HBO's rejection of Klitschko shows boxing's shift away from U.S
In June Ross Greenburg, President of HBO Sports, refused to pick up a newly scheduled bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev. Now HBO has decided to skip out on a rematch between Klitschko and Samuel Peter, a fighter who knocked Klitschko down three times in their last fight. At first glance it seems odd. Klitschko currently holds three of five heavyweight title belts. He’s the man to beat, the world champion, and HBO isn’t interested in televising his fights.
As one of the world leaders in sports event broadcasting, HBO dropping Klitschko says quite a bit about the state of the boxing market today.. Greenburg doesn’t think a Klitschko fight, even with top-rated heavyweight like Alexander Povetkin, would be worthy of HBO support due to lack of interest.
“Certain heavyweight fights in this country would intrigue, like if [David] Haye or [Tomasz] Adamek were to fight Klitschko, we’d be in the business. We only want big fights that intrigue the American public. I don’t feel like the Klitschko-Povetkin fight, in Germany on a six-hour delay, registers in this country.”
Greenburg’s points are well taken, since they suggest a key seminal change in the boxing world. Growing cosmopolitanism and internationalism are the hallmarks of a sport that is stagnating in the U.S. For years boxing has been a sport centred in the U.S. Once it was as home-grown as the fourth of July, and for proof of that, one need only remember the nationalism attached to the second Joe Louis – Max Schmeling bout. But those days are long gone. International influence has long held sway in the lighter divisions, but the last decade in boxing, for the first time ever, has revealed the new shape of the heavyweight division. And it’s not American.
Not only are the great American heavyweights gone (Holyfield arguably being the last one), but other countries’ have put up the best the world has to offer. Consider not only the Klitschkos—but also tops like Povetkin, Chagaev, or Tomasz Adamek, all of whom are making an impression on the heavyweight division without being American.
But more than that—with the rise of international fighters, the business itself has had to make serious infrastructural changes to account for geographic interest. Hence Greenburg’s comments. Klitschko, a Ukrainian fighter, has a primarily European fanbase. He’s a mega-star in Germany, but only modestly known in the States, meaning he’d naturally prefer to fight in Germany. And while that might be good for him, as Greenburg says, it’s something the American market isn’t so keen on.
For one, there’s the time difference/tape delay problem. A main-event evening bout in Germany happens at about 5 PM Eastern Time in the States, and is shown, say, a few hours later on American TV. By then news of the fight is old territory on the internet, and only a few people in the States even care (most having checked relevant boxing websites hours before). So the Klitschkos fighting overseas is a huge problem for the American market, who were once in control of these factors and on the other side of the curtain.
It’s simple. If there’s one thing to say about these developments, it’s that boxing continues to lose it's hold on the interest of the American public. It also shows how far the heavyweight division has fallen, having once dominated the attention of the American boxing fans. The future of the sport is patently international, and while it’s not something everyone may be willing to accept, it’s happening with or without approval. International fighters may opt to fight in the States, but they also may not. Whereas those terms were always optimal in the past, in many ways they no longer are for foreign talent.
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