What has happened to Premier Boxing Champions? Dan Rafael Article

[John Locke]

It looks like PBC is on its last legs. Big shame, Al had the right idea, but too much to do on his hands, plus the execution wasn't great, purses too high, too many mismatches. Easy to say on here though.

The question now is, what happens to all his fighters? Are they heading back to Showtime? He's got 200+ mouths to feed.

[Pigeons]

The end is near. Good riddance.

[RightJabLikeZab]

there aren't that many high caliber fights for the rest of the year as of now. not even on showtime or hbo.

[Adonis Creed]

It'll be interesting to see the fallout from all this.

[krazyn8tive]

What has happened to Premier Boxing Champions?

When Al Haymon's series began with massive hype in March 2015, PBC rolled out one fight card after another on numerous networks as part of its extensive time buy. It was almost impossible to keep up with all the fight announcements and the networks they were on -- NBC, CBS, ESPN, NBCSN, Spike, Bounce TV, Fox, FS1. Did I miss any?

Now, it is not so hard at all. In fact, it is easy. There is but one single card on the schedule and it is nothing to get excited about. It's a weak show on Sept. 27 in Santa Fe, New Mexico on FS1 that is headlined by welterweight Bryant Perrella against Yordenis Ugas. A significant and interesting fight this is not.

This is a long way from when there were often multiple PBC cards per week populated by name fighters as Haymon spent his investors' roughly $500 million lavishly as though it would never run out.

Now it is plainly clear that the war chest has been badly depleted, even though PBC officials are loathe to talk about it.

I regularly examine purse payout sheets from the state commissions and the PBC fighter purses have dropped substantially from where they were last year. The production costs have been slashed also, which is why the huge stage and the blue and red fighter holding areas are gone; it costs a lot to truck them around the country. Other bells and whistles have also been eliminated to save money, according to multiple people involved in producing PBC telecasts.

And since there is less money being thrown around, it is why the quality of fights has been dramatically reduced. One only has to look at the recently completed summer ESPN run of PBC cards. Last year we got big-time fights like Leo Santa Cruz against Abner Mares at Staples Center in front of a huge Los Angeles crowd and fights with major names such as Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia. Those fights cost millions.

This summer we got the likes of Sergey Lipinets against Walter Castillo in a quiet casino in a main event that cost a tiny fraction of what the previous year's main events cost.

Showtime (which pays for fights as opposed to being a time buy) is planning some fall PBC cards but there are only two more slated for Spike (none until Nov. 12). Those networks figure to have some of the better names and higher level fights. However, one outlet that has had the most significant PBC fights is NBC, which said Wednesday that it will not televise any other cards this year, either on the main network or its NBCSN cable network. Several dates for the remainder of the year have been canceled, including two December prime time NBC cards and at least three NBCSN cards.

"We are working with the PBC folks to move remaining shows to better dates in first 2-3 months of '17," an NBC spokesman told ESPN.com on Wednesday.

Since the cards on FS1 and Bounce TV are generally prospect oriented or lower level fights, there are few outlets left this year for the slew of top PBC fighters to fight on. There are no more ESPN cards this year (and they were turned into lower-level cards anyway) nor are there any more scheduled for Fox or CBS.

Yet there are a whole bunch of top fighters aligned with PBC who have only fought once this year who are in need of bouts. They include Daniel Jacobs, Garcia, Thurman, Shawn Porter, Adonis Stevenson, Andre Berto, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Julian Williams, Erislandy Lara, Vanes Martirosyan, James DeGale, Badou Jack, Anthony Dirrell, Andre Dirrell, Austin Trout, Adrien Broner, Rances Barthelemy, Gary Russell Jr., John Molina Jr., Dejan Zlaticanin, Jose Pedraza, Edner Cherry and Lee Selby, among others.

Perhaps some of the fighters have fought only once by design but certainly not all of them or even most of them. But when so much of the money that was once there to bankroll PBC cards is gone, it's hard to keep guys busy at their expected purse level.

There are others who have not fought at all this year, including Peter Quillin, Devon Alexander, Lamont Peterson, Jesus Cuellar and Abner Mares.


Of course, some of these fighters will be scheduled before the end of the year. It would seem as though a fight such as the Cuellar-Mares featherweight title bout, called off in July, will be rescheduled before the sun sets on 2016. Also, for example, there is supposedly a deal between junior middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo and mandatory challenger Julian Williams to fight this fall, which is why the purse bid was canceled. Stevenson likely will face mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez this fall. And Jacobs, a secondary middleweight titlist and a mandatory challenger for unified titleholder Gennady Golovkin, may wind up crossing the street to HBO for the high-profile/big-money fight in late November or early December.

"Most people in TV sports programming stay away from trying to counter program college football, the NFL, MLB playoffs and the start of the NBA season in October and November," PBC spokesman Tim Smith said. "PBC is a TV boxing series and as such it's mindful of the sports programming around it and it wants to maximize potential viewership among sports fans."

Of course, that was not an issue last fall, when the money was flowing and there were several PBC cards.

So will there really be room for all of these fighters given that there are so few remaining PBC dates left in 2016, especially now that NBC is dormant until 2017?

http://www.espn.com/blog/dan-rafael/...xing-champions

Half of NSB called this

[MasterPlan]

They cancelled all of the NBC cards but they rescheduled them for next year. That's a good thing right?

[yngwie]

Lmao Haymon has a stronghold at 147 and 154 aside from that it's very sparse.

Fabian Maidana - none
Sakio Bika - none
Steve Lovett - none
Kevin Bizier - none
Phil Lo Greco - none
Adonis Stevenson - none
Eleider Alvarez - none
Oscar Rivas - none
Rances Barhelemy - none
Erislandy Lara - none
Umberto Savigne - none
Felix Diaz - none
Juan Dominguez - none
Jonathan Guzman - none
Juan Carlos Payano - none
Edwin Rodriguez - none
Ahmed Elbiali - none
Koki Kamada - none
Tomoki Kameda - none
beibut shumenov - none
alfredo angulo - none
moises flores - none
Roberto Garcia - none
alejandro gonzalez jr - none
Jorge Lara - none
Abnar Mares - none
Hugo Ruiz - none
Leo Santa cruz - none
Miguel Vazquez - none
Walter Castillo - none
Wale Omotoso - none
andrzej fonfara - none
Glowacki - none
maciej sulecki - none
Artur spilza - none
patryk szymański - none
Luis cruz - none
Roman Martinez - none
Jose Pedraza - none
Emmanual Rodriguez - none
Keith Tapia - none
carlos ivan velasquez - none
Lucian Bute - none
Artur Beterbiev - none
sergey lipinets - none
sergey rabchenko - none
immanuel aleem - none
Devon Alexander- none
Chris Arreola - none
James degale - none
Carlo Frampton - none
Lee Selby - none
Amir Khan - none
David Benedivas - none
dominic breazeale - none
Adrien Broner - none
Andre Berto - none
Marcus Browne - none
Wilky Camport - none
Hugo Centeno Jr - none
Jermall Charlo - none
Jermell Charlo - none
Jamontay CLark - none
Luis Collazo - none
Steve Cunningham - none
Gervonta Davis - none
Chad Dawson - none
Justin Deloach - none
Sergiy Derevachenko - none
Anthony Dirrell - none
Andre Dirrell - none
Domonique DOlton - none
Omar DOuglas - none
Robert Easter - none
Rickey Edwards = none
Thomas Williams - none
Julian Williams - none
Deontay WIlder - none
Gerald Washington - none
Kevin Watts - none
Rau'shee Warren - none
Sammy Vazquez - nonw
Caleb Truax - none
Austin Trout - none
Keith Thurman - none
Isiah Thomas - none
Antonio Tarver - none
javontae starks - none
Errol Spence- none
Jordan Shimmell - none
Michael seals- none
Gary Russel - none
Haskell Rhodes- none
Eddie Ramirez - none
Peter Quillin - none
Darwin Price- none
Shawn Porter - none
Lamont Peterson - none
Anthony Peterson - none
Caleb Plant- none
Victor Ortiz - none
Danny O'Conner- none
Earl Newman - none
Sergio Mora- none
John Molina jr - none
Malclom Macallister - none
Vanes Martoisyon - none
Charles Martin - none
Alex Martin - none
Paul Malignaggi -- none
Alejandro Luna - none
Erikson Lubin - none
J'Leon Love- none
Joseito Lopez - none
Ryan Kielczweski - none
Travis Kaufman - none
Ryan Karl - none
Jamal James -none
Danny Jacobs- none
Julius Jackson - none
John Jackson - none
Jarrett Hurd - none
Thomas hill - none
Jamal Herring - none
Mar anthony hernandez - none
Tony Harrison - none
Robert Geurrero - none
Fernando Geurrero -none
Terrell Gausha - none
David Grayton - none
Mikey Garcia - none
Danny Garcia - none
Frank Galarza - none
Dennis Galarza - none
Omar figeroa - none
Joseph elegele
Javier Fortuna - Marlyn Cabrera ,non pbc card
Kanat Islam - Patrick Atolley in Kazakhstan non pbc card
Bryant Perrella - fighting yordenis Ugas
Bj Flores - fighting a matchroom card

Looks like a really solid stable to me.

[killakali]

They cancelled all of the NBC cards but they rescheduled them for next year. That's a good thing right?

its only two cards. then nbc is out of the pbc business

[mathed]

"Hymen's got a lot of mouths to feed."

[killakali]

Fabian Maidana - none
Sakio Bika - none
Steve Lovett - none
Kevin Bizier - none
Phil Lo Greco - none
Adonis Stevenson - none
Eleider Alvarez - none
Oscar Rivas - none
Rances Barhelemy - none
Erislandy Lara - none
Umberto Savigne - none
Felix Diaz - none
Juan Dominguez - none
Jonathan Guzman - none
Juan Carlos Payano - none
Edwin Rodriguez - none
Ahmed Elbiali - none
Koki Kamada - none
Tomoki Kameda - none
beibut shumenov - none
alfredo angulo - none
moises flores - none
Roberto Garcia - none
alejandro gonzalez jr - none
Jorge Lara - none
Abnar Mares - none
Hugo Ruiz - none
Leo Santa cruz - none
Miguel Vazquez - none
Walter Castillo - none
Wale Omotoso - none
andrzej fonfara - none
Glowacki - none
maciej sulecki - none
Artur spilza - none
patryk szymański - none
Luis cruz - none
Roman Martinez - none
Jose Pedraza - none
Emmanual Rodriguez - none
Keith Tapia - none
carlos ivan velasquez - none
Lucian Bute - none
Artur Beterbiev - none
sergey lipinets - none
sergey rabchenko - none
immanuel aleem - none
Devon Alexander- none
Chris Arreola - none
James degale - none
Carlo Frampton - none
Lee Selby - none
Amir Khan - none
David Benedivas - none
dominic breazeale - none
Adrien Broner - none
Andre Berto - none
Marcus Browne - none
Wilky Camport - none
Hugo Centeno Jr - none
Jermall Charlo - none
Jermell Charlo - none
Jamontay CLark - none
Luis Collazo - none
Steve Cunningham - none
Gervonta Davis - none
Chad Dawson - none
Justin Deloach - none
Sergiy Derevachenko - none
Anthony Dirrell - none
Andre Dirrell - none
Domonique DOlton - none
Omar DOuglas - none
Robert Easter - none
Rickey Edwards = none
Thomas Williams - none
Julian Williams - none
Deontay WIlder - none
Gerald Washington - none
Kevin Watts - none
Rau'shee Warren - none
Sammy Vazquez - nonw
Caleb Truax - none
Austin Trout - none
Keith Thurman - none
Isiah Thomas - none
Antonio Tarver - none
javontae starks - none
Errol Spence- none
Jordan Shimmell - none
Michael seals- none
Gary Russel - none
Haskell Rhodes- none
Eddie Ramirez - none
Peter Quillin - none
Darwin Price- none
Shawn Porter - none
Lamont Peterson - none
Anthony Peterson - none
Caleb Plant- none
Victor Ortiz - none
Danny O'Conner- none
Earl Newman - none
Sergio Mora- none
John Molina jr - none
Malclom Macallister - none
Vanes Martoisyon - none
Charles Martin - none
Alex Martin - none
Paul Malignaggi -- none
Alejandro Luna - none
Erikson Lubin - none
J'Leon Love- none
Joseito Lopez - none
Ryan Kielczweski - none
Travis Kaufman - none
Ryan Karl - none
Jamal James -none
Danny Jacobs- none
Julius Jackson - none
John Jackson - none
Jarrett Hurd - none
Thomas hill - none
Jamal Herring - none
Mar anthony hernandez - none
Tony Harrison - none
Robert Geurrero - none
Fernando Geurrero -none
Terrell Gausha - none
David Grayton - none
Mikey Garcia - none
Danny Garcia - none
Frank Galarza - none
Dennis Galarza - none
Omar figeroa - none
Joseph elegele
Javier Fortuna - Marlyn Cabrera ,non pbc card
Kanat Islam - Patrick Atolley in Kazakhstan non pbc card
Bryant Perrella - fighting yordenis Ugas
Bj Flores - fighting a matchroom card

Looks like a really solid stable to me.

Mikey Garcia isn't signed to Haymon. By none do u mean no fights scheduled? J'Leon Love, Galarza and Dominque Dolton just fought. So did Deloach who you don't have on the list. They shouldn't have anything lined up yet. Paulie is supposed to fight in Europe and Moises Flores is supposed to fight Rigo and Jacobs vs GGG.