HBO has officially canceled boxing for April 14th

Lol. All this hopelessly sycophantic twaddle from you two and come to find out HBO is televising the rios card on PPV! Sell the fans down the river much? I aint buying it no way. Like i said they lessening the freebies. Pretty soon hbo will only do ppv's.

Alright look, Budget? How would you know, they haven't spent hardly anything this year! The PPV stuff they do with MW and Pac gets them profit, its not like they are digging deep into their pockets.. They make a killing off of those ppv's. But they have chosen to lessen the freebies for the fans. And you say they won't make quite as much money as usual if they don't freeze us out? Who gives a hot damn what HBO makes? They should throw a bone to the loyal fans that buy their expensive ass ppv's. Unless you an HBO rep, this is ridiculous and doesn't make any sense whatsoever to defend. The show must go on, ever heard of that? Listen. Every year for the past 5 or so years there were stories about HBO running out of money and struggling with the second part of the year. This is common knowledge and it's one of the reasons why Showtime got to cheery pick good fights because HBO could not afford it. HBO has a boxing budget of around $25 million (without looking it up but it's in that zone). All this stuff was discussed in those yearly Hauser articles about HBO. HBO doesn't make all that much from PPV compared to the fighter and promoter. I agree, I want to see Rios fight. But only if it's another elite fighter. Top Rank couldn't be convinced to put in someone better then Abril then it's on them. HBO and Showtime NEED to enforce quality control or else we the fans get **** fights. No mismatches, period. If anything this gives me some faith that Hershman is determined to give out a good product (while im losing faith in the new Showtime prez).

They have a budget. HBO during the Greenburg era was notorious for blowing their budget by the summer time-frame. Rios will still fight on a Top Rank card, if they really wanted HBO then they should have found someone better then Abril. Simple as that. Alright look, Budget? How would you know, they haven't spent hardly anything this year! The PPV stuff they do with MW and Pac gets them profit, its not like they are digging deep into their pockets.. They make a killing off of those ppv's. But they have chosen to lessen the freebies for the fans. And you say they won't make quite as much money as usual if they don't freeze us out? Who gives a hot damn what HBO makes? They should throw a bone to the loyal fans that buy their expensive ass ppv's. Unless you an HBO rep, this is ridiculous and doesn't make any sense whatsoever to defend. The show must go on, ever heard of that?

Must be a bunch of HBO reps on this site or something. SMH. I'm done They have a budget. HBO during the Greenburg era was notorious for blowing their budget by the summer time-frame. Rios will still fight on a Top Rank card, if they really wanted HBO then they should have found someone better then Abril. Simple as that.

What a weak argument. How is it that Showtime puts on more fights with less budget, most of which are underrated quality? SMH. I'm done.. If anything HBO has lessened its boxing budget and y'all too blind to see. Must be a bunch of HBO reps on this site or something.

What a weak argument. How is it that Showtime puts on more fights with less budget, most of which are underrated quality? SMH. I'm done.. If anything HBO has lessened its boxing budget and y'all too blind to see. Must be a bunch of HBO reps on this site or something.

HBO need to enforce quality control and work within their budget.

Like the old saying "if you give them an inch they will take a mile". Good for HBO. Sucks that there is no fight but time for the new regime to bring HBO back to the top of boxing world and get the masses excited. Not where every week i come on BS to hear guys scream about crap fights and when are these guys going to step up. Whats wrong with a stay busy fight every once in a while? Not every fight can be a superfight, or an entertaining war. All the greats of boxing have done stay busy fights. SRR, Ali, Louis. Not every one of their fights was a megafight. I guess you prefer a world where there are only megafights, but thats way too seldom for me. I want to eat and breathe boxing. Basically, aside from Broner, HBO has been completely silent this year concerning boxing. And u defend that... Im on the verge of throwing up my hands in disgust.

So instead we get Rios vs..... Nobody. And an HBO void. This is funny. Its like turning down water in a desert because you "prefer" root beer.Like the old saying "if you give them an inch they will take a mile". Good for HBO. Sucks that there is no fight but time for the new regime to bring HBO back to the top of boxing world and get the masses excited. Not where every week i come on BS to hear guys scream about crap fights and when are these guys going to step up.

So we don't get Rios vs some bum. Like what Berto was able to get away with for years. So instead we get Rios vs..... Nobody. And an HBO void. This is funny. Its like turning down water in a desert because you "prefer" root beer.

Unbelievable... Why are you so worried about how much money HBO saves or makes? What, are you getting a piece of it or something? So we don't get Rios vs some bum. Like what Berto was able to get away with for years.

Damn that sucks. I rather have HBO save their money then to have Rios fight someone not worth watching on that day. It does suck that they couldn't put Alvarado vs Rios on that date. would have been cool at 140 Rios didn't do anything wrong but it is what it is. Unbelievable... Why are you so worried about how much money HBO saves or makes? What, are you getting a piece of it or something?

There's something messed up going on here. The UFC event that got cancelled was scheduled for around the same date ... now this boxing event gets cancelled too?

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Dear HBO, Go on with the show. Fill in with the undercard, fill in with replacements, we will still watch, we want to watch boxing! Amen Brother AMEN!!

I wonder if HBO passed on the opportunity to screen Ortiz-Berto II for the sake of Gamboa-Rios?? They'll be kicking themselves now if that is the case.

Damn that sucks. I rather have HBO save their money then to have Rios fight someone not worth watching on that day. It does suck that they couldn't put Alvarado vs Rios on that date. would have been cool at 140 Rios didn't do anything wrong but it is what it is.

Yes please, keep Top Rank away from my TV. Gamboa good luck on working your way out of this corruption.

If they allow crap fights then we are back to years past when crap fights were on every weekend. The new HBO regime hopefully will fix that, so yes i would love to watch boxing everyday if they show it but i also want HBO to fix the problem of crap fights and showcases every weekend. I prefer enduring the occasional crap fight to watching boxing three times a year... Hate on stuff like Shobox all you want, but I enjoy watching the prospects and up and comers too. Like i said Hbo is becoming a two trick poney and right now, until the MW and Pac fights, I prefer Showtime. At least they giving me something.

F'ing Gamboa :nonono: HBO should ban him for at least a year. Let him go fight on independent PPV's. ESPN, none TV fights. Good job on HBO props to them for not accepting just anything. Ken Hershman, is going to be great for HBO. Stephen Espinoza and Showtime should take notes. Top Rank should have offered a better opponent *cough* Alvarado *cough* The question now is, is Mandalay Bay still the site to host Rios fight? The only guy I really feel bad for is Rios. Showtime is the only network that has had a good fight this year and it would have been two good fights but Berto was injured. But I agree Alvarado would have been a much better fight and could have been easily made. The only reason bob probably didn't make that fight is because he would want more time to promote that fight. Because no matter who replaces Gamboa its still a last minute replacement and the sales of the fight will suffer.

I understand that Gamboa feels he needs to stand-up for himself. But there are some questions Gamboa needs to answer; 1. Why not have the dispute with the promoter after the match? 2. If there was never a serious intention to fight Rios, why call him out? 3. Why pull out in the manner that you did? (No shows are gutless. Especially in the adopted hometown, in front of his fans, and with the mayor present) This whole situation disappointing due to the high expectations for an all-action, quality fight that fans didn't have to shell out 50 plus for. At the same time, there is definitely a lot more going on than the fans are aware of. The whole truth will come out in time. I hope that more fans can try to defer judgement until then. Agreed...a lot of questions. But I especially agree to the bold. I get the sense that Yuri and his advisors (if they can be called such) dropped the ball long before the promotion for this fight got rolling. Then Gamboa mishandled the ensuing situation. "The cure was worse than the disease."