by David P. Greisman
Discount, for a moment, the casual viewers who tune in sporadically, tuning in only when their interest is piqued and when two men launching leather fits into their lives.
For the rest of us, boxing is our lives — not just limited to the one or two nights each week in which fights are on the air, but to every other moment in which potential fights are up in the air. We think about fights that are coming up. We think about fights that have gone down.
But mostly we devote the debate to that which we want to see. We discuss not only what must be done in order for it to happen, but also, sometimes, why it will not.
We want to see Lucian Bute face one of the two other top super middleweights: Andre Ward and Carl Froch. We want to see a rematch between junior welterweights Lamont Peterson and Amir Khan. And we still want, after all these years, to see the Super Bowl of the sweet science, Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
These three big fights are at different points in their negotiations. These three big fights are heading in different directions, for different reasons.
Let’s save Mayweather-Pacquiao for last because, well, it’s been put first for so long that so many other bouts have gotten short shrift since.
We’ve also been waiting a couple of years for Bute to face the winner of Showtime’s “Super Six” super middleweight tournament, due to him being the best 168-pound fighter not included in the tournament when it began and him still being in that position now that the tournament has crowned a champion.
Ward topped Froch more than a month ago in the “Super Six” finale. Immediately afterward, he dismissed the preordained storyline that Bute was next. He deserved to weigh his options, he said. He’d faced tough opponent after tough opponent while Bute had not, he said.
Between the lines, Ward’s words seemed to be a way of not losing leverage at the bargaining table. If he admitted to wanting the fight badly, he’d be locking himself into less favorable terms, financially and geographically speaking. He’d need to give up something to get what he wanted. Instead, he was potentially putting Bute in the position of sweetening the pot in order to get a shot.
Almost immediately after the “Super Six” ended, however, the negotiations for fights between Bute and Froch — not Bute and Ward — began.
Notice the plural: fights. The reports were that they would fight twice: once in Canada and once in the United Kingdom. The reports were that they were near an agreement. Then the reports were that Showtime had nixed the pairing from happening.
It was said the network wants a different opponent for Bute. Froch’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, claimed Showtime wanted Bute in with an American opponent.
Showtime, of course, would like Ward vs. Bute. It has invested money in the “Super Six” and Bute, building to this collision as a conclusion. Nixing a Bute-Froch fight seems intended to put pressure on Bute to get him to face Ward. It might end up costing the network more, though, because of this move.
Barring an ironclad contract, networks can’t make a fighter fight certain opponents — they can only persuade them with enough money to make it worth the fighter’s risk. Nixing Bute-Froch takes away two big paydays from Bute. The one payday he’d get for a Ward fight (or perhaps two with a rematch clause) will need to be comparable. And if Ward decides he will fight Bute but still refuses to go to Canada, where Bute sells out arenas, then the network will be left to make up for the lesser box office gross.
Andre Ward is the No. 1 super middleweight. Lucian Bute is No. 2. And as often happens, putting these two together will become as much about money as it is about pride.
Pride and money also were in the conversation about Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson. Khan wanted a rematch with Lamont Peterson after their competitive, controversial fight in December, which Peterson won by split decision.
In the immediate aftermath, Khan played on pride, giving numerous reasons why Peterson didn’t deserve the victory, in essence challenging Peterson to get back in the ring with him and prove him wrong. Then Khan and his team began their protests, complaints and conspiracies, building a case for getting the result thrown out and getting a rematch set up.
Peterson had taken two world titles from Khan with the victory. Khan had appealed to one sanctioning body, which ordered an immediate rematch. His team ultimately withdrew its appeal to the other sanctioning body. If Peterson wanted to face a different opponent, he could do so while still holding onto one belt.
Peterson’s team has been talking about following up with the right fight and capitalizing on the win. And so Khan stopped making it about pride and, instead, made it about money.
Last week, Khan’s team announced that, should Peterson take the rematch, he would get a complete 50-50 split of the money. Barring a fight against Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., this will likely remain the best deal available to Peterson.
That 50-50 split includes the proceeds from pay-per-view sales in Khan’s home country, an amount that should not be diminished much due to the controversial nature of his loss to Peterson. It is the same offer Khan made to Timothy Bradley last year, an offer that was valued at between $1.4 million and $1.8 million. That would be two to three times the $600,000 Peterson earned for his first Khan fight.
The money is there for Peterson. He’d have to swallow his pride not to take it.
Of course, the money’s always been there for a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. They are guaranteed to earn tens of millions of dollars.
Pride has kept them apart, however. Both boxers have put up obstacles to keep the fight from happening. Neither wanted to show too much weakness in negotiations. Neither wanted to let the other get the better of him.
This mental game has kept them from getting physical. Mayweather is now aggressively pursuing the bout, trying to pressure Pacquiao into agreeing to fight, taking stances that, should the negotiations once again sputter, might make Pacquiao to blame.
Mayweather booked the MGM Grand even before Pacquiao looked human in his third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. Perhaps he wanted to take the date out of negotiations — May 5, or no fight. That’s the stance Mayweather has taken since. The stance, however, makes sense in terms of money. It is historically a big boxing weekend; the days around Cinco de Mayo have had major boxing matches on pay-per-view for years.
The negotiations now are no different than they’ve been in the past. They are frustrating, with fighters and promoters changing positions and taking stands, in turn standing in the way, once again, of making Mayweather-Pacquiao happen.
Pacquiao reportedly wants a 50-50 split, though he’d been quoted in the past as saying he’d take less money. Mayweather wants to earn more money than Pacquiao. Neither man is willing to take less than what he wants.
It’s not really about money, though, but about pride. Each would earn tens of millions of dollars against each other. Each will earn tens of millions of dollars without each other.
All of this pride has to do with occurrences outside of any actual boxing. It’s long past time for that pride to be put aside. We don’t remember the numbers on the paychecks, but we won’t forget the action in the ring.
The 10 Count
1. While the federal government is contemplating how best to combat online piracy — with SOPA, PIPA and the shuttering of Megaupload in the news last week — the issue also ties in to boxing.
Piracy is widespread in boxing, and yet it is not a problem.
That’s because networks and promoters still have done little to nothing to try to monetize their collections of fights. Boxing matches are now more available than ever before to those looking for them, between YouTube and other video sites, websites dedicated to downloading old fights or streaming live bouts, and people who trade recordings in digital form and in hard copies.
When illegal file-sharing sites get shut down, companies need to find ways to legally fill the void.
The music industry was once threatened due to Napster and other forms of peer-to-peer sharing. It was saved, albeit in a lesser form, thanks to mp3 players, particularly iPods, and people accepting the idea of paying for downloading songs and albums on iTunes.
More and more television shows are putting limited selections of episodes online, recovering some lost money by selling commercials during the episodes and advertising space on the pages themselves. Hulu has a vaster library for those with paid memberships.
Boxing? Right now, promoters are largely sitting on their libraries. In some cases, the rights to fights are split between the network and the promoter.
While so many fights can be found in so many places, iTunes and Hulu have shown that there are customers who will flock to a central clearinghouse. Some people will actually pay for the privilege. And even if they don’t want to pay for boxing matches, the use of advertising could bring in some additional profit where, right now, there’s none.
Promoters and networks already missed a big opportunity back when people still wanted hard copies rather than digital downloads. Who wouldn’t have wanted a legit DVD of the Gatti-Ward trilogy in their collection?
There was apparently a brief flirtation way back when with Showtime and iTunes and DVDs. On Twitter, “sledskillz” said he’d once paid 99 cents to buy the first fight between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo. And boxing writer Mark Ortega noted he owns a DVD featuring Diego Corrales’ bout with Acelino Freitas and, as a bonus, an unaired Steve Forbes fight.
Interestingly, HBO — which right now is making its fights available on smart phones through its HBO Go subscription service — has audio downloads of many fights from the past year available on iTunes, in case you wanted, for whatever reason, to merely hear how the commentators called the action.
2. In Praise of Boxing Broadcasters (A Change of Pace), part one: Little decisions can make big differences. And so, while a little thing on the surface, it was excellent news that Showtime will begin broadcasting preliminary undercard fights on its “Showtime Extreme” channel, starting Feb. 11 with three fights airing prior to the Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto rematch main event.
This line of thought has worked well for the UFC, which has its preliminary bouts aired for free prior to its pay-per-views, starting its evenings with streams on Facebook, then showing more bouts on cable television. For those hardcore fans, they get to enjoy even more of the sport they love. For the casual viewer up in the air about buying the pay-per-view, they get one last sales pitch. And for the fighters, they get more people watching what might otherwise be seen by few, and instead can potentially build their fan bases.
(Full disclosure: I’ve written one article for the UFC’s website.)
I hope Showtime’s not paying for this privilege. If anything, it’s the promoters who benefit — their fighters, rather than being stuck on what used to be the un-televised undercard, are getting on the air.
3. In Praise of Boxing Broadcasters (A Change of Pace), part two: It might not seem like much of a move to some, but the decision-makers at upstart premium cable channel Epix were wise in buying the domestic rights to three heavyweight title fights airing in three consecutive weeks.
Epix and its website will show Vitali Klitschko vs. Dereck Chisora on Feb. 18, Alexander Povetkin vs. Marco Huck on Feb. 25, and Wladimir Klitschko vs. Jean Marc Mormeck on March 3.
This might not seem like much of a move to some because Epix is airing fights that HBO and Showtime likely had little interest in — Klitschko-Chisora, Povetkin-Huck and Klitschko-Mormeck don’t really move the needle in the United States for anyone but the truly hardcore. When it comes to heavyweight title fights taking place in Europe, HBO will broadcast live during the early evening (or afternoon, on the West Coast) when fewer are watching, and then re-air the replay later that night. The network only buys the rights and shows the fights these days when it’s truly worth it.
These fights are taking place in Europe because the fighters sell out arenas and are making millions from ticket sales and television rights. That means Epix can get a decent deal for domestic rights and have the privilege of showing three heavyweight title fights.
I’m not sure how many people are paying for Epix because of its boxing offerings — these three bouts might be the biggest it’s had yet. But with boxing fans already paying for HBO and/or Showtime, the true selling point that Epix might be trying to spotlight is its library of movies on television and online. By getting potential customers’ feet in the door with boxing, the network can then sell them on the idea of subscribing for its other offerings.
4. In Praise of Boxing Broadcasters (A Change of Pace), part three: Though the first fight was much, much better than the two that followed, I enjoyed the premiere broadcast of NBC Sports Network’s new boxing series, “Fight Night.”
The production values were big-league. There is room for improvement, however. When coming back from commercial breaks, the network aired replays from the previous round, which is par for the course, but not something that should bleed over into the opening moments of the round that’s just starting. There were times when 15 to 20 seconds’ worth of rounds weren’t shown. If anything momentous had happened, it would’ve gone unseen.
I liked that the commentary team — Kenny Rice, B.J. Flores and Freddie Roach — approached the co-feature and the main event with the same level of excitement. I didn’t get the feeling that the first undercard bout was being treated as, well, just an undercard fight. Rather, it was a sporting event that deserved attention instead of being treated as a time-killer or an afterthought.
Roach was difficult to understand at times, which was unfortunate because, as a trainer, his insight can be informative.
It was a good debut. It didn’t blow anyone away, but it didn’t need to. The goal for NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) and Main Events (which is promoting the first four announced broadcast dates) should be to put on a quality show on paper that gives viewers a reason to tune in, and a quality product on screen that gives viewers a reason to return for the next broadcast.
5. “Sauerland Interested in a Heavyweight Super Six Tourney” ~headline, BoxingScene.com, Jan. 20, 2012.
It’s a nice idea — the European promoter was involved in Showtime’s super-middleweight tournament and has a handful of heavyweight boxers who could participate — but we’ve heard similar thoughts from Sauerland before.
Let’s go to the headlines:
June 5, 2010: “Sauerland Says We Could See Cruiserweight Super Six”
Aug. 22, 2010: “Cruiserweight Super Six in Play: Huck, Wlodarczyk, More”
Aug. 23, 2010: “Huck vs. Lebedev Could Lead off Cruiserweight Super Six”
Sept. 25, 2010: “Super Six Cruiserweights: Potential Bouts, Schedule”
Dec. 20, 2010: “Sauerland to Invite Lebedev to Cruiserweight Super Six”
Feb. 9, 2011: “Sauerland: Cruiserweight Super Six Will Happen in 2011”
Here we are nearly a year later. Cruiserweight fights are happening — just not under the auspices of a tournament.
6. Broadcasting is difficult, and nowhere is that more painfully obvious than with the inexperienced and/or unprepared.
Former boxing judge Chuck Giampa had a moment on Friday’s broadcast of “ShoBox: The New Generation” that proved to be both unfortunate and infamously hilarious.
Giampa, brought on camera to explain his role in debuting on the show, could only utter this:
“Tonight I will be taking you inside the mind of a judge. [He pauses for a bit, purses his lips, visibly struggling for his next line] Tonight I will be taking you inside the mind of a judge. [He pauses again, looks down, visibly frustrated, then mutters his frustration]. Yeah. Sh*t.”
I can sympathize with his brain fart. I’ve done a boxing broadcast but once, and more than two and a half years later I still cringe, mortified by the memory of certain moments. I, too, like Giampa, froze during on-camera “stand-ups,” though I had the luxury of the broadcast being taped — we could stop and then start over again.
7. My only concern? What if Giampa’s mental lapse truly was taking us into what the mind of a boxing judge is like?
8. Boxers Behaving Badly: A former Australian Olympian now fighting as a professional cruiserweight will not spend any time behind bars for knocking out a man in a nightclub.
Adam Forsyth, 30, was instead sentenced to 60 hours of community service after pleading guilty to assault; prosecutors, in turn, dropped a charge of unlawful detainment, according to Western Australia newspaper The Sunday Times.
The assault came after the victim allegedly stole a $450 bottle of champagne from a group that included Forsyth.
Forsyth fought at heavyweight in the 2004 Olympics — which is the cruiserweight limit in the professional ranks — losing in the quarterfinals. As a pro, he is 10-0 with 8 knockouts, his last bout coming in June 2011.
9. Floyd Mayweather’s $100,000 contribution to the Susan G. Komen For the Cure was the most-publicized story last week involving pugilistic philanthropy, but it wasn’t the only one.
Up in Idaho, the Emmett Messenger had a story about former cruiserweight Kenny Keene’s mission to raise money for the local drug court — an alternative judicial program — by doing a minimum of 274 pushups and sit-ups a day, or 109,000 on the year.
10. Idaho, by the way, is the only state where it’s truly appropriate when a boxer is dropped like a sack of potatoes…
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.
Follow David on Twitter at twitter.com/fightingwords2 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fightingwordsboxing, or send questions and comments to fightingwords1@gmail.com