Network Loyalties

what u talkin bout??? his contract hasn't xpired, Tszyu still has 5 fights left on his contract with showtime, so unfortunately we will prob never see him fight either Gatti or Mayweather. Nick54 hit the nail on the head. Networks are just as bad as bs alphabet organisations.

It wouldn't help anyone connected with Gatti to allow their exciting, marketable fighter, to get beaten up and knocked out by the lesser known technically superior Tszyu. This is so true. Seeing Gatti get toyed with and brutally beaten by De La Hoya was a sad sight. The same would happen against Tszyu but it would be worse for Gatti because Tszyu is not the name amongst the casual boxing fan that De La Hoya is. Imagine Joe Six-pack sitting down to watch his favorite fighter Gatti fight against some guy whose name looks like a Scrabble rack and seeing that no-name destroy Thunder Gatti. Not good for HBO to allow that to happen.

I was just thinking the same thing, the thread-starter beat me to it hehe. I didnt even realise that fighters 'signed' up with networks, and that if two fighters from different networks wanted to fight it probably wouldn't happen. WTF? And here I was thinking that only the promoters were dodgy. Sometimes I wish that boxing was a more regulated world-sport, with an independent body giving the best challenger shots at titles at fair intervals. But hey money makes the world go round, so that will never happen.

HBO and Showtime are just as bad as all those corrupt promoters and ABC title organizations.

It wouldn't help anyone connected with Gatti to allow their exciting, marketable fighter, to get beaten up and knocked out by the lesser known technically superior Tszyu. Of course that's unfortunate for us...

I would like to see Tszyu vs both of those guys. If its true that the Showtime contract is expired, I dont see why this fight cant happen on HBO. Come to think of it, why doesnt HBO sign Tszyu? He would be a good addition to the network IMO. We all know the answer to the question "Do networks prevent fights?" Of course they do!! Thats why networks sign fighters, to exclusively fight on their channel!! The only exception i can think of is Tyson vs Lewis but that took forever to put together. We all know those two should have fought a lot earlier.

I think it would be up to Tszyu to make the fight happen. If he wants these fights I pretty sure he can because he is no longer on contract to Showtime. All of Showtime's contracts are expired with the exception of Tyson's I think.

Looks like the fighters will have to quit signing with the networks so they can fight who they want.