By Joe Harrison
The world of boxing has changes quite a bit over the last few years. There are many new names showing their talent in the ring, different champions defending their titles, but it appears that the sweet science has continued to decrease in popularity. One thing is for sure though; it has gotten much easier to find boxing on television. ESPN2 now provides Wednesday Night Fights as well as their normal Friday Night Fights. OLN (Outdoor Life Network) will now have Fight Night live at least one Thursday night every month. FSN (Fox Sports Net) has their special boxing card every few months or so. But who provides the best quality matches of all the stations? Well, that is difficult to say.
HBO has been on top for some time, but they’ve chosen to broadcast many of their boxing cards on pay-per-view. Then there’s Showtime, a network who provides great match-ups on their regular channel, rather than on pay-per-view.
Years ago, HBO undeniably had the best reputation for providing great fights. You could always depend on them to entertain you with ultra-popular boxers such as Lennox Lewis, Roy Jones Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya. Whether they were on pay-per-view or regular HBO, these boxers were the top names in the sport, and that helped the network become number 1 for boxing.
Showtime, on the other hand, did would they could to keep their foot in the door. They started a regularly televised series called Shobox, a series of boxing matches featuring the younger fighters and those who may be the future of boxing. However, as far as their ultra-popular boxers, their main man was Mike Tyson, whose prime had already begun to fade away. Plus, Tyson was only shown on pay-per-view. So overall, Showtime didn’t have much to provide for the boxing fans on their regular channel. The first Saturday of every month featured some good fights, but none of them featured the huge names that we could expect from HBO during those days.
Then, in 2004, the popularity of HBO’s boxing cards began to fade. Lennox Lewis had retired, Roy Jones Jr. was no longer the best pound-for-pound fighter, and for the most part, many of the network’s superstars had gotten old and past their prime. Shane Mosley was no longer dominant, losing to Winky Wright twice by decision. Oscar De La Hoya had given two straight poor performances, nearly losing to Felix Sturm, and then receiving a knockout loss to the hands of Bernard Hopkins. Also, Chris Byrd and John Ruiz were the premier heavyweights, shown on pay-per-view twice in separate bouts that year (talk about bore fest).
We could only hope that things would not continue to get worse for HBO. Could they stay alive using the non-knockout artist Winky Wright and the “Road Warrior” Glen Johnson as main features? Perhaps it was acceptable for the time being. Meanwhile, Showtime kept their focus on the future of boxing. Not only did they have Shobox, but they also had boxers such as Jeff Lacy, Diego Corrales, and Cory Spinks entertaining their viewers on the regular channel. Surely, this is something that would pay off for the network.
Once the year 2005 began, HBO had some real competition on their hands. Showtime certainly wasn’t perfect, featuring Mike Tyson, Hasim Rahman, and Jameel McCline each in their own pay-per-view main events. But their regular channel still had boxing cards on the first Saturday of every month, eventually leading to the legendary meeting between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo on May 7th.
Only a month later, on June 4th, Ricky Hatton destroyed the great Kostya Tszyu, which was also shown live on Showtime. Plus, they continued to feature Jeff Lacy, who appeared to be a dominant force in the super middleweight division. Indeed, this was a network ready to take the world by storm.
As Showtime continued to improve, HBO kept their faith in the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir who had issues with his chin, and Vitali who couldn’t avoid getting reinjured over and over again. Even till this day, the network wants to keep Wladimir on regular HBO, so he can gain more publicity. That’s a pretty interesting idea, as long as he continues winning. Even more interesting, there were 15 boxing cards televised on the regular channel during the year 2005.
It was wise for them to put in the extra effort, and it gave them a chance to show off Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Kassim Ouma. Unfortunately, you could only find top names like Manny Pacquiao and Bernard Hopkins on pay-per-view, if they were fighting anyone worth watching. Even though the pay-per-view main event is shown on regular HBO a week after its live telecast, it doesn’t quite make up for the fact that it’s no longer live. Showtime wouldn’t have to worry about replaying their main events, since you could catch them live on their regular channel.
Whenever necessary, they would show a replay of a fight the following weekend anyway, such as the Corrales/Castillo meeting, because of its overwhelming popularity.
Today, the world of boxing is much different than it was a few years ago. The heavyweight division does not have an undisputed champion. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has taken over the pound-for-pound rankings. However, like Roy Jones Jr, Mayweather handpicks his opponents and doesn’t always fight the best available. At this point, Mayweather has chosen to wait for a huge payday, as long as the name is extremely well known and not a WBO champion (such as Antonio Margarito).
Therefore, boxing fans are forced to see who some of the other top names are in the world of boxing. That’s when Showtime steps in, already allowing its viewers to observe these other boxers, not just on Shobox, but on its regular channel. Immediately, at the start of this year, audiences everywhere witnessed extraordinary events happening in boxing. On Showtime, January 7th, O’Neil Bell upset Jean Marc Mormeck, unifying the titles, and becoming the first undisputed cruiserweight champion since Evander Holyfield. In the main event that same evening, Zab Judah was upset by Carlos Baldomir to become the new welterweight champion.
Then, on March 4th, Joe Calzaghe defeated Jeff Lacy to unify the IBF and WBO super middleweight titles. Definitely a more significant match than HBO’s main event during that same evening, featuring Miguel Cotto.
HBO held on nicely though, providing us with the James Toney/ Hasim Rahman on March 18th (which ended in a draw), shockingly televised on its regular station. Then, on April 22nd, Wladimir Klitschko dethroned Chris Byrd for the IBF heavyweight title, also shown on the regular channel. Since that night, HBO has been extremely busy, producing boxing cards on either pay-per-view or its regular station almost every single week. The network had Mayorga/De La Hoya on pay-per-view May 6th. Then, Callazo/Hatton was on the 13th, shown on the regular channel after the replay of the Mayorga/De La Hoya fight. The following week, they provided Barrera/Juarez, and then Gonzalez/Montiel another week later, both fights on regular HBO.
The list continues on and on, Saturday after Saturday, even through this weekend, with the only exceptions being June 3rd, June 31st, and July 8th.
Twelve boxing cards have already been televised on regular HBO this year, not counting the replays of previous pay-per-view main events. However, the matches on their regular station seem to be toning down a little. This weekend, we’re being provided with Joshua Clottey/Richard Guiterrez and then Vivian Harris/Stevie Johnston. This is the type of boxing card we may have seen on Showtime a few years ago. Saturday night, viewers may be tempted to tune into the Roy Jones Jr. fight on pay-per-view instead.
The following week, Kassim Ouma will face Sechew Powell, and then Vernon Forrest faces Ike Quartey. This is better then the previous week, but it still won’t stand a chance against Showtime’s doubleheader of the Marquez brothers that same evening; Rafael Marquez facing Silence Mabuza and Juan Manuel Marquez facing Terdsak Jandaeng.
The war of these networks will continue throughout the remainder of the year, and HBO is definitely keeping busy. Pay-per-view dates are scheduled for August 12th, Rahman/Maskaev, and September 16th, the Barrera/Juarez rematch, November 18th for the Pacquiao rubber match, and possibly Floyd Mayweather Jr. on November 4th. On regular HBO, you can see Nikolay Valuev/Monte Barrett on October 7th, and then Wladimir Klitschko/Shannon Briggs on November 11th. During that period, Showtime doesn’t have quite as much scheduled as of yet. They will televise the Toney/Peter heavyweight bout on September 2nd. Also, the rubber match between Diego Corrales and Joel Casamayor will take place on October 7th.
The fact of the matter is; Showtime’s fights will continue to grow in popularity as long as HBO televises their premier fights on pay-per-view. HBO does have plenty of fights on its regular channel, but they are mostly fights that would be compared to the older Showtime fights or today’s ESPN2 main events.
If they televised the best fights on their regular channel instead of pay-per-view, people wouldn’t have to throw money away just to see a boxing match on television. It would be great for boxing fans everywhere and great for boxing’s popularity. Unfortunately, that just isn’t realistic. All the more reason why it’s a privilege to have a network like Showtime providing monthly boxing cards.
If all the fights belonged to HBO, surely most of them would be televised on pay-per-view. It would take a miracle or a Klitschko for all of them to be televised live on regular HBO.
Then again, if Wladimir Klitschko becomes the next Lennox Lewis, it’s doubtful you’ll find him anywhere other than pay-per-view.
