One arguably even more powerful and richer than he is.

Yet he may not even know his name, and he certainly will never have had a meaningful conversation with him. Few people, even in boxing, have but Al Haymon seems destined to become the biggest promotional player the sport has known, including Don King.

The reclusive Haymon may be boxing’s Invisible Man, but his fingerprints are all over the fight game, which is he is out to revolutionise.

A billionaire mogul from the music industry, Haymon is moving swiftly  towards absolute control, owning or exclusively advising some 200 of the world’s top fighters under his Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) umbrella, spearheaded by Floyd Maywweather jnr.

Ominously his tentacles are spreading across the Atlantic, clutching at the best of British talent. Super-middleweight James DeGale, the first British Olympic gold medallist to win a world professional title, is now, on his books, as is Amir Khan, Belfast’s world bantamweight champion Carl Frampton and his most recent recruit, world featherweight champion Lee Selby.

His organisation is also believed to be in talks with welterweight champion Kell Brook and Olympic heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

However, the Twitter telegraph buzzes with rumours that Khan is so irked at again being bypassed as Mayweather’s next opponent  - this time by Andre Berto, a fighter from his own stable (Berto is also trained by Virgil Hunter and promoted by Haymon) - that he might well walk away from Big Al and do his own thing, possibly against Manny Pacquiao in the Middle East next year.

Few people inside boxing really know the 60-year-old Harvard graduate in law and economics who was instrumental behind the scenes in the negotiations for the $400 million (£250 million/€360 million) super-fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao.

One former associate describes him as “the Steve Jobs of promotion”.

Characterwise he’s as clean as a whistle.

As a concert-staging entertainment impresario, among his long list of celebrity clients in the music business have been M C Hammer, New Edition, Whitney Houston, Eddie Murphy and Mary J. Blige. 

He has also worked in television production, and in 2000, with just one fighter – Vernon Forrest – moved into boxing. Forrest went on to become, one of the world’s top welterweights.

Haymon’s brother, Bobby was a boxer who fought 31 times in the late Sixties and Seventies, his last contest against a young, undefeated Sugar Ray Leonard.

This year Haymon has brought boxing back to terrestrial television in America, establishing himself as one of the most powerful and influential figures in the sport.

Yet he is rarely seen in public and never gives interviews. Even Mayweather calls him "The Ghost".

The fact that he takes only small percentage from their purses seems one a factor why so many leading fighters have flocked to join him. They also get regular work.

Another may be that he has little regard for boxing’s diverse governing bodies and the sanction fees they demand from fighters.

Already his PBC is looking set eventually to become more powerful that the WBC, WBA, WBO or IBF.

His recent promotions have seen something of a transformation in the presentation of the sport. Gone are the extravagant showbiz-style ring-walks, with boxers entering the arena alone, without their entourage. The ring announcer is outside the ring and round card girls are conspicuous by their absence. He may be from show business, but he is returning boxing back to basics as a sport pure and simple.

Haymon also questions the value of world titles as such in their current fragmented form. No holder of a recognised belt is introduced as such on his shows. When Badou Jack, soon to defend against Britain’s George  Groves, beat Anthony Dirrell to become the new WBC super-middleweight title holder, he was simply announced as the new world champion, with no mention of the sanctioning body. It is believed the PBC are in the process of having their own belts produced.

And it was Haymon  who advised Mayeather to return his  WBO welterweight belt rather than pay them $200,000 (£130,000/€180,000) sanction fee.

Haymon does have friends in boxing and curiously among them is Don King - the man he has gazumped as Numero Uno.

King, who will be 84 this month, is a back number, his last remaining world champion, heavyweight Bermane Stiverne having lost the WBC title to Deontay Wilder, another star from the Haymon galaxy.

But the ever-voluble King now declares: “Al Haymon is the man. His word is his bond...I love what he’s doing. As a fellow black man I’m proud of him. He’s doing a great job.”

Britain’s Frank Warrren also welcomes, albeit cautiously, the rise and rise of Haymon.

“What he’s doing is fabulous, because he’s getting boxing on different channels in America, and that’s great,” he says. “It doesn’t seem he’s interested in titles. That I don’t agree with, because he suddenly can start owning everything and you can basically shut people out. If you’ve got title fights, guys can fight for a mandatory position and get a chance for a title. I think that’s important.

“The rest of it remains to be seen how it works. He’s obviously got his game plan. He’s raised a lot of money, got a lot of financial backing to do it. It’s a very brave move. Only time will tell if it works or not. I have no problem working with him.”

But others obviously have.

Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy has joined forces with Top Rank’s octogenarian boss Bob Arum in lawsuits claiming Haymon and his affiliates have breached the Muhammad Ali Reform Act, created in 2000 to prevent managers from also being promoters, and other State and Federal laws in his fight dealings which they claim are in danger of creating a monopoly.

Golden Boy have filed a $300 million (£200 million/€275 million) lawsuit against Haymon and his related companies. Arum is also claiming a minimum $100 million (£64 million/€90 million) in damages for alleged irregularities by Haymon’s organisation which includes “inducing professional boxers to enter unlawful ‘tie out’ agreements which prevent the boxers - whose interests Haymon purports to represent - from freely contracting with legitimate promoters; acting illegally as both a manager and a promoter and fraudulently operating in the promotion business through a network of ‘sham’ promoters.”

Haymon, calls the allegations "baseless" stating: “They’re entirely without merit and a cynical attempt by boxing’s old guard to use the courts to undermine the accessibility, credibility and exposure of boxing that the sport so desperately needs. The Premier Boxing Champions series makes boxing free again, by bringing championship boxing to free TV, with a fighter-first promise and a commitment to the fans to restore boxing to the lustre of its heyday.”

This is one punch-up which seems set to rock boxing to the core. But I suspect there will be only one winner. Big Al.

Dr Wu would be well advised to steer well clear. Boxing’s new Godfather has proved disturbingly adept at inflicting bloody noses.