Why are people being fooled by HBO's mismatches?

[just the facts]

GGG fought a middleweight champ last fight and he has fought numerous ranked contenders. Yes he beat them with ease and they were mismatches. That isn't because they were bums. That is because GGG is a great fighter who makes good fighters look like bums. That is not something GGG or HBO should be criticized for. Gonzalez has the same problem. Gonzalez fights good fighters and makes them look bad. He is just that much better than anyone his weight. Charlo's title defense was a total mismatch and the guy he fought really didn't deserve a title fight. Top Haymon fighters are often in total mismatches when they should be fighting better fighters. Garcia is fighting washed up Guerrero when he should be fighting somebody much better than that.

Spit the **** out! While gggs opponents might be ranked contenders, absolutely none of them are special fighters in anyway. You can't take away that ggg handled his business in the ring but his opponents are all B level at best

[Sweet Jones]

That is actually one of the main difference between PBC and HBO, HBO is concerned about the narrative in building a guy to be stars with each fight leading to something else. It is well explained and it is easy to pick up.

PBC sells its guys but the whole product is not explained well there are just fights with no connection and while the fights and fighters are sold on TV what happens in between is a big mystery that no one knows what to expect.


That creates a certain perception and that means a lot with how people view fights.

Well said.

Though, they did a good job with Mares/LSC and Jacobs/Quillin, PBC could, IMO, most definitely do a better job building up future matchups (especially at Welterweight).

Having said that, HBO has become so married to their own 'narrative' that they've let it dictate dayum near every aspect of their boxing operation to, again IMO, to he detriment of the fanbase. From which fights they select to show, which fighters they chose to back, to their fight night commentary, the 'narrative' rules above all.

[deanrw]

There are a lot of mismatches on there. When you got guys who are a level above everyone else in their division it happens.

I mean we could line GGG vs the Jacobs/Quillin winner and it would still seem like a mismatch as they are more in the Lemieux level.

I have always said the overall best fights are the ones with mid level guys vs other mid level guys. You get great offense and shaky defense making our day.

This is why we demand fights like Ward vs GGG and Ward vs Kovalev. At the top, we need the top guys fighting each other. GGG will keep rolling along, and I will watch, but I also want more.

I am excited about Jacob vs Quillin because I honestly cannot lean towards a winner, it is a pure pickem fight

[12TRIBEsRiSe]

So I was thinking why is HBO getting so much credit for putting on "great" fights when in reality they are just as big of mismatches if not more then PBC? I mean lets be honest here krushers last fight was a mismatch all of crawfords fights were mismatches. GGG fights a bunch of mismatches they had canelo fighting kirkland. Lemonchenkos fights are all mismatches beyond belief. I mean im just thinking like is hbo that good at promoting fights that they are able to fool boxing fans into thinking they are putting on great fights?

With the little shows they put on hbo should be doing better if they are the so called better network with better fights. Maybe im missing something here but I dont think I am.

What do you guys think?

great post I agree 100% PBC puts on good fights I was at last weeks card and it was great

[AKAcronym]

Everyone has been doing it for YEARS and are still doing it. Some just dont like Haymon and for many its his association to another fighter.

I love the sport so i dont care who puts on the fights.

I have said it before and will say it again that i love seeing fighters i would have never got the chance to see or even know existed if PBC wasnt around.

Which fighters have those been?

[Fetta]

Which fighters have those been?

Kameda, McDonnel, Diaz, Williams, Martinez, Glowacki, Douglass, Huck i knew but never saw fight, Beterbiev, Fonfora and those are just the ones i remember the names

[djt117]

great post I agree 100% PBC puts on good fights I was at last weeks card and it was great

(1) When they do have showcase fights, they don't overpay & waste subscriber money that could be spent on other fights -- Showtime spent almost $3.5 million dollars on DeGale-Bute to get 269K viewers and got beat by replay fights on HBO (ended up being an accidental good fight, sure, but most thought that would be a showcase and showcases ain't worth $3.5 million).

(2) HBO has to work with a limited stable. While they have the top guy in most divisions, they don't have very many of the top contenders below that man.

Haymon could make amazing matchups between his top guys every three weeks. HUGE STABLE. Does so little with it. Thurman should be fighting Porter, Garcia should be rematching Khan, Stevenson should be fighting Beterbiev if they can't do Kovalev, and I could list about 10 other fights.

(3) Activity: a lot of HBO's fighters are more active. Haymon's guys (except for Wilder) fight maybe 2x per year. If you fight 4x per year like say, GGG, and 1 of those guys is a decent fight like Lemieux and 3 are pretty weak.

... well, that's better than fighting 2x per year against 2 overmatched opponents.

If you only fight 2x per year, it better be good

[Boxfan83]

So I was thinking why is HBO getting so much credit for putting on "great" fights when in reality they are just as big of mismatches if not more then PBC? I mean lets be honest here krushers last fight was a mismatch all of crawfords fights were mismatches. GGG fights a bunch of mismatches they had canelo fighting kirkland. Lemonchenkos fights are all mismatches beyond belief. I mean im just thinking like is hbo that good at promoting fights that they are able to fool boxing fans into thinking they are putting on great fights?

With the little shows they put on hbo should be doing better if they are the so called better network with better fights. Maybe im missing something here but I dont think I am.

What do you guys think?

Personally I like HBOs mismatches for the same reason I like Showtimes and PBCs (thousand different networks) because it boxing and I think most boxing fans are all little WWE fans at heart and we love the drama