What Ended HBO Boxing In Your Opinion?

[Eff Pandas]

Showtime getting Mayweather?

Haymon/PBC?

Bob leaving for ESPN?

HBO reducing their budget to better compete with their real competitors like Amazon Prime & Netflix?

A combo of all of those things?

Or something else entirely? Feel free to explain.

[FinitoxDinamita]

Peter Nelson

[Beercules]

I think Big D*ck Bob leaving really put the nail in the coffin.

[paulf]

It started with Ross Greenburg and Kerry Davis.

While HBO was taking part in bizarre demographic/racial targeted programming (culminating in their Bradley-Alexander disaster), Showtime was only interested in showing the best fights: they were doing the Super Six, the Bantamweight tourney, etc. HBO was trying to pick the superstars before they'd sold a single ticket, while Showtime was letting the fans decide.

Showtime grew and started outbidding big name guys from HBO, which resulted in HBO banning Golden Boy/Haymon from the network entirely and this whole promoter/network war got worse than it already was.

That's an oversimplification.... lots has happened in the interim.... but it was the beginning of the end. HBO completely lost touch after Seth Abraham left. Ross and Kerry were clueless and HBO was a dinosaur with a lot of money to throw around, but the pot kept shrinking every year, while money available from other networks was growing.

The Spectrum merger sped up HBO boxing's death, I work in the tech industry and I can tell you firsthand, that 18 months ravaged both companies. Jobs have been eliminated, construction allowances disappeared, and the entire environment has been toxic as hell. HBO tightened the purse strings as well, but this isnt 2002.... the promoters didn't wait around and went elsewhere.

One day HBO turned around and all they had left was Main Events and K2. Canelo, a PPV fighter, doesn't count as he's not even on the regular network.

They royally shit the bed and have only themselves to blame.

[Jsmooth9876]

At&T acquisition killed HBO boxing.

[TBear]

Any credit given to the Internet? Why should HBO spend so much when anyone can watch it online for free. They are taking a risk however because many of their loyal subscribers will drop the programing this year.

[Zaryu]

I think it was a mix of all those factors. Similar to a couple who had just being growing apart for years, I could see it coming.

[Willy Wanker]

I think Big D*ck Bob leaving really put the nail in the coffin.

This.

I'll say all of the above, but Arum leaving was the pretty much the end of it.

[GGG Gloveking]

Mayweather did it.

51-0

[Pigeons]

Banning Golden Boy fighters in 2013 after Mayweather left for HBO was the beggining. Golden Boy back then was Schaefer and Haymon, of course.


The Time Warner/AT&T merger which reduced their budget and led to Top Rank leaving for ESPN was the final nail in the coffin.