CHICAGO - Just like any business venture, the success of a boxing promotion depends heavily on fluid cash flow and the flutter of adding machines.
Money is the currency that drives fighters to hit the bags until their fists ache. It's the incentive that motivates them to starve and make weight. For those who brawl for a living, the pursuit of wealth is the only pleasure greater than fame.
Money, the reported shortage of it, is threatening the WBO welterweight championship bout between Manny Pacquiao and the heavy-handed Argentine Lucas Matthysse this July 15 in Kuala Lumpur.
Per Dan Rafael of ESPN: "An initial payment of $500,000 was made to Golden Boy/Matthysse camp when the fight was signed but the rest of the money for their side - $2 million according to a source - is more than a month past the deadline, when it was supposed to be deposited in an escrow account to hold the money until after the fight.
"MP Promotions has also failed to make deadlines to deposit funds needed to cover production costs of commercials spots and other aspects of a fight that was initially going to be an ESPN pay-per-view event."
Now, does this mean that the Malaysian fling is headed towards the neutral corner of postponement or cancellation?
"The fight could still happen," respected international promoter Sampson Lewkowicz told SPIN.ph, citing Senator Pacquiao's inestimable riches and his willingness to spend some of it for the show to go on.
It is a sentiment shared by Golden Boy Promotions founder Oscar Dela Hoya who told Boxingscene.com yesterday, "I can't give you specific details but I feel very, very confident it is going to happen. We have a fight."
It will, however, be an expensive tab.
"Around $5 million of his own money. And he'll basically fight for free," said Lewkowicz, who has visited the Philippines several times because his promotional outfit, Sampson Boxing, has tentacles all around the globe.
Not having pay-per-view, Lewkowicz explains, is a big blow because revenue from that platform is the arm that reaches out to a wider audience and digs deep into consumers' pockets. Since MP Promotions failed to secure the "seven figures" sum to market the bout and get all the pre-production needs taken care of, a huge opportunity was missed and that is why "the tickets are not moving."
What if Pacquiao's camp opts to postpone the fight for a future date so they can recalibrate, what happens to the $500,000 already given to Matthysse's camp as an advance payment?
Most, if not all, of that is gone.
According to Lewkowicz, Matthysse will get at least $210,000, an amount equivalent to the purse he received during his previous fight, an eighth-round KO of Tewa Kiram, a marshmallow Thai who offered as much resistance as a throw pillow, last January at The Forum in Los Angeles.
Other people - trainers, coaches, sparring partners - will also be paid for the work and sacrifice they have already done, Sampson noted.
Given his connections, his influence, and the fact that the Pacquiao brand is as recognizable as the Nike swoosh, why did MP Promotions fail to come up with the few million dollars that would have ensured this fight card's smooth sailing?
"Manny is a very good and generous person but he sometimes lets his friendships get in the way of business," Lewkowicz said. "The people he trusts have no malicious motives but they are not succeeding because of their ignorance in the business of boxing promotion."
If Top Rank had been involved in the promotional side of this offering instead of just the distribution part, everything including the required funds up front would have been in place long before deadlines were breached, Lewkowicz added.
And that's saying a lot considering Lewkowicz had just recently sued Bob Arum over the contractual rights of WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez. Lewkowicz won that brief dispute by KO and Benavidez has since returned to the welcoming embrace of Sampson Boxing, a rich stable that once was the home of champions such as middleweight legend Sergio Martinez and former superfly champ Marvin Sonsona.
BOXING LIFER. Sampson Lewkowicz has been involved in boxing for decades. And like an exquisite bottle of Bourdeaux wine, he has gotten finer with time.
Lewkowicz, a native of Uruguay before migrating in the U.S. at age 20 in 1971, first met Manny Pacquiao sometime between late 2000 and early 2001, when PacMan was still a scrawny super bantamweight.
Lewkowicz was immediately smitten with what he saw; the power, the speed, the grace of movement. And he was riveted by Pacquiao's punches, which snapped violently like the keys of an overworked typewriter.
Back then, Lewkowicz was still a matchmaker for Murad Muhammad's M & M Sports and when Enrigue Sanchez was injured and backed out of a mandatory challenge in the undercard of the Oscar Dela Hoya-Javier Castillejo battle in June 23, 2001, Lewkowicz enlisted Pacquiao to step in.
There were five other pugs ahead of the line to fight reigning champ Lehlo Ledwaba, an adroit South African who was making his sixth title defense. But no one was willing to engage on two weeks notice and Pacquiao was the only lefty, a fact that enticed Ledwaba's promoter, the late Cedric Kushner, because the injured Sanchez was a lefty and Ledwaba was training to fight a southpaw.
Before filling in as a sub, Pacquiao was originally penciled to fight in an eight-rounder for $10,000. Instead, the seventh-ranked contender and 10-1 underdog faced Lebwaba, utterly destroyed him, and capture an IBF belt plus $45,000.
When Pacquiao signed with M & M Sports, the original contract was handwritten and signed by the parties involved including the late Rod Nazario, recalls Lewkowicz. Somewhere along the way Lewkowicz felt that some "wrongdoing" was done unto Pacquiao so Sampson left M & M Sports.
In 2004 Lewkowicz produced the Mike Tyson-Danny Williams bout in Louisville, Kentucky. He was also the brains of the World Cup of Boxing, including the Philippines versus Mexico edition that was highlighted by the WBO super bantamweight title war between Bohol's Rey "Boom-Boom" Bautista and Juan Ponce De Leon in 2008 at the now-defunct Arco Arena in Sacramento.
The path to becoming a successful promoter is not paved in yellow brick road. Like learning to ride a bicycle, there will be falls and mishaps, an awkward turn in the bushes perhaps.
Eventually, the ride gets smoother and that burst of wind splashing your face will make all the nicks and bruises seem worthwhile.
Pacquiao and his MP Promotions will one day get there. For now, though, there are obstacles to conquer.
Here's hoping that the champ, the indomitable Pacman, that "mighty storm across the Pacific" - to borrow a line from the great Recah Trinidad - will come shining through.
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