The Mastermind Behind PBC

Al Haymon is an adviser, manager, and/or promoter to many top boxers in the United States. His brother, Bobby Haymon, fought professionally from 1969 to 1978 and had a record of 21-8. In his last fight, he was stopped in three rounds by Sugar Ray Leonard, who was 9-0 at the time.

Haymon grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and studied economics at Harvard University, where he earned a master's degree in business administration. He began promoting musicians while in school and worked with such notables as The O'Jays, the Levert Family, M. C. Hammer, New Edition, Whitney Houston, and Mary J. Blige. He eventually created 14 businesses, mostly to deal with myriad aspects of live concert promotion. Haymon and his partner, Phil Casey, were among the first urban concert promoters to package several acts into a single tour, some of which ran for 300 days. They created the Budweiser Superfest, a concert series that ran from 1979 to 1999 and was revived in 2010. In 1992, Haymon, in a rare interview, told USA Today that they put on some 500 shows and grossed $60 million the year before. Haymon also co-promoted the "Eddie Murphy Raw" comedy tour, which at the time was the highest-grossing comedy tour and comedy film ever.

Haymon came to boxing in 2000 and worked initially with Vernon Forrest. He is licensed in Nevada as a manager, yet he also performs many of the same functions as a promoter. He received the Al Buck Award as manager of the year. We now see why Floyd has him close by, this man is a genius that has brought boxing to a new level. Just look at what he has done with PBC in a very short time, he has some of the best fighters in the world under contract and is paying them more than the other promotion companies.