Awesome Piece on HBO losing Pacquiao to Showtime by Hauser

[RSBonos]

They really aren't ridiculous though excluding the big fights. I wish Top Rank could put together a few $200-300k cards (basically like the Top Rank PPVs) that CBS would buy...

It would be hard to get any name fighters for that price. Maybe with the right promotion it could be done. I'd rather them do it on saturday/sunday afternoon at first so that expectations wouldn't be that high. Even MMA struggled without the Kimbo cards and premier fighters like Fedor and Henderson drew ok ratings.

But we are thinking way ahead of ourselves, i'm just glad that boxing is actually going to promote itself outside of its niche audience. You look at the UFC (or MMA as a whole), if you are a real fan, you can identify many of same problems that boxing has but all of that is out weighed by aggressive marketing. Things have been stale in boxing ever since I have been a fan, with only the first 24/7 series making any headway in North America and since then HBO has done nothing to improve on it. Every 24/7 is exactly the same.

Edit: Just to add...

I remember Ross Greenburg telling the media that they would put forth all their marketing muscle to promote Mayweather-Pac (this was when the fight was almost agreed upon) by having an EXTRA 24/7 episode...INCREDIBLE. What a revolutionary concept for the biggest fight of our generation.

[RSBonos]

Hosting the CBS Morning Show in Las Vegas on Monday through Friday is pretty crazy. Ino it's not like they will focus on the fight all the time but i'm sure that they will mention it a bunch of times.

[flipbjefrox]

Yes, 100%. But his articles are always full of interesting insight.

Hauser is a huge hypocrite. He bashes HBO for non-competitive match-ups but then goes on to bash Alexander-Bradley. It's also full of the usual whining from boxing promoters who have conveniently forgotten that HBO has subsidized their business. They manage to somehow get a few quotes from that woman Malinaggi lol.

But it's worth reading. Here is hoping that this deal will help push promoters to actually promote the sport again and for all the hate that Arum gets he is one of the very few who can do this.

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

[Kevin Malone]

It would be hard to get any name fighters for that price. Maybe with the right promotion it could be done. I'd rather them do it on saturday/sunday afternoon at first so that expectations wouldn't be that high. Even MMA struggled without the Kimbo cards and premier fighters like Fedor and Henderson drew ok ratings.

Yeah, I agree with you as far as big names. But you could get names like Soto, John, Bantamweights like in the Showtime Tournament, and others they just wouldn't be against big name opponents. I'm just throwing a number out there and making the assumption CBS would buy it...

But we are thinking way ahead of ourselves, i'm just glad that boxing is actually going to promote itself outside of its niche audience.

Agreed.

[Kagami Taiga]

Just ignore that dude (DempseyRollin), it goes against his 'boxing ez dying' mantra. We can't possibly have any positive news in boxing.

CBS also seemed to have dropped MMA, maybe Top Rank can convince them to do a few cards a year, though it will be a lot more difficult with the ridiculous boxing purses.

i dont think boxing is dying, thats not my point. my point is the networks are not the cause for it. and that this shift im power, while big, will not fix the major ills of the sport. to me, boxing is better off on hbo and showtime if its not gonna be done rite on any other networks. and from what i kno, it wont.

[el rey]

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.

[Bastian Loc]

Don't hate the player hate the game~ HBO plays the game.

HBO is certainly not a main cause of boxing's demise.

Lol, they have all the money.

They ARE the game. Hbo is the cancer.

[Kevin Malone]

to me, boxing is better off on hbo and showtime if its not gonna be done rite on any other networks. and from what i kno, it wont.

According to the article discussions are going on between 2 other premium networks (Starz and Cinemax I'd assume, what other premium networks are there?) and promoters to add boxing to their programming. I think those networks could do boxing correctly.

Boxing is currently on a bunch of networks right now (HBO, Showtime, ESPN2, Versus, Fox Sports, Telefutura, and Telemundo not counting the regional shows on RSNs) and I don't think it's horrible on any of them. The big money fights are going to have higher production values and be on the bigger networks. That's just the nature of boxing and sports in general.

[ИATAS]

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.

[boxing2106]

i think this will be a help but not to much avail as pacquiao is already the biggest draw in the sport.