If you’ve been around Rhode Island for a while, you probably remember Jimmy
Burchfield’s Classic Restaurant on Charles Street. When Burchfield got out of
the restaurant business, he got into the business of boxing.
Providence Business News stopped by the offices of Burchfield’s company Classic Entertainment & Sports – just around the corner from where the popular restaurant used to be – and went 12 rounds with the boxing promoter.
Round 1
PBN: Back when you were running Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic on Charles Street, were you thinking about getting into the fight game?
BURCHFIELD: While I was running the Classic, I was involved in boxing. I’ve done every component of boxing. I’ve refereed, I’ve judged, I’ve boxed. More or less, toward the winding years of the Classic I was an international boxing judge. I judged championship fights all over the world. I was judging a championship fight in Italy and I said: ‘Gee, this is great. I’m in the Coliseum in Rome judging a world title fight and I’m getting paid for it. It’s too bad I can’t do this every day.’ So I really always wanted to do this. Owning a restaurant in Rhode Island is being a promoter. You have to promote your restaurant. I had done that for a number of years. But I had always wanted to be a boxing promoter.
Round 2
Tell us a bit about Classic Entertainment & Sports Inc. Is it strictly boxing? How many fighters do you have in your stable?
We have 32 fighters in our stable. And 75 percent to 80 percent of Classic Entertainment & Sports is boxing. We do some other entertainment and venture out into consulting, but the bulk of our business is boxing.
Round 3
So there is life after Vinny Paz for professional boxing in Rhode Island?
Vinny is going to be a hard act to follow … for anyone. In this business it’s about timing and charisma. Besides being a fighter and a five-time world champion, Vinny was a showman. Maybe there were people who were turned off by some of the showmanship when he entered the ring. But they still bought tickets – even if it was because they wanted to see him get beat. We need a home in Providence and the Rhode Island Convention Center has worked closely with us. We are constantly making other stars. We are a franchise, just like the Pawtucket Red Sox and Providence Bruins. We’ve brought national television here … at least on four or five occasions. To answer the question, yes, there is life after Vinny Paz. But it’s going to be a tough one to match. There are a few kids out there who do have the potential, the showmanship.
Round 4
When you promote fights at Foxwoods, you have the lure of a casino. What’s the key to drawing a crowd when you put on a show at places like Rhodes on the Pawtuxet or the convention center?
It’s hard to do fights off a casino property. As a promoter, a casino is a slam-dunk. All I have to do is deliver the fights. I don’t have to worry about putting a ring up or lodging or food for the fighters or transportation or marketing and advertising … they do it all. And they pay me for that. When I do a fight at Rhodes or at the convention center or in Boston, I have to worry about everything. It’s my responsibility for the venue and the rooms and food – for putting the ring up and taking it down. I have to do the advertising and marketing. It’s a much harder assignment. Without sponsorships and other people getting involved, it’s almost impossible to do.
Round 5
Is boxing attracting a younger audience so that it can be sustained for years to come?
I meet all kinds of people. Let’s say they’re between the ages of 25 and 35. They’ll say, ‘Oh, I remember watching the Friday Night Fights with my grandfather. He loved it.’ Or if they’re a little older, closer to 50, they’ll say, ‘I remember watching the Gillette fights on a Friday night or the Pabst Blue Ribbon fights on a Tuesday night.’ And I’ll ask, ‘When is the last time you’ve been to a professional fight?’ They’ll say that it’s been awhile or that they’ve never been. But now there are a lot of young, professional people … and some are bringing their families to the fights. And off a casino property, they’re more likely to bring their children to a place like the convention center. It’s growing. And it’s catchy. Once you come to a live professional fight … you are not going to miss another one.
Round 6
Is pay-per-view a necessary evil for big fights? It seems boxing would go a long way toward attracting new audiences by putting good fights on in prime time on regular networks or basic cable stations.
That’s a great question. You and I talked about some great fighters from years ago and how they were marketed was on television on Saturday afternoons. But we don’t have that anymore. NBC started a series last year that did well. There are stars out there. And there are fighters – people like Sugar Ray Leonard and Vinny Paz – who have made their mark on boxing … every 10 years or so someone is going to come along like that, and when they do and they have it all, you have to package them. You need pay-per-view, especially for the heavyweights. It’s good in one way and bad in other ways. It’s hard for someone to pay $39.95 or $49.95 and it could be a one-round knockout. And so the next time they are turned off.
Round 7
Ideally, which venues in Rhode Island would you like to use consistently to stage boxing shows?
If we could get a happy medium … I think the Rhode Island Convention Center, with its management and board of directors. There is a charisma there. We brought in ESPN and they stay at a beautiful four-star hotel next door. They have the beautiful mall right there. People love downtown Providence. People travel all over the country and all over the world and they like to come back to Providence. You’re within walking distance of everything. We do a fight at the convention center, people stay at The Westin and there’s a press conference at Providence Place, where Dave & Buster’s have been unbelievable. Everyone wants the event. But the venue that I probably like the best is Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. It just looks great … 70 percent of the events we do at Rhodes sell out. It’s got the parking. It’s a great venue for boxing.
Round 8
Have you ever considered staging a fight outdoors, like Pierce Field in East Providence or on one of our beaches?
Yes. We have staged fights outdoors. Not here, but in Miami, Oklahoma. We talked very seriously with Mike Tamburro at McCoy Stadium this past year. One of the reasons we didn’t do it was because they were so tied up with the Triple-A All-Star game. But we will be talking to them. We were close to doing a fight on South Beach in Miami. But you look at Newport and Narragansett – we’d love to do that.
Round 9
There was talk years ago about Evander Holyfield having a championship fight here in Providence. Is it possible something like that could ever take place here or are those kinds of fights destined for venues attached directly to casinos?
The people of Providence would have to show – just like they have shown to the Pawtucket Red Sox and Providence Bruins – that they want big-time boxing here. We can bring it to them. Providence was the Mecca of boxing at one time. Rocky Marciano fought 17 or 18 times at the old Rhode Island Auditorium. We have a great audience here of people who love boxing. What we would do is get one of the local casinos to help us sponsor it.
Round 10
One turnoff to boxing among casual sports fans, I think, is a real bad decision. You watch a fight for 12 rounds and one guy has clobbered the other and the decision goes the other way. Is this a serious problem for the sport in terms of building credibility?
As long as you have the human element … and I go back to the restaurant business as an example. You could come to the Classic restaurant and I could make you exceptionally happy 12 times. And if on the 13th time your dinner or service is not up to par, I may never see you again. But I have to count on a lot of people in order to get that end product, that service to you. Again, a judge is human. What people fail to understand sometimes is that there are three different positions for a judge. A lot of times the back of fighter A is to the judge. When I was a judge, I would always have to stand up and be all over the place so that I could try and see what I couldn’t see. It’s not the fault sometimes of the judge; it may be the angle they have. I really think judges should be rated – there should be a school. Just like a fighter goes through the amateur ranks, a judge should do all of that.
Round 11
Women’s boxing. Is it a fad or are we going to see the sport grow in popularity?
It took me a long time to consider women’s boxing. I didn’t think it had a place. But what happened is I ended up with two of the best female fighters in the world – Missy Fiorentino and Jaimie Clampitt. Now, at each event, fans call and ask if there is a female fight on the card. They ask for it.
Round 12
In their prime – Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson. Who wins?
That’s a fight everyone in the world would want to see. It could go either way.
