By José Santana Jr: Three years in the making. That is the time it took Antonio Castro to get things together to begin working on his biggest goal. It wasn’t laziness that took him three years to get the ball rolling. In fact, it was the opposite. Diligence, networking and planning every small detail brought him to his creation of Warner Promotions LLC.
Together with fellow Cleveland, Ohio, native Ron Warner, Castro has finally brought his plan for a boxing promotion company to fruition. It started last February when Warner Promotions co-promoted their first boxing event with Prize Fight Promotions which was televised nationally on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
“It took a lot of time because I wanted to do it right,” Castro said. “That included putting together a business plan, meeting with several different investors and people that were interested in becoming part of the team and getting it all done.” Somewhere along the way in handling the aforementioned tasks, they did something right. Few first-time promoters have the opportunity to stage their first event televised to all of America by “the worldwide leader of sports.”
Frankie Espinoza Jr., CEO of Espinoza Boxing Promotions, is one of those few promoters who did have a wide audience available to see his first promotion. Espinoza has 13 years involved in boxing assisting trainers, working the corners of fighters and helping his father and well-known manager Frank Espinoza Sr.
Through experience gained over the years, Espinoza Jr., with the help of his father, started Espinoza Boxing Promotions with their first show last October televised on Fox Sports Español. That show, as well as his upcoming May 22 show being broadcast by Showtime, was co-promoted with Golden Boy Promotions. “Promotions are a difficult thing to do and I chose to do it the conservative way by co-promoting with Golden Boy,” Espinoza said. “I learned a lot from them. I got good networking, learned how everything goes from the posters, where to advertise, how they’re going to advertise, ticket sales, what to expect, just the whole overall aspect.”
Espinoza likes where Warner Promotions is headed. He believes Castro did the correct thing by being patient and developing a plan before jumping into the sport. As many people can attest, the business of boxing is cut-throat. “By them already having some networking done, knowing people in the business and co-promoting, trust me man, that helps a lot,” Espinoza said. “I think that’s the right way to go because there’re too many promoters that enter this business as first-time promoters, do one or two shows and then they just disappear; they go bankrupt. Promoting is very hard to do in boxing.”
Castro does not only have approval from Espinoza, but also from his fighters. Warner Promotions signed three fighters to their company, all hailing from the Cleveland area. His first signing was 20-year-old Jr. Middleweight prospect Dante Moore (6-0, 4 KOs). He then signed Jr. Middleweight Wilkins Santiago, who will be making his pro-debut Saturday after a successful amateur career. Warner Promotions’ latest signing is 22-year-old Lightweight Julius Leegrand (2-0).
Santiago is looking forward to the opportunity he now has, after being signed by a promoter, to be get on boxing cards and receive possible television dates. This is especially important to Santiago due to his late entrance to the professional ranks as a 29-years-old. “With Castro and Ron Warner behind me, I believe in them and as well I feel they believe in me,” Santiago said.
Santiago also likes that he has someone behind him who he has known for a while. “It makes you feel a lot more comfortable because you know him,” Santiago said. “Antonio, he’s there for me. He gave me this opportunity and I’m going to take it and hopefully the other fighters see what he has done for me and the level that we may get to and maybe sign with him one day.”
Fans in Cleveland are also excited about a base being built for world-class boxing to come to the city. With much amateur talent being groomed in Cleveland, such as 2008 Olympian Raynell Williams and Olympic alternate Shawn Porter, it is up to promoters to give the fighters a chance to be featured in front of their hometown fans as well as on the national stage.
“I think it’s great that somebody wants to bring big-time boxing to Cleveland,” said Ramon Diaz, a 21-year-old Cleveland resident. “I admire the effort and it can be done in this city. I’ve been to a few events in the last couple of years here and they’ve been kind of sad. Not many people showed up and they got no exposure, no fliers, and billboards, none of that.”
That kind of reaction towards boxing cards in Cleveland is exactly what Castro wants to steer away from. “Having the chance to attend, and be closely tied with a lot of the promotions that were going on in town there were a lot of stuff that needed to be done differently,” Castro said. “I felt that with my experience and my knowledge that I would be able to promote successful shows and get the word out in a way that the other promoters just couldn’t do. I felt that the public needed to have somebody fill the role and let them know that boxing is alive and doing well in Cleveland.”
Castro has been involved with sports, in particular boxing, in Cleveland since the early 2000s. Castro had his own boxing radio show on AM 1540 KNR2 in Cleveland in addition to being a boxing writer for Fightnews.com. It was through his work with the radio station, as an account executive, that he met Ron Warner. “He was a client of mine when I worked for the radio station,” Castro said. “We got to know each other that way and we just had the same vision on a company and were able to put all our ideas together and start working it out.”
With Castro steering the ship as president of the company, Warner and he hope to establish a brand name in Cleveland with expectations to later arrive on the national scene. “I’m of the belief that you can’t own something nationally, if you don’t even own your hometown,” Castro said. “It’s very important in Cleveland because Cleveland is a major sports town and there are boxing fans here that are kind of hiding in the closet right now and we’re trying to get them out and expose them to boxing again.”
Warner Promotions has several events planned for the rest of the year. Saturday they will be promoting the annual Jimmy Bivins Boxing Classic in North Olmsted, Ohio, which is held in honor of International Boxing Hall of Fame member and native Clevelander Jimmy Bivins. They have events planned for June and August as well. “The goal is to have consistent shows here in Cleveland every other month,” Castro said. “At least, every other month the smaller types of shows and then major world class championship level fights at least twice a year in Cleveland.”
In boxing, it is the promoter’s own money that is on the line every time he organizes an event. When Lou DiBella first left HBO Sports to start his own promotional company, he decided to develop and market his local New York City talent to the public. He did so by creating his Broadway Boxing series. Since then, he has become one of the more thriving promoters in boxing.
DiBella knew it would be tough starting in a sport where lies are part of customary business practice, as he once told Thomas Hauser in a 2005 interview. But similar to Castro, he decided that it would take lots of planning and marketing to his local audience to build a successful company. “Broadway Boxing was a risk,” DiBella acknowledged to Hauser. “It was an investment in the future when I started. There was no guaranteed revenue, and I lost a few bucks in the beginning. Then I lost a few bucks less. Now I’m making a little money on each show.”
With so many promoters trying to make it big as soon as possible, it is no wonder that in such a tough business to make money many of them end up on the losing end. A hit event can rake in money. But the work that goes into creating a hit event takes much preparation. It is too early to tell where that three year preparation spent by Castro will take Warner Promotions. Boxing is too unpredictable to try and predict such things. But Castro believes.
So does Espinoza.
“I think they’re moving up the ladder the correct way,” Espinoza said. “They’re not reaching for the skies yet, they’re just starting off and they realize they have some ways to go and that’s just where you learn, as you go. That’s the best way you’re going to learn is hands on experience.”
April 23, 2010
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