Pacquiao vs. Mosley might be headed to Showtime (PPV)???

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HBO dropped the best Heavyweights in the world.

HBO forced a Martinez-Dzinzuruk fight, Dzin isn't known by any one out side of hardcore boxing fans. And Martinez is not some big star.

They are airing Alexander-Bradley who are slow on tickets and are not big stars either.

They rejected Berto-Gomez.

HBO doesn't care about Pacquiao vs Mosley for good reasons. They are going by what the real boxing fans want.
They are changing the way they do things and which fights they support.

Just set aside your hate for Pacquiao(?) or Bob Arum(?) for a second, Bob Arum is the one threatening to bolt out of their camp. HBO does NOT want to lose Pacquiao to their rival, you could put that to the bank. You could throw a stiff there against Pacquiao and HBO will still embrace it with open arms. It's not about the fight nowadays, it's about the product (Pacquiao) that Bob Arum patiently built, and it's now paying off. Look at Bradley vs. Alexander, a match made in heaven, a hardcore boxing fan's dream fight, how many tickets have they sold so far?

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Just so you guys know, and I see so many misguided posts on this: HBO and Showtime don't pay hardly anything to broadcast a PPV. It's not like a Berto fight on HBO or Showtime paying Bute 7 figures to fight some random guy. They do pay some but it's much less than the cost of a standard card.

I doubt there is some bidding war for this fight. Arum likely wants HBO to devote a 24/7 to the fight and they probably aren't interested. Arum is also pissed off at HBO about the April 12th date.

Who you kidding? Bob Arum wouldn't even need to open his piehole for this Pacquiao-Mosley 24/7 to happen. Please stop spewing speculations here unless you can back it up, some hater might take it as the truth and run with it like it was the ****...

[gopi11]

I knew it, it will have a huge effect for boxing in general, I just don't know if it's for the positive, or the other way around. It's unfortunate that the first 2 responses from this thread don't have a clue on what would the implications be, all they thought of was that the Pacquiao/Mosley fight is a stinker.

Here's a follow-up:


Quick Jabs

Dan Rafael and others have been reporting this week that Showtime might carry the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley pay-per-view in May, which at first appeared to me like more saber-rattling by promoter Bob Arum, who has been extremely critical of Showtime's much larger rival, HBO. Rick Reeno has put more flesh on it -- as well as getting some on-the-record remarks from Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz, who it must be said has been known to speak out of school at times -- that makes the likelihood of the shift significantly more seismic and realistic. Under the deal, Showtime's parent CBS would air a 24/7 or Fight Camp 360-style documentary series in advance of the fight, which would return boxing (if not actual fights) to network television in a way it hasn't been in a long, long time. I'm not kidding. This could be huge. There's more for us to learn here before getting a sense of how huge -- In what time slot would the series air? Is Koncz jumping the gun? How would the public feel about Mosley's recent poor showings and past steroid use? And would the broad disinterest-to-hostility toward this fight for many hardcore boxing fans bleed over to the general public? -- but the potential here is astounding, given CBS' audience (115 million) and HBO's (28 million)...

[UPDATE: After I posted this blog entry, Dan Rafael's take on the CBS situation came up in my Google Reader feed (and used the word seismic -- I swear I didn't rip it off). It adds yet more confirmation -- for instance, HBO has been told they're not a part of the picture, and it's hard to imagine Arum spiting 24/7 unless he had a better or equivalent cash-generator in line; for another instance, Rafael reports it would air in prime time, which is doubly massive. it would be hard to understate, at this point, what a pivotal moment this could be for the sport of boxing if it all comes to fruition.]

[gopi11]

Sources: CBS/Showtime secures fight


By Dan Rafael

E S P N. com


In a seismic shift in the boxing business landscape, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum closed a deal with Showtime and sister network CBS to handle the pay-per-view fight between pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley -- instead of HBO -- multiple sources told ESPN.com on Friday.

Pacquiao, boxing's biggest star, defends his welterweight title against former champ Mosley on May 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KOs) and Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs) have never fought with Showtime's involvement and both have fought all of their numerous significant fights on HBO or HBO PPV.

While HBO spokesman Ray Stallone said he was unaware who was doing Pacquiao-Mosley, he acknowledged that Arum had informed the network that it would not be involved.

"It's a business decision. We move on," Stallone said.

Arum would not confirm that Showtime and CBS were handling the fight.

"Top Rank has no comment at this time," Arum told ESPN.com through spokesman Lee Samuels.

Showtime spokesman Chris DeBlasio also said the network also had no comment.

Arum, however, has been enamored with the possibility of CBS' involvement in the bout because of its massive reach.

According to sources, part of the deal will include CBS promoting the fight by running commercial spots advertising the pay-per-view during prime time programming. Also in the works is a series of preview shows that would run on CBS, or possibly Showtime, which would be similar to HBO's hit reality series "24/7," which it uses to stoke interest with weekly episodes during the month leading up to major pay-per-view fights. Pacquiao and Mosley have both had fights featured on "24/7."

Perhaps it's only a coincidence, but Arum recently struck a deal with Showtime to handle the production and distribution of the March 12 pay-per-view fight he is promoting between junior middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto and former titleholder Ricardo Mayorga.

Arum turned to Showtime to get involved with Cotto-Mayorga because he is angry at HBO for turning down a live network fight between Cotto, long a network staple, and 2004 U.S. Olympian Vanes Martirosyan, especially because Cotto's fight against Yuri Foreman last summer generated the network's highest boxing rating of the year.

Arum met with HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg for dinner earlier this week to discuss HBO's possible involvement in Pacquiao-Mosley while he was in New York for Wednesday's kickoff news conference to announce Cotto-Mayorga. Within the next couple of days, he closed the deal with Showtime/CBS.

At one time, Showtime was a major player in the pay-per-view boxing business. It produced and distributed several cards headlined by Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez. For many years, it held the record for the best-selling pay-per-view, nearly 2 million for the Evander Holyfield-Tyson ear bite rematch in 1997. However, Showtime has drastically cut back in recent years, doing only the occasional pay-per-view.

Despite Arum going to Showtime/CBS with Pacquiao-Mosley, he and HBO are still doing business together.

Top Rank has two "Boxing After Dark" cards booked on HBO so far this year -- the Feb. 19 show headlined by bantamweight titlist Fernando Montiel against Nonito Donaire and a March 26 show headlined by featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa against Jorge Solis.