GBP is taking a beating these days.

[Kirkland Laing]

Who do they have who's PPV worthy now? Mosley and Hopkins, anybody else? Their biggest prospect just quit in his first big fight. They don't look like such a powerhouse anymore, Arum must be enjoying life right now.

They have promotional rights over Floyd Mayweather's next 3 fights, as well as Juan Manuel Marquez. There's also David Haye if he ever manages to get in the ring. Plus they've got sum options on Pacquiao, they're really not struggling.

They're advisors to Mayweather promotions (and that turns out to be a good thing as Floyd is self-promoting he isn't guaranteed anything for the JMM fight, a smart move now it turns out it may not do so well.) They have a small share of Manny's promotional contract that they got by offering Manny a suitcase full of money to sign a contract Don King-style while he was under contract to Arum. Apparently offer Manny money and a blank contract and he signs anything, something Oscar took advantage of, and rather than go to court Arum gave them what was described as a small share of Manny. But Arum is still in control of Manny's career otherwise we'd be watching Manny-Mosley instead of Manny-Cotto.

So they've got a bunch of fighters at the fag ends of their careers but nobody coming along to replace them. They're definitely not struggling but give it a year or two and who do they have to promote who can do PPVs?

[albsur2006]

I don't think GBP is taking a beating, I think that they are coming back down to Earth and are starting to finally deal with some of the problems promoters deal with. Let's be honest, GBP was making money because their old stars, especially ODLH, were still fighting. They made a lot of profit and they got HBO to secure a TON of dates for their stable of fighters this year. But now that ODLH has retired, they will have to start seriously making money the old fashioned way, by developing fighters. Honestly, I don't know if GBP has figured out the balance between developing fighters and making big fights yet. Top Rank definitely has this down.

I see 2010 being a rough year for GBP. I mean they've got co-promotions with David Haye and Floyd Mayweather, but outside of that, things look bleak. Ortiz had star quality but that's definitely gone because no one will forget how he basically quit, Kirkland is in jail for a while, and they really don't seem to have any prospects. Abner Mares is ok, but he's a counter puncher in a very light division. The problem with GBP is that they don't seem to know how to develop fighters and find prospects. They say that they are the best and that they come up with fresh and exciting ideas, but do they really?

Top Rank first of all has the best matchmaker Bruce Trampler, who can properly manage a boxer's career and pick great styles and fights. Then they also understand how to market fights in certain areas, they understand how to market Puerto Rican fighters on the East Coast, with Manny Pacquaio's stardom, they are now trying to market Filipino fights on the West Coast to feed off of that, they definitely know how to make money in Mexico, and they know how to market black fighters like Peterson and make money off cards in the South and Midwest, they're doing a bunch of co-promotions in Asia. They know how to take risk, they went out and signed undefeated knockout artist Edwin Valero, who isn't cleared anywhere except Texas but could be soon and has a great style to watch. And even if he loses, he's still got a great style. Instead of them wasting time and money on signing Deontay Wilder (who only got ANY press because he was the only US guy to medal at the Olympics) like GBP did they went out and signed Matt Korobov, who didn't medal but has a GREAT style and talent. Kinda like they signed Miguel Cotto.

It seems like GBP only focuses on Mexican and American fighters because they are the easiest to market. But Top Rank focuses on what really matters...talent. Once the talent is there, you can figure out a way to market the guy later. Yeah, Manny Pacquiao was great after he beat Barrera the first time, but I would have never dreamed that he'd be as big a star as he turned out to be. I guess maybe GBP just needs more time but they need to actually start thinking outside of the box instead of just talking about thinking outside of the box.

[Motor City Cobra]

You don't put a guy in with 22 guys who will offer no to little resistance (except Arnanoutis) and then put your guy in with a ko artist, especially one who hasen't been tested before. Maidiana obviously had a lot of class taking Kotelnik to a SD. However despite this fans were unsure of him and what to expect- GDP didn't do there homework as they presumed Maidaina would be seen as a good name but most people saw him as a pampered a hard hitter. He reminded me a bit of Aaron Pryor- completly fearless of the bombs Ortiz was throwing.