By Jake Donovan
At some point you have to wonder what boxing-affiliated networks won’t be down with the Al Haymon takeover. It could be a question that HBO ponders, wondering if it will have any company— or enough fighters to remain competitive—when all is said and done.
For now, business is booming on both sides of the street, a win that boxing sorely needs after barely treading water in 2014.
The United States has its first heavyweight titlist in nearly eight years – Deontay Wilder, who is charismatic, down-to-earth, unbeaten and can fight a little bit as well. He’s also the first heavyweight under the Al Haymon advisory banner to lay claim to a major title, a feat that was undoubtedly key in the low-profile boxing powerbroker to take over the sport.
The fights haven’t yet happened, but that’s only because they’ve begun to roll out barely a month ago. What began as a headline-grabbing story of the sport returning to NBC—and in prime time, no less—has now grown into a tale of boxing going on everywhere you see.
CBS Corporation, Inc.—which includes Showtime, CBS Sports Network and of course the free terrestrial network itself, CBS—is the latest to get on board with Haymon. The announcement on late Tuesday morning wasn’t the one boxing fans quite expected, at least those who continue to wait with bated breath in hopes of being the first to hear that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will in fact fight on May 2.
Those plans seem imminent. For now, boxing fans have to wait it out. The same can be said of Haymon’s current blueprint for the next several years.
The industry suffered through a forgettable 2014 campaign, with the same question repeatedly asked; when will we finally see better fights?
We asked when a planned light heavyweight showdown between Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev not only fell through, but further ratcheted up the war between Haymon and cable giant HBO. The cable giant currently remains the only closed door in the industry to the adviser following a bitter split in 2013.
It was asked again when Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson took separate mismatches on the same August 9th card rather than face each other. The question was asked again when all of the top welterweights in Haymon’s stable suddenly stopped facing each other, instead nibbling around the edges while Showtime rode out the Golden Boy implosion and whatever the incognito adviser had in store for the future.
When plans rolled out for Premier Boxing Champions—Haymon’s league (since, of course, he doesn’t double as a promoter, which would be illegal)—on NBC, all eyes turned to Showtime’s barren schedule. At the time, all that was in the bullpen was Wilder’s eventual heavyweight title-winning effort over Bermane Stiverne and a February 20 Shobox card in Pittsburgh.
Wilder’s win currently resides as the most watched fight of 2015. The show in Pittsburgh this weekend is just a very small taste of what’s to come in the next few weeks and beyond for Showtime, who has been rewarded for its patience and loyalty.
For the past month, it seemed like it was it. Big fights were announced on NBC, beginning with the March 7 show in Las Vegas headlined by Robert Guerrero and Keith Thurman in a welterweight fight, and Adrien Broner in his continued quest to become a four-division champ.
Then came the announcement that PBC was spreading over to Spike TV, beginning with a pair of intriguing fights in and around the welterweight division. Whispers surfaced of future series appearing on BET (Black Entertainment Television), CBS Sports Network (excluding the club show that aired on Valentine’s Day) and eventually ESPN and Telemundo.
As more networks were named, fans and even some notable writers laughed at the Showtime brass, assuming they’ve been pimped out by Haymon and left in the cold.
The exact opposite is true.
HBO continues to add to its spring lineup, to where you wondered if Showtime was simply going to mail it in for the foreseeable future. Perhaps they were just waiting out Mayweather’s decision on who winds up in the opposite corner for his confirmed May 2 Pay-Per-View headliner at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Whomever Mayweather faces—Pacquiao or otherwise—the event will serve as what is now a loaded seven-week stretch for CBS Corporation. Championship boxing will return to Showtime on March 28, with Jhonny Gonzalez in a featherweight title defense versus Gary Russell. One week later begins the premiere of PBC on CBS, when Stevenson defends his light heavyweight title versus Sakio Bika.
The news also came with the revelation that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.—the son of the legendary Mexican boxer of the same name and for the past few years a huge ratings draw for HBO—has crossed the street. The former middleweight titlist will make his Showtime debut in a dangerous light heavyweight clash with Top 10 contender Andrzej Fonfara.
The event will be packaged with a pre-fight promo for Mayweather’s return to the ring on May 2, which will also be featured in some post-fight capacity on the May 9 edition of boxing on CBS, when former titlists Omar Figueroa and Ricky Burns throw down in a super lightweight scrap.
At some point, we will say goodbye to ESPN2 Friday Night Fights (purely speculation for now, though currently the word around the water cooler) and say hello to Haymon’s brand serving as the only boxing game in town on ESPN and its affiliates.
ESPN was the closest HBO enjoyed to an outlet for its boxing brand to be promoted beyond its own isolated world. That venture that only came about in the past couple of years after long having stood on its own and— by pricing out the rest of the industry—leading to the decline and eventual extinction of boxing properly showcased on free TV.
With significant fights now threatening to take place on as many networks as Haymon and PBC can get its hands on, the question remains whether HBO can continue to reload and remain on top of the industry, or if its eventually forced to give in and join the fray.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
