Millionaire businessman and rapper — Jay Z, has completed a deal to buy promoter, Gary Shaw’s company thereby giving Roc Nation a steady stable of fighters.
According to ESPN, the deal, which had been in the works for more than a month, was finalized around the time Roc Nation Sports was conducting the weigh-in for its first card Friday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, which is headlined by welterweight prospect Dusty Hernandez-Harrison against Tommy Rainone.
It is believed that under the agreement, Gary Shaw Productions will be absorbed into Roc Nation Sports including most of the contracts of the 20 or so fighters he promotes and Shaw will run Roc Nation Sports’ boxing division along with chief operating officer David Itskowitch, who joined the company before it announced in August that it would begin promoting boxing.
Shaw told ESPN, “I have joined the company. I really do think that they can do for a fighter what nobody else can by strength of their entertainment and music talent and the athletes they represent. When someone says they’re with Roc Nation, it really means something. They’re at the top of the game, and being with Roc Nation will elevate the boxers.”
Other athletes managed by Roc Nation Sports include: Robinson Cano, Kevin Durant and Dez Bryant.
Jay Z is not the first celebrity to try his hands in boxing as fellow rapper 50 Cent also promoted Floyd Mayweather for a while before their break-up in 2013