HBO gives soul to boxing, but is it the right kind?
It’s no small matter among boxing fans that the sport has been on the ropes for some time. If the sport of boxing was in the ring fighting North America, then the referee would have his work cut out for him. He might even consider stepping in. He’d definitely
see the sobered crowd, and the anxious ringside doctor polishing off his inspector flash-light, prepared to examine the cuts and make a diagnosis.
But before making a decision, he’d also have to consider boxing’s corner men and their concerns. They would be asking, "is it really as bad as we thought? Must we throw in the towel? And can boxing be revived?"
There has been an assault of explanations as to why boxing has fallen on hard times.
There’s the ever-popular economic explanation. As far as this argument goes, it’s not just boxing that’s taken a hit-so have all businesses since the 2009 recession.
The truth is, though, only outsiders (like the ringside doctors) care about why boxing has fallen. The insiders aren’t in the business of speculation. They’re out to save the sport and to save the business. For big shot boxing promoters, all the way down
to fighters, and all the way back up to television broadcasting moguls again, the 'why' is secondary to the reactionary 'how'. How can we change things to make money, they ask? How can we push tired fighters back to the top again?
One solution to the question of how to make money in boxing today is provided by broadcasting companies. The solution might consists simply of being more selective with fights that are being broadcast. Fights that were once aired are no longer, in an attempt
for broadcasting companies to hedge the ‘risk factor’ of showing boxing on television.
One example of this was for the Carl Froch-Jermaine Taylor fight in April of last year. Shockingly, HBO refused to air the fight, even though Carl Froch had just won the WBC super middleweight title, and was facing a celebrated amateur and professional.
More recently, and perhaps more shocking, HBO has refused to air fights involving heavyweight championship title bouts. This isn’t a joke. They waved off the recent bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Samuel Peter, for the WBO/IBF/Ring heavyweight titles,
claiming they didn’t think the American audience appreciated Klitschko’s style.
Ross Greenburg, President of HBO Sports, said of this fight and others that he didn’t think they would “...be competitive in the ring.”
Yesterday, HBO released a new promotional video for their popular Boxing After Dark series, which features popular fighters and maintains a credible audience. The video, which is over two minutes long, takes the form of a mini-documentary. It depicts a
black homeless man struggling on the streets and finding his way to a boxing gym, only to find glory in the ring. The video is titled “I Still Have Soul.”
Presumably HBO is trying to get at the romantic spirit boxing, but it’s appropriate to ask if this video is an appropriate representation of boxing’s ‘soul.’ If it plays like a typical HBO drama, which it does, it will undoubtedly turn heads. But that
doesn’t necessarily make it a good thing for the sport of boxing.
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