It was Jack Newfield, the veteran boxing journalist and author of The Life And Crimes of Don King, who professed that “boxing is the only jungle where the lions are afraid of the rats”.
Rarely, if ever, is it a compliment to be referred to as vermin, but boxing promoters have long been cast as the untrustworthy, money-grabbing element of the sweet science. Larry Holmes once said of King, “Don looks black, lives white and thinks green.”
As a means of regaining control then, the lions finally are fighting back.
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In recent years, several boxers have opted to make do without promoters. Floyd Mayweather Jr is the most prominent example, but Oscar De La Hoya arguably started the trend when he left Top Rank to launch Golden Boy Promotions in 2002. Bernard Hopkins and Ricky Hatton, among others, are minority partners in the firm and have promoted their own fights.
There are obvious benefits to self-promotion: a boxer can negotiate his own terms, he need not pay a middle man, he can take full responsibility for his own interests. But there are potential negatives, too, should he find himself spending too much time in boardrooms over boxing rings.
Bob Arum, the founder and chief executive of Top Rank, told The National that while Mayweather is “doing a very good job of promoting his own stuff”, not every boxer is suited to the role of promoter, which involves arranging the event, selling tickets, negotiating television revenue domestically and internationally and generally spreading the word.
“It’s the same as if I was a politician in the US running for office as governor or senator,” he said. “Eventually, the press turns on you because they get bored of what you are saying, or how you are saying it, and they write badly about you.
“But if I gave any kind of damn about that, I wouldn’t be in the business. You have to have a very, very thick hide to be a boxing promoter. King had a hide like an elephant, so that when people criticised him and called him a crook and this and that, it rolled off his back.”
While Mayweather has reaped the rewards of representing himself, the American’s opponent in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao, is being represented by Top Rank. “He’s doing a lot of media and talk shows, which is great,” Mayweather said. “I prefer him to do it so I can train.”
Arum said boxers turning promoters “only happens at the top level”, but in Dubai, Eisa Aldah is disproving such a claim. The Emirati, who has fought only 10 bouts, has been promoting his own fights since 2010 through EMD Promotions. He said his 30-man team makes life easier.
“A boxer’s job is to train, so you need to make sure your team is in place,” Aldah said. “I created EMD five years ago and spent the first two years training my team so they understand what is required. Then, for my last event, I was only 20 per cent involved with promotion. My team took care of everything. In the future, hopefully, I can be involved even less. My job will be just to train.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
