Management Team
Greg Cohen Founder & CEO
When Greg Cohen, Founder and CEO of Greg Cohen Promotions, says he’s going to take his boxing promotion company in several new and exciting directions, you better believe it – innovating the business of boxing is in his blood.
Cohen got his introduction to boxing in the late 1980s through his cousin, Marc Roberts, founder of the Triple Threat Enterprises boxing team that signed heavyweight gold medalist Ray “Merciless” Mercer, junior welterweight Charles “The Natural” Murray, and light heavyweight Al “Ice” Cole out of the 1988 Olympics. Roberts pioneered the notion of creating a team of boxers and marketing them as a brand. He was also the first person to take a boxing management company public, selling shares on the NASDAQ.
“I was a huge boxing fan growing up and the opportunity to work in the sport for my cousin was like a dream come true,” recalled Cohen. I was only 19 years old and doing a lot of camp coordinating for Triple Threat.”
And then one day, Cohen says an unusual opportunity presented itself. “I brought in a sparring partner by the name of Jesse “Boogieman” Ferguson. He and I started talking and he hadn’t fought in a while and he said to me ‘if you can get me a fight, you can be my manager.'”
Using the same keen eye for opportunity that later helped him grow his private jet charter brokerage into one of the largest in the world, Cohen pounced on the idea and the two men enjoyed a long and successful run, culminating in a world title opportunity and several high-profile HBO appearances.
“I got Jesse a fight with Oliver McCall in August of 1991. We lost a controversial decision, but it was my entrance into the boxing world as a manager. I ended up getting Ferguson a fight against Ray Mercer on the undercard of Riddick Bowe vs. Michael Dokes and he pulled off the upset. Then we got the shot at Riddick Bowe for the undisputed championship.”
In the late 1990s, deciding the management side wasn’t where he wanted to be any longer, he made a deal with promoter Cedric Kushner to buy into his company, CKP.
“We did shows in venues all over the world,” recounts Cohen. “South Africa, Europe, The United States, we had a deal with various Caesars’ properties around the country. We did tons of shows in NYC – major casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. We had Shane Mosley for many years. Hasim Rahman when he knocked out Lennox Lewis to win the title. We had Shannon Briggs when he beat George Foreman and went on to fight Lennox Lewis, and when he knocked out Sergei Liakhovich to win the title again. We had Chris Byrd when he won the title. The list goes on and on.
It was during this period that Cohen helped expand the Heavyweight Explosion series that featured most of the world’s top heavyweight contenders, many of whom went on to fight for a win world championships.
In recent years, Cohen partnered up with Dino Duva to promote Nigerian slugger Samuel Peter, who went on to win the WBC Heavyweight Championship. He also served as producer on several feature-length films.
If Cohen gets his wish, and his endless list of successes says he often does, GCP will not only be the top brand in boxing, but will also branch out and redefine the role of a boxing promotions firm.
That’s the way he and his family do things. From the first day, Greg Cohen’s boxing life has been about taking risks, spotting opportunity and drawing new lines where he wants them, not staying inside the ones that are already there.
