get to the dance.”
Super flyweight Vic Darchinyan now holds three belts at 115 after his stunning victory over Cristian Mijares. Shaw would like to match him with fan favorite Jorge Arce, who may be fading a bit at this point of his career.
“I think so but the whole world doesn’t think so,” Shaw said of Arce’s possible decline. “If they [Top Rank] think he’s real, then let’s make the fight. Then let’s put Chavez Jr. in with Angullo. It’s a great doubleheader.”
I asked Shaw if he would consider a rematch between Darchinyan and 112 pound titlist Nonito Donaire, who also defected from GSP:
“Someone who leaves me like Kirkland and Donaire, I’m not going to give them a shot. Giving people shots is either for money or repayment and they’re not doing either.
“Does Gary hold a grudge right now? Absolutely. All I did for those guys was make their careers.”
Shaw’s 140 pound belt holder Timothy Bradley is slated to fight the winner of the December 13 Kendall Holt-Ricardo Torres III fight in a WBC-WBO title unification next March.
He also still works with 154 pound belt holder Vernon Forrest, who is working toward a fight with Kelly Pavlik. Antonio Tarver is still around and would like another shot at Dawson.
“Tarver’s a good kid, a good family man,” Shaw said. “Right now I’m trying to get him the most money I can.”
As for Dawson, he is the jewel in the GSP crown, with the potential of becoming a true superstar. It hasn’t been easy to get him the recognition he deserves because up until his impressive victories over Tarver and Glen Johnson, he had been consistently ducked by the older stars of the division.
Now, Dawson and Shaw want Joe Calzaghe as the next natural step to mega-stardom.
“I want Calzaghe bad,” Shaw said. “I have a lot of respect for Joe. He’s a good fighter, very fast. But he can’t beat Chad. He’s never even seen anyone that fast.
“Calzaghe is on the Senior Tour. If he wants to be an all-time great, beat someone that we think is the top of the heap in Chad Dawson.”
Shaw revealed that an offer is on the table for a Rafael Marquez-Israel Vasquez IV bout, to be televised on Showtime, but some details need to be ironed out.
“We’ve been unable at this point to culminate the deal. The fighters are going to have to sober up and realize that the budgets have been cut. People are hurting in the marketplace.”
Shaw also shared some comments with us about some of his top prospects:
118– Yonnhy Perez –18-0 (13) — “He’s a special fighter but I have to pick and choose the right opportunity. He’s going to make his mark.”
135–Antonio DeMarco– 19-1-1 (13)–5’10” southpaw– “…one of the sweetest kids out there. He’s a kid that I want to see get an opportunity for a world title. I don’t care if I make a dime.”
135– Ali Funuka– #1 IBF mandatory challenger for Nate Campbell–24-0 (21)
147– Luis Abregu– 24-0 (21) — Moving up in class to face David Estrada on ShoBox on December 5.
168– Andre Dirrell– “He’s a special fighter who has the talent to be champion.” 17-0 (12)
Shaw completes the interview with a commentary on the game:
“I believe in my fighters fighting fights. There’s no redeeming value in fighting turkeys. And I don’t put a guy in over his head unless someone is paying life changing money for the kid.
“We can’t sell garbage, Bob vs. Joe for $49.95 and whatever we give you on the undercard just think as an extra. That’s wrong and that’s where MMA beats us. If they put on 10 fights, they put on 10 fights. So they’re cheering all night and it’s exciting. Go to an MMA fight, open the door and the people are there. Go to a big boxing card and sit in the front row until the main event and wait for your friends.
“How many times will you go to a supermarket and buy rotten food before you won’t go back? TV has the power to see these bad fights and say they have no interest. Names can’t carry the sport anymore. We need TV to buy fighters who will fight the exciting fights.
“Then we’ll get the boxing fans back.”