HBO’s boxing success floundering according to 2010 fights
For many boxing insiders, the collaboration of professional boxing and HBO has been a massive fail.
The ergonomics of HBO and boxing is touched on by Thomas Hauser in a recent
Seconds Out article. Hauser notes, “No network has ever been associated with a sport to the degree that HBO is associated with boxing. And no network has ever set the agenda for a sport to the extent that HBO sets the agenda for boxing.
“HBO has the single biggest boxing budget in the world. It’s one of the few places that a fighter and promoter can go to make big money in the United States and, for many Americans, their only exposure to boxing. Indeed, most of the public and media are
unaware of a fighter’s existence unless he fights on HBO.”
And so is the scene of professional boxing today. In terms of broadcasting, as HBO goes, so does boxing. The competition by other rival broadcasting companies, such as Showtime or smaller independent outlets, can hardly be called competition at all, since
they only have a fraction of HBO’s annual budget, and can therefore only offer a fraction of what HBO offers per premium fight.
So naturally, HBO gets the best fights because they dish the most out for them. But more and more, this is becoming a disputable fact for boxing insiders. It’s not just that HBO has dramatically changed all business and logistical components of the sport.
It’s also that, increasingly, there is the sense that the boys at the helm are totally lost at sea, and have no idea how to actually promote or broadcast the best fights.
In the last year, this is what HBO has deemed worthy of showing boxing audiences, presumably indicative of the ‘best of the best’ in the sport.
On Boxing After Dark, HBO has offered the following: Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Steven Luevano, Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Rogers Mtagwa, Devon Alexander vs. Juan Urango, Marcos Maidana vs. Victor Cayo, Ali Funeka vs. Joan Guzman, Chris Arreola vs. Tomasz
Adamek, Alfredo Angulo vs. Joel Julio, Amir Khan vs. Paulie Malignaggi, Victor Ortiz vs. Nate Campbell, Timothy Bradley vs. Carlos Abregu, Alfredo Angulo vs. Joachim Alcine, Devon Alexander vs. Andres Kotelnik, Tavoris Cloud vs. Glen Johnson, Yuriorkis Gamboa
vs. Orlando Salido, and Anthony Peterson vs. Brandon Rios
And in terms of HBO World Championship Boxing: Kelly Pavlik vs. Sergio Martinez, Lucian Bute vs. Edison Miranda, Andre Berto vs. Carlos Quintana, Celestino Caballero vs. Daud Yordan, Paul Williams vs. Kermit Cintron, Yuri Foreman vs. Miguel Cotto,
Vanes Martirosyan vs. Joe Greene and Chad Dawson vs. Jean Pascal.
For boxing fans, the question is really how many of these fights they’d be interested in seeing again. A lot of talent is recognized (Khan, Bradley, Gamboa), but in most cases, they are showcasing their talents against hyped-up, but lesser-talented fighters.
And in terms of repeats, there are probably four or five fights here (tops) that make the list.
A bigger question is how HBO is going to change planning in 2011, considering the backlash they’ve taken in recent months. In a recent interview with Dan Rafael, HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg admitted that his team needed change a few things, with,
"We need to get on a roll here for the sake of the sport. We need to get boxing back in the mainstream.”
But bringing boxing back to the mainstream is going to mean putting on quality fights, something that HBO, lately, hasn’t shown it can do. The sad thing is that, at this point, there is no turning back.
HBO is here to stay, and boxing depends on it critically.
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