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

[OnePunch]

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.

So Haymon pissed away over half a billion dollars but gained "control" of "most" of a network budget of $25 or $30 million a year??

seems legit.

[original zero]

So Haymon pissed away over half a billion dollars but gained "control" of "most" of a network budget of $25 or $30 million a year??

seems legit.

Terry, you have no idea how much was spent. You have no idea how much is left.

But is there any dis*****g that Haymon has more control over major US boxing than ever before? Has more world champions than ever before? So many world champions that HBO has become an endless series of WBOgus title fights?

Showtime's budget is growing while HBO's budget is shrinking. CBS/Viacom is more committed to boxing than ever and HBO is less committed to boxing than ever. Haymon has Fox in his back pocket now as well.

Use your brain Terry. Take the tin foil off. Look where US boxing is headed in the next decade and please explain to me how anybody is going to stop Haymon from accumulating more and more power?

[OnePunch]

Terry, you have no idea how much was spent. You have no idea how much is left.

But is there any dis*****g that Haymon has more control over major US boxing than ever before? Has more world champions than ever before? So many world champions that HBO has become an endless series of WBOgus title fights?

Showtime's budget is growing while HBO's budget is shrinking. CBS/Viacom is more committed to boxing than ever and HBO is less committed to boxing than ever. Haymon has Fox in his back pocket now as well.

Use your brain Terry. Take the tin foil off. Look where US boxing is headed in the next decade and please explain to me how anybody is going to stop Haymon from accumulating more and more power?

I dont know that Haymon has any more "control" now, than he had with say Kerry Davis back in the day. He just has more mouths to feed. What I see as his biggest liability is what does he do with his "mid-level" guys? The ones too numerous and not quite big enough for Showtime, but maybe too big to be off-tv undercard bouts or even dark shows. He doesnt have enough tv outlets to keep 200+ fighters busy. Something will have to fill the void of those Spike and ESPN level outlets.

And I will let you in on a little secret. Not everyone who happens to disagree with you has tin foil on the windows or whatever. I know this might come as a shock to you, but believe it or not, people might actually think differently than you about certain topics. (I know, I know, the nerve of me to actually disagree with you.......tsk..tsk...)

[original zero]

I dont know that Haymon has any more "control" now, than he had with say Kerry Davis back in the day. He just has more mouths to feed. What I see as his biggest liability is what does he do with his "mid-level" guys? The ones too numerous and not quite big enough for Showtime, but maybe too big to be off-tv undercard bouts or even dark shows. He doesnt have enough tv outlets to keep 200+ fighters busy. Something will have to fill the void of those Spike and ESPN level outlets.

He has way more control over major US boxing now than he did then. Even at the peak of his HBO influence, he still had to share that HBO budget way more than he has to share the Showtime budget and the Showtime budget is quickly surpassing what HBO was spending back then.

For the guys not big enough for Showtime, he has plenty of dates on FS1, he owns Bounce and can create as many dates as he wants, and striking a larger deal with Fox in 2018 is seeming likely.

And what alternative was there? Stay with all his eggs in the HBO basket? Look at what is happening at HBO right now. He'd be completely ****ed if he didn't make the switch to Showtime and develop the relationship with Fox.

He doesn't have to keep 200+ fighters busy. He owes his fighters nothing other than his best efforts. Haymon is growing the boxing pie. More opportunities for more fighters. What was the alternative? Would those 200+ fighters be better off if Haymon had never entered the boxing business?

And I will let you in on a little secret. Not everyone who happens to disagree with you has tin foil on the windows or whatever.

Dozens have disagreed with me, yet you are the ONLY ONE accused of wearing tin foil. So it's not a secret. It's very clear. You are Tin Foil Terry. Nobody else.

[JJRod]

This answer to your question as to why Haymon put PBC on so may networks is because he was trying to monopolize the sport by locking out all all other promoters from getting tv deals. That is the only explanation for doing such an insane plan. ESPN, FOX, Fox Sports1, Bounce, CBS, NBC, Showtime, Spike. Haymon was just trying to cuttoff access to tv for other promoters. So he was making an educated guess on which networks boxing would possibly go to. Instead of putting on great competitive fights on a few channels and beating his competition with a better product Haymon, instead used his millions to try and gain control over the entire sport (which logically can't be done) that explains the multiple channels, the overpaying fighters purses, sitting on venues to block use by other promoters, stealing fighters from golden boy using that douche bag Schaefer, blocking his fighters from using other promoters, trying to cut out the sanctioning bodies.

But, as many of us said 2 yrs ago his plan was going to fail and it failed spectacularly. So spectacularly that he has probably set boxing back 10-15yrs. For some reason people think just because Haymon went to Harvard that made him a genius, boy were they wrong.

It really does suck for the fans though.
Guy had a lot of great fighters signed to him.
He could have bought times on Fox sports and fox Español and had a show once a week with caliber fights. Instead he had fights all over the place, too far and in between, some competitive some a farce.

Sad for us the fans.

[bigdunny1]

http://ucnlive.com/pbc-still-espn/

Is the PBC still on ESPN?
by Steve Kim

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Dan Rafael wrote about how Spike’s network affiliation with Premier Boxing Champions had – for the time being – reached its conclusion.

Tonight was originally scheduled to be the season premiere of “PBC on ESPN” – which was announced with great fanfare in 2015 as the PBC launched time-buys on various networks – but while it still might be on your cable guide (as it is on mine), the date has been scrubbed clean.

This ESPN press release which was sent out on May 21, 2015:

“In March, ESPN announced a multi-year agreement to televise Premier Boxing Champions, a series created for television by Haymon Boxing, featuring top-level fights between many of boxing’s biggest names. PBC on ESPN will air 12, two-hour live shows annually on ESPN and ABC. ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language network, will also televise all PBC on ESPN fights as part of its Noche de Combates series and ESPN International will present coverage across its networks in Latin America, Brazil, the Caribbean and Pacific Rim. Live coverage will also be available through WatchESPN on computers, smartphones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One via an affiliated video provider.”

The initial card on “The Worldwide Leader” took place on July 11, 2015 from the USF Sundome in Tampa, Florida, and featured Keith Thurman against Luis Collazo. Then, on Aug. 1, they aired a card from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, that had Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergio Mora and Danny Garcia vs. Paulie Malignaggi. They finished out the summer on Aug. 29 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles as Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares put forth 12 hard rounds.

On Oct. 14, the ESPN2 broadcast featured Devon Alexander vs. Aron Martinez (with a co-main of Lee Selby-Fernando Montiel) and they concluded the year on Nov. 25 with Erislandy Lara taking on Jan Zaveck.

Based on the original press release, it was expected that PBC on ESPN would continue with monthly cards and, given the stature of this network – which scrapped its long-running “Friday Night Fights” series for the PBC – this platform would be provide significant match-ups.

But they didn’t start their 2016 campaign till July 9 and it featured a fight between Mario Barrios and Devis Boschiero on a card that quite frankly was reminiscent of the Friday Night Fights series but without the atmosphere and fun. In 2016, PBC on ESPN only aired five cards – all of them during the summer months.

(July 15: Sergey Lipinets- Walter Castillo, July 21: Sergey Derevyanchenko-Sam Soliman, Aug. 5: David Benavidez-Denis Douglin and Aug. 12: Miguel Flores-Ryan Kielczweski filled the remaining slots).

No cards ever took place on ABC.

There was a steep decline in quality and magnitude during Year Two with ESPN and certainly nowhere close to the number of shows that were announced originally. Multiple sources in the industry tell UCNLive.com that, at the beginning of 2016, Brian Kweder (who was actually in charge of ESPN’s boxing programming till the end of Friday Night Fights and helped facilitate Al Haymon’s entry into the network) was sent to Bristol, Connecticut, by the PBC (with whom he was hired as a consultant after being laid off by ESPN) to have conversations about making adjustments on the deal.

Word is the network basically rebuffed such a request, believing, ironically, that Kweder had made such a good deal on their behalf.

So just what happened to the current dates? On the ESPN.com boxing schedule, while there is a plethora of boxing on the calendar from all across the world on various networks, there are no PBC on ESPN dates currently listed. The April 14 PBC card on ESPN, which was listed only as “Venue-TBA,” was taken down last week. PBC does have broadcasts listed for Showtime, FS1/FOX Deportes and Bounce TV.

But that doesn’t mean ESPN is out of the boxing business. Late last year, it was announced that Golden Boy Promotions had entered a deal with ESPN to show fights on their various platforms and those slots are being filled in accordingly.

The scuttlebutt is Haymon owes several millions to the network and litigation could be pending.

When contacted by UCNLive.com about the status of their relationship with ESPN, Tim Smith, the Director of Communications for the PBC, said (via email), “We still have a great relationship with ESPN, as we do with all our television partners. We’re in the process of determining how best to position certain fights on certain networks, as we move forward with the Premier Boxing Champions series.”

[OnePunch]

He doesn't have to keep 200+ fighters busy. He owes his fighters nothing other than his best efforts. Haymon is growing the boxing pie. More opportunities for more fighters. What was the alternative? Would those 200+ fighters be better off if Haymon had never entered the boxing business?

what a GREAT mission statement. They should center a marketing campaign around that.

"PBC. We don't have to keep you busy. We owe you nothing"

Has such a nice ring to it, dont you think?

[original zero]

what a GREAT mission statement. They should center a marketing campaign around that.

"PBC. We don't have to keep you busy. We owe you nothing"

Has such a nice ring to it, dont you think?

You completely ignored my questions though Terry. How many of those 200 fighters would be better off if Haymon never entered the business?

[OnePunch]

You completely ignored my questions though Terry. How many of those 200 fighters would be better off if Haymon never entered the business?

I dont know the answer to that and neither do you. Its impossible to say what other opportunities they might have had if they werent locked into a deal where they cant even take a **** without papa Al giving them the nod.

I guess that all depends on if your magical mystical 9-figure content deal from CBS or Fox comes through like you keep claiming it will.

Wait, whats that up there? Is that Les Moonves riding a unicorn carrying a bag of Krugerands? Oh, no, it was just some kid in a Civic with a fart pipe and stickers all over it

[Porter's Dad]

He has way more control over major US boxing now than he did then. Even at the peak of his HBO influence, he still had to share that HBO budget way more than he has to share the Showtime budget and the Showtime budget is quickly surpassing what HBO was spending back then.

And what has all this accumulated power brought to the boxing world? Whilst boxing is flourishing around the world, it has never been in a more dire state in America. And it isn't a coincidence that this has happened whilst Haymon's power base has increased.

The guy somehow knows how to get people to give him money and power - but what does he do with it? Has he created a star yet? For such a powerful guy, he somehow struggles to make one of his fighters a P4Per or a cross-over star.

Has boxing in America progressed since the PBC started or has it stagnated or even regressed?

I don't understand how people think it is all peachy. Al Haymon is not, nor ever will be the saviour of boxing. He's barely even a positive for boxing.