It’s not all in the cards

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

The business of boxing isn't for the faint-hearted, the shiftless or the inattentive.

If you're going to promote cards or manage or promote fighters, you're required to be committed, diligent and alert -- and have a few dollars in your pocket. Failing any of those and other tangent necessities, you will be insufficiently prepared and lack any semblance of staying power.

Las Vegas routinely sees promoters step in with grandiose plans, only to have reality come into play. Promises are made, and sometimes promises are broken.

As the wording on the back of James Pollins' colorful gym shirt says, "Only the strong survive." It's a saying he borrowed not only from his predecessor, the late Johnny Tocco, but one he knows from firsthand experience as the promoter of an undefeated fighter as well as one who has promoted two local fight cards.

"Boxing's tough, it's back in the dark ages," Pollins said this week at Tocco's Gym near downtown. "The big promoters all want to play the good guy, the sheriff, but I find that it's like running with sharks.

"It's like a dirty street fight."

What had Pollins riled was the treatment of his prized fighter, 18-0 super middleweight Willie Stewart, by English promoter Frank Warren. Calling the contract up on his computer screen, Pollins explained how Warren (and Sports Network) promised Stewart (via Pollins) a fight with 168-pound king Joe Calzaghe, only to renege after the fighter and his trainer had traveled from Las Vegas to Cardiff, Wales, via British Airways two weeks ago.

"Warren called and told me they needed Willie, because Miguel (Jimenez) wasn't going to fight Calzaghe," Pollins said. "We dropped everything and got Willie and his trainer (Steve Rowlands) on a plane to England within five hours.

"But when they got there, Miguel was there and he was the guy who was going to fight Calzaghe. They didn't even put Willie on the undercard."

Not only that, they haven't paid him.

"I'm hoping we can still work that out," Pollins said. "Willie was promised the fight, he agreed to the contract and he went all the way over there only to come all the way back without fighting.

"But that's the fight game."

(Jimenez, another Las Vegan, lost that Aug. 17 fight to Calzaghe by unanimous decision.)

Letter man

In a related matter, Pollins has already written to Arizona Sen. John McCain and is writing Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, both of whom have boxing-related bills pending. In the letter, Pollins explains how another (unnamed) promoter, Vlad Wharton, has tried to pirate Stewart away from his contract with Pollins.

"These guys just want to steal anything they can," Pollins said. "If you're me, you feel like you're not getting any respect because I'm not as big as they are. Their attitude is that 'I'm the biggest guy here, I'm the bully, and I'm going to take this man from you.'

"It would be a simple thing to legislate, but right now that legislation does not exist. There's nothing to stop the back-dooring. The system that would prevent it is not in place."

Pollins has written to Wharton as well. Wharton is an Australia-based promoter who also has a home in Las Vegas and who handles undisputed junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu.

Pollins makes time for these communiques out of devotion to the sport and his own well-being. Having promoted two cards earlier this year at the Stardust and with plans to promote future cards at perhaps the same site, he has become an authority on the ins and outs of the game.

He said it's a matter of attending to myriad details.

Early starter

"You have to start about 45 days out," he said of putting a card together. "You also want to aim for seven fights, because then if one falls out you still have six.

"With fighters, everything is negotiable. In my case, because I don't have TV, I put the main event together first and see just what that's going to cost me.

"Then I set aside what I have to pay Metro (for security) and for insurance ($150 per fighter) and for advertising, which is very expensive but is essential if you don't want to be sitting there by yourself the night of the fight. Then I'll put the undercard together slowly and for much less (money).

"It takes a lot of preplanning."

That preplanning includes arranging flights, hotel rooms, meals and required medical exams for the fighters.

"If I've got a fighter coming in from out of town, I want him here at least three days before the weigh-in," Pollins said. "On the phone I'll ask him about his last physical and whether he's licensed and make sure he faxes everything he has to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

"When he gets here, if he needs to take care of something with a doctor, I make the appointment myself and have my son or daughter drive him to the doctor's office. You don't want to take any chances, because if a fighter falls out it'll only cost you more money to find a late replacement."

Ah, late replacements. For those who took in last Saturday's card at Sam's Town, they know all about late replacements.

Changing faces

The card, presented as the debut of Platinum Promotions, was reduced to four fights and only a couple of the 12 men who only a week earlier were scheduled to fight on the card actually made it into the ring.

"Stuff happens," said Platinum's Greg Gulli. "If you can put a card together and nothing changes, you're lucky. You always want things to go smooth, but sometimes things just happen."

Gulli called the overall experience a success and Platinum hopes to go monthly at Sam's Town, yet the promotional firm's troubles in getting its first card off the ground speaks for itself. He also had another reason to feel disconsolate, given that a man signed to be a "house" fighter, 33-year-old junior welterweight Jaime Ocegueda (profiled here last week) lost by second-round TKO to late sub Jose Armando Santa Cruz.

"Jaime was showboating too much and taking a lot of punches," Gulli said. "If he'd have kept his hands up and didn't let the other guy beat on his face, the referee wouldn't have been tempted to stop it."

NSAC executive director Marc Ratner declined to comment specifically on the Sam's Town card in that he was unable to attend, but he did say "without TV and with a limited budget, putting together a fight card these days is pretty hard."

As Pollins, and many others, can attest.

"I'm not looking to see how much money I can make," he said. "It takes a lot of effort and you have to talk to a lot of people, and you have to know the fighters and their managers and be very open to the prospect of change.

"I feel I'm prepared and that I move as a professional, but there are times I also feel like I'm playing chess.

"I feel like I always have to be thinking one step ahead of the game."

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