Big Time Boxing Continues In Detroit Following Blockbuster Claressa Shields Bout, Fox Theatre Events

Detroit promoter 313 Presents continues to complement the event calendar with exclusive boxing events at multiple venues, thanks to a partnership with Salita Promotions. The boxing promoter’s roster includes superstar Claressa Shields whose sold-out July bout against Lani Daniels at Little Caesars Arena grossed $1.5 million.

 “It’s all down to the crowd here in Detroit, where people are super passionate about boxing and just didn’t have the events in recent years,” says 313 Presents President Howard Handler, a Detroit native who mentions the city’s rich boxing history including its previous big-league arena, Joe Louis Arena, being named after the homegrown heavyweight champ. “We started really digging in hard, talking to a lot of different promoters, and when we met Dmitriy Salita, he shared the same vision as we did, and he was also passionate about bringing world class boxing back to downtown Detroit.”

While arenas are a typical home for major boxing events, 313 Presents showed off the flexibility of the historic Fox Theatre on Sept. 19 for “The Battle Of The American Heavyweights” between Brandon Moore and DeAndre Savage, joined by a women’s WBC/WBA Unified Middleweight Championship between Olivia Curry and Kaye Scott also on the card.

“It’s an event that could have gone anywhere in the country,” says Salita, based in Detroit and a former champion boxer who won multiple titles. As exclusive promoter for Shields, and much like a concert promoter, Salita stresses the need to develop new stars in the sport and grow the audience, with Detroit being a perfect epicenter.

He credits Handler’s passion for the sport as being pivotal in making that happen. “Our goal is to bring consistent, big-time boxing back to Detroit,” he said ahead of the bout. “This is really a big step in that initiative because it’s not a Little Caesars Arena event, it’s not Shields, it’s just a great boxing event and we want to see how the great sports fans of the city of Detroit respond.”

The response must have been positive, as next on the calendar is the just-announced rematch between Curry and Scott, whose first bout was scored as a tie, with local favorite and former middleweight champ Tony Harrison against Brain Damian Chaves Dec. 20, also at the Fox Theatre.

While there are many similarities between producing and marketing one-time sports events and touring productions, Handler says the differences can be major, and add to the excitement.

“It’s all hands on deck for a good portion of my team,” says Handler. “We’re very central to the buildup, the publicity, the marketing. You’ll do an announcement, you’ll do a weigh-in, you help create these sessions for members of the press to go watch the boxers train, so it’s way more hands-on and way more demanding of us as a promoter partner with somebody like Salita or, honestly, anybody we might work with in the future.”

He says the actual fight promotion varies a lot from the typical tour date, as well. While occasionally an artist might do some local press, such as Jon Batiste at the Fox Theatre recently, the tour is seen as a traveling machine rather than a local endeavor.

“In the case of (boxing), Claressa and the other fighters know it is part of their job to help sell tickets,” he says. “They’ve got to help us electrify the market, and they get it. Claressa is a total pro, she’s built her brand, and there isn’t the next city two nights later. You’re rolling out a whole tour into one event.”

Salita says the proliferation of social media, along with major networks like Showtime and HBO stepping away from traditional boxing broadcasts, means there is an opportunity to reach fans directly and more quickly develop boxing talent that can sell hard tickets and draw a crowd.

“I really believe that the city of Detroit and these great venues can be an example for the country, in terms of having big events at a major venue like Little Caesars, then having supporting events at beautiful venues like Fox Theater,” says Salita, comparing the venues to Madison Square Garden’s arena and theater.

“Ticket sales are going well,” Salita adds. “There’s people from all over the country coming, media and boxing fans coming just to check out the beautiful venue, the great fights. This is a fight that could have happened in Las Vegas or New York City, but we should also bring it to Detroit.”