Arum falling out with HBO, shows interest with Showtime

[Weebler I]

Golovkin and Kovalev don't even have that many important fights available in their weight classes (that can be made on HBO, without Haymon) so I'm not totally on board with HBO commiting to a whole bunch of their fights without a lot of quality opponents.

Cotto and Canelo...whoever loses that fight won't be all that important to HBO going forward.

Chocolatito...we'll see how much of an audience he contributes, we have no idea how much, if any, he moves the needle.

Golovkin and Kovalev are consistently returning 1 million+ viewers, whatever one thinks of their opposition, it makes business sense for HBO to back them.

Bradley-Vargas, not so much.

[sicko]

Who the *** doesn't Arum have a Falling Out With Eventually? Old man doesn't get what he wants he will take his ball and he goes home, this is nothing now. However he is in a tough spot because HBO are doing well and drawing great ratings without any of his fighters. Then his recent event did low ratings maybe that was the final straw.

The Focus seems to be on 100% INTERNATIONAL BOXING for HBO now! I think that is smart on HBO part because Boxing is more Global now more than it ever was. Also you can get these International Fighters to fight for Peanuts compared to others.

Hopefully they work things out for the Top Rank Fighters Sake like Crawford, Rios and Others. Arum Roster does seem a bit THIN now that I think about it. Seems like he ran out of match ups What does he really have right now for HBO that can draw good ratings. I don't think Bradley vs Vargas is going to be a ratings hit either

[Mitchell Kane]

I've heard people give the credit to HBO, but let's say it's Arum and give the credit to him, why should HBO pay for fights they don't want at the prospect stage? they're trying to do numbers right now.

Because Top Rank has a much deeper stable than K2 or Main Events?

Because it's a risky strategy to go all in on just a few fighters like Canelo, Golovkin and Kovalev?

[Mitchell Kane]

Golovkin and Kovalev are consistently returning 1 million+ viewers, whatever one thinks of their opposition, it makes business sense for HBO to back them.

Bradley-Vargas, not so much.

Golovkin and Kovalev are already in their early 30's and yet not PPV fighters yet.

There aren't that many PPV fights even available right now, especially if Canelo/Cotto don't fight Golovkin.

[aldo5408]

Golovkin and Kovalev don't even have that many important fights available in their weight classes (that can be made on HBO, without Haymon) so I'm not totally on board with HBO commiting to a whole bunch of their fights without a lot of quality opponents.

Cotto and Canelo...whoever loses that fight won't be all that important to HBO going forward.

Chocolatito...we'll see how much of an audience he contributes, we have no idea how much, if any, he moves the needle.

Even if Canelo were to lose he's still the most important fighter on that list and HBO

[Mitchell Kane]

Even if Canelo were to lose he's still the most important fighter on that list and HBO

HBO has a significant interest in Canelo's future.

That's not always a good thing if you're wanting good fights.

[FeFist]

"Peter nelson insist that he fight this Russian that had one defeat. Very very good fighter; style not good for Ramirez we knew. Ramirez won the fight but so what? He didn't look as outstanding as he did in the other fight." - Bob Arum ladies and gentlemen.

[Weebler I]

Because Top Rank has a much deeper stable than K2 or Main Events?

Because it's a risky strategy to go all in on just a few fighters like Canelo, Golovkin and Kovalev?

They're trying to buy good match-ups. They don't want to pay for Zurdo vs bum, or Crawford against someone no one wants. Arum fights have been weak in 2015, why let it continue?

As to backing a few fighters, boxing is global, with names like Klitschko, Cotto, Golovkin, Kovalev, Canelo, Matthysse, Chocolatito, Ward, Provodnikov etc they'll never go short.

Golovkin and Kovalev are already in their early 30's and yet not PPV fighters yet.

There aren't that many PPV fights even available right now, especially if Canelo/Cotto don't fight Golovkin.

From what I understand, and I think it was Hershman who said it, it's the promoters who want PPV, not the networks.

[Mitchell Kane]

They're trying to buy good match-ups. They don't want to pay for Zurdo vs bum, or Crawford against someone no one wants. Arum fights have been weak in 2015, why let it continue?

As to backing a few fighters, boxing is global, with names like Klitschko, Cotto, Golovkin, Kovalev, Canelo, Matthysse, Chocolatito, Ward, Provodnikov etc they'll never go short.

Outside of Kovalev and Matthysse, very few of those fighters listed have actually had top quality opponents on HBO this year.

Willie Monroe
Edgar Sosa
Daniel Geale (at a catchweight)
James Kirkland
Martin Murray
Bryant Jennings

It's not like HBO is doing all that much with non-Top Rank fighters.

Not that I'm in favor of Top Rank mismatches, but HBO needs to start investing in some fighters under 30 besides Canelo, and Main Events and K2 have very thin stables.

[Mitchell Kane]

From what I understand, and I think it was Hershman who said it, it's the promoters who want PPV, not the networks.

Golovkin and Kovalev aren't PPV fighters right now whether HBO wanted them or not.

They're not Americans, they're not Mexican, they're not Puerto Ricans.

They're Eastern European fighters.
They're in their early 30's.
And their biggest opponents (Cotto/Canelo for Golovkin; Stevenson/Beterbiev for Kovalev) don't even look to be serius options at the moment.