Showtime has presented a robust slate of programming in recent months featuring the likes of Gervonta Davis, Claressa Shields, and most recently, welterweight contender Danny Garcia. The same goes for ShoBox, the premium network’s long-running series devoted to up-and-coming prospects.
But conspicuously missing from these shows have been fighters connected to Lou DiBella, the longtime New York promoter who has worked extensively with Showtime in the past.
What’s going on?
DiBella says he has been embargoed, meaning Showtime isn’t doing business with him. Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports, insists that isn’t so. The only thing we know: Fighters from DiBella’s stable, many of whom need dates, aren’t fighting on the network.
The only recent exception was DiBella-promoted Alicia Napoleon, who fought on the Claressa Shields-Ivana Habazin card on Jan. 10. And DiBella cautioned not to read anything into the inclusion of Napoleon. “That’s only because they wanted Alicia as a future opponent for Claressa,” he said.
The fissure evidently stems from a meeting set up by DiBella that brought together heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, the star of the Premier Boxing Champions stable who fights on Fox and Showtime, and DAZN, a rival of PBC, in March of last year.
Plus, DiBella has brought other fighters to the U.K.-based streaming service, including Regis Prograis. The former junior welterweight titleholder’s most-recent fight on Showtime was against Julius Indongo on March 9, 2018. His next fight was on a Top Rank-promoted main event on ESPN. Afterward, Prograis joined the World Boxing Super Series, in which he lost in the final to Josh Taylor. That fight was streamed on DAZN.
“No one is beholden to a network. [DiBella] doesn’t owe me his business, but at the same time there is a consistent evaluation,” Espinoza told Tha Boxing Voice in a Jan. 22 interview. “Part of the calculation of who we do business with … part of it is who is loyal and who we believe does business in the right way with us. I was not happy that we put that much into Regis Prograis and he went somewhere else.
“OK, that doesn’t mean I’m never doing business with Lou again but [Sergiy] Derevyanchenko, [DiBella] took him to DAZN. … Put it another way. You’re in my shoes, you’ve seen guys come up with Lou and then see them pay off somewhere else. Would you forget [that]?”
DiBella doesn’t buy that story. The promoter contends that the real reason he is “persona non grata” at Showtime is because of the meeting between Wilder and DAZN’s Executive Chairman John Skipper. Wilder’s managers Al Haymon, who heads PBC, and Shelly Finkel were also reported to have attended the meeting, in which Skipper reportedly offered Wilder a $100 million, three-fight deal to fight on the streaming platform. Wilder turned it down, citing “dishonesty” from DAZN, and went on to face Dominic Breazeale on Showtime and reportedly made in the neighborhood of $20 million. (Skipper later conceded to The Athletic that he was “too brash” during negotiations.)
DiBella promoted nine straight Wilder fights, beginning with his first title defense against Eric Molina in June 2015 and ending with his first fight with Tyson Fury in December 2018, according to BoxRec.com. DiBella believed he was acting “out of incredible loyalty” to Wilder when he arranged the meeting with DAZN but that it did not sit well with Espinoza, Finkel and Haymon, who has lucrative output deals with Showtime and Fox.
It’s not clear whether DiBella’s decision “to go rogue,” if that’s what it was, forced Haymon and Espinoza to meet DAZN’s outsize financial offer to ensure that Wilder did not join a rival entity. But as DiBella put it, “My only loyalty was to Deontay.”
“DiBella Entertainment is not embargoed by Showtime,” Espinzoa told Boxing Junkie in a statement. “No promoters are. But it would not serve any useful purpose to continue this in a public forum. Lou and I can discuss future business privately.”
DiBella feels differently. Showtime’s main content partner is the PBC; the two entities have a deal that takes them through next year. With that being the case, DiBella believes there was never going to be a significant offer from Showtime to have Prograis appear on its main platform precisely because the majority of Showtime’s budget was allocated to PBC fighters.
“Even though I was embargoed by Showtime because of the Wilder-DAZN meeting, after the conclusion of the WBSS, I personally offered Regis to Showtime in a meeting with Espinoza at the Palm restaurant [in New York City] on Friday, November 15, 2019,” DiBella said. “I made it clear to him that we were open to one fight or a multi-fight deal with Showtime. On a stack of Bibles and my father’s grave, I have not received any offer from Showtime, for one or more fights, to this date.
“In fact, in multiple conversations, Stephen conveyed to me that he was concerned about a lack of big fights for Regis because Al Haymon would not provide his fighters to fight Regis on Showtime. Obviously, Regis is managed by Pete Berg, Sam Katkovski and Mark Wahlberg, not Al. Obviously, I am no longer a PBC promoter. Stephen also reminded me that he had a Haymon-PBC deal through the conclusion of 2021 and that most of his budget was committed to that deal. All of the above has been conveyed to Regis’ management. ANY offer would have been conveyed and strongly considered. It still would be.”
Added DiBella: “This has nothing to do with Regis. I continued to work with (Showtime) a year after, including Wilder-Fury 1, and ShoBox events (O’Shaquie Foster-Jon Fernandez on Sept. 21), after Regis moved on from Showtime and prior to the Wilder meeting with DAZN. It has everything to do with the meeting between Deontay Wilder and DAZN.”
In addition to not getting dates on Showtime, DiBella no longer promotes any PBC-related cards in the New York area. For several years, DiBella was the chief promoter for PBC events at Barclays Center. The last PBC show he promoted was the Showtime-televised main event between Brain Castano and Erislandy Lara on March 2, 2019. He orchestrated the Wilder-DAZN meeting roughly two weeks later. Most of the Barclays Center cards since then have been promoted by California-based Tom Brown of TGB Promotions.
Timothy Smith, spokesperson for the PBC, said in a statement that “The PBC has a deal with Showtime where we provide content for its boxing programming. Showtime uses other promoters for its SHOBOX programming. Whatever the business relationship is between Stephen and Lou, you have to ask them about that.
“As far as being embargoed by PBC, I’m not sure I know what that means. We have consolidated much of the promotional work for the PBC with TGB because they do a fantastic job. We continue to work with other promoters, depending upon the show. We’re currently working with Top Rank to help stage Wilder-Fury 2.”
In the Tha Boxing Voice interview, Espinoza went on to say: “Lou has never once said to me any of the names (prospects Junior Fa and Charles Conwell) that you just said, not one time. Lou has a lot of business at DAZN and when he is tired of doing business over there he’ll pick up the phone and call me. Never once – and I will say this to you definitively – he has never once mentioned any one of those names to me and that’s not what a good promoter does. If a good promoter wants guys on a network, he is emailing, texting, sending me flyers, [direct messaging] me, saying, ‘You’ve got to see this guy,’ and I’ve never once heard any one of those names once from his mouth in a conversation.”
DiBella not only remembers the situation differently, but he called Espinoza’s explanation “empirically false,” pointing out that Showtime had a contractual claim on Prograis.
“I asked Stephen if there was an interest in stepping up because (at that point) Regis was looking for more money and not being on ShoBox and Stephen basically told us to take that opportunity,” DiBella told Boxing Junkie. “Regis went to ESPN and WBSS amicably. I have unequivocal proof of that. Showtime waived the right of first negotiation-last refusal that they were granted when they televised Prograis-Indongo. In exchange, I told Showtime that I would offer them Regis’ first fight after the tournament.
Added DiBella: “I’m in shock over the [Espinoza] interview. I thought we were finally getting to normalized things. I’m beyond disbelief.”
DiBella was referring to the fact that his fighter, Napoleon, fought on the Shields-Habazin main event on Jan. 10. Espinoza’s interview with Tha Boxing Voice took place two weeks later. DiBella takes issue with Espinoza’s comment that he was not offering his fighters to his network, citing what he believes is the ongoing embargo. Recently, DiBella says Espinoza offered another ShoBox date to one of his fighters, middleweight prospect Charles Conwell. Dibella is hopeful that this is the beginning of a thaw.
“I recently just had Alicia Napoleon on a Showtime fight time card,” he said.” I thought the embargo was lifted a month or two ago. He called me to use Alicia Napoleon in a fight. How come the embargo was sort of finally lifted and [Showtime senior vice president] Gordon Hall told me and [co-promoter] Tony Holden that Charles Conwell has a April ShoBox? So that happened because I was never offering him or that happened because maybe he was lifting an embargo? If this all started with Regis Prograis, how come I did so much work for Showtime after Regis fought on ESPN?
“What can a good promoter do when he’s embargoed?”