|
by "Bad" Brad Berkwitt When the name Rick Kulis is mentioned, it’s associated with the pioneers of pay-per-view boxing events. He found his success in the early 1980’s, when he developed the disposable trap technology that allowed cable systems across America, the opportunity to offer close circuit sporting events to their subscribers over pay-per-view television. Kulis parlayed that early success into other business ventures and since February 1997, his passion has been the International Female Boxer's Association (IFBA). As you will read, his goals are to move the sport of female boxing forward, giving the ladies a chance to shine, while earning the respect of becoming a champion. With these types of goals, we need more support for his organization, so the ladies of boxing have every chance to become a champion, which any fighter aspires to become. With goals like these, we must get behind the IFBA to make sure they continue to succeed. How did you first get involved in the sport of boxing? Boxing found me actually. During the early 80’s, I was the Vice President of Sales, for SelecTV of America, which was an over the air pay-TV channel in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. While I was there, the company offered the infamous “No Mas” fight between Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran on pay-per-view and I was responsible for helping to sell the fight to our subscribers. Immediately following that fight, Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns I was announced and I was approached by the President of our company to see if we could sell the pay-per-view rights to cable companies, as well as, to our over-the-air subscribers. Prior to joining SelecTV, I worked in various positions in the cable television industry and I had worked on the technical side, as well as, in sales and marketing. Our Vice President of engineering at the time at Select TV was Mike Downs and I collaborated with him on how to make a live event available on cable Television. We came up with the disposable trap. The device allowed cable company’s to attach a filter to the back of a subscribers TV set to allow the signal to be seen on their TV without an addressable cable box. At that time only the Qube systems operated by the Warner Cable in two markets in the Midwest could show pay-per-view, so this device opened pay-per-view to the cable industry at large for the first time. The Leonard-Hearns fight was a huge success on cable systems that used the trap, and immediately following that fight, Don King contacted me to use the device on the Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney heavyweight championship fight. For the next fifteen years we used the traps for almost every high profile pay-per-view boxing card and worked not only with Don King, but with Bob Arum, Forum Boxing, ABC RSVP, Mirage Resorts and many others to present boxing on pay-per-view. How did this lead to you creating the International Female Boxer's Association (IFBA)? I formed the IFBA in Feb of 1997, right after the George Foreman vs. Crawford Grimsley fight in Japan. During the Foreman fight, we distributed the event to hundreds of sports bars on closed circuit television and during the telecast there was a great women’s bout that really stole the show. Our customers called us immediately asking about women’s boxing and we felt we really had a new entertainment opportunity on our hands. My publicist at the time was Matt Helreich and he encouraged me to form the IFBA and, through the Organization, we have sanctioned 41 women’s world title bouts in the United States, Canada, South Korea and the United Kingdom. For the readers, go into detail as to what separates yours from the rest, with so many female boxing organizations that have belts? Our goal at the IFBA was to set the standard by which women’s boxing was judged. When we started the organization, we worked with the Associated Boxing Commissions (ABC) to draw attention to the need for mandatory pregnancy testing. The universal acceptance of a two minute round. We worked with State Commissions to allow women to fight over 4 rounds, and we sought out, and found, a glove manufacturer to build a glove that would fit a woman’s hand. This would add safety to the sport. At the time we started the IFBA, only the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF) was active in women’s boxing. While the International Women’s Boxing Federation (IWBF) was already incorporated it was not active, and the International boxer's association (IBA) was not even thinking about women’s boxing. Because we knew this sport needed television to survive, the IFBA worked with USA Tuesday Night Fights to form the first women’s tournaments on TV. Later, our World Title bouts where seen on ESPN2, Fox Sports Regional Networks and pay-per-view, as well. If you had two things that you would like our readers to take away from this interview about the IFBA, what would they be? I think the first thing is that the IFBA is truly a champion in the sport of women’s boxing. We know that it takes work to convince promoters to stage world class women’s bouts and we work with promoters worldwide to convince them to give the women a chance. Secondly, we are active with local commissions to alert them to mismatches and questionable managers that might be taking advantage of under skilled fighters in order to try make a buck. Also, we wanted to keep the commissions more knowledgeable about the women who fight in their states. Why is it that female champions in any of the recognized organizations don’t unify the titles as their male counterparts? The problem with unifying the belts is the money. It is very difficult to get a promoter to sanction a women’s championship bout in the first place and, when it comes to paying sanctioning fees, the promoters are looking for the cheapest fees they can find. Just recently we were approached to sanction a unified title, but when the promoter compared the sanctioning fees from our organization against another one, they opted for the cheaper organization. With rating systems being knocked in the entire sport of boxing, what makes yours credible? We do our best to make our ratings fair. We try hard to keep up with the fighters and how they perform. It is very difficult to keep up with the weight changes and records, but we try our hardest. What do you think the current state of female boxing is in? Currently women’s boxing is a four and six round business. There is a lot of activity but it is limited to one women’s fight per card and usually only short fights. On the amateur level, the sport is booming and the amateur program is now active in many countries preparing the next generation of fighters to turn professional. We are slowly phasing in new faces in the professional ranks, with names like Martin, Collins, Webber, Guidi, Blackshear, etc. being replaced by Zaganas, Stone, Fettkether and Foster as fighters to watch. Who do you feel are the top five ladies in boxing today? Well that is tough question to answer without opening it up to spirited debate. But as a fan, I wouldn’t miss seeing any of the Champions who represent the IFBA whenever I get a chance to see them in action. Why do you think female boxing is not on more mainstream television on a regular basis? The programming executives at ESPN, FOX, Showtime and HBO are in the male boxing business. Their shows are built around different levels of the sport and they do not see women’s boxing as part of the male agenda. ESPN and Fox trend toward the everyday aspects of boxing featuring up and comers, current contenders and names of yesterday to fill out their shows. HBO and Showtime are strictly in the Championship Boxing business with their telecasts being built around the fights, not an established time period. Bob Yalen at ESPN, and Brad Jacobs at USA Network, were the first television executives to give women’s boxing a real chance. Yalen put the first women’s bout on national network television during an ABC Saturday telecast and Jacobs opened his doors to allow the first women’s boxing tournament to air on USA Tuesday Night Fights. The ratings success of the tournaments gave the sport its own all-women’s cards on ESPN2 and USA and the ratings really showed that the sport could be competitive with men’s boxing in the same time period. With the demise of USA Tuesday Night Fights and limited number of boxing dates ESPN2 could offer all-women’s cards, the sport never really got a fair chance to show what it could do. Even though the ratings are tremendous, we haven’t found a TV executive ready to give us our own time slot, so we will continue to beg for airtime and hope that the programming landscape changes to give us the shot we deserve. Who are your three favorite fighters of all-time and why? I really don’t have three, for me it was the Fearsome Foursome — Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, and Tommy Hearns. Having the opportunity to work all their combined big pay-per-view fights, I could not wait for each one of them to climb in the ring. Each fight was filled with electricity and excitement and I was there to be a part of each one. What is the greatest fight you have ever seen and why? For me the greatest fight of my lifetime was Marvin Hagler vs Tommy Hearns for the undisputed Middleweight Championship of the World. It was Toe - toe nonstop action I can still see the fight in my mind today. Do you favor a mandatory retirement fund for all boxers and if so, how would you like to see it accomplished? The sport of women’s boxing is not organized enough yet to talk about retirement funds. Certainly once the purses begin to escalate and the fighters see this sport as a place where they can earn their livelihood, the subject will have more merit. When you finally pass on the reigns of the International Female Boxer's Association, how you would you like to be remembered in female boxing circles? Well, I am not in any hurry to pass the reigns on anytime soon. There is a lot of good work to be done on behalf of this sport and I hope the IFBA will be at the center of this. As for being remembered. I hope the IFBA will be remembered as the organization that helped establish the sport of women’s boxing around the world, both as a live attraction and a solid TV product for generations to come. Finally, what is the saying you live your life by? “Life is what happens while others sit around making their plans.” Rick would like to add the following to our interview: As of late, we have really made some great changes on our website with many exciting boxing pictures. Please take the time to check it out at: http://www.ifba.com
If
you have any questions, comments or you're looking to get one of
your fighters interviewed. Email me at:
bberkwitt_fightnews@hotmail.com |
