The HBO Budget Crisis and What it Means

[Porter's Dad]

once HBO is out of the equation and haymon controls everything, the sport will finally be able to deliver whatever fights the fans want whenever the fans want them.

Of course, that's exactly what we've all been waiting for.

The guy who:

- refuses to speak or let his picture be taken

- has fractured the sport to the point where it is now

- seems to be completely and utterly clueless about matchmaking and creating stars not called Floyd Mayweather

- exploits organisations than leaves them massively damaged (HBO, GBP, Showtime)

- has done his best to kill the competitive fighting spirit in his fighters by giving them a continuous bunch of soft touches



.....we need THAT guy to take over the sport.

God help us. Seriously.

[Dr Rumack]

ya its too bad bob arum and gbp had to go and sure pbc

Lawsuits can be dropped if it makes sense to do so. All any of these guys care about is money. Arum would work out a deal with Haymon by tomorrow if he had to.

What would be really crazy is if HBO decided to not expand its budget and the bottom falls out of PBC. That would be the real game changer.

[Eff Pandas]

the best thing for boxing is one winner in this war, not a "thawing" that brings us right back where we were.

Agree 100%. Too many Chiefs not enough Indians in boxing.

I'm also of the belief, like you, that we could see the end of HBO Boxing inside the next 10 years or so (I feel like they'll switch over to MMA at some point, most likely UFC) since the boxing audience isn't capturing younger sports fans interest as much as it has in past generations. And HBO isn't competing with Showtime or "free TV" anymore they are competing with Netflix.

Having said all that idk that there is anymore of a budget crisis then there has been. The reality is HBO's budget has been dwindling since the 90's when they had $100M & I believe they are down to around $30M-$35M iirc these days. I think right now we are just in a regime change & we are learning what exactly Nelson will be about & what he won't be about. Plus to me this year doesn't look all that different from last year for HBO. Last year looked horrible until HBO started lining up some huge fights towards the end of the year. I've been saying & I still suspect that'll be the case this year.

[bojangles1987]

The more I hear about it, the worse it sounds for boxing on the network. All these fighters tied to them need to find an exit strategy as soon as possible.

At best, we're resigned to a terrible year for HBO, and if they don't feel any repercussions for the mismatches then they'll have no incentive to increase the budget, which screws boxing on HBO permanently. Although if we don't watch these fights, then why dedicated resources at all?

We're really ****ed either way.

[original zero]

Having said all that idk that there is anymore of a budget crisis then there has been. The reality is HBO's budget has been dwindling since the 90's when they had $100M & I believe they are down to around $30M-$35M iirc these days.

the budget has been cut to under $25 million from what i'm hearing with more cuts coming

[-PBP-]

Lawsuits can be dropped if it makes sense to do so. All any of these guys care about is money. Arum would work out a deal with Haymon by tomorrow if he had to.

What would be really crazy is if HBO decided to not expand its budget and the bottom falls out of PBC. That would be the real game changer.

That's a doomsday scenario. What network can support all those fighters?

[Lester Tutor]

Everybody focused on PBC Struggles but those people are not telling the full story...BOXING IN GENERAL especially here in the US is not doing very well. Ticket Sales are down all over and lets just say, PBC are not the only ones giving away tickets to fill up the place. HBO is going to take the budget down and give us what they want to give us and what they can afford and the Gullible Casuals will gladly accept it and defend in while in the same breath bash PBC every chance they get when in actuality the "HBO vs PBC" stuff is absolutely KILLING the sport of boxing right now

what goes around comes around. the HBO hate wagon has done well.

[kiaba360]

Are they just going to continue to shove Kovalev, Golovkin and Crawford down our throats in these one sided mismatches?

As long as we keep watching, they don't have any incentive to change. Let's see what Crawford's ratings are.

[bojangles1987]

I think Arum could be a big asset to PBC because despite his shortcomings, you have to admit he's the best star builder in the sport right now. That's something Haymon has yet to be able to achieve.

I hope they can eventually build s working relationship.

My biggest hope for the post-Mayweather and Pacquiao era is that the rivalry between those two didn't bleed too much into the Arum/Haymon rivalry. We desperately need those two to start getting along immediately. Pac leaving is hopefully the last obstacle preventing it.

No matter how people may not want to hear it, PBC might soon be the only thing keeping boxing alive in the United States. Hopefully Arum's pride doesn't blind him to that.

[BoliviaChiLEsp]

Boxing does not need and organization like UFC IMO.