The Failure of GBP (Golden Boy Prospects)

For the past few years I've been really critical of the way Golden Boy Promotions brings through young and promising prospects. Whilst they have a reputation for being “the fighters promotional company” and have helped stars make more money they've failed to ever create their own star from scratch. Instead of creating stars Golden Boy has either poached fighters who either have a huge following or are already world champions and have seen their own young bunch of fighters fall by the way side.

The company was formed in 2002 by Oscar De La Hoya and some associates including former opponents Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley. Over the following few years they aggressively contracted a number of fighters, generally signing well known names that were seen as bankable stars. They were seen as the company that offered the best for fighters, a move away from being promoted by the slimy businessmen like Bob Arum and Don King and a movement towards fighters having more control of their career.

The company had formed it's self a solid base to build cards from and over the following few years it would ink a series of TV deals, most notably with HBO, the premier network for fighters. Most of Golden Boy's shows are on HBO and inversely most HBO shows are Golden Boy promoted events. As the deals grew the company added a selection of prospects and younger fighters to their well established talent. These prospects however have an uncanny knack of failing to live up to the hype they had received.

In 2007 Golden Boy Promotions had signed Francisco “Panchito” Bojado. Although Bojado's record stood at 16-2 (11) the boxing world still had high hopes for the then 24 year old who had been ESPN's prospect of the year in 2001. Bojado had lost in 2002 to Juan Carlos Rubio and then in 2004 to former world champion Jesse James Leija before taking a hiatus. The hiatus ended in 2007 when he signed for Golden Boy though lasted only 3 fight before Bojado retired once again with an 18-3 (12) record. He retired after losing to Steve Forbes in October 2007 and hasn't been seen in the ring again.

The story of Bojado isn't the only case where a hotly tipped star of the future suffers a big loss. In 2008 they signed hot property “Vicious” Victor Ortiz. Ortiz held a 21-1-1 (16) with only a controversial disqualification loss and a technical draw marring his record at the time. Ortiz would start his Golden Boy career well by winning his first 3 fights under them to extend his record to 24-1-1 (19) then he was matches with Marcos Maidana. Maidana took a very impressive record of 25-1 (24) into the bout, his only loss had come against Ukrainian Andriy Kotelnik in a WBA Light Welterweight bout and that was a razor thin loss on the cards. Ortiz entered the bout as a heavy favourite though had people seen Maidana almost drop Kotelnik in their bout the confidence may have waned slightly. Although Ortiz started excellently dropping Maidana in the opening round and twice in the 2^nd round though Maidana's power and will broke Ortiz's heart. Ortiz has never looked the same since losing the 6^th round TKO to Maidana in 2009. The viciousness seems to have gone and a recent draw against Lamont Peterson seemed to say it all, Peterson was allowed back into the bout when the Ortiz of old would have beaten him down.

Danny Jacobs had been one of the brightest amateur stars in the US, he had won a number of national tournaments though narrowly missed out on the 2008 Olympics. Instead of waiting for London 2012 Jacobs turned professional aged just 20 and he would run up a KO heavy record beating very abject fighters. He was first really tested by Michael Walker who managed to take Jacobs 8 tough but one sided rounds, a few months later Ishe Smith gave Jacobs a wake up call pushing him all the way in a very close contest. Though Smith lost by cards reading 100-89 and 96-93 (twice) he had given Jacobs his toughest test by a long way and proved that Jacobs needed more seasoning before stepping up a level. Instead of being given seasoning fights Jacobs was given 2 very easy fights and his record had swelled to 20-0 (17) and he had fought just 57 rounds a professional. Instead of getting Jacobs the seasoning fights he needed he was instead pitted against Russian fighter Dmitry Pirog (16-0, (13) at the time). Pirog had had a series of tough learning fights, he had fought 92 rounds as a professional and had learnt more in some of those fights than Jacob had learnt in his entire career. Whilst Pirog was somewhat an unknown to the general boxing fans the hardcore fans had seen enough of him to know he was dangerous and he showed it when he knocked out Jacobs in the 5^th round. Pirog had burst the Jacobs bubble and Danny, who has fought twice since, hasn't been allowed to have a tough fight in his return to the ring. Golden Boy had helped build Jacobs a false sense of security and then saw it burst.

Most recently has been the 2011 mistake if you will. James Kirkland had a reputation both in and out of the ring. Outside of the ring he had mixed with the wrong crowd and had been in legal trouble on several occasions. In the ring James Kirkland had a reputation as one of the most exciting and fun to watch power punchers in the sport. Kirkland was signed to Golden Boy in late 2008 after a falling out with former promoter Gary Shaw, in fact this was one of those cases of “poaching” that I mentioned earlier on. Kirkland was 23-0 (20) at the time of signing for Golden Boy and would raise that to 26-0 (23) before being incarcerated in 2009. Boxing fans waited patiently for him to return to the ring and after his release in late 2010 boxing fans were excited, Kirkland had looked the real deal prior to his prison term when he stopped Joel Julio. A blow out of Ahsandi Gibbs in his return proved little, Gibbs was never at the level needed to test Kirkland. Jhon Berrio was Kirkland's second post release opponent and Berrio shouldn't have been a risk for Kirkland though Berrio appeared to really trouble Kirkland in the opening round before Kirkland stopped him in the 2^nd. The warning signs were there for all to see, Kirkland wasn't ready to fight anyone with any real quality and should instead have been given decent journeymen to fight. Instead of being given the right types Kirkland was thrown in with the talented former world champion (WBA Light Middleweight champion) Nobuhiro Ishida. Ishida would need only 112 seconds to drop Kirkland 3 times and Joe Cortez would wave the fight off.

With the career of Bojado all over, the career of Ortiz hanging by a thread (he meets Andrew Berto in a WBC Welterweight title clash on April 16^th, a loss will see him need to rebuild from scratch), Daniel Jacobs' career in need of rebuilding and James Kirkland at the very start of the rebuilding process question need to be asked as to why Golden Boy can't get it right. Their current young world champions including Amir Khan and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had seen previous promoters do the leg work and bring them through. Khan had been guided to a world title (WBA Light Welterweight title) by former promoter Frank Warren whilst Alvarez had had Tutico Zabala (from Puerto Rico) promote him for the 2 years prior to him signing with Golden Boy Promotions. Zabala also claim they still have a valid contract with “Canelo” which if it turns out to be true could well scupper his career. Rather similarly Golden Boy recently jumped the gun when they announced they had signed The Filipino Flash Nonito Donaire, who it appears still has a valid contract with Top Rank. Maybe for young, rising stars, Golden Boy looks tempting, though fighters should really think twice before signing anything.