WTF has Happened to HBO Boxing ???

They definitely seem to have lost serious interest

 

They replaced Larry Merchant with Max Kellerman. Larry has forgotten more about the sport than Max will ever know

 

AT&T also got CNN in the merger too, I believe.
Maybe they will move over as a "Boxing Announcing Team".

• Jim Acosta (CNN)
• Ryan Nobles (CNN)
• Christiane Amanpour (CNN International)
• Shahira Amin (CNN International)
• Becky Anderson (CNN International)
• Zain Asher (CNN)
• John Avlon (CNN)
• David Axelrod (CNN

Since Walt Disney owns ABC & ESPN, Disney might move "The View Team"
over to handle ESPN Friday Night Fights:

Whoopi Goldberg
Sonny Hostin
Joy Behar
Sara Haines
Paula Faris
Meghan McCain

 

Pretty sure their annual boxing budget (non-PPV) couldn’t produce half an episode of Game of Thrones, lol.

My theory is they thought they could make Kova and GGG into PPV stars and without a Canelo it flopped entirely. They don’t see any long-term return on investment.

 

Game of Thrones needs a bigger budget.

 

Great thread. Who knows what happened. As showtime took over American boxing HBO gave up and seemingly completely disappeared. Andre Ward was boring af trying to carry the banner. They're so focused on foreign boxers now it seems. It may bounce back but who knows

 

I used to be an HBO subscriber many years ago strictly to watch the boxing but I lost interest over the years in it knowing that I was watching a broadcast that had a script and an agenda.
I reckon there are others like me who no longer subscribe.
That is likely a good chunk of the reason why HBO boxing isn't the powerhouse it used to be.
The corruption within HBO reeks and people catch on.

 

Westworld and Game of Thrones happened. Westworld went way over budget for season 1 and 2. The merger also hurt. Jim Lampley said in an interview they would have more capital available for Boxing in 2020.

 

I think you got it. They lost their dynamic personality in Merchant, and Leonard I think and now HBO is more like ESPN Also, there are no Merchants or Leonards around now with Tompkins who had a good rapport with both of them. It was just an great team, and later with Lampley it got more like a commercial. And boxing personalities are not what they used to be from years ago. The 1980s was so great that boxing held on with excitement from that era, even though the 1990s was not what the 1980s was. We had hope it would come back and it didn't materialize. We had Hopkins fighting at 40. That is how bad boxing was when those are the big fights. We have not had eras like that since, and boxing is on the way down unless young fighters can be the Durans or Hearns or Leonards or Haglers, and they are not there. So I don't know if I blame HBO as the lack of boxing personalities HBO can get, and then the addition of no Merchant and Leonard. I think a lot of it has to do with HBO being the 1980s era and they held on for a long time.

 

They should quit altogether.

 

Max is good, but he is a lower level commentator. They should have looked for the best but how to find someone like Merchant. He really was unique the way he talked.

 

Cable boxing is also an outdated module. Especially PPV.

It just screams 90s. They have finally abondeded an antiquated module.

Boxing should be on regular TV.

 

I don't know if that will happen. The fighters are not exciting either. We need another great era like Ali or Leonard's era to spark up boxing and then maybe that will get people interested. To start now again would be hard. Not with guys like Danny Garcia, who is good but in the 1980s he would barely win a title.

 

It's funny because they seemed to get embroiled in the whole Top Rank/GBP/Haymon stable wars and then end up with only the odd GBP card from the lot of them now.

They tried to pull Hearn in but he went to DAZN within a year and now they seem like they really rely on Loeffler with GGG and Superflys.

Still though, if they invest they can claw back some but probably need an American superstar to do that. They seem to be rare these days and the nearest they have in Spence and Wilder are locked up with their competitors.