Kathy Duva
CEO, Main Events
www.mainevents.com
In the macho world of boxing, where blood, sweat and testosterone rule the ring, Kathy Duva, mother of three, is running her own show.
Duva is the CEO of Main Events, one of the three largest and most successful boxing promotional firms in the world. She took over the company after the death of her husband in 1996 and set about the challenging tasks of raising children, resuscitating the business and proving herself to be much more than just the little missus. Main Events, now celebrating its 29th year, not only boasts world champions like Evander Holyfield and Arturo Gatti as loyal clients, but has promoted some of the biggest Pay Per View and closed-circuit broadcasts in cable television history. Male–dominated, aggressive and titanically competitive, the boxing world is keeping Duva on her toes (but still in heels) while she champions a company that was nearly got knocked out.
Pre-CEO Days
“I started out as a publicist, but when my husband passed away, he left the company to his brother and I went to law school - I had three children to raise and had to get serious. While I was still in law school the company started going under, so I stepped back in. Luckily my new education came in very handy in the boxing world where we have to deal with things like personal injury, criminal law, property tax, contracts, etc.’
Re-Launching In A Man’s World
“Although I really like most of the people I work with, it was hard to get a few of them see me as the CEO after so many years of being the boss’ wife. And to get them to take me seriously because I was a woman. A big part of my job is negotiating with promoters who represent other fighters. Everybody wins some negotiations and everybody loses some, but if the promoter is especially macho, he finds it extra humiliating losing to a woman and he becomes impossible to deal with down the road. Since it’s not my job to get people over their issues, if I have to negotiate another deal with him, I’ll often send another person from my organization who can handle it better. My job represents the interests of others - I can’t let my ego get into it and hurt my fighters’ chances just because I don’t like the promoter. Working in a macho atmosphere does have its perks, however. One is that I never have to buy lunch. Regardless of who calls the meeting, none of them will ever let me pick up the check.”
First Rule Of Success: Less Is More
“We’ve really focused on being more hands-on than ‘wholesale’ promoters. Some companies work with over 50 fighters at a time and only a few of them make it. We only have 10 or 12 fighters and really nurture our relationships with them. We’ve been around since 1978, most of our staff has worked together a long time and we give our fighters a lot of support.”
Do Things Your Own Way!
“My husband had a very powerful personality. I’m much more subtle and tend to quietly maneuver things. When dealing with someone who’s a screamer, like Don King for example, I wait until they’re finished and then say, ‘Are you done?’ Then I start talking, rather than trying to out-scream them. It’s not my style. I try to make it in their best interest to do what I want them to do - that’s my best negotiating tactic.
Learn How To Sell Yourself
“PR is critical, and I’ve gotten very good at it because in boxing you have to in order to survive. It’s not nearly as popular a sport as it used to be so you have to be creative. You have to get out there and hustle, do the reporters’ jobs for them and hand them the story. You’re competing with everyone for media outlets, so you have to be prepared.”
Keep Believing
“Everything is either very big or very small in boxing. One Pay Per View fight can carry us the whole year because most of our fights are on cable and there’s not much money in that. We need to get sponsors interested which has been tough ever since Mike Tyson got in trouble and scared them all away. We’re still feeling the ramifications. But I think boxing is like real estate - when it gets low people start buying. I feel like boxing is reaching that point where people are going to start paying attention and networks are going to start thinking they could get a lot of viewers.”
You Are Who You Work With
“Stay away from people who are dishonest. Life is too short to deal with people who are going to drive you nuts.”
Fear Of Going Broke?
“About once a month! Success is based on winning fights, so it’s very scary. We lost a whole string of fights at one point and just when it was do or die, we started winning again. We just need one or two guys on top who can support us. You just have to hang in there.”
Did She Ever Want To Give Up?
“Oh sure, all the time. Then I’d think about three college tuitions and keep going.”
What’s Next?
“We’re starting a PR company and a real estate empire! We’re about to move into a new building in Totowa, New Jersey, that we renovated and the whole thing went really well, so now we’re looking for another property to renovate. We’re also starting Main Events Proactive Publicity We’ve all gotten so good at it, and we know that anything that doesn’t involve selling boxing is going to be easy!
Words Of Wisdom
“Keep having fun. It’s not worth doing if it’s not fun. And don’t ever take no for an answer.”
This Featured Lady was profiled by Los Angeles based author and columnist Jen Sincero.
