PBC goes on without Haymon and still puts on fights.
The great Sam Watson of Premier Boxing Champions and others are there of course.
Boxers have great time for Watson in the US. Ask any of them.
It is well know however the founder of PBC and formerly more of an advisor and manager in boxing, Al Haymon, has been doing less and less in boxing in recent years.
Boxing as a sport however does great without him again all of a sudden recently. Oscar De La Hoya in America’s main fighter as well Ryan Garcia has said he is leaving him after this weekend.
And Bob Arum of Top Rank is nearly 100 at this point in age and still hasn’t even replaced the lost ESPN deal last year for Top Rank. It is nearly March.
Boxing continues to do well however without these three Americans and the proof is all around with DAZN, Netflix, BBC, Sky Sports and loads of new company’s and countries in the East, and governments, all of a sudden interested in boxing again recently.
One Claressa Shields returns this weekend in a big fight and a big rematch and recently she’s gone to genuinely massive levels of success away from boxing and professional sport.
A hit movie on her life did outstanding in the Box Office and even Rotten Tomatoes gave it credit ratings. Very tough to do for anything usually. That’s the power of Shields in America now.
Some facts and numbers on the above:
- Shields got standing ovations at multiple NBA games in Jan 2026 with viral clips, boosting her mainstream US fame far beyond Haymon’s former influence in America and boxing.
- Her film “The Fire Inside” (Dec 2025) grossed $8.1M worldwide and earned strong reviews/cultural buzz, all without any Haymon or PBC involvement.
- Shields was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in Dec 2025, raising her US legacy profile, nothing to do with Haymon.
- Viral NBA ovation videos in early 2026 (thousands of views) highlight Shields’ rising American sports icon status, unrelated to Haymon’s fading advisory role.”
- The Fire Inside” opened to $1.96M domestically and landed Shields on Adweek’s “35 Most Powerful Women in Sports 2026” list—pure non-boxing wins Haymon had no part in.
- Shields sold out Little Caesars Arena for her Feb 22 fight, proving her independent US draw, as PBC’s 2026 future remains uncertain with no big events really confirmed. They need to start confirming more soon. Everyone else is putting on events way more regularly than them.
- Shields’ $3M signing bonus and Jan 2026 media tour spiked her US visibility, while Haymon is becoming less relevant now in boxing rapidly so.
- February 2026 social media exploded around Shields’ NBA appearances and movie (thousands of engagements), growing her fame metrics without Haymon ties.
- Shields drives women’s boxing growth in the US with sold-out headliners, independent of Haymon, whose Haymon is seen as old-guard and fading in 2026 in far changing technological times for the sport.
The above are accurate but not as important as Claressa Shields at the end of the day.
This weekend Claressa Shields knows her opponent well but can’t take her eye off the ball.
