HBO rejects Ward/Oosthuizen

[Scipio2009]

As some other posters have suggested, it must be about the money. Looking at Ward's past issues, it's easy to see that he has an inflated ego, and bad judgement. The man sidelined his career to sue his former promoter, while still asking him to get him fights. He's been out of the ring since November, 2013, has reportedly settled his differences with the Goossens, but still can't get a fight. Why did he sign with upstart Roc Nation, which won't do business with Al Haymon, who has an army of fighters to Jay Z's two? Ward would hardly fight outside of California when he was hot, which limited his exposure. I hope he doesn't think he's worth millions, because right now, he isn't. You have to earn that ****, Andre! You're basically starting over. Time to get humble.

... maybe Ward fought most of his fights in California because he was signed to GossenTutor Promotions, a promotional outfit that does near all of its' business in the state of California.

Beyond that, it's not like Ward's situation with Goosen was toxic/negative/about missing money; Ward, after being signed to Gossen's company for 8 years, wanted to co-promote/run his own shows, thinking that he'd reached a ceiling working under GossenTutor. Ward no longer thought that Goosen could deliver a major fight for him, while being open to continue working his contract if they did deliver a big fight, so he did what he did.

Ward was America's last Olympic gold medalist, the kingpin of his division and p4p #2, is an undefeated champion, is a great interview/talker, has no 'out of the ring' issues and is the quintessential 'family man' (married his high school sweetheart, father of four, spiritual, etc).

The man has a worth he's got a good idea of his worth, and he's likely not going to short that worth for much of anything, tbh.

[Cutthroat]

HBO hates american fighters, Ward wants a tuneup against a guy that'd be one of GGG's best opponents lmao, meanwhile GGG gets to fight Willie Monroe Jr. lmfao

[Barcham]

Please let us know when Ward gets a fight signed against anyone. Until then, we'll be watching real boxers fight. In a ring. Against other boxers. On television. Where no one is interested in showing a Ward fight.

[Beercules]

HBO hates american fighters, Ward wants a tuneup against a guy that'd be one of GGG's best opponents lmao, meanwhile GGG gets to fight Willie Monroe Jr. lmfao

Yeah man I hear you, if it wasn't for the damn ropes Golovkin would've lost to Murray!

[big_james10]

HBO won't allow Ward to weight drain another LHW. Also they're aiming for the end of May, so likely he won't be fighting Froch.





http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat...ith-dan-rafael

But Golovkin vs Willie Monroe Jr. is a barnburner that HBO is willing to pay more than $1 million for.

[Mooshashi]

Ward should just has a 3 rounder on the View. He'd impress Whoopie Goldberg I bet.

Oh wait ...they don't film the View in Oakland so scratch that idea.

[Cutthroat]

Yeah man I hear you, if it wasn't for the damn ropes Golovkin would've lost to Murray!

No, he probably would've won, but it'd have changed the entire dynamic of the fight, he wouldn't have won as convincingly and it'd change many people's opinions about him because it'd show his flaws.

[big_james10]

Rafael also suggested that HBO would only take Cotto-Bundy if it was part of a larger agreement that included Cotto-Canelo in the fall.

I like it from HBO.

Seriously, dude! You should know better than believe anything Dan Rafael says. Of all the boxing bloggers on the internet, Rafael is the worst.

Showtime will take Cotto/Bundy. HBO doesn't have the authority to dictate anything as far as Cotto is concerned because he has other options.

[Scipio2009]

His minimum under Goossen was 2m, and supposedly a lot higher under ROC. This is minimum 3m in combined purse for the main event. GGG fight at most 1/2 of that, probably less

What basis is there that RocNation is insisting on a $3m minimum on the TV rights when, with Ward, they have a fighter that they can push sponsorships for, while also opening him up to their other cross-platform opportunties?

(Ward is 31, putting him in his teens when West Coast/Bay Area/urban music was starting to bubble; he's not going to be running around, popping bottles and punching folks out at parties, but it's not like he'd be out of place at a RocNation party with artists, in the skybox/courtside at the major game. you add in his pretty quality sponsorships already [Everlast, Jordan brand, ShoePalace], and I doubt he'd be out of place sitting in corporate offices either).

Similar to the Cotto deal (folks were freaking out when they saw $50m for three fights, before they saw that $50m was for the entire package to Miguel Cotto Promotions, a significant part of which was earmarked for Cotto's budding live events business [fight cards, concerts] in Puerto Rico), there's likely some multiplicity to the deal that folks aren't acknowledging.

[note: how could Ward have had a $2m minimum, fighting under Gossen, when his reported purse for the Rodriguez fight ($1.9m) was openly said to be a career-best payday for Ward?]

[Barcham]

Showtime will take Cotto/Bundy. HBO doesn't have the authority to dictate anything as far as Cotto is concerned because he has other options.

Yeah, he has so many options right now. So many that he still doesn't have a fight scheduled and hasn't even decided on an opponent yet. But SO many options. SURE he does.