One thing about PBC is weekends without boxing are rare

[Cinci Champ]

The thing about not liking Haymon because of Mayweather is entirely untrue, at least in my case. I am, and have consistently been since I got into boxing, a Floyd fan. That doesn't mean I excuse everything he does, because sometimes he's frustrating as hell. But in general I appreciate his greatness and root for him when he fights.

That said, I can't stand Haymon's involvement in boxing today. In 2013 I was okay with him, because even though I saw him as the primary reason for the "cold wars" in boxing, he was still involved in putting together a lot of GREAT cards on Showtime. Since then he's had a dismal 2014 (seriously...he insulted every boxing fan with some of those cards and matchups) and a so-so 2015. Let's not forget, for every LSC-Mares, there are 5 or 10 Quillin-Strippers. Friday Night Fights never advertised itself the way this does. We're supposed to accept whatever bad matchups are forced down our throats, and they expect this will turn their young fighters into stars. News flash: it won't happen. A fighter needs to overcome the odds to become a star. That's what Lemieux is trying to do in October. That's what Quillin, Jacobs, Garcia (post Matthysse), Wilder, Thurman, Figueroa etc etc. never have to do. Because they're with Al, and he protects them.

thats fair but if you take a step back and look the reason for a lot of those pitiful matchups was haymon was getting pbc together. they were going thru litigation figuring out which fighters he controlled all that. He did have some pitiful matchups there is no question but i think there was more to it then meets the eye. Also the fact that he has so much air time for fighters that means these fighters are getting tv time on their way up so it seems like there is more cherry picking then their really is where as someone like top rank dont have as much air time and u only see their best fights.

I do think the in house is un fair cause when you look at it his fighters have actually fought a ton of guys not connected to haymon. Algieri Khan for example. Really the only people haymon has not worked with are fighters with exclusive deals to hbo main events and top rank. Ya we have not seen him work with hbo and top rank but if you really look into it there is way more blame that goes with that side then people care to admit. Haymon gets all the blame which actually is not fair when you actually do some research.

I totally get the critique for haymon and the showcases he put on there for a 2 year period or so but its looking more and more like it was because he was getting his pbc stuff together. Now he is making better and better fights we just got to hope the ratings reflect big matchups if the ratings are way better for matchups such as santa cruz and mares you can bet your bottom dollar it will continue. There are some disappointments like thurman or stevenson but for the most part his guys are starting to fight eachother. Only time will tell but there is no reason to think guys like thurman and khan wont start fighting eachother.

The other thing is a year from now haymon will have way more fighters which means way more bigger fights. Some of the rumored fighters are mikey garcia, rigondeux, haye etc etc. PBC is slowly starting to come together and there is no doubt in my mind its going to become big in the boxing community. Well see what happens but as long as haymon continues the trend of putting on bigger and better fights stubborn fans will come along. He is starting to sign more fan friendly type fighters as well which will help.

The one thing we were all scared of me included was that judging and what not would be ridiculously pbc friendly. But when you actually look at how its gone down the judging has actually been very fair. The closest thing to being drama was the garcia peterson fight. But for example dirrel degale i think its safe to say that fight put to rest those fears. Im sure we will see bad decisions but actually the judging has been more fair in pbc then other promoters.

I dont know at the end of the day im not trying to be a pbc fan boy im just a glass half full kind of boxing fan and I see what pbc can become. If haymon can keep putting on bigger fights even if their are bad ones in between i think the fans will come along and the ratings will grow. If pbc works it will be beyond big for boxing and fans alike. They will make deals with these networks when the time buys are over and at that point the networks will have more pull on what fights haymon puts on. I just hope the hate for haymon does not ruin a potentially game changing thing. If it works not only will pbc be entertaining as hell but it will force the others to work with him.

[Cinci Champ]

I could also see a time when pbs starts their own streaming app where u can watch all the fights for 10$ a month just like wwe did

[mathed]

It is not bad at all,people just want to Hate because Haymon is associated with Mayweather so there lies the hate point blank period end of discussion. You get to watch boxing on a regular basis i see no problem. Hell no one cried over the **** fights on Friday night fights

Really the main issue for me, well one of the main issues, is that this damn "cold war" crap only got worse when PBC took off. Now you have these PBC mismatches that are being orchestrated to keep champs from facing tough challenges. There have also been numerous instances of shady officiating and scoring that were obviously in place to set up certain title fights.

I know that this stuff happens in fights that aren't PBC fights but you have to take in account how the boxing scene (pun intended) is now saturated with PBC boxers and how many fights being shown are PBC fights. It's like 7 or 8 out of 10 fights on TV are now PBC fights and out of the 10 fights, 4 or 5 will have some kind of shady activity.

Also, for FNF, the entire feel was better than PBC is. I have actually missed several PBC cards and not even bothered to watch the recording or there have been fights that I have fallen asleep during either because the action was so lacking or the fight was so meaningless. FNF gave the fans fights that produced action more often than not and a lot of the guys on FNF went on to become notable boxers.

Having boxing on all the time is good thing up to a point. When the fights become diluted and there are 3 cards on in a week, that only exacerbates the let down feeling that you get. I doubt casual viewers are actively seeking out these cards and when they are on, they aren't leaving with a sense of "Why the hell haven't I been keeping track of boxing, this stuff is awesome".

There have been several good fights although compared to the vast majority that aren't quality, they seem to be few and far between.

[bojangles1987]

It's been a couple weeks now, hasn't it? Kind of sucks.

[-PBP-]

I agree but I'm spoiled now. There was nothing on this weekend but a Unimas card that I didn't care about.

[BattleAxePurist]

Yeah and it's nice.

Having boxing on every weekend just to have showcase fights gets old.

When you're always watching it you don't appreciate when there's an actual good card it's just another in the long line PBC's spammatching approach.

[Eff Pandas]

Boxing has some of the most self-hating "fans" in all of sports is the most notable thing in this discussion. PBC has arguably rocketed itself into the #2 spot in boxing, behind HBO, in less than 6 months as the entity putting on the most high quality fights, yet people would rather cherry pick fights they can **** on by PBC than look around & logically compare what other en****** are doing in comparison.

This is kinda like the guys who tear down Floyd's resume in the thread going on right now. Somehow some people can only register Guerrero on Floyd's recent resume, but fail to see most cats don't even got a #2 best opponent during this same period that could hold Guerrero's jockstrap.

[Eff Pandas]

I don't see the link between PBC's existence and HBO putting on good cards. HBO has always had high profile fights. If anything HBO's quality has decreased because of a lack of fighters to choose from. Regarding Golovkin, he isn't fighting Lemieux because HBO is forcing him because the PBC is around. He's fighting Lemieux because Lemieux is down to fight him on PPV. Golovkin fought Martin Murray earlier in the year and lets not forget Golovkin would be fighting Cotto right now but Cotto chose Daniel Geale and now Canelo. Prior to that he would have fought better opponents as well if there were middleweights willing to step up.

It's also worth noting that there was a mass exodus to Haymon/PBC. So HBO's talent pool is much smaller now. They work with non-Haymon guys only (k2, main events, Top Rank, etc). HBO has the smallest "roster" of fighters they've ever had since showing boxing. If PBC didn't exist, it's safe to assume HBO would have a much wider range of fighters on their network, but as it is now they are limited.

It's also worth noting we aren't getting any HBO vs PBC fights, like GGG vs Quillin/Jacobs/Lara, Stevenson vs Kovalev, Rigondeaux vs Santa Cruz/et al, Lomachenko vs Santa Cruz/et al, and so on and so forth.

PBC is both good and bad in that regard. Good that boxing is consistently on TV across tons of networks. That's awesome. Bad because they havent put up consistently good fights (match making kinda sucks) and because of the HBO vs Haymon fued mentioned above.

Hopefully the matchmaking improves. I don't know if Richard Schaefer is still going to join PBC whenever he is free to do so, but if/when he does I reckon we'll start to see a better product.

Agree with most of this. I felt like HBO was having one of its worst years ever til like a month or so ago when they landed Klitschko/Fury, GGG/Lemieux & Canelo/Cotto in quick order.

I think PBC's matchmaking & venue locations could both be greatly improved (& I suspect that will all get improved when not if Richard jumps in like you are also suggesting), but they aren't as bad as they are labeled by most. And the reality is when you are putting together this many cards they aren't going to all be home runs. PBC would probably go a long way by tiering fights better on specific channels. It seems they have to some degree, bigger fights will be on NBC prime time & lesser fights will be on Bounce, but after that it seems like wherever something lands it lands. I think they need to pinpoint better what fights land on ESPN or Spike or NBC Sports. Maybe they will & it just takes more time idk.

And as far as HBO & PBC not working together I think the reality is PBC vs HBO is the new Showtime vs HBO so we are destined to not see those lines crossed. And idk that you can blame either entity too much for that. There has been cold wars going on in boxing forever. Arum vs GBP, the previously mentioned HBO vs Showtime, Arum vs King & a bunch of smaller ones. With how boxing works this is too be expected tbqh.

[Cinci Champ]

It's been a couple weeks now, hasn't it? Kind of sucks.

lol ya exactly thanks to pbc we now have boxing pretty much every single week and multiple cards were so used to it now people forget how little fights there used to be at times