Why does Hbo always overrate and force fighters like Russel and Berto on us?

[uoykcuf]

Russell is a good fighter, I didn't see him using his head as a weapon or excessively clinching. We can't put Russell in the Berto category. Now I hope in a year or two he steps up since I think I've heard he has a great amateur background. He's moving along good and he fights cleanly.

[LupinIII]

Gary Russell looked pretty good, that was'nt his best performance hes had some some good ones though. Very fast hands but no power, it seems hes not fully commiting on his punches. Maybe its the hand issues but he seemed to lack power. Berto looked alot focused last night. He looked a little stronger in this fight. I would like to see Berto vs Ortiz rematch, he had ortiz hurt he just got excited and got caught. But its good to see him win another title.

a vast majority of this forum hates "slick african fighters" and Haymon

im sure you see what the problem really is

[Deeznuts]

Simple:
HBO has a boxing store: BAD
The store has products: Fighters and fights
The store needs to advertise their product to make money: Max, Roy, and the other bunch
Any questions...

[Light_Speed]

At the beginning of the year promoters bid for dates.

It's Pirog and Ishida's promoters fault they can't or refuse bid for an HBO date.

Wrong, Ishida-Williams was being discussed by Williams' team but HBO rejected that matchup and a lot of people said it wasn't worthy of a BAD main event but of course had that been Kirkland-Williams HBO would have bought that fight...

Simple:
HBO has a boxing store: BAD
The store has products: Fighters and fights
The store needs to advertise their product to make money: Max, Roy, and the other bunch
Any questions...

Why not sign deals with fighters who destroy their "products"? I mean spectacular KOs are the best way to advertise fighters and make money.

[LA_2_Vegas]

a vast majority of this forum hates "slick african fighters" and Haymon

im sure you see what the problem really is

pretty much this. the two are not even the same type of fighter style wise other than the fact they're both.....

[HOOGSTRATEN]

Berto is a bloody joke.


On the other hand, Chavez Jr. is also a bloody farce. I don't care how many vulgar bean-bandits he attracts.

[Caxcan]

An excerpt from an article discussing Greenburg's tenure at HBO:

"Too often, HBO bid against itself for reasons that remain totally inexplicable. You can cite favoritism toward the fighters of Al Haymon if you want -- we've discussed that a lot lately here, so we'll skip over it for the time being -- but that doesn't fully explain things like the crazy fee HBO paid for Chad Dawson-Antonio Tarver II, a fight nobody wanted and which HBO could have passed on and still stolen Dawson away from Showtime whenever it wanted. (Many of the fighters HBO overpaid were black fighters. The reporting by Thomas Hauser said that HBO brass was pretty worried about declining viewership among black fans. In that context, going after black fighters like Dawson [who wasn't managed by Haymon] made some measure of sense, since boxing fans definitely like rooting for their own ethnic and/or regional alliances.But overpaying for Dawson-Tarver II -- let alone paying for it at all -- was, to me, the strangest example of HBO's misspending.)"

http://queensberry-rules.com/2011-articles/july/ross-greenburg-finally-gone-from-hbo-after-years-of-being-rumored-to-be-out.html

[01samuelc]

btw i've always wondered how hbo justify over paying prospects. do they calculate the expected returns should the person become a star and hence view it as an investment? realistically don't see berto or russel jnr becoming a major attraction.