David Itskowitch has been around boxing long enough to be skeptical when he was first approached last June about a new promoter getting into the sport. But his curiosity and business instincts pushed him to investigate when someone contacted him about getting involved.
“They gave me a general idea of what they were hoping to do, but I didn’t know it was Roc Nation,” Itskowitch told The Post. “I just knew it was something in the New York area and it was boxing.”
Fast forward a few months and Itskowitch, 39, is now the Chief Operating Officer of Boxing for Roc Nation Sports, a division of Roc Nation founded by entertainment mogul Jay Z.
Itskowitch will be in charge of building the agency’s boxing division from the ground up, drawing from his vast experience that includes working with HBO Sports, DiBella Entertainment and most recently at Golden Boy Promotions from 2007 to 2013.
“It’s boxing unusual,” Itskowitch said. “The company is a well-established company that has an infrastructure with branding and PR and a proven track record of success. It was just the total package of the company that was attractive to me.”
Itskowitch had followed Roc Nation and its signing of top athletes such as Robinson Cano, Geno Smith, Victor Cruz, and CC Sabathia. Its first boxing venture will be on Nov. 8 after winning a purse bid this week to promote the WBO middleweight championship fight between the champion Pete “Kid Chocolate” Quillin of New York and Matt Korobov of Russia.
Roc Nation’s bid of $1.9 million topped boxing’s traditional power companies Golden Boy Promotions ($1.2 million) and Top Rank ($515,000). The bout will be held in either New York or Washington, D.C.
“Most promoters don’t get the opportunity to promote a world title fight until years into their run of promoting,” Itskowitch said. “We have the confidence we can do it and we can knock it out of the park.”
Roc Nation’s acquisition of the fight raised eyebrows around the industry.
“Anytime you have an icon like Jay Z show that he wants to seriously be involved in boxing as opposed to being a part-time guy, it only helps bring more people and eyes to the sport,” one industry insider said. “By getting the fight, they accomplished more than they could have with a press conference with no fight to announce, and the hiring of Dave shows that they’re serious.”
It might be Roc Nation’s first boxing event, but Itskowitch said he is eager to prove it can offer a promotion that’s different and can attract a younger audience.
“It won’t be my first time. I’ve done a few of these,” Itskowitch said. “And one of the bread-and-butter events of this company is concerts.”
It’s interesting the purse bid became available because Golden Boy, which promotes Quillin, and Top Rank, which promotes Korobov, declined to negotiate with each other to reach an agreement. The cold war between Golden Boy and Top Rank has been a much-discussed issue in recent years. It will be interesting to follow how Roc Nation Sports affects that.
Other musicians have ventured into boxing, including 50 Cent and Damon Dash, who teamed with Lou DiBella at DiBella Entertainment. But Roc Nation wants to be a force in the sport.
“Roc Nation has been working with artists and athletes that have tremendous followings on Twitter and are household names all over the world,” Itskowitch said. “That infrastructure is at our disposal for boxing. One main target is younger people. One of the problems boxing has is its fan base is getting older and older and eventually dying. Everybody has been trying to figure out how do we attract young fans to the sport. I think we’re the company to do it.”