Anyone else hate that blue spotlight HBO uses during PPV's?

[RichardP]

its cool. They should use more of it!

[Antwuan Maxx]

This is from an article with Todd Duboef on Maxboxing.com...

One of the keys in DuBoef’s mind to building the brand of boxing is to turn each fight into the best “event” possible. Part of that involves enhancing the overall in-arena experience.

“I’ve learned a lot from watching UFC,” Todd says. “They do a great job of energizing the crowd and keeping it engaged. We have to do more of that in boxing. Other sports have changed their presentation. Baseball added mascots and music. Cheerleaders in the NFL are different from what cheerleaders used to be. Too many promoters today ignore the on-site fan. And too many television executives don’t understand that part of a great telecast is having a live audience that’s involved in the action and having a great time.”

DuBoef is committed to making the experience of watching a fight in the arena more entertaining than it has been in recent years. He spent US$150,000 to rent a light board for the MGM Grand Garden Arena when Manny Pacquiao fought Miguel Cotto. When Pacquiao fought Joshua Clottey in Cowboys Stadium, the arena was bathed in a futuristic silver-blue light.

“Todd is a showman,” HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg acknowledges. “There’s no doubt that he has elevated the big-event feeling for boxing to a new level. For Pacquiao-Clottey, we gave him what we usually allocate for sound and lighting and told him that, if he wanted to spend more, he could supplement it out of Top Rank’s pocket. With the big screen and sound and blue-lit lighting, he made the event feel like a mini-Super Bowl.”