(MAR 30) After reading some derogatory
stories unfairly criticizing Irish Ropes Promotions for canceling its
March 16th scheduled “Erin Go Brawl II” pro boxing show at WaMu Theater
in Madison Square Garden, I am compelled to set the record straight
about why we pulled the plug 10 days out and to explain what really
happened leading up to the final decision.
First, though, I’d like to offer my condolences to Liam Neeson, and his
family, for the loss of his wife. He attended several of the shows we
promoted and I met him at many Irish benefits. Liam is a great man.
I’d also like to congratulate Bernard Dunne on his great world-title
winning performance last weekend and also to his promoter, Brian Peters,
and trainer, Harry Hawkins - you reap what you sow! I’d also like to
congratulate Mathew Macklin for winning the British middleweight
championship, Paul McClosky for successfully defending his British
title, and Andy Lee for his good performance.
I am, however, disappointed by what Lee said in newspapers back home
about our show being canceled. I had a choice of losing $50,000 by
canceling when we did, or to potentially lose $250,000 to go ahead. I
was not under any contractual obligation to any of the fighters and
chose to take the lesser hit.
The poor economy in New York and back in Ireland played a part in poor
advance ticket sales, but the real reason for it was Team Lee. Let’s
review the situation leading up to the cancellation. My first call to
Manny Steward was for Lee to fight Walid Smichet. He agreed and it was
even listed on Boxrec.com. Damien McCann, who is in charge of making
deals for Lee, said they would take the fight but not for $30,000.
Negotiations went back and forth for a few weeks and we finally agreed
on $50,000, $4000 in comps (tickets), plus another $10,000 if the gross
gate receipts were more than $425,000.
But then Lee said he wouldn’t fight Smichet because he knew about the
animosity between Irish Ropes and John Duddy and he didn’t want to
embarrass Duddy by fighting Smichet. Well, as it turned out, fans
weren’t interested in buying tickets to watch Lee fight somebody that
hadn’t won any of his last eight fights, Antwun Echols, who hasn’t won
since 2004 and was knocked out the same night Andy fought in Ireland.
Lee ridiculed us for the way we promoted the show and he even trashed
the traditional Irish pub we had the press conference at, Jack
Dempsey’s, where Gerry Cooney had his press conferences in the old days,
as well as John Duddy and James Moore, and even a press conference for a
documentary about Billy Collins was held there.
We promoted “Erin Go Brawl II” the same way we promoted any of our shows
at Madison Square Garden. People simply weren’t buying tickets to see
Lee fight a non-competitive fight against Echols. When I decided to pull
the plug on the show, 10 days before the scheduled event, we had sold
only 1500 tickets, approximately $130,000 worth, compared to $400,000 at
the same time for our previous show (“Erin Go Brawl”) there. Bars that
normally sell 300-400 tickets had sold only 20-30 for this one and
nobody was going in or calling for tickets. It was inevitable and
although I was terribly disappointed, I really didn’t have much of a
choice about canceling the show.
Lee goes and talks to papers back home ridiculing me, saying he had to
find-out from a third party that the show had been canceled. Within 10
minutes of deciding to cancel the show, I called, in order, the
commission (New York State Athletic Commission), Madison Square Garden,
(Irish-based boxing promoter) Brian Peters to ask if he could put Andy
on his card, and then to Emanuel Steward. I told him the bad news was
our show was canceled, but the good news was Andy would be fighting on
Peters’ show in Ireland a week later than our show was scheduled. Andy
Lee was with Emanuel.
Looking back at what happened, there was also a lot of bitterness about
boxing in the Irish community (in New York City) resulting from a very
negative article written by Thomas Hauser, of Team Duddy. My hands are
tied on the advice of my attorney, but when everything is settled in
court, I guarantee you the truth will come out on that subject.
We took the high road and didn’t blast anybody in the media for what’s
happened to Irish Ropes Promotions. Too many lies and mistruths have
been told, so I felt there was a need to explain everything from our
side.
Regards,
Eddie McLoughlin,
Irish Ropes Promotions, President
