Awesome Piece on HBO losing Pacquiao to Showtime by Hauser

[The Gambler1981]

Please list the top 3 main causes. (I'm just curious what your thoughts are)

Lack of a sound base is the main problem, there is no base to the structure of boxing anymore, it used to be the amateurs and the Olympics, but that really doesn't apply anymore and even then that was not really a great method. That is kind of a vague answer, but almost all kids used to want to be heavyweight champ now if you asked kids that question how many would say heavyweight champ out of 100.

To me you don't look at the top of a failing structure (HBO resides at the top though they can do better they can never fix the base) you look at the base.

[Kagami Taiga]

Does anybody believe that just because boxing will be on network television that the sport will thrive in our eyes, the people that visit these websites, do ESPN Friday chats, read obscure articles by Steve Kim and Co.

I have no doubt that everybody will know who Pacquiao, Cotto, Juanma Lopez are...but the average viewer who watches CBS or any other network channel isn't gonna know whether there watching a good match. For God's sake, Pacquiao can draw in millions and millions of ratings on Showtime PPV, but it means absolute **** if it's a f-cking Pacquiao-Margarito rematch or Mosley vs Chavez Jr. Two top 3 JWW's are fighting this Saturday, both undefeated, both in their prime and yet virtually no one outside the aficionado will know about it. The only hope is that the casual fan finds out who Pacquiao is and then becomes a full fleged boxing fan who can make up his own fcking mind on what's a good match and not what Greenburg, Schaefer or Arum feed us.

that my point. if the stuff we wind up seeing on netowrk television is junk, are we gonna say to ourselves, "this is junk, but hey, its boxing."??? i have a hard time with this idea. it may be impossible for boxing to become big again. there are too many things that work against it.

so id rather it be smaller but refined than bigger but fragmented and ignored. thats why the networks are not the problem. the networks can only work with what they are given, sometimes the work it thru good and sometimes they come up with garbage. but to think that hbo is somehow responsible for the mess that we see today is just foolhardy.

[Kevin Malone]

25% is a big chunk of their budget.

It's exactly true what he said. And HBO will judge how well boxing is doing on their network by their ratings and subscribers. If their ratings are low and they are losing subscribers (like they have been) it's bad for their business.

[The Gambler1981]

Lol, they have all the money.

They ARE the game. Hbo is the cancer.

They are not the game, HBO is merely in the business of showing fights.

They have no real control over the fate of the sport, they could never stop it from failing.

[RSBonos]

he's not bashing the alexander-bradley for not being competitive but he's bashing them for spending 25% of their budget on two guys who couldnt do any good ratings or draw flies

I know, but he manages to **** on even positive things. Three years ago he bashed Calzaghe-Kessler for having a poor rating (a true fight fans fight) and suggested that the network invest in his boyfreind Malanaggi. His articles are always interesting but they are full of his personal vendetta against HBO.

It's not like I feel sorry for HBO...the funniest part of this article was Greenburg calling up and crying to Golden Boy & Haymon after the Pac deal fell through...and this dude controls the majority of big money fights in the sport lol.

[Kevin Malone]

Lack of a sound base is the main problem, there is no base to the structure of boxing anymore, it used to be the amateurs and the Olympics, but that really doesn't apply anymore and even then that was not really a great method. That is kind of a vague answer, but almost all kids used to want to be heavyweight champ now if you asked kids that question how many would say heavyweight champ out of 100.

To me you don't look at the top of a failing structure (HBO resides at the top though they can do better they can never fix the base) you look at the base.

Wasn't that base the strongest when boxing was on network television?

It's not like somebody just decided "I'm going to destroy amateur and olympic boxing", that happens organically. When boxing went from free to premium is when the downward spiral really began. Many things are intertwined, I understand that...

[flipbjefrox]

I know, but he manages to **** on even positive things. Three years ago he bashed Calzaghe-Kessler for having a poor rating (a true fight fans fight) and suggested that the network invest in his boyfreind Malanaggi. His articles are always interesting but they are full of his personal vendetta against HBO.

It's not like I feel sorry for HBO...the funniest part of this article was Greenburg calling up and crying to Golden Boy & Haymon after the Pac deal fell through...and this dude controls the majority of big money fights in the sport lol.

True that malinaggi quote came out of nowhere LOL. Malinaggi is a person who was financially compensated very well by hbo with his fights with cherry ndou and hatton.

[ИATAS]

It's exactly true what he said. And HBO will judge how well boxing is doing on their network by their ratings and subscribers. If their ratings are low and they are losing subscribers (like they have been) it's bad for their business.

Yep.

This gave me a strange feeling in my pants:

If Miguel Cotto beats Ricardo Mayorga on March 12th, Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito on Showtime-PPV is likely to follow. Strong numbers for Pacquiao-Mosley could lead to ABC-ESPN, NBC-Versus, and Fox-FX pairings for similar ventures. That would break HBO’s control over major pay-per-view shows.

In other words, if the Top Rank-Showtime-CBS alliance is successful, it will mark a seismic shift in the boxing landscape. The be-all-and-end-all for fighters will no longer be a fight on HBO-PPV.

[The Gambler1981]

he does make a good point about bradley-alexander though, if it turns out to be a boring matchup based on styles, which it could.

2011 looks to be a repeat of the erratic programming that has typified HBO boxing in recent years. A lot has been made of the upcoming bout between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander. In a vacuum, it’s an intriguing fight. Bradley and Alexander are good young fighters but HBO is spending close to $4,000,000 on the license fee, marketing, and production costs for a fight that most likely will draw a poor rating because only hardcore boxing fans are interested in it. Also, styles make fights and this could turn out to be a boring styles match-up.

Worse, HBO has mortgaged its future to make Bradley-Alexander. Each fighter (in tandem with his respective promoter) has been guaranteed a second fight for a license fee of at least $3,000,000. This means that, unless their first encounter warrants a rematch, three fights involving these two boxers will command almost 25% of HBO’s license fees in 2011.

25% is a big chunk of their budget.

25% is a bit high but HBO normally does what like 16-20 fights, cut up evenly 3 fights would be 15-18% so while there is a premium, but if the first fight ends up worthy of a rematch (leaving them with only 2 fights with less spent) is that not worth it.

[The Gambler1981]

Wasn't that base the strongest when boxing was on network television?

It's not like somebody just decided "I'm going to destroy amateur and olympic boxing", that happens organically. When boxing went from free to premium is when the downward spiral really began. Many things are intertwined, I understand that...

No the base was crumbling even at that point, which was why it went to premium TV.

The base has always been the problem for boxing not the high end.