LAS VEGAS – As the man who runs TGB Promotions, Tom Brown wears the hat of a boxing businessman while always connected to his earlier days as a matchmaker, and, even before that, as a fan.
All three are pleased with the Saturday Premier Boxing Champions main event pitting unbeaten light-heavyweights David Benavidez and David Morrell atop the pay-per-view (Prime Video, PPV.COM) card at T-Mobile Arena.
“It’s got everything – everything a matchmaker looks for, everything the fans want,” Brown told BoxingScene. “Someone just said, ‘This is the best fight your promotion can make.’ I said, ‘I don’t care if [either fighter] was with another promoter. This is the best fight you can make, period.’ This is definitely the best fight you can make in this division.”
That’s a formidable statement considering the undisputed light-heavyweight title bout that’s coming February 22 in Saudi Arabia between champion Artur Beterbiev and former WBA champion Dmitry Bivol.
As Brown considers the youth of the fighters – Benavidez is 28, Morrell, 27 – and the stakes that the winner will move to face the Beterbiev-Bivol winner, he doesn’t shy from the claim.
“They share an old-school mentality. Both of them want to get to the top of that mountain and they’re both willing to go through fights like this,” Brown said. “It’s a rare thing in today’s game.”
The prevailing theory among boxing experts is that Benavidez’s power has been so repetitive in wearing down foes that Morrell will ultimately succumb.
But Brown was there in Minnesota in December 2023 when Morrell battered Sena Agbeko in a Minnesota ring, sent him to the hospital and had officials fearing for his life.
“People underestimate Morrell, his power too. There’s going to be a lot of respect in there,” Brown said. “Although he doesn’t have the pedigree and the quality of competition that Benavidez has, he’s got that amateur pedigree. I’ve seen his power.
“You’ve just got to respect when guys are willing to do this – both in the prime of their careers, putting their undefeated records on the line. They deserve respect.”
Former super-middleweight champion Benavidez, 29-0 (24 KOs), most pressed for the fight to happen after being kept on pause for three years by current 168-pound three-belt champion Canelo Alvarez.
“[Benavidez] wants to fight the best. And he proved that all that time with Canelo, waiting and waiting. He tried being nice. He tried being a prick. He tried everything to get that fight,” Brown said.
“He wasn’t [difficult] about the money; was willing to take short money. He wanted to fight the best. He wanted to fight Canelo. It’s about his respect.”
Saturday’s card also features a rematch between WBC featherweight champion Brandon Figueroa and former unified super-bantamweight champion Stephen Fulton, who edged Figueroa by majority decision in their 2021 bout.
Given the depth of the featherweight division with champions Rafael Espinoza, Nick Ball and Angelo Leo and an apparent 2026 move to the division by undisputed super-bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, Brown said, “The winner of this fight becomes a star.
“Fulton has shrugged off the rust from inactivity. It’s hard to get up for a fight like [his near September loss to Carlos Castro], coming off the [Inoue] fight where he lost his title, in a pissy mood because he wanted a bigger fight. His mind’s in a much better spot.
“And I think they’re going to pick right up in round 13 after a fight-of-the-year type fight last time.”
Former 140-pound champion Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz appears headed to another slugfest with Mexican countryman Angel Fierro.
And while PBC has been inactive since the fall, it will stage another pay-per-view March 1 headlined by WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, a Prime Video card at the end of March headlined by unified junior-middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora and Brown just secured T-Mobile Arena May 3 for a likely Alvarez Cinco de Mayo weekend card.
Amid social-media chatter that PBC is in trouble, Brown responded, “I don’t need to say anything about the health of PBC. They’ve been writing us off since we first came on in March 2015, and our model has always been that you’ll never hear us [complain] about another promotion. We want to just do our business, and do good business. We stay in our lane.
“We’re still grinding, doing our stuff and – God bless the others – we hope the others do great and make a lot of money. That’s great for our business.”