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Lou DiBella: ‘Not everyone I do business with has to be my best friend’

Lou DiBella
Fighters Network
20
Jul

Promoters Lou DiBella and Eddie Hearn have gone at it, hammer-and-tong, over the last year, as jostling for position in the Anthony Joshua-Deontay Wilder promotion has played out.

On Twitter, the Brit deal-maker and the New York fixture have dropped the gloves, and gone all in with verbal haymakers. However as of late, they’ve actually been pretty relaxed. DiBella’s guy Sergey Derevyanchenko will glove up with Matchroom Boxing’s Danny Jacobs, for the vacant IBF middleweight title, so they had to get on the same page for that one. That said, I had to ask DiBella on the latest edition of the Everlast “Talkbox” podcast: Will he buy the DAZN streaming package when it launches in the U.S., on September 10 and does he hope Hearn’s link-up with Perform Group will to succeed or flame out?

“Am I gonna buy it. Ummmm…yeah. I’m gonna be totally honest with you; I have two fighters in the World Boxing Super Series Season Two. I’m not gonna fly to every event,” DiBella said. “Am I likely to wanna watch that event? Yes. Will I buy DAZN to watch that event? Probably. I think I will. Am I rooting for it to succeed? I root for anything that brings money to the boxing business and creates opportunities for my fighters.”

One of his fighters, Cindy Serrano, will be matched with a Hearn fighter, Katie Taylor, in October, and will make a sweet payday…so yeah, DiBella will be happy to do deals with Hearn, if they benefit the business. “My friends are my friends, and I don’t make apologies for my friends, and not everyone I do business with has to be my best friend,” DiBella continued, “but I can do good business with anybody, and have a good time doin’ it, particularly if it’s going to provide good opportunities for my fighters they wouldn’t otherwise have. Right now, I think I’m well served by having a great relationship with Al Haymon but also being able to work with (Top Rank CEO) Bob Arum and ESPN, and Eddie and DAZN, having a great relationship with Stephen Espinoza and Showtime, and, of course, I’m open completely to working with Peter Nelson and HBO. I love HBO; I worked there for 11 years. Right now, it’s interesting times; I’m gonna make these times work for me!”



 

 

 

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