By Jake Donovan
It is what it is. The first quarter schedules were set long ago, which means we’re forced to live with the fact that boxing at the highest level will not be taking place for the rest of the month.
Sometime prior to last year’s close, it was decided in business meetings at both HBO and Showtime that it would be wise to avoid going up against – gasp – the 2010 Winter Olympics, which is set to begin this Friday and will run through month’s end.
The fact that your average boxing fan couldn’t care less about any of the events that take place during the Winter Games left many puzzled by such logic, particularly when no other venue shows any signs of backing down.
Fox will still roll along with American Idol, the top rated show in the United States and whose reign was never threatened four years ago when the 2006 Winter Olympics aired on NBC. CBS and ABC will still proceed with first-run episodes for several of its hits, although a fair share of reruns is evident in the upcoming schedule.
The National Basketball Association will not only proceed with its annual All-Star game this weekend, but threatens to boast its largest ever audience as the festivities air live from Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
It is even business as usual for HBO in every department except for its boxing division. New movies will continue to air on the all three Saturdays within the 17-day span that the Olympics run. The next three Sundays will feature new episodes of “Big Love.”
What you won’t see on the next three Saturdays on HBO or Showtime, is live boxing action.
Considering the year boxing has offered thus far, such offerings (or lack thereof) are not only unacceptable, but severely overplaying one’s hand.
Four years ago, NBC relied heavily on the Winter Olympics to bail the network out of a ratings slump that continues to this day. The network proved to be #1 for that particular month, but it wasn’t exactly no lo contendre.
In fact, the Games were consistently bested by reality shows “American Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars” while never placing higher than fourth in any give weekly ratings.
Still, the first sight of the five colored rings joined together continues to cause boxing’s biggest powerbrokers to tuck their tail between their legs.
The cupboard was similarly bare in 2006, in fact with the schedules for HBO and Showtime following the same template that exists today. A grand total of zero first-run boxing broadcasts appeared on HBO from January 29 through March 3, while Showtime disappeared after the first Saturday in February.
Both network reappeared on the first Saturday in March, going head-to-head with one another, which is exactly what we’re forced to deal with next month. Nothing for a month, then the frustration of having to watch one live and hoping the network of choice doesn’t spoil the result of the other, deliberately or otherwise.
To recap: boxing won’t compete with other sports, but has no problem getting in its own way.
The one difference between then and now, however, provides a gaping hole in the theory that boxing can’t compete with the Winter Olympics.
HBO put its name behind pay-per-view broadcasts on back-to-back weekends, serving as the distributor for a show headlined by Antonio Margarito in mid-February 2006, while going all in one week later for the first fight between Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas.
Two things of note came out of the latter event. The first was that the show went on while lead blow-by-blow man Jim Lampley was out of pocket, coincidentally enough covering the Winter Games. Frequent HBO PPV host James Brown filled in for Lampley, with the telecast not suffering in the least bit.
More germane to this subject is the second point of interest – the fact that the broadcast sold 420,000 units. By year’s end, the number would hold up as the highest amount of any PPV event in 2006 that didn’t feature Oscar de la Hoya.
If they were able to sell that well, just think of how many people might’ve watched if they were giving it away (with your monthly cable/satellite subscription, that is).
For the second time in as many Winter Olympic seasons, it remains an unsolved mystery.
The saddest part about boxing refusing to put its best foot forward this year is that the lessons were thought to be learned as 2009 came to a close. More boxing without the additional price tag, reserve the pay-per-view template for the truly big events, and continue to prove to the masses that boxing is as alive and thriving as it has ever been.
Momentum was overflowing towards the end of ’09. Even with a disappointing January from HBO and Showtime, a make-up call could’ve come in the form of daring to prove to the rest of the entertainment world that boxing marches to its own drum.
Instead, we turn to Fox Sports and ESPN2 Friday Night Fights to satisfy our itch while our sport’s biggest players pick the absolute worst to time to back down.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
