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Add FightsATW on GoogleGod, it was so promising.
Material from an entrepreneur tends to be.
Garry Jonas, big Garry, a personality plus, had me from the get-go when he laid out his rough to-do list at the end of 2021. I was in; it was just a matter of deciding on money. Fun fact: Jonas, who’d invested in the tens of millions as the bankroller for Iron Mike Tyson Promotions in 2013/2014, had me pick three figures during a December 2021 phone call (NY to Florida).
First year “lean-n-mean,” second year stable, third year “we hit a home run. ” I gave him a figure, a decent middle-class, no benefits.
He agreed, and the stint, an eight-bout months-long run, began.
Starting At ProBox
I would be multitasking, aiding in the media relations sphere as well as running a 24/7 website.
“ProBox website will be like golf dotcom,” the Florida man Jonas said from his abode near his Plant City weird mecca, where he had a drug-and-alcohol rehab, a sleepaway, and a house gym. Like Tennis dotcom. The top-line thing, according to Google.
A phone call with Garry could, if he chose, last hours. The plans were expansive, and I took to the planner, this so-called serial entrepreneur Jonas. He is the smartest person in not every room he shares or enters, but close enough, and is pretty surgical with his wording, which I enjoyed listening to.
With Two Gs
Jonas grew up in Canada and hustled, using his considerable intelligence and cunning to get to where he had a plan for a new boxing promotion. He was over the physical chess-match fights and showcases.
He could be profane, and is pretty clever. We had a couple of commonalities. Jonas is a big boy, around 240, and I am too. He is taller, and, if I recall this five years later, he said he did advance in school and played basketball some in college. I can’t remember if he referred to himself as a goon, but he enjoyed combative atmospheres.
In hiring me, he boasted that Newsweek lauded his rehab centers, White Sands, for their excellence. Sounded promising: a project was in the works that would marry the rehab with the on-site gym and facility in the strawberry capital of America, Plant City.
The Strawberry Capital
After I had agreed to work this communications job, it took me a while before I could be anything but upbeat about the company and working for Garry. My belief centered on his selling me his vision, mostly evenly matched fights, with a degree of irreverence.
What if we supplied select fans with towels, and they’d throw in the towels if a fight sucked and one guy was a mutt. “The TowelNaggi,” we’ll call it. Didn’t leave the concept lane, alas. Neither did the video project illuminate the fascinating milieu at the Plant City, which was a motel, and looked like a bombed-out mess in Beirut, in certain portions, still being refurbished. The boxer who battled substance abuse and the project were no more.
What I knew of Garry’s deeper history, from what he told, was that he’d been herded by overzealous feds when scrutinized for marketing tactics, some over-promising and under-delivering, prior to 2014. His explanation of the FTC matter satisfied me that his entrepreneurship had proper boundaries in the business realm.
Website TK
I started full-time with/at/on ProBox to kick off 2022, splitting time between working out of the home office, as I had in stints as EIC of TheSweetScience.com and founder/editor of NYFights.com, which I sold but held on as editor in chief.
Abe Gonzalez would attest: he knew I was high on Jonas’ prospects for succeeding, and a good lil percentage of the certainty came from a TV hookup in China. Think of the possibilities: a nation that size with an advantageous TV deal.
When that fizzled after a short spell and was not again referred to, it was one of a pattern of little things or larger things not panning out.
Maybe some of that is instinctual; a chunk of me cringed at Jonas’ handling out the gate, with a big 3 of Paul Malignaggi, Roy Jones, and Antonio Tarver, who he portrayed as founders. There would be a focus on material supplied by them, all three Floridians who would gather at the Plant City grounds of the rehab, White Sands.
I didn’t hate Garry’s “talk show” blitz out of the gates, though I know I should have pushed his ego and done more media with him, a keep him on his toes exercise.
Ok, do a poll.
Who knows the name Roy Jones? Antonio Tarver. Juan Manuel Marquez. Paulie Malignaggi?
A heavy percentage among the 100,000 more or less hardcores in the US do. That comes from knowing and hearing the names over a long span of time. Garry didn’t and doesn’t have the desire to allocate to attract the names. So, he wanted another hook, while Najee and Co. grew closer to being known.
A problem is, it ain’t snap-of-the-fingers easy to keep on fighting and winning and keeping your name afloat and relevant. Xander Zayas, check when he debuted and his progression to become a known name. It is not a rapid rise.
I don’t pretend that behind closed doors, some of us wouldn’t trade stories of the latest indignity offered by Garry, who could and did alternate between charmer and ball-buster. A good, potent example: in prep for a June 2022 show, I sat with him in his office and amused each other.
He liked to needle a devoted liberal. He liked to needle, period, enjoying an atmosphere where keeping you guessing, alternating between charm and derision, was part of his day-to-day.
“You look older than Mike Goldberg,” he said, basically non-sequitur.
I wasn’t going look up who was born when, or waste too much time what utility he derived from this needling.
Dumped At the Beach
Me, I haven’t exchanged words with Garry since he hit me with a breakup text, finding me on the beach in Delaware, at a once-a-year summer sibling gathering.
It wasn’t working out, was the gist of it. Sonuvagun gave me about four days’ notice, no parting or insurance.
Origin of the split: a gap in communications. Garry had it in his head, as he’s fleshing out the array of talk shows and such that will also feature ex-UFC announcer Goldberg, that I am both front and back of the house.
No, I explained quickly: I am an administrator and use WordPress for web publishing. The numbers in that could be, as Jonas likely will attest, as he contemplates a shift in programming, sadly low, in the hundreds, to the thousands, into tens of thousands of views a month. Good bang for the buck in sports journalism, but satisfying Garry’s desire to be a one-stop shop wouldn’t be my task.
Garry thought he was getting a two-for-one special, that I’d also do web design.
That ProBox ship kept steering, with Jonas showing both enduring loyalty and a willingness to cash burn, and to Malignaggi, who has stayed a ProBox “talk show” fixture through today.
Malignaggi Goes Viral
Paulie broke news in a way Jonas didn’t embrace.
Yes, the talk shows would be disappearing.
But better, bigger bouts would be offered under a new paywall for $5 a month.
The entrepreneur didn’t love how Paulie focused more on the subtraction, rather than the addition and went to camera to give a more clear picture of ProBox‘s (and Boxing Scene) future.
Jonas Sets Bar For Subscribers
Basically, if he can only attract 25,000 recurring customers, Jonas will take his ball and go home. He did hard cuts last month at Boxing Scene; those journos know the entrepreneur will go heavy on the whip.
I knew pretty early on that I was working for a funnier Steinbrenner, and that if I didn’t cater to his measurable ego correctly, things could splinter.
A couple of people were fired before me, and that churn, low-key, is part of the Jonas way of management. I think that from me, he didn’t get as enthused and all-in as he desired when he suggested we maybe start doing web news hits from the home office. I think I wondered if that was really for me, more of a reporter/analyst than a forward-facing influencer type.
And Jonas sensed moderate caution when I didn’t pretend to be thrilled at getting teeth all set for inspection.
Seriously, he mentioned my teeth as potential areas for improvement at least twice.
Holiday Fracas
We count down to Father’s Day. I won’t forget the one in 2022, when I got a call from Garry. 9:30 am, or so. On Father’s Day…
He had warned me months before that he’d eff with anyone who he didn’t think was passing muster. My attempt at opening his mindset and wishing him well as a Father, on Father’s Day, didn’t work.
I had posted, I think, a story to NYFIGHTS, and asked the ProBox guys, Malignaggi, Jones, and Tarver, for their two cents for a prediction piece. Rather than seeing that I am spreading the word on the ProBox brand, he worries I am two-timing him, I guess, I don’t know.
I lost my composure a wee bit, inviting Garry to ask his missus, on speaker phone, if I was technically yelling. I was about to find the fate of Billy Martin, about to lose a battle of temperament with the entrepreneur. Next month, I’d be gone.
The slight sting remains, I won’t lie, getting laid off is an inevitable, eventually, but I don’t have the businessman or serial entrepreneurship POV.
The List of People Fired By Jonas Is Long
It was just a matter of time before Jonas pulled my plug, and I joined the ever-expanding band of expats who’d been defenestrated à la Garry.
Should consumers ready themselves for a few years’ worth of fare as conceived by the savvy but mercurial Jonas?
Only he knows the costs. They were and are considerable, in the millions, month to month.
Only he knows his appetite for continuing. Only he knows the outside voices that chide him for allocating so much time to a red endeavor. Only Garry knows if he’s on a fool’s errand.
Can victories on higher-stakes cards from Najee Lopez and a sprinkling of talent nurtured since that first year be enough to keep him involved? How are the Valle brothers panning out? I find myself curious.
It takes money to make money and so it is been for Jonas, the entrepreneur who today knows the constraints better than he did when coming out of the gate. He’s allocated heavily and is now betting that he won’t have just 25,000 subscribers at $5 a month starting in August.
The Magic Number
If he gets 100,000 folks willing to pony up a cup of coffee monthly to fill a niche, he will stick around, keep the ball in play.
He already knows that in his wildest dreams, he won’t be attracting the numbers that would allow him to joust the Turk with greater certainty. Jonas exited, getting deeper into the pro game with Mike Tyson, when Al Haymon’s attempt at starting a new league was at its height. Maybe the constraints, the 100,000 bar, is the Haymon this time around.
Lifer Analysts Weigh In
One very sharp analyst said they “cannot believe there are 100,000 who would pay $5 for Probox. Who cares about those fights when hardcore can watch Dazn and Paramount ?” The long-time skin-in-the-game person continued: “It’s easier to get people to pay $50 for something they care about than $5 for something people don’t give a shit about.”
Another highly regarded boxing voice told me:
“After about five years since its inception, ProBox again finds itself in a position where it has to see what its position is in boxing. When they started, it was this nice replacement of ShoBox. They grew out of it, but now are not only forced to go behind a paywall this time for 5 dollars and not one (ProBox tried a one-dollar sub in the past), but also establish themselves as something bigger than Zuffa, but not quite the big five (or four if you don’t count PBC). I’m not sure if Garry will get the buy-in from the fans he is hoping for. Everyone “loves” something until they have to start paying for it.”
That last line stings when doing the back-of-the-envelope math, which sees Boxing Scene being a mixed revenue bag and ProBox TV lowering their profile in one place but upping their game elsewhere, with “better” fights.
He’s been in for a penny and a pound, Jonas has proven. How much longer will he accept less coming in than going out? When will he look, sum it up, and say job well done, but there is my ball, I’m going home.
Bottom line time: if I had to guess, by this time next year, if Garry Jonas’ ProBox play were still the arena, I would guess yes.
You notice I said guess, not predict. Trying to predict against the brute is not for me. My time there is more and more like my time at Craftmatic Beds in Brookline/Allston/Brighton, Massachusetts—a curious and humorous portion of time, a source of mostly mirthful stories.
Mike Woods, Celtics Buzzkill
I hold no ill will to Garry, despite our history, which included me being banned from texting about his favorite basketball team, the Boston Celtics, because they lost in the 2022 playoffs, a losing streak which began the day I, he, and one of his workers on his tech squad, who also dug the Green, chopped it up on SMS.
That year, the Celtics advanced to the finals but were swept in six games by the Golden State Warriors. Soon after, I had that fractious Father’s Day call, and within five to six weeks, an abrupt parting with ProBox.
Today, I look back on the ProBox stint with more fondness than the opposite, and really, outside looking on. How much longer will Garry go?
I liked the chances more when he had that Chinese card to play. And getting people to pay for milk they’ve been getting for free is going to be a hard lift for the Florida man.
But his recent comportment during times of transition at the boxing side of the entrepreneuring shows someone who remains outwardly reasonable about spending at a deficit.
That means more than 100,000 in the Americas and worldwide will subscribe for once a month live fare? I am dubious.
50,000 will be a stern test of steadiness for the swashbuckling Steinbrenner sort. Getting past that? Real hard lift. Hard and costly—this serial entrepreneur deserves props for being such a devoted funder. For how much longer?
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