Comments Thread For: Spike's TV Deal With Premier Boxing Champions Has Ended

[IRONCHINHAGLER]

Pbc going away will b good for fans...now mayb we can see their overpaid top fighters like Garcia/ Thurman/Stevenson/ Jacobs/ and others fight more than once or twice year!!

[OnePunch]

But nobody is bailing on anything. The contract between PBC and Spike expired. They're talking about doing more fights. Spike isn't going to sign another long term deal when the network is moving away from live sports and undergoing a complete rebranding an overhaul next year.

Spike wanted to become a fight network for men, but now Spike is being replaced by the Paramount Network, which wants to focus on scripted programming and appealing more to women. With the entire network in turmoil and being completely replaced in less than 12 months, what made you think Spike would sign another multiyear deal with any fight entity?





ESPN is paying Golden Boy $0. It's a complete non-factor.

isnt Bellator considered a "fight entity"? And didnt the Spike mouthpiece say that they were adding more Bellator dates?

[Mitchell Kane]

Spike, as @danrafaelespn reports, the first PBC network to bail. Others, industry execs say, will follow. Haymon creation crumbling.

- Chris Mannix Yahoo sports

Per Fat Boy Dan

PBC continues to put on regular cards on Fox Sports 1, mainly featuring prospects, and Showtime. But NBC is essentially finished with the series, having already dropped it from NBC Sports Net and holding off on any remaining network dates until at least this fall, though it is unclear if Haymon has already paid for the time. PBC on ESPN's new slate of cards was scheduled to debut Friday night but is off with the remainder of the spring slate in question.

That's pretty ominous.

[Mitchell Kane]

http://www.fightopinion.com/2017/04/12/spike-tv-drops-pbc-al-haymon-boxing/

Spike TV drops PBC; what’s next for Al Haymon and the major athletic commissions?
By Zach Arnold | April 12, 2017

Things changed in a hurry for Al Haymon once PBC agreed to drop their exclusivity clauses from television contracts as part of the settlement with Top Rank. Top Rank settled their antitrust lawsuit against PBC. Golden Boy, however, did not. They lost their court case via summary judgment. However, Golden Boy got very lucky that they were not subjected to “loser pays attorney fees” status. Instead, the most that Al Haymon’s side could recover was court costs estimated to be around $35,000.

In the end, Golden Boy paid a lot in legal fees but so did PBC. That had to hurt.

While various reasons/excuses were stated for Spike TV dropping PBC, not mentioned in mass media reports is the fact that the legal climate for PBC changed once a few shareholders from the Ivy Fund in Kansas filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit against the hedge fund for financing PBC and allegedly putting $525 million dollars in a shell LLC (Media Holdings LLC). The lawsuit is attempting to get the hedge fund to claw back the money they invested into Al Haymon.

The lawsuit was filed in April of 2016. PBC had a big run in the Summer of 2016. Then things slowed down to a crawl. The shareholder lawsuit was part of (what we guestimated in past articles) a legal python strategy to choke the cash from PBC.

There was this from last week...

http://www.fightopinion.com/2017/04/06/legal-war-al-haymon-waddell-reed-ivy-hedge-fund-shareholder-lawsuit-boxing/

The legal war in Kansas over Al Haymon’s hedge fund money heats up
By Zach Arnold | April 6, 2017

Shareholders of the hedge funds financing Al Haymon’s PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) sued said hedge funds in Kansas state court. The lawsuit was a shareholder derivative lawsuit, meaning the shareholders sued the hedge fund in order to claw back money that the hedge fund invested or was about to invest in Al Haymon. Plaintiffs claimed that over $525 million dollars was being held in a Delaware LLC called Media Holdings.
The lawsuit involves prominent attorneys from both New York & Los Angeles along with local Kansas attorneys.

The defendants are: 1) Ivy Investment Management Company, 2) Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company, 3) Waddell & Reed Advisors Fund, and 4) a slew of individual defendants/trustees.
Here is the quick and dirty summary of what has transpired in state court:

November 10th, 2016 – Judge Gerald T. Elliott denied a motion to dismiss (demurrer) from defendants Ivy Investment Management Company, Independent Trustees. The plaintiffs were allowed to file an amended petition.
December 1st, 2016 – the plaintiffs filed their second amended verified complaint.

February 6th, 2017 – new judge Rhonda Mason schedules a tentative trial date of July 16, 2018. Preparation for a one month trial timetable.

Which brings us to what happened in court on Thursday.

A statement from plaintiffs attorney Sam Bonderoff in response to today’s events:
“Although Judge Mason dismissed the derivative claim brought on behalf of the Waddell & Reed Advisors Fund, the derivative claim on behalf of the Ivy Fund remains and that fund is responsible for the overwhelming majority of shareholder losses from the Haymon-related investments. We will continue to press our claims vigorously.”

To be continued…

[Mitchell Kane]

Paul Gift MMA analytics
Paul Gift Retweeted Dan Rafael
There's a shocker. Haymon's NBC contract ended Dec 2016, but he had 2017 option. Would've owed $6M in Jan & Sept. Perhaps $$ a little tight.

[OnePunch]

Paul Gift MMA analytics
Paul Gift Retweeted Dan Rafael
There's a shocker. Haymon's NBC contract ended Dec 2016, but he had 2017 option. Would've owed $6M in Jan & Sept. Perhaps $$ a little tight.

well, he could always sell the Lear or the G5 he bought......lol

[True-Boxing-Fan]

They aren't going anywhere lil sissy

Damn you are a no life having **** stain skinned POS.

More than 10,000 post in less than a year? WTF, talk about being a real loser in life.

Its fun to post on these boards every now and then, but damn you have literally spent the last 10 months on here 24/7. SMDH What a ***ing loser you are.

Whats even more ***'d up about you spending all this time here on a boxing forum. You truly don't know **** about boxing. LOL LOL

***ing **** stained loser

[original zero]

And ESPN not only paid nothing for PBC but we're actually paid by PBC in time buys. What's your point?

My point is that ESPN has no interest in paying for boxing, so PBC has no interest in continuing the relationship with ESPN. The fact that ESPN2 will be receiving low level Golden Boy cards for free is irrelevant.

And Dan Rafael reported that PBC was supposed to return Friday but didn't and has nothing scheduled and hasn't aired a fight since last aug.

Because PBC saw no point in picking up the 2017 option if they know for a fact that no matter what they do, ESPN will not be paying for boxing in 2018. The point of the time buys was to prove what kind of ratings PBC could do and convince networks to pay for them. Fox is willing to pay. CBS is willing to pay. ESPN is not. So why waste any money on additional ESPN time buys?

Now ESPN signs deal to air 2 fights per month with golden boy but yeah its a non factor for PBC future on ESPN?

Golden Boy was willing to give shows away for free. PBC is getting ready to convert to paid only shows in 2018, so if ESPN wasn't willing to pay, it was time to cut ties. There may still be a few more PBC shows on ESPN later in the year. The two sides are arguing about who owes what for when as some dates were pushed back. But the bottom line is that ESPN is having financial problems, has no interest in paying for boxing, so PBC wants to minimize/avoid additional payments to ESPN.

PBC is basically FS1 and bounce. Haymon is sending all his fighters back to showtime.

Showtime is PBC's primary partner and always has been. Haymon put his fighters on NBC & ESPN a few times. Couldn't get those networks to bite. Put his fighters on Fox a few times and it looks like Fox will bite.

Haymon has more power than he's ever had and more world champions than he's ever had. He has more control at Showtime than he's ever had and a bigger budget at Showtime than he's ever had.

How can PBC be a failure when Haymon is sitting in a much better situation today than he was before PBC launched? Showtime is now the #1 network for boxing and Haymon gets almost their entire budget to play with.

[original zero]

isnt Bellator considered a "fight entity"? And didnt the Spike mouthpiece say that they were adding more Bellator dates?

They own Bellator. No need to sign a long term agreement with them. They own the company. So even though Spike is being replaced by The Paramount Network, Bellator will still have a home as Viacom has invested millions into Bellator and isn't going to cancel a show they own.

The head of The Paramount Network publicly confirmed WEEKS AGO they they weren't looking to do any boxing after the switch over. The network is going in a completely different direction. Bellator is staying because they own it, but the boxing and kickboxing direction Spike wanted to go in doesn't fit anymore with the rebranding.

[jdp28tx]

But nobody is bailing on anything. The contract between PBC and Spike expired. They're talking about doing more fights. Spike isn't going to sign another long term deal when the network is moving away from live sports and undergoing a complete rebranding an overhaul next year.

Spike wanted to become a fight network for men, but now Spike is being replaced by the Paramount Network, which wants to focus on scripted programming and appealing more to women. With the entire network in turmoil and being completely replaced in less than 12 months, what made you think Spike would sign another multiyear deal with any fight entity?





ESPN is paying Golden Boy $0. It's a complete non-factor.

Wow,denial, rationalization, desperation, trying to hold onto something that is no longer viable. I have never seen a more appropriate username for some1.