Ranking the 10 Most Powerful People in Boxing Today

Power.

Some people have it.

Others want it.

In boxing, true power is only controlled by a few individuals. They have the ability to make or break fights, the ability to steer careers to superstardom or disaster. 

Here we rank the top-10 power brokers in the sport. They're ranked based on their influence and ability to control not only the events surrounding them, but by the impact of those events on the sport as a whole.

You may like some of them.

You may dislike others.

And you may never have even heard of one or two.

But they all belong.

These are the 10 most powerful people in boxing today.

Honorable Mention

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Manny Pacquiao

Pacquiao has seen his pay-per-view numbers drop, alongside everyone else in the sport, but he remains a massive international star and might well finally get his crack at pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather. Or not. But, either way, the Filipino icon remains a fighter in high demand.

Jim Lampley

The longtime HBO commentator and host of The Fight Game series is one of the few who is willing to say publicly what so many others are only willing to whisper. His harpooning of uber-adviser Al Haymon on the final episode of the series in 2014 was one of the seminal moments of the boxing year.

Richard Schaefer

Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole recently reported that Schaefer settled his dueling lawsuits with former employer Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions. The terms of the deal were reportedly very generous to Haymon, whom Schaefer was accused in the past of helping at the company's expense, according to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael. He will be barred for an as-yet-unspecified time from promoting, but once that's over, he'll be right back in the thick of things, likely with many of his old clients.

10. Miguel Cotto

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Miguel Cotto went from a proud shopworn warrior who should probably retire to lineal middleweight champion and potential kingmaker in just under two years.

You would be excused for thinking the future Hall of Famer was done as a top-level competitor after he dropped back-to-back lopsided decisions against Mayweather and Austin Trout in 2012.

It's been more than two years since the stunning loss to Trout, and Cotto finds himself, once again, one of the most powerful and in-demand names in all of boxing.

He ran right through Sergio Martinez to capture the middleweight championship last June, and you'd have a hard time finding any elite fighter—in or around his weight class—who doesn't want to fight him.

According to ESPN.com boxing writer Dan Rafael, Mayweather might want a rematch should suddenly red hot talks with Pacquiao fall through again. And why not?

Cotto presents him with the opportunity to snag a world title in a sixth weight class and become the first man since Henry Armstrong to hold title in three divisions simultaneously.

Canelo Alvarez wanted him, but, per Rafael, the two couldn't come to terms, despite the potentially huge sums of money on the line and the natural Puerto Rico vs. Mexico rivalry that would've sold the fight.

Don't be surprised if that one resurfaces before long.

Per Rafael, Gennady Golovkin wants him, but don't expect that one to happen, at least not in the short term.

Cotto is one of the few fighters in boxing today diplomatic enough to maintain good relations with pretty much everyone. He works with Bob Arum's Top Rank on a fight-by-fight basis but also maintains good relations with people on the Showtime side of the fence.

Given the realities of boxing's new potential cold war—between Haymon and HBO/Top Rank/Golden Boy—that currency is worth its weight in gold.

9. Kathy Duva

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Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events, isn't afraid of anybody.

Anybody.

She showed that last year by filing suit against Haymon, Schaefer, Adonis Stevenson promoter Yvon Michel and basically anyone and everyone on the Showtime side of the fence with a pulse for their alleged role in torpedoing a fight between Stevenson and Sergey "Krusher" Kovalev.

Duva's lawsuit helped blow the lid off of many of Schaefer and Haymon's—some would say dodgy—business practices, culminating in the former CEO's resignation and dueling lawsuits with company founder Oscar De La Hoya.

As it turns out, Duva and Kovalev got the last laugh.

Stevenson was relegated to a farce of a fight against a woefully overmatched opponent on a Friday night in December, while Kovalev unified three-fourths of the light heavyweight championship by dominating the legendary Bernard Hopkins.

Kovalev will face Jean Pascal, another should-have-been foe for Stevenson, in March.

Duva's guile, toughness and keen sense for the boxing business are the reason Main Event has returned to the boxing mainstream and regularly appears on HBO.

8. Todd duBoef

Good cop, bad cop, anyone?

Todd duBoef is most certainly the good cop to Arum's bad cop in the pecking order of Top Rank. The two balance each other out pretty well, with Todd the steady hand at the helm while Bob stirs the pot and dishes out billboard material.

Maybe that's because they're not just co-workers.

DuBoef, who serves as president of Top Rank, is also Arum's stepson.

He doesn't spend a ton of time in the public spotlight. That's just not his style, and it's questionable whether Bob, who is known for his mercurial but entertaining nature, would want it any other way.

DuBoef is content being a mover and shaker just below the surface. He operates behind the scenes and is a key cog in maintaining Top Rank's rock-solid relationship with network partner HBO.

7. Tom Loeffler

Tom Loeffler is another one of those guys who flies under the radar but has a huge impact on the sport. If you were to run into him at a fight, it seems like he’d be more than willing to chat you up a bit about his two main charges, but he doesn’t seek out the bright lights.

Loeffler runs K2 Promotions, a little outfit responsible for managing undisputed heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and a certain Kazakh knockout artist.

Klitschko will be making his return to American shores in April, defending the heavyweight crown against undefeated American Bryant Jennings. That's a huge deal for both the champion and the sport, given the disrepute that's plagued the formerly glamour division of boxing in recent years.

A heavyweight title fight in New York City? Where have you been all these years?

Loeffler's other main man is undefeated middleweight titlist and wrecking ball Golovkin.

GGG seems to be the heir apparent as boxing's next pound-for-pound superstar, and Loeffler agrees, per MaxBoxing.com, stating that he's already the best middleweight in the world.

Would you argue that point?

As Golovkin keeps winning and his star rises, Loeffler should be right there with him to reap the rewards.

6. Oscar De La Hoya

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The last year of De La Hoya's professional life can best be described with one word—interesting.

Golden Boy Promotions was named in Duva's lawsuit last May, opening a virtual Pandora's box and shedding light on many of the inner workings of one of boxing's promotional giants. That set the wheels in motion for Schafer's departure—on bad terms and under a cloud of suspicion for business practices detrimental to the company—and the eventual reported settling of competing lawsuits between the two.

The terms of the deal called for Golden Boy to relinquish promotional rights for most fighters in its stable who are managed by Haymon. That list included but wasn't limited to Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder, Marcos Maidana, Adrien Broner and Abner Mares.

Golden Boy, however, retained rights to Amir Khan, Leo Santa Cruz and Lucas Matthysse, at least for the time being, though the Argentine recently signed a five-year extension on his contract.

That move, which was a surprise, shows that the Golden Boy isn't done.

Rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated.

Canelo Alvarez remains a megastar with the full weight of HBO at his back, and Golden Boy, which has always done well in the talent development area of the sport, recently signed a slew of young prospects to promotional deals.

De La Hoya's committed to making the best available fights, and his openness on that topic assures he will remain a popular and powerful figure in the sport.

5. Stephen Espinoza

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Stephen Espinoza is the main man responsible for Showtime's emergence as a legitimate contender to HBO's cable-boxing preponderance. He scored a major coup by snagging pound-for-pound king Mayweather in 2013 on a record six-fight deal, also, at least at the time, securing exclusive commitments from De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions.

With the undisputed best fighter in the sport, also its top box-office draw, in the fold and a deep, talented stable of champions and future champions, Showtime scored a few direct blows that knocked HBO back on its heels.

Credit Espinoza for most if not all of that.

Showtime's 2013 campaign was highlighted by a record-setting fight between Mayweather and Canelo, featuring a main event-worthy co-feature between Danny Garcia and Lucas Matthysse.

Unfortunately for Espinoza and the network, Showtime took a few steps back with poor matchmaking and lackluster cards in 2014. Who can forget the ridiculousness that was Garcia vs. Rod Salka in a fight so putrid the sanctioning bodies refused to take money to put their belts on the line?

Or Adonis Stevenson vs. Dmitry Sukhotsky?

Still, Espinoza is wily guy with a few more tricks up his sleeve. With Golden Boy, who used to employ him as an attorney, relinquishing control of most of its fighters, you can expect them to continue finding a home on his network.

Whether Showtime uses them to once again mount a serious challenge to HBO remains to be seen. But it assures Espinoza will remain a major player in the sport.

4. Bob Arum

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You can hate on old Bob all you like, but he remains one of the most powerful figures in the sport of boxing and heads the biggest and most powerful promotional outfit in the sport.

Arum has Pacquiao under contract—he re-signed in 2014 on a contract that extends through the end of next year—and that gives him a superstar at the top. But the list just starts with the Filipino icon.

Top Rank also handles pound-for-pound entrants Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez along with world champions Vasyl Lomachenko, Terence Crawford and Nicholas Walters.

Right there alone you have three fighters already in the top-10 pound-for-pound in the sport, and Lomachenko and Crawford, at least, have the potential to get there in a hurry.

None of that even makes mention of the slew of talented young fighters on Arum's payroll highlighted by Puerto Rican uber-prospect Felix Verdejo.

Arum has also invested heavily in developing the Chinese boxing market, signing two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming and hosting regular cards at the Venetian in Macau and on mainland China.

That's a potentially huge and underserved market, and Top Rank's inroads will pay huge dividends in expanding the sport.

3. Ken Hershman

Ken Hershman is the head of HBO Sports, and so long as his network remains the dominant force in the sport he'll remain on this list.

When HBO lost Mayweather to Showtime, Hershman and HBO didn't panic. They kept plugging away, developing new talent—such as Golovkin, Kovalev, Crawford etc.—and maintaining their spot as the top dog in the business.

That's not an opinion either.

It's a fact.

Despite a terrible year, at least from a public relations standpoint, HBO remained the best-rated boxing network in 2013. Yahoo's Iole reported that it televised 19 of the 20 most watched fights that year, coming in with 14 of the 15 most watched last year, according to Nielsen Media Research (h/t ESPN.com's Rafael). The only Showtime fight to even crack the top 15 in 2014 was Danny Garcia's razor-thin win over Mauricio Herrera in March.

And most of that took place with Mayweather and Golden Boy fighting exclusively on rival Showtime.

Sometimes, it's not about what you do but what you don't do.

Hershman refused to panic or try to match Showtime's big splashes. He just kept moving forward and kept his network level. You lose a star; you create a new one.

That's how HBO rolls, and Hershman is the man most responsible as that steady hand steering the ship through some rough waters.

2. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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If you love Mayweather, you talk about him.

If you hate Mayweather, you talk about him.

See where this is headed?

Mayweather is the undisputed top box-office draw in boxing. His fight with Canelo in September 2013 broke all sorts of boxing revenue records, and his two fights with Marcos Maidana last year came in just under a million buys apiece, according to Iole.

The latter two are even more impressive when you consider they were largely viewed as mismatches.

A drop-off from the massively hyped and anticipated Canelo fight was to be expected, but Mayweather still had the top two PPV fights of the year by far—and in a year when numbers were down across the board.

He just dominates the conversation in a way that no other fighter can or does.

Mayweather is always in the news.

When he fights, we talk about who he's fighting.

When he's not fighting, we talk about who he could fight next.

He has his own promotional company, Mayweather Promotions, but he's, at least for now, the only star promoted by his company. He has a few other decent fighters but nobody who really moves the needle.

That could change in a hurry, however.

The newly free-agent stable of fighters leftover from the De La Hoya-Schaefer settlement could find their way to Floyd's company in short order, and that would drastically increase his promotional might and power to continue influencing the sport once he retires.

1. Al Haymon

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Haymon is so reclusive that not a single photo of him surfaced in accessible databases to populate the media section of this slide.

Seriously, we can't even confirm or deny that the guy really exists or that he's some sort of mythical creation you tell boxers about to keep them in line like you'd tell your child about Santa Claus.

All jokes aside, even Liam Neeson couldn't find this guy.

Haymon never speaks to the media and exclusively operates behind the scenes, but he manages well over a hundred fighters and continues to sign them at a near-record pace.

His client list is headed by Mayweather but also includes Garcia, Broner, Wilder, Keith Thurman, Maidana and Santa Cruz among many, many others.

Haymon recently struck and announced a deal with NBC Sports to bring his Premier Boxing Champions series to network television. That means huge exposure for the sport and helped mute some of the criticisms of Haymon as a manager who softly matches his fighters to avoid big risks.

That criticism isn't going away so fast after a 2014 that saw Garcia vs. Salka and Stevenson against some anonymous Russian instead of Hopkins, Kovalev or Pascal, but the early returns are good.

Keith Thurman will take on Robert Guerrero on March 7 on NBC, with Adrien Broner meeting John Molina as the co-feature. Those are two quality fights featuring quality fighters, and placing them in front of the number of eyes guaranteed by network television is a boon for boxing.

Haymon is also matching Garcia with Lamont Peterson in an April 11 fight in New York City. The fight loses a bit of luster because it will take place at catchweight rather than at 140 pounds, where it would be a unification bout, but it's still a 50-50 affair.

With his influence at Showtime, a huge and growing stable of top-tier talents and a huge new series airing on network television, Haymon remains the top power broker in boxing, even if you'll never once see or hear from him.