HBO, America and Boxing

[soul_survivor]

The year is 1894 and Thomas Edison films the legendary James J. Corbett in an exhibition, a visual first and occurs in Orange County, New Jersey...United States of America. Fast forward almost three decades and another first takes place, the first ever voice broadcast of a sporting event, an exhibition bout held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another American first. It was a nation of boxing pioneers, the sport so intertwined with its nationhood that the heavyweight championship was viewed as the most prestigious of prizes, its holder a national icon.

Now HBO, boxing's greatest platform for decades retires from the sport. Friday Night fights to pay-per-view to its international deals with the BBC and Sky Sports are all now consigned to history. Was it inevitable? Maybe, some point down the line but in 2018? It seems to be a symptom of the time. Boxing is no longer intertwined with the American conscience and ever since the Klitschkos dominated the division, the heavyweight championship has been ignored, looked down upon even. It is no longer American, so why should they care?

This could possible be a sign of the times, an insular nation, looking inwards for its sporting heroes, no longer wanting the rising tide of Hispanic and increasingly European and Asiatic world beaters. The sport has moved on, stadiums are sold out in Germany, the UK, Russia and the eastern bloc...pay per view is not the only way and TV broadcasts made the Klitschkos household names across Europe. The biggest star in the sport has not even had a single fight on American soil.

As American boxing stands still, frantically eyeing up potential stars, HBO gives up. Why? The answer is simple. The sport has become too corrupted, to glossy, money floating around sub par fighters in sub par fights. HBO is to blame in part, paying Roy Jones huge sums of money to fight a string of bums...Joe Louis had the bum of the month, Roy Jones had a bum every month. Its natural predecessor, the Al Haymon run PBC, pays undeserving fighters millions to avoid each other and fight lesser names. It essentially owns the welterweight division but Thurman, supposedly the top fighter, may never fight again, Spence has yet to fight Garcia, Thurman or Porter and those three names only fought each other after 3 years of circling.

All the while, Anthony Joshua in 21 fights has almost cleared out the heavyweight division, Oleksandr Usyk is undisputed champion in less fights and Vasyl Lomachenko is the sports premier fighter. All the while, someone as talented as Gervonta Davis is known more for his spat with Floyd Mayweather than any fight.

HBO has left boxing because America not only turned its back on the sport but it allowed it to be contorted, twisted and corrupted beyond measure. The others will soon follow.

[Madison Boxing]

very good post ^ hit the nail on the head

[soul_survivor]

bumping ....

[Eff Pandas]

HBO has left boxing because America not only turned its back on the sport but it allowed it to be contorted, twisted and corrupted beyond measure. The others will soon follow.

If anything f#cked up boxing structurally it was that IBC sh^t back in the day. The gangsters running boxing back in the day prevented boxing at some future date from creating a monopoly in the US, where most of the elite level boxing happened at for a long time & largely where most of it still happens today. Every other sport has a giant body that the best athletes of said sport become a part of that looks out for the sport itself. Boxing has nothing like that. That hinders boxing trajectory to becoming a sport again more than a business.

[saintpat]

Ironically, HBO was more the cause than the victim of the decline of boxing.

Wind back and there was boxing on networks every weekend. This was at a time when there were three networks and most homes in the U.S. got those three channels plus public television ... and that’s it. So boxing was seed by the masses and fighters became known to the public. ABC would televise big fights in prime time (including heavyweight championship fights).

That’s not dissimilar to where Europe is now ... big fights on TV on the continent creating stars.

HBO moved in with bigger money and cherry-picked many of the top names — the heavyweight champ, the Haglers and Leonards (except for the most major of fights, which they put on closed circuit). Networks could no longer get the hot names so gradually backed out of creating stars for HBO. The pipeline of “made” talent, stars with face and name recognition began to dry up.

Cable took up some of the sack with Tuesday Night Fights on USA Network and Friday Night Fights on ESPN still molding young future attractions. But that was when there were 20 or 30 or 40 cable networks so they got a big audience share ... eventually it became 100 and 200 and 300 channels and the audience was spread so thin that these fights weren’t seen by most of the public. And they faded to irrelevancy and the shows were cancelled.

HBO managed to survive on making a few stars of their own (ODLH, Pac, etc.) ... but it’s hard to create stars of PPV magnitude when the only exposure they get is on your subscription pay-service network. The ‘final’ generation was Mayweather and Canelo. Past that, there are few stars. Those who are big in Europe don’t translate well (the Klitchkos were boring as hell to the USA audience, Joshua’s personality is like watching paint dry, etc.) to America.

There is a future, but it’s a different one. Showtime and PBC (and to a lesser extend Top Rank and Golden Boy) rule the roost. If they can create their own stars (Wilder, Mikey Garcia, etc.) then it will thrive for yet another generation.

[MasterPlan]

Boxing is not one league like other sports.

The best pro basketball league is the NBA. I have no clue who the other top leagues are but the NBA is where you want to be.

Boxing is not ran like that. There are four major organizations and everyone is trying to get one of those belts at their weight class in one of those four if not all four.

[soul_survivor]

Ironically, HBO was more the cause than the victim of the decline of boxing.

Wind back and there was boxing on networks every weekend. This was at a time when there were three networks and most homes in the U.S. got those three channels plus public television ... and that’s it. So boxing was seed by the masses and fighters became known to the public. ABC would televise big fights in prime time (including heavyweight championship fights).

That’s not dissimilar to where Europe is now ... big fights on TV on the continent creating stars.

HBO moved in with bigger money and cherry-picked many of the top names — the heavyweight champ, the Haglers and Leonards (except for the most major of fights, which they put on closed circuit). Networks could no longer get the hot names so gradually backed out of creating stars for HBO. The pipeline of “made” talent, stars with face and name recognition began to dry up.

Cable took up some of the sack with Tuesday Night Fights on USA Network and Friday Night Fights on ESPN still molding young future attractions. But that was when there were 20 or 30 or 40 cable networks so they got a big audience share ... eventually it became 100 and 200 and 300 channels and the audience was spread so thin that these fights weren’t seen by most of the public. And they faded to irrelevancy and the shows were cancelled.

HBO managed to survive on making a few stars of their own (ODLH, Pac, etc.) ... but it’s hard to create stars of PPV magnitude when the only exposure they get is on your subscription pay-service network. The ‘final’ generation was Mayweather and Canelo. Past that, there are few stars. Those who are big in Europe don’t translate well (the Klitchkos were boring as hell to the USA audience, Joshua’s personality is like watching paint dry, etc.) to America.

There is a future, but it’s a different one. Showtime and PBC (and to a lesser extend Top Rank and Golden Boy) rule the roost. If they can create their own stars (Wilder, Mikey Garcia, etc.) then it will thrive for yet another generation.

Pretty good post. Like I mentioned, HBO was part of the problem for a long time (the Jones money was ******) but there were also other factors, other networks and promoters no longer willing to make their fighters fight.

In terms of the others...modern stars, that is the biggest point of all, Klitschko never needed to be a star in the US to be one of the richest fighters in the sports history. AJ is the biggest damn star in boxing, he did not need America to become that.

Boxing is not one league like other sports.

The best pro basketball league is the NBA. I have no clue who the other top leagues are but the NBA is where you want to be.

Boxing is not ran like that. There are four major organizations and everyone is trying to get one of those belts at their weight class in one of those four if not all four.

erm...ok but what does this post have to do with the topic? Want to expand?

[MasterPlan]

erm...ok but what does this post have to do with the topic? Want to expand?

Im in the wrong thread.

[soul_survivor]

If anything f#cked up boxing structurally it was that IBC sh^t back in the day. The gangsters running boxing back in the day prevented boxing at some future date from creating a monopoly in the US, where most of the elite level boxing happened at for a long time & largely where most of it still happens today. Every other sport has a giant body that the best athletes of said sport become a part of that looks out for the sport itself. Boxing has nothing like that. That hinders boxing trajectory to becoming a sport again more than a business.

Boxing hit its highest level of popularity in the 60s and 70s, riding on the coat tails of Ali and co. It also happened to be an era where the mob had control, not sure how much more than the 40s and 50s but plenty. We all know Ali's stories about the mob approaching him before fights in the 60s.

I'm sure it caused problems, plenty of them but tv networks, ppv fatigue and poor match making are a far bigger problem.

how can a fighter like Spence be wasted fighting in the big leagues when his own promoter owns all the a league fighters??? Why is Deontay Wilder, a US heavyweight completely unknown? He has less world calibre opponents than his own number one ranked contender. I'm not sure if Showtime, PBC and all that other rubbish will last any longer, not at this level.

[Boksfan]

The year is 1894 and Thomas Edison films the legendary James J. Corbett in an exhibition, a visual first and occurs in Orange County, New Jersey...United States of America. Fast forward almost three decades and another first takes place, the first ever voice broadcast of a sporting event, an exhibition bout held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another American first. It was a nation of boxing pioneers, the sport so intertwined with its nationhood that the heavyweight championship was viewed as the most prestigious of prizes, its holder a national icon.

Now HBO, boxing's greatest platform for decades retires from the sport. Friday Night fights to pay-per-view to its international deals with the BBC and Sky Sports are all now consigned to history. Was it inevitable? Maybe, some point down the line but in 2018? It seems to be a symptom of the time. Boxing is no longer intertwined with the American conscience and ever since the Klitschkos dominated the division, the heavyweight championship has been ignored, looked down upon even. It is no longer American, so why should they care?

This could possible be a sign of the times, an insular nation, looking inwards for its sporting heroes, no longer wanting the rising tide of Hispanic and increasingly European and Asiatic world beaters. The sport has moved on, stadiums are sold out in Germany, the UK, Russia and the eastern bloc...pay per view is not the only way and TV broadcasts made the Klitschkos household names across Europe. The biggest star in the sport has not even had a single fight on American soil.

As American boxing stands still, frantically eyeing up potential stars, HBO gives up. Why? The answer is simple. The sport has become too corrupted, to glossy, money floating around sub par fighters in sub par fights. HBO is to blame in part, paying Roy Jones huge sums of money to fight a string of bums...Joe Louis had the bum of the month, Roy Jones had a bum every month. Its natural predecessor, the Al Haymon run PBC, pays undeserving fighters millions to avoid each other and fight lesser names. It essentially owns the welterweight division but Thurman, supposedly the top fighter, may never fight again, Spence has yet to fight Garcia, Thurman or Porter and those three names only fought each other after 3 years of circling.

All the while, Anthony Joshua in 21 fights has almost cleared out the heavyweight division, Oleksandr Usyk is undisputed champion in less fights and Vasyl Lomachenko is the sports premier fighter. All the while, someone as talented as Gervonta Davis is known more for his spat with Floyd Mayweather than any fight.

HBO has left boxing because America not only turned its back on the sport but it allowed it to be contorted, twisted and corrupted beyond measure. The others will soon follow.

Interesting way to look at it.