Lemiuex vs. Fabion Rios. No money in HBO budget for Stevens or Kirkland

[Eff Pandas]

Budget problems or not he botched the Ward-Kovalev build up. They aren't invested in the HW division so scrap the Klitschko-Fury license fee and put the money towards Ward and Kovalev's tune ups. And do we really need another Canelo/GGG fight in December if they aren't fighting each other or any worthwhile opponent?

Well I do agree there is a top heavy issue they are dealing with. But he inherited that problem. He basically came into his role with the P4P top ten & a smaller budget then HBO has ever had since the 1980's I bet. Thats a difficult road for anyone to manage I think. A $25M budget with 7 or 8 guys who want $1.5M or more per fight & fight 2-3 times a year is a math problem more than anything else when you are trying to find opponents for those guys.

[Motorcity Cobra]

Well I do agree there is a top heavy issue they are dealing with. But he inherited that problem. He basically came into his role with the P4P top ten & a smaller budget then HBO has ever had since the 1980's I bet. Thats a difficult road for anyone to manage I think. A $25M budget with 7 or 8 guys who want $1.5M or more per fight & fight 2-3 times a year is a math problem more than anything else when you are trying to find opponents for those guys.

And that's where a leader steps in and puts his foot down and gets creative. His lack of experience in TV is showing. And a lot of brain trust left when he got the job. He's showing us the direction he wants to take which is allow his two top fighters to dick around and eat up the budget.

[Eff Pandas]

And that's where a leader steps in and puts his foot down and gets creative. His lack of experience in TV is showing. And a lot of brain trust left when he got the job. He's showing us the direction he wants to take which is allow his two top fighters to dick around and eat up the budget.

I don't think anyone is THAT creative. Like legit they got several guys (6 or 7 lets say for an off the dome guess) in the $1.5M+ range, who are fighting 2+ times. So thats $3M+ per guy for $18M-$21M+ total of their budget just for the A side without an opponent. And HBO allegedly has a $30M or less budget? I mean cmon man thats a hard curve to turn however you go at it. I can feel for Nelson in this position.

And I think he's been the creative guy with HBO hence him getting his current position. He's responsible for GGG & Roman even being there from my understanding & those guys arguable aren't even getting their true value there.

[kiaba360]

That's a damn shame.

[R_Walken]

I don't think you can blame Nelson. I think Nelson's hands are tied with the money HBO is giving him. I mean ffs they had $60M-$100M for most of the last couple decades running boxing. Now they allegedly have under $30M. Can't make lemonade outta dog****.



100% agree. HBO getting smaller for the last 15 or so years has made it so a guy with Haymon's ideas to jump in. I fully expect someone else to jump in within the next decade after Haymon fails should Haymon fail. The smaller boxing gets the more likely it'll be for a "hostile takeover" of sorts.



HBO has been dropping their budget for boxing for 15ish years. There has been stars to push during that time. This isn't about finding someone to throw money at with boxing trunks on. This is about HBO throwing money at non-boxing investments to better compete with Netflix & their real competition.

I think you can put most of the blame on Nelson I don't think he's done a great job, HBO has essentially nosedived since he took over and went from the #1 boxing outlet for the last 20 years to a distant 2nd( Do you still feel HBo is #1 for boxing anymore) and it took at little over a year to fall from grace even though he has supposedly the top 10 p4p on his side, Instead of allocating his budget on his marquee vs no hopers in public executions( GGG vs Wade ) ( Ward/Brand ) or fights that no one asks for or cares about (Ortiz/Thompson) and basically almost every other fight with the exception of Salido/Vargas this year put those resources to better use in fights fans actually want to watch.

I don't buy that excuse with 25-30 million to play with Nelson could come up with more then 2 intriguing fights ( Salido/Vargas & Ali/Vargas ) so far this year and another 2 in the pipeline ( Ggg/Brook & Chocolatito / Caudes )

Just my take

[Jsmooth9876]

And that's where a leader steps in and puts his foot down and gets creative. His lack of experience in TV is showing. And a lot of brain trust left when he got the job. He's showing us the direction he wants to take which is allow his two top fighters to dick around and eat up the budget.

Top 2? Crawford had a few garbage fights, Ward got 2 tuneups, Kovalev got a unneeded Pascal rematch and a Russia fight, it's all of them eating up the budget against mostly no hopers... But that's boxing nowadays, mismatch after mismatch with huge purses for the A side fighter that they should t be getting for the inferior competition they're facing. Then when it comes time to make a good fight like Crawford-Postol they can't afford to pay for it. They need to get back to good competitive fights and stop with all the showcase fights.

[hhs661]

I'm waiting to see a few posters on here discuss this matchup the way they do pbcs lol

[Motorcity Cobra]

Top 2? Crawford had a few garbage fights, Ward got 2 tuneups, Kovalev got a unneeded Pascal rematch and a Russia fight, it's all of them eating up the budget against mostly no hopers... But that's boxing nowadays, mismatch after mismatch with huge purses for the A side fighter that they should t be getting for the inferior competition they're facing. Then when it comes time to make a good fight like Crawford-Postol they can't afford to pay for it. They need to get back to good competitive fights and stop with all the showcase fights.

I agree 100%. I'll take quality over quantity every time.

[Motorcity Cobra]

So with Ortiz gone is HBO completely out of the Heavyweight division? I guess they'll show Fury vs. Kltischko.

[PivotandRoll]

lemuiex destroys him

Only because it'll look real bad for GGG if he doesn't right? lol just ****ing with you.... Lemieux should have this