By Jake Donovan (photo by Chris Royle)
If nothing else, this weekend defines Showtime’s boxing policy of “Great fights, no rights.”
It is the last part that allows America’s #1 Boxing Network to get in the Jermain Taylor business, picking up the tab for his crack at super middleweight hardware when he faces undefeated Carl Froch this weekend (Saturday, 9PM ET/PT, Mashantucket, Connecticut).
Once the exclusive property of rival network HBO, neither Taylor nor promoter Lou DiBella enjoy carta blanche status when it comes to showcasing the 2000 US Olympic bronze medalist. HBO’s loss becomes Showtime’s gain when the former opted to pass on this weekend’s title fight, leaving fans baffled over the move and Showtime once again the people’s champ when it comes to finding a televised home for such fan-friendly fights.
Little did Showtime know they would be bidding against themselves to secure rights not just for this fight, but for both cards they plan to air this weekend.
One night before US meets the UK in a Connecticut casino, Showtime’s cameras set up shop in St. Louis. The main event is a grudge match between cross town rivals Cory Spinks and Deandre Latimore (Friday, 11PM ET/PT, live from the Scottrade Center).
The vacant junior middleweight title at stake seems to pale in comparison to the hometown bragging rights they truly long for in front of all of their fellow St. Lunatics. Spinks traditionally draws well in his hometown, while Latimore’s stock has never been higher.
Add to the mix undefeated junior welterweight contender and hometown favorite Devon Alexander appearing in the co-feature, and you seemingly have a show that’s a no-brainer for any network to showcase.
Yet when it came time to find a buyer, the only sound to be heard were that of crickets.
Part of it may have to do with the show being presented by Don King. Once upon a time, the Hall of Fame promoter could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo. Those days have long passed, and King has used up a lot of credit throughout the industry.
As a result, his past few shows have required greater effort than the normal hustle he’s used to pulling in securing televised dates. Whereas he once had a stranglehold on Showtime’s programming, King is now forced to show two forms of ID at the register. The promise of delivering a quality card is no longer enough; he now has to build a show, and hope that a buyer comes along to fund the project.
To his credit, a show will go on whether or not the cameras are rolling. When there were no takers for Cory Spinks’ alphabet title fight with Verno Phillips last year, King went the interactive route, deciding to instead air the fight on his website.
Other shows followed, including Adrian Diaconu’s narrow points win over Chris Henry in a battle of undefeated light heavyweights.
Neither fighter carries the name value of Cory Spinks, who has appeared numerous times on Showtime as well as HBO and its PPV arm. So it was a bit surprising to hear that there was no interest in what figures to be among the toughest tests of his career, taking on a young puncher in the prime of his career.
It’s been nine months since Deandre Latimore scored one of the bigger upsets of 2008, stopping Sechew Powell in the seventh round of a fever-pitched battle on ESPN2’s Wednesday Night Fight series. What has been by far the longest layoff of his young career has everything to do with being forced to play the waiting game while campaigning for a shot at a junior middleweight title, and more specifically the chance to add Cory Spinks’ name to his resume.
Don King was quick to get involved in such a fight, but slow to deliver on prospective buyers. Plans eventually moved forward for the fight to take place at the end of April. Original plans called for a May 2 date and most likely off-TV, until Showtime stepped in and agreed to air the fight, only not on the same date in which HBO PPV hosts the year’s most anticipated event (if it needs to be typed in order for you to know which one, then find another sport to follow).
With their involvement came the April 24 special edition of Shobox, just the latest in a long list of fights which American audiences are privy to, if not for their conscientious efforts to continuously bring the sport to the people.
Even when it’s a fight that nobody else wanted.
It’s along the same lines but a different set of reasons that brings Jermain Taylor and Carl Froch to our living rooms via Showtime’s cameras one night later.
Outrage was the first word that came to the mind of many in the media when HBO opted to pass on Taylor-Froch. Adding insult to injury was the fact that the network would go on to fill the very same date with another fight, Juan Manuel Lopez’ super bantamweight alphabet title defense against the seemingly ageless Gerry Penalosa.
HBO’s decision to not air Taylor-Froch was along the lines of taking a wait-and-see approach. On the surface, their decision seemed ludicrous. Taylor turned pro on HBO and has been a network staple throughout his career. Froch, meanwhile, is fresh off of a Fight of the Year contender with Jean Pascal, one in which he emerged victorious and picked up an alphabet title in the process. What more they could’ve looked for in showcasing their talent?
How about a viewing audience?
The lesson HBO learned the hard way last year was that not all fights involving a Brit results in automatic bank. The fans in the UK may be passionate about the sports they follow, but box office receipts have repeatedly confirmed what thousands of drunken patrons have been telling viewing audiences for years- there’s only one Ricky Hatton.
For many overseas fighters, interest may be lacking in the United States, but certainly not the case in their own backyard. The best example would be Joe Calzaghe, who fought twice in the states in 2008, neither fight drawing particularly well after having pulled in over 50,000 for his career-defining win over Mikkel Kessler the year prior.
Unlike Calzaghe, Froch has never enjoyed that level of popularity anywhere on the planet. While wildly successful in the ring thus far in his career, his fights still remain “just” fights, fought in modest-sized arenas in the UK, unlike the stadium-housed events that Hatton and Calzaghe have enjoyed in recent years.
Given that Froch can’t claim to be a draw on either side of the pond, fan interest would be left up to Jermain Taylor. Anyone taking notes can immediately tell you that such interest has been on the decline for years. There’s only so much you can blame on the sagging economy; eventually you have to admit that your guy no longer wows ‘em in the aisles.
Once upon a time, Taylor was guaranteed bank in the Southeast region of the United States, particularly in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. Pig soo-wee chants weren’t reserved just for Arkansas Razorbacks sporting events; Taylor had become a one-man professional sports franchise in his home state.
That began to change beginning with his controversial draw with Winky Wright in June 2006. Several thousand fans made the two hour trek from Little Rock to Memphis for the fight, but nowhere near enough to atone for the sea of empty floor seats to be found in the FedEx Forum on fight night.
At the time, the poor attendance was erroneously blamed on exuberant ticket prices. That theory was shot to sunshine a year later, when Taylor’s middleweight title defense against Cory Spinks featured a far sparser crowd, despite ticket prices literally half of what they were for the Wright fight.
In between came an optional defense against Kassim Ouma in Little Rock, which drew 10,000. The crowd was described as respectable, but still falling short of expectations.
By the time he fought Kelly Pavlik for the first of two times, Taylor was a man without a country. Hardly a Taylor fan was to be found in Atlantic City when he was one punch away from knocking out Pavlik before getting got himself in the seventh round of the best middleweight title fight in well over a decade.
Disappointment followed in attendance and in pay-per-view sales for his rematch with Pavlik in Las Vegas five months later. Nine months later, he would find the win column for the first time in more than a year, but not the overwhelming fan base that once swarmed his career. His decisive points win over Jeff Lacy came in front of a modestly-attended (and fairly heavily-papered) crowd at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tennessee.
Despite the steady decline at the box office, promoter Lou DiBella insist that the term super star is still applicable and that the reason a Froch-Taylor fight had to happen in the states has everything to do with both fighters maximizing their earning potential.
In most cases, such overwhelming evidence to the contrary would immediately disprove his case. That is, until you consider that Froch is even less bankable in his homeland. Word spread around in recent weeks that this fight would go the online pay-per-view route in the UK due to failure to secure a time slot from a single regional network.
It appears that HBO isn’t the only ones taking a wait-and-see approach to the fight.
Though completely different fighters, perhaps spooking the HBO brass is the fact that a year ago, UK-based light heavyweight Clinton Woods –already a known and somewhat proven commodity and seemingly at the pinnacle of his career – was slated to travel to America to defend an alphabet title against aged Antonio Tarver. Woods was favored to leave Florida with his title still intact in their April 2008 bout, but instead rolled over and almost willingly conceded the fight and his belt to Tarver in a listless performance.
The scouting report on Froch is far more favorable than it’s ever been for Woods who, prior to his three-fight series with Glen Johnson was best known for his role as one of many unheralded mandatory challengers to face Roy Jones at the tail end of the latter’s run as the world’s best light heavyweight. The returns have been favorable to date, just not in front of an overwhelmingly large viewing audience.
What exactly HBO expects to see that hasn’t already been revealed is anyone’s guess. Neither fighter expects to change up much at this stage of their respective careers. If Froch wins, he will most likely head back to Europe, which forever remains a super middleweight hotbed.
If Taylor wins, his stateside options are relatively thin. The winner of the evening’s co-feature between Allan Green and Carlos De Leon Jr remains a possible candidate, though not exactly the sexiest matchup in the world, certainly not one that will have networks arm-wrestling over securing television rights.
But even if none of the aforementioned fighters throwing down this weekend have anywhere to turn to tomorrow, the end will show that Showtime stood alone in giving them a viewing audience today.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.