SHO VP on Garcia-Berto, Mares-Cuellar, Charlo-Williams, Fall TV
By Steve Kim
After what was a busy and eventful stretch of fights on Showtime the past few months, the network now regroups for the fall. Various fights such as Abner Mares-Jesus Cuellar, Jermell Charlo-Julian Williams and Danny Garcia-Andre Berto have been discussed for the month of October.
Stephen Espinoza, the head of Showtime Sports tells Boxingscene,"Two of the three are sort of made and looking for dates and venues. Charlo-Williams, Cuellar-Mares and Garcia-Berto has had a lot of discussions, I'm not sure that's quite made.
"But I think that's three of the more attractive fights that are made or make-able. I do think that some combination of those ends up on Showtime."
Espinoza has made it clear that with the football season looming and other sporting events on the calendar, Showtime will be very judicious with it's boxing dates in the upcoming months.
"It is a brutal, brutal schedule this fall - not only because of football games and the World Series - but also because of the preponderance of pay-per-views(in November). So you look at November and it's pretty much shot,"explained Espinoza, referring to fights featuring Manny Pacquiao (who returns on November 5th) and the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward bout that is planned for November the 19th.
"Between pay-per-views and the Thanksgiving holidays, there's not a lot there. So I think we'll probably do something in early October and then something again in December. But I think really late October and November, that's just death going in there versus a combination of college football games, potentially the World Series, the start of the NBA and then the NHL eventually, as well."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
