HBO getting out of boxing really hurt the sport.

[QballLobo]

It’s almost impossible to build a big PPV level star right now. Back in the day a young exciting fighter like a Tank Davis or Ryen Garcia would get built up fighting on HBO cards before moving up to have their own PPV’s. People that weren’t hardcore fight fans would come across those fights flipping channels looking for something to watch on a random Saturday night.

Now unless your looking for fights on a DAZN or PBC card these guys just don’t have a viable platform to establish themselves early as fighters people may want to pay to see. Top Rank and ESPN haven’t been able to fill that void mostly because of a lack of exciting fights they can make.

Now fights that would have been undercards on Boxing After Dark shows are getting passed off as $60-70 PPV’s and doing low numbers. Why would casual fans pay for a fight when they have no way of seeing most of these guys beforehand?

Miss the days on the west coast in college and after where we could watch some good boxing on HBO or a properly built up PPV card and still have time to go out after.

[CasperUK]

They blew their budget on Game of Thrones only for it to have the ****test ending ever.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

The sport still hasn’t recovered. Boxing is f***ed.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

They blew their budget on Game of Thrones only for it to have the ****test ending ever.

Season 8 was rushed and the ending didn’t deliver but Season’s 1-7 were excellent. I’m not usually a fan of the fantasy stuff but I really got into GOT.

[PRchamp]

I loved HBO Boxing but towards the end of their reign they were playing the same silly games as now. The broadcast team would suck up to whoever the house fighter was.

[paulf]

You just now realized this?

HBO was the major league, Showtime the minor league, and all the others were just double A ball.

Now you just have a bunch of separate leagues that don't play against each other unless it suits them. It's a disaster and is worse every day.

[Lomadeaux]

HBO would call it like it was. They'd call fighters out for acting certain ways. Now we have fake fighters on PPV. It's embarassing.

[Sheikh]

Yep and it's not looking good either. It is becoming a more Niche Sport and all the promoters are losing money. People will not discover these guys on an app. You need to be able to watch them on free tv. But the problem is free TV is going away. Nowadays everything is going to streaming and apps. But it's not easy to discover boxers that way

[Sctrojan]

Definitely miss HBO boxing, especially Liev Schreiber narrating 24/7,**** was epic now looking back. Our beloved sport is now fractured beyond repair it seems, sad......

[BKM-]

Boxing will never have something classy like HBO Boxing again. It just had a certain class and dignity to it. Everything from the fights, the build up shows, the narration, the documentaries oof. Just goes to show you, this sport will always self-destruct, it's its own worst enemy.