Montreal-based boxing promoter Yvon Michel says Toronto is an untapped market for world title fights, and says he’s set to exploit that fact with backing from some of the biggest names in the sports industry.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is onside, Michel says, and adds that four cards a year with multimillion-dollar main events could come to the Ricoh Coliseum and the Air Canada Centre.

And music mogul-turned-boxing power broker Al Haymon is involved, too. He spent a reported $20 million buying airtime on U.S. networks and hopes an April 4 bout at the Ricoh will anchor one of the broadcasts.

But there’s a hold-up.

Hand wraps.

Provincial rules allow fighters to wrap their hands with 10 yards of gauze before putting on their gloves. But Michel says his fighters need much more to protect their hands from injuries — Quebec allows up to 40 yards.

He says if the province doesn’t relent on its hand-wrap rule, a seven-figure business deal will unravel.

“We’re talking about millions of dollars invested. It’s a big, big event,” says Michel, president of GYM Promotions. “If we can’t have a positive answer this week, we’ll go somewhere else.”

The proposal to bring internationally telecast world title fights to Toronto comes during a seismic shift in the boxing industry’s business model. If superstars Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao can agree to meet, their bout would shatter pay-per-view revenue records, but the rest of the sport is already headed back to the broad audiences and sponsorship dollars that come with traditional television.

Haymon has spent the last half-decade signing fighters to contracts and now manages more than 150 boxers, including Mayweather and Montreal’s Adonis Stevenson, the world champion slated to headline the April 4 event. Since late last year, he has committed $20 million to airing his Premier Boxing Champions series on NBC’s sports network and main channel, added a deal with Spike TV and has reportedly begun negotiating with CBS and BET.

Even rival boxing businessman Bob Arum agrees with the direction in which Haymon’s deals are steering the sport.

“The smartest operators in sports are the NFL, as far as marketing their product. And that’s all free television,” Arum said in a Sports Illustratedprofile on Haymon. “People want free. Pay-per-view has seen its best days.”

Michel says the Toronto shows figure into the Haymon group’s plans, but only if the commission’s stance on hand-wraps changes.

He says a thicker layer of gauze protects both the person throwing punches and the person receiving them, and points out that boxers’ hands aren’t insured against injuries suffered in the ring.

“If I box with so little protection on my hands, I will break them for sure and my career is in jeopardy,” Stevenson said in a statement forwarded to the Star.

Fighters at mixed martial arts events in Ontario are granted up to 15 yards of gauze, but Ontario Athletic Commissioner Ken Hayashi says the province adapted that rule from New Jersey’s regulations when it legalized MMA in 2010. As for boxing, he says the rule is clear and can’t understand why Michel and his fighters are objecting now.

“They know what the requirements are, and if they think I can make an exception for them, I can’t,” Hayashi says. “I’ve talked to heavyweights who say (30 feet of gauze) is more than enough.”

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There’s cash at stake, but just how much would depend on ticket pricing and attendance.

A September 2013 Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the Air Canada Centre generated $1.9 in gate revenue, and 21 months earlier a different UFC card earned $3.9 million.

The provincial athletic commission receives 2 per cent of gate revenues at boxing events and 5 per cent at mixed martial arts cards.

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