According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, The historic heavyweight bout between former undisputed Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and Francois Botha slated for Uganda has been postponed and may be revived in the United States.
Holyfield’s Feb. 20 fight against Francois Botha in Kampala, Uganda, is off and plans are in the works to reschedule it, the former heavyweight champion told ESPN.com on Wednesday.
Holyfield was scheduled to face South Africa’s Botha in a 12-round bout at Nelson Mandela Stadium, where organizers predicted a crowd of 80,000. However, Holyfield said the promoter failed to make a scheduled payment, forcing him to scrap the idea of going to Africa.
“I’m not going over,” Holyfield said. “We’re moving the fight to the States, but they haven’t got a site yet. But I’m still supposed to fight Botha.”
Ken Sanders, Holyfield’s manager, told ESPN.com that Miami was a possible location for the fight. He also said that besides trying to reschedule the Botha bout, Holyfield would also fight April 24 in Las Vegas.
“But the guy never did come up with the money,” Holyfield said. “They were supposed to pay us before we went over there, put the money in an escrow account. And they missed the payment. Three months we been waiting and we never did get it. So we made the decision.”
“We sat down and had a good conversation and I asked Evander if he wanted to do this and he said he did,” Sanders said. “I asked his trainer, Tommy Brooks, the same thing and he said he’ll have no problem, that Evander just needed two or three weeks after the first fight and he’ll be ready to go for the second one. He’s already in great shape.”
Between Holyfield’s age — 47 — and the number of rounds he’s boxed professionally, it could be difficult for him to get a license in Nevada, where the commission has rigorous standards. However, Sanders said he was not worried about it.
“He’ll pass all the tests,” Sanders said. “I’m not concerned.”
Holyfield said he was looking forward to fighting in Uganda.
“I was kind of excited about it when they talked about 80,000 people,” he said. “The point is to be able to go to different parts of the world. The U.S. is a great place to fight, but it’s not the world.”
“There are so many places that want to have the fight,” he said. “We’re trying to find out the best place.”
American Banker October 9, 1997 | FRASER, KATHARINE Buoyed by its pending acquisition by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Security First Group, a third-party marketer and supplier of annuities to banks, is bumping up its sales plan by 60% for 1998.
With Met Life’s support, Security First, a Los Angeles-based firm that works with 86 banks, accelerated its plan for sales production of variable annuities and other products. Next year it plans to produce $800 million of assets, up from $500 million, a senior executive said this week.
One-third of the $3 billion of assets in Security First accounts is in variable annuity products. The firm, which had $190 million in variable annuities in 1994, is riding the wave of popularity of the products in banks.
“At those production goals, we will have fulfilled Met Life’s objective to be a top-five player,” said Brian Finneran, senior vice president in charge of Security First’s bank division.
Mr. Finneran said that having New York-based Met Life as a parent would provide “a menu of resources you can tap into,” including property and casualty insurance, which is increasingly being sold through community banks. Met Life’s $377 million deal for Security First is expected to close Dec. 1.
The move for Security First is indicative of the interest large underwriters are taking in alternative distribution channels, such as banks.
“Met and some other major players are taking a longer-term view,” said David G. Kaytes, managing vice president of First Manhattan Consulting Group.
He added they are looking for “aggressive production” by “establishing a beachhead in this business, pushing on volume growth, and recognizing that there may be some cost to near term profitability.” Though some large banking companies are internalizing their insurance sales efforts, community banks still rely on third-party marketers for sales support. website met life dental
Seventy of First Security’s bank clients, including First Virginia Banks Inc., Harris Savings Bank, and First Western Bancorp in Pennsylvania, use its investment services group.
The timing of the Met Life acquisition would be good for Security First, which already wanted to expand product offerings to community banks to include property and casualty insurance.
“Rather than look for a strategic partner, which we would do, we have a parent that can supply us with product,” Mr. Finneran said.
“This puts a whole new face in the community bank marketplace to banks that would have to buy a property and casualty agency or affiliate with a local one,” he added.
Besides variable annuities, Security First already sells business planning insurance policies through community banks.
The company also plans to give a boost to another program, First Security Direct. It customizes fixed and variable annuities under private-label arrangements with 16 bigger banks, including Crestar Financial Corp. and Mercantile Bancorp., using bank proprietary mutual funds as the underlying investment.
