Showtime Vs HBO

[Josh2k5]

I only have HBO. I had a trial subscription to Showtime some time back and it was cool watching some of their fights. HBO has some good fights but the commentary is pretty biased sometimes in favor of certain fighters. And depending on how you look at it, Larry Merchant can be entertaining to watch for the laughs (laughing at him), or he can be real annoying. Who knows what the hell he ever says. He always tries to say something profound and insightful but only manages to sound like a complete jackass in the end.

And as far as the other commentators go -- Roy Jones Jr. and George Foreman (is he still with em?) -- they have a WAY better perspective on the sport and the fighters and not to mention, reality, than Merchant, and Lampley is ok.

[BoxingHound]

I love boxing so I have them both. I watch HBO, Showtime, ESPN2 and whatever my DVR records for me with 'boxing' in the title. But if I 'had' to pick just one.....HBO.

[Brother Mouzone]

i watch both hbo and showtime for the boxing as far as the commentators goes hbo lampley and merchant tend to be bias for certain fighters which can be anoying but merchant says something funny from time to time to make up for it plus he is not afraid to tell a fighter how he feels for example if the guy fought a bum he will let them know. showtime has bernstein and alberts for commentary they call the fight as it is with no bias and they seem to have more knowledge of boxing than their hbo counterparts.as far as fights go showtime tends to show better non ppv fights recently they have showed :
casamyor vs. corrales 2
castillo vs. casamayor
freitas vs. corrales
freitas vs. barrios
tzyu vs. mitchell
and they will show hatton vs. tzyu . hbo on the other hand have shown : pac vs. barrera
pac vs. marquez
these are the only 2 i can think of that can be put on the samelist as the one's showtime has shown . but they both put crappy cards on ppv hbo had fana vs. barerra that was not even worth being on hbo after dark and showtime has tyson's next fight on ppv which is redicolous . hbo does put on better ppv overall . so they are both pretty much even i will watch either as long as they are putting on good fights .

[kovy]

I like the matchups on shobox. They have more "anonymous" fighters on there but fans of the sport know them and the matchups are excellent. I like where ESPN has been going lately. Hopefully Teddy Atlas and the boys will improve at that.

[masterdirector]

HBO just has the better overall appeal. It is definitely because of better production values and all. HBO has that classical "its time to watch the big fight" song. Showtime has "its wrasslin' tonight!" song, which is the most annoying song ever...except maybe that Fox Sports song, which is eerily similar.

HBO has a more crisp look. Better quality cameras are used. My 3 CCD, Panasonic GS-200 can produce as good of quality as Showtime. Which I mean, is pretty ****ing good for a commercial home video camera, but not at all good for a big premium channel network.

Commentary...Lampley is clearly a better commentator. His voice is better than anybody else doing commentary. So even when he says some of his stupidity, it at least sounds good. But, imagine if Lampley left.

Imagine Larry Merchant doing commentary alone. Or even worse, Harold Lederman. Merchant is an annoying old ****, but Lederman, damn, his voice, OMG I just want to put my fist through the f'n TV screen! WTF is he always laughing at anyhow?!!!

"Ha! Ya know Jim, Ha! I gave Ruiz that first round cause I felt Ruiz's shoes matched his penis better than round Jim, Ha!" - Harold Lederman

My favorite commentator currently is Steve Farhood. He knows his **** the best. And he typically doesn't just talk a bunch of bull****, trying to hype people too much. His biggest problem is quite frankly his on-air appearance. He looks like a ****ing chess team captain nerd.

My ideal commentary team would be Max Kellerman, Steve Farhood, and Roy Jones as the special commentator. Or I think Tyson would be good. Tyson did some commentary, or at least was on the headset one time for a fight and did well.


ESPN. Damn, that PPV, they needed something to differentiate from the Friday Night Fights format. I paid $30 and I would've liked to have at least seen some more appealing, more PPV looking graphics. It kept ****ing me up when they weren't cutting to commercial between rounds. Not once the whole night did I hear "less filling, tastes great." My point is, it felt like I'd just paid $30 to watch FNF. Not a huge deal, cause yeah I was watching for the fights, not the graphics. But still.


ESPN has had some really ****ty commentators. Kevin Corke and Fran Charles were pretty bad, but usually just fill-ins. Bob Papa was a ****ing joke. Notice how his scorecard was ALWAYS just one point different than Atlas'? And when I mean one point, I mean JUST one point, only. Like if Atlas had a fight 96-94, Papa would have it 96-95, where only one fighter's point changed. He wasn't even smart enough to change both fighters' points by one.

Mario Diaz on Tuesday Night Fights 2-3 years ago was the absolute worst. I still laugh my ass off sometimes when I recall Max Kellerman and Mario Diaz doing commentary. Kellerman mentions one fighter is a cutie, obviously meaning he's a slick fighter. A little later, Mario Diaz says some **** like "Ah, that boxer there is pretty hot looking too huh Max." Clearly Diaz's stupid ass thought Max was saying he thought a boxer was attractive when he was talking about his fighting style! LMAO!

[vB Martin]

I could give 2 ****s about big names. If that's your thing, you're not really as much of a fan of the sport as you are a fan of the fighters. I'll take 2 nobdies in a competitive match over Big Klit vs Kirk "The Pillsbury Homeboy" Johnson any day of the week.

[repsa]

I prefer watching guys fight that actually have potential. I would rather watch guys I have heard of, but I never want to see my favorite fighter in competitive matches. I would much rather see my fighter destroy everyone he faces. I don't care about seeing two useless twits battling in an unskilled brawl, most of the time.

Emmanuel Burton, or Augustus I suppose, he can fight. It is a crying shame that he is content to joke his career away. I have seen him "lose" fights that he really won and also seen him carry guys that he could have put away. He is a naturally gifted fighter, but it seems that he refuses to exploit his God given talent. He should sign with a promoter and try making some noise at 135 or 140. I felt that he beat Mickey Ward in their close fight.

[DoubleTap`]

I only have ESPN, there's hardly ever any fights. I have to download them which sucks and I can never find a decent fight I wanna watch. The Contender is on NBC so I guess it's not all bad.

[rudy]

HBO show more fights does not mean they are better for example who the hell wanted to watch Wladmir Klitscko vs Castillo that was a joke. They have some real rubbish including Vargas vs Joval that should have been on espn. They are making too many major mistakes ie for example they never shown the Briggs vs Adamenek instead show a replay of a one side fight which was boring.

HBO and SKY are just the same they provide lots of boxing sometimes sometimes really bad. Showtime u know your getting a good fight that is for sure

[masterdirector]

Wlad vs. Castillo and Brewster vs. Golota were both ridiculous for sure. I also think it is stupid that they offer the same PPV that was $50 last week for free the very next week. Everybody knows it, so why are casual fans who don't give a damn going to shell out that money? All they gotta do is wait a week and see it then. And casual fans can easily go a week without figuring out who won the fight. Not like they'll accidentally hear the result on the news 99 % of the time.