Comments Thread For: Peter Nelson Named Executive Vice President, HBO Sports

[bigdunny1]

Lol, Arum wanted a puff fight for Rameriz and Nelson pushed Vlasov. Bob was pissed because he knew Rameriz wouldn't look great vs Vlasov. Thing is Rameriz hasn't looked great in a lot of his fights.


Even under Hershman, HBO had agreed to buy fights involving Haymon fighters. They were ready to take Quillin/Korobov and Russell/Lomochenko off the top of my head. They've stated they want Kovalev/Stevenson as well. Thus far it's been Haymon's side not looking to work with HBO.

Al spent alot of money buying multiple networks to squeeze out the competition in order to push his brand. Will he allow his fighters to go on the one network that's providing his competitors their sole source of tv revenue, essentially helping them out? Especially when most of his fighters would be considered the underdogs in those fights.


I think it's going to have to be a give/take scenario. Doug Fischer brought up an old story of Pernell Whitaker having an HBO deal and getting permission to go fight on Showtime (Jake Rodriguez). Letting Golovkin & Kovalev take a fight on NBC/ESPN would be a gamble, but if they won they'd come back to HBO with more clout.

Exactly HBO's position was very clear they are out of the Haymon showcase business. They will not air his mismatches for his fighters. But they have said repeatedly they will allow HBO signed fighters to face Haymon fighters. They have no problem allowing Haymon guys back on HBO to face their guys. The issue now is Haymon refuses to let any of his fighters face any of HBO's top fighters. Haymon will only entertain those fights if they are on his networks not on HBO. HBO has exclusive contracts and will never allow it where as Haymon has no contracts for any of his fighters and could easily allow them to fight on HBO if he would just give the green light.

[Eff Pandas]

HBO banned Haymon because they were not going to get into bidding wars or held hostage by Haymon forcing overpaid mismatches on their network. HBO is positioned well where they own all the top talent in boxing and Haymon has his own outlet to air fights on PBC and Showtime. Again if HBO hired externally then you might see a big shake up philosophy. But they just hired the apprentice of Hershman so I wouldn't hold my breathe on any major changes on HBO.

If this happens the major change will be the continued drop in competitive HBO fights & overall HBO product cuz Haymon gots some of the best competition for HBO fighters. While HBO gots the P4P list the problem with that is thats all they got. Gonna have GGG vs that Quillin stripper opponent on HBO by the end of 2016. If HBO is ******** on PBC going outta business before HBO fighters run outta big name opponents they are making a bad bet. Personally from the **** I've heard from Nelson is he's a much more progressive thinker & open to dealing with others so he won't be Herschman Jr. in this role.

[about.thousands]

No shot you see Lara on HBO. The TV Ratings came out last night and his PBC fight bombed. Primetime on ESPN with ESPN running the 30 for 30 on Tyson right before it basically as a favor to try and help the PBC ratings. It did a 480K rating. Lara has no fanbase and still carries the stink from his fight with Canelo. If a fighter is going to break the HBO/Haymon feud it won't be Lara.

Lara's ratings on ESPN were higher than Willie Monroe's when he won their Boxcino tournament. The ratings argument is a poor one. What PBC is doing now is playing a game of attrition. GGG, Lomanchenko, Kovalev, & Canelo are their biggest stars. PBC has all the top fighters from their divisions. Except Canelo, I'm not sure what division he's fighting. Kovalev is so starved for opponents they have Ward a contract on the promise he'll fight Kovalev & we're seeing an unnecessary rematch with Pascal. Canelo won't give GGG a shot so he's stuck fighting Johnson for his mandatory. Meanwhile PBC has Quillin, Jacobs, Jermall & Lara are about to move up to MW too. They're talking about a Canelo/Bradley fight because they're both starved for opponents. Lomanchenko is gonna have to make a move up, a move he doesn't want to do, in order to get good fights. Showtime just bought the Lee/Saunders fight. If they got options on the winner GGG is screwed. Crawford is gonna have trouble finding opponents when he makes the move to WW soon. HBO has the best fighters but nobody to fight against. They're gonna have to pay out the ass to get a Haymon fighter.

[Eff Pandas]

The issue now is Haymon refuses to let any of his fighters face any of HBO's top fighters. Haymon will only entertain those fights if they are on his networks not on HBO.

Link to anything legit where this could be the take away point & not some spun situation with Arum magic? The man don't f#cking talk to the media, yet people know he won't deal with HBO? Cmon man. If thats your opinion far enough, but don't state it like its a fact cuz its not, the mfer don't talk to nobody lmfao.

[Eastcoast]

Exactly HBO's position was very clear they are out of the Haymon showcase business. They will not air his mismatches for his fighters. But they have said repeatedly they will allow HBO signed fighters to face Haymon fighters. They have no problem allowing Haymon guys back on HBO to face their guys. The issue now is Haymon refuses to let any of his fighters face any of HBO's top fighters. Haymon will only entertain those fights if they are on his networks not on HBO. HBO has exclusive contracts and will never allow it where as Haymon has no contracts for any of his fighters and could easily allow them to fight on HBO if he would just give the green light.

The problem with that is now HBO is stuck having to air showcase fights involving their signed fighters. In the past Haymon would bend HBO over using Mayweather as leverage. He no longer has that, but now he has signed all the 'would-be' opponents for HBO's fighters.

In the past, even when Showtime signed away top talent, there was still a developmental market with ESPN & NBC to build opponents. Even Showtime would inadvertently build free-agent fighters for HBO. Those things don't exist today. Even though they still have all of the apex fighters, the overall talent pool for HBO is smaller than ever.

[bigdunny1]

If you are HBO and you have the bigger stars and a strangle hold on the P4P best fighters in the world why allow them to fight on another network? The two sides not fighting hurts Haymon fights more then it hurts HBO. Haymon has a long list of fighters but none which are stars and the only way they can break out and become stars is by beating the best fighters in their weight. For example no one is really talking about Jacobs vs Quillen and the reason why is both have been belt holders but neither is seen as the true champ or true star of Middleweight. So it's not a real fight for the Middleweight championship and the fans know this. To become one you have to either beat GGG who has most of the belts or beat Canelo who is now the lineal champ and biggest star in the division. Canelo took that spot by beating Cotto. So win or lose is Jacobs or Quillen going to become a star or the true champ at 160? Nope. Only way that happens is if either guy fights Canelo/GGG. Haymon has very few guys that are considered the true champ or the star of that division. How do you become elevated to that spot when Haymon can't or won't let his fighters fight the best/star of their divisions? HBO has the guys who already earned their spots in the game.

[bigdunny1]

Link to anything legit where this could be the take away point & not some spun situation with Arum magic? The man don't f#cking talk to the media, yet people know he won't deal with HBO? Cmon man. If thats your opinion far enough, but don't state it like its a fact cuz its not, the mfer don't talk to nobody lmfao.

Haymon don't talk so we can never go by what he says. All we have is to go on his actions. And it's clear he refuses to let any of his fighters fight on HBO. Even examples where fighters and their camp say they want the fight and the promoters work it out and they pay top dollar for the fight it still doesn't happen because Haymon has to green light. Perfect example Kovalev vs Beterbeiv. Beterbeiv been asking for the fight and was offered a payday worth 3X his career payday and a direct title shot for all the belts. Instead he turned it down to fight a title elimnator fight on an undercard for a fraction of the pay. What adviser would ever tell their fighter to turn down a title shot and payday for the fight him and his camp been asking for over a year? We know damn well the fight being on HBO and his feud with HBO is the reason he made his fighter turn that down.

[about.thousands]

Link to anything legit where this could be the take away point & not some spun situation with Arum magic? The man don't f#cking talk to the media, yet people know he won't deal with HBO? Cmon man. If thats your opinion far enough, but don't state it like its a fact cuz its not, the mfer don't talk to nobody lmfao.

Is not a fact. What is a fact is Hershman banning Haymon. HBO never had a problem with showing showcase fights. There's been plenty of them since Haymon left. Their problem was how much to pay for those showcase fights. Many people like to cite Berto as an example. But what many people don't know is that HBO was pushing Berto more than Haymon & DiBella. Greenberg had a meeting with Berto to discuss marketing him and what fights he should take & Dibella & Haymon only found out after Berto posted it on his twitter. Haymon wasn't responsible for Ward's numerous showcase fights on HBO. Or Lomachenko's showcase fights since beating Russell Jr. If HBO can get the showcase fights on the cheap they'll air them.

[Eastcoast]

If you are HBO and you have the bigger stars and a strangle hold on the P4P best fighters in the world why allow them to fight on another network? The two sides not fighting hurts Haymon fights more then it hurts HBO. Haymon has a long list of fighters but none which are stars and the only way they can break out and become stars is by beating the best fighters in their weight. For example no one is really talking about Jacobs vs Quillen and the reason why is both have been belt holders but neither is seen as the true champ or true star of Middleweight. So it's not a real fight for the Middleweight championship and the fans know this. To become one you have to either beat GGG who has most of the belts or beat Canelo who is now the lineal champ and biggest star in the division. Canelo took that spot by beating Cotto. So win or lose is Jacobs or Quillen going to become a star or the true champ at 160? Nope. Only way that happens is if either guy fights Canelo/GGG. Haymon has very few guys that are considered the true champ or the star of that division. How do you become elevated to that spot when Haymon can't or won't let his fighters fight the best/star of their divisions? HBO has the guys who already earned their spots in the game.

Haymon has the tv dates and remaining budgets to wait out HBO for another 3-4 years. By then Golovkin and Kovalev will be at the ends of their careers. Haymon's already shown for the last two years he doesn't care about quality or ratings. Outside of HBO, boxing has always just been a niche sport and I think he's fine with leaving it that way. He match-makes like Don King, subpar fights are fine by him.

Someone mentioned Haymon sees this as a war of attrition, I don't think he even looks at it like that. I think in his world, HBO fighters don't even exist. It'll be on HBO to come up with an innovative approach to solving this - if they want to.

[Fetta]

Haymon don't talk so we can never go by what he says. All we have is to go on his actions. And it's clear he refuses to let any of his fighters fight on HBO. Even examples where fighters and their camp say they want the fight and the promoters work it out and they pay top dollar for the fight it still doesn't happen because Haymon has to green light. Perfect example Kovalev vs Beterbeiv. Beterbeiv been asking for the fight and was offered a payday worth 3X his career payday and a direct title shot for all the belts. Instead he turned it down to fight a title elimnator fight on an undercard for a fraction of the pay. What adviser would ever tell their fighter to turn down a title shot and payday for the fight him and his camp been asking for over a year? We know damn well the fight being on HBO and his feud with HBO is the reason he made his fighter turn that down.

Like i said before, you dont know whats going on but you can BS and spin with the best of them.

Dont know if you an old or young person but if you arent in sales then you missed your calling