Comments Thread For: HBO Picks The Wrong Fighter To Take The Right Stance

[lutenco]

MOSLEY-MORA was a PPV damn;what HBO has to say about it?

Team of MARAVILLA offered a lot of money to ANGULO but the mexican turn down the offer cowardly;what MARTINEZ has to do to get a good pay day?
He is ready to fight everybody but everybody aren't ready to fight him,what a shame!!!
Looks like the only one is PW but damn SERGIO beat him twice!!!
Is COTTO-MAYORGA or MARTINEZ-ZBIK better?
PLEASE...put MAYORGA in the ring with MARAVILLA and you'll see EL MATADOR bleeding from all the face in less than a round;anyway COTTO will put KO MAYORGA,no matter MIGUEL is a shot fighter!

[lone runner]

why is hbo giving saul alvarez a showcase fight in march? how about they just make good fights instead of trying to manufacture stars. either fight a top fighter or you don't get on the air.

donaire-montiel=good
bradley-alexander=good
alvarez-bum=bad
every berto fight=bad

I couldnt agree more vato.

[Left Hook Tua]

He's already gotten his ultimatum.....the problem is that there is no one around to fight.

Clottey vs Berto anyone???????????

clottey would work.

still a top 5 guy.

i don't mind if berto fights clottey.

clottey would be a huge step up compared to his previous opponents.

[Left Hook Tua]

Effin HBO - For years they let guys like Mayweather make "business/event" type fights, never once forcing his hand and not even doing it to make Mayweather/Pac happen, but a guy who has come up the hard way and takes on tough fights can't catch a break. Stuff like this is what is hurting the sport of boxing.

hbo can't force pac/pbf.

they have influence on them but at the end of the day have very little power over them.

pac and pbf are ppv fighters now not really hbo fighters.

[DoktorSleepless]

I don't get why they're forcing Dzinziruk over Winky Wright.

[Sweet Jesus]

I don't get why they're forcing Dzinziruk over Winky Wright.

Probably because Winky Wright hasn't won a fight since 2006.

[mathed]

why is hbo giving saul alvarez a showcase fight in march? how about they just make good fights instead of trying to manufacture stars. either fight a top fighter or you don't get on the air.

donaire-montiel=good
bradley-alexander=good
alvarez-bum=bad
every berto fight=bad

This is the whole thing in a nutshell. HBO likes to "build" these young guys up to be the elite boxers in the world using weak opposition to get them there. They are punishing Martinez because he made Cintron, Williams, and Pavlik look so bad, HBO will likely not show them for a while if ever.

By losing their "stars", they are losing revenue as well. Martinez was only brought on HBO because of his record, they assumed he would lose to Cintron after Bunema. They now have to pay Martinez good money to fight because of his growing popularity but they are going to make him earn it.

The same thing with Pirog, he beat another one of their "stars" in Jacobs and cost HBO bigtime.....he will be lucky to ever fight on HBO again.

They have guys like Berto that they try to portray as unbeatable but they pit him against older fighters and guys with good records that have never fought out of their hometown. This way, they can pay Berto big money and pay the scrub pennies in comparison.

If it weren't for public opinion, HBO would do away with Martinez too. They know he will beat anyone that they have been pushing along so they pit him against a tough European that no one really knows.

Keep screwing him over HBO, Showtime will scoop him up and pay him top dollar to be their number one star.

[Njord777]

"Wrong Fighter, Right Stance" sums it up perfectly. I think HBO, as a network that has prominently featured boxing for years, has always represented themselves as an objective bystander trying to show the public the best fights available.

How much of what fights get made depend on the network's approval is one of the mysteries of boxing politics the general public isn't aware of. The fact that HBO has enough pull - in the revenues the fighters see if their fight is shown on the network- should leave them with a responsibility to the sport to help the best fights get made. This hasn't always been the case and, to start with Sergio Martinez- a man who is going to fight the best opponent he can regardless of HBO's push- is laughable.

To me, I think it shows that HBO realizes the boxing megastars like Pacquiao and Mayweather have transcended the need for their network to back their fights. Without HBO on board Pac or Floyd could easily have Showtime throw them money or, at worst, have Golden Boy or Top Rank - respectively- throw a PPV together for them. The big stars don't really need HBO anymore and- the two fighters we most want to be strongly urged to fight each other, as mentioned, are immune to HBO's weapons.

Sergio Martinez, on the other hand, still needs the exposure of HBO. He's fought hard, become a champion, and is coming off an enormous KO win that has his career full of momentum- but he hasn't transcended the sport. He isn't known to the general sports fan. So, despite is championship status, HBO can take a hard line with him- demand a man who would have fought a worthy opponent anyway- fight a specific guy. It shows that HBO wants to check the big boys into fighting, can't, and the best they can do is prod around the middleweight champion to march to their drum. Unnecessary.

[switchsouthpaw]

hbo can't force pac/pbf.

they have influence on them but at the end of the day have very little power over them.

pac and pbf are ppv fighters now not really hbo fighters.

Mayweather and Pac both fight on "HBO Pay Per View" (not independent PPV's like Arum sometimes puts on), so that statement is incorrect. HBO has direct influence over fighters period. It's called TV dates and an appearance on HBO PPV means more money in their pockets, substantially more money than any other network could pay including Showtime.

[Left Hook Tua]

Mayweather and Pac both fight on "HBO Pay Per View" (not independent PPV's like Arum sometimes puts on), so that statement is incorrect. HBO has direct influence over fighters period. It's called TV dates and an appearance on HBO PPV means more money in their pockets, substantially more money than any other network could pay including Showtime.

didn't i say they have influence over them?

if HBO had power to force the fight , it would have happened already.


an hbo ppv fight is not the same as a hbo fight.