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by Cliff Rold - A record 2.1 million pay-per-view buyers to see the bout doesn’t change what happened during Floyd Mayweather-Oscar De la Hoya. If you loved boxing before last Saturday night, you still love it. If you were a casual fan, you didn’t see anything that would stop you from watching again but also didn’t see anything that demanded an immediate return of your attentions. That’s too bad because there are some imminent excellent fights that some may not see on the horizon. In that sense, regardless of a single night box office success, the brain trust at HBO dropped the ball.
Big time.
After sitting through a four-hour plus broadcast with only three fights, I decided to go back and see how much down time there was between bouts. Excluding walk-ins, decisions, and national anthems there was approximately 30 minutes of ‘down time’ in the broadcast Saturday night. Used wisely, they could have been as great a benefit to the sport. Unfortunately, only about three of them were.
Those were the three minutes spent directing fan attention to boxing beyond the ‘superfight.’ They included two commercials for the Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah pay-per-view show next month; brief highlights of the press conference for Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright in July; and some still shots of the upcoming boxing calendar. On a night, and during a week, when the world was watching, that was all that was seen of the world beyond Oscar and Floyd. [details]
Big time.
After sitting through a four-hour plus broadcast with only three fights, I decided to go back and see how much down time there was between bouts. Excluding walk-ins, decisions, and national anthems there was approximately 30 minutes of ‘down time’ in the broadcast Saturday night. Used wisely, they could have been as great a benefit to the sport. Unfortunately, only about three of them were.
Those were the three minutes spent directing fan attention to boxing beyond the ‘superfight.’ They included two commercials for the Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah pay-per-view show next month; brief highlights of the press conference for Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright in July; and some still shots of the upcoming boxing calendar. On a night, and during a week, when the world was watching, that was all that was seen of the world beyond Oscar and Floyd. [details]
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