Sports Network's (Warren) initial affiliation with Showtime was through Don King signing Nigel Benn and Benn dropping Barry Hearn and going with Warren, believing Hearn had 'had a few words in a few peoples ears' just before Eubank-Benn II was announced a draw
King's initial interest had been Chris Eubank, to bring him to the brand new MGM, but Eubank wouldn't sign with him
King's plans for Eubank (post fight press conf in Manc) were to relinquish his WBO title, Benn to relinquish his WBC title, have Eubank fight Terry Norris for the vacant WBC title at the brand new MGM (first ever event there) and the winner of that facing the winner of a Nunn-Benn London WBA fight. Eubank said he was not going to agree to give up his world title. Benn also refused. So King suggested Eubank fight on the Benn-Nunn unification undercard vs Gerald McClellan stepping up, and if he won face either Nunn if he beat Benn or Norris (having to relinquish WBO if mandatory ordered), at the MGM. Eubank said he wouldn't share billing with Benn and had to be on last because he'd already beaten him, King said Benn had the premiere belt. Eubank suggested simply facing Norris at the MGM for his WBO belt and King said he either needed the WBC belt to legitimise it or Eubank to beat a WBC champion to legitimise him. Eubank suggested facing McClellan in Vegas and King said that would only sell in England, Eubank then said he would only face McClellan for the money he received against Benn and King said he couldn't guarantee Showtime would accept the fight for a WBO belt. In the end King called Eubank and Barry Hearn 'sons of bitches' and Eubank walked out saying, 'you blew it, I won'. Leave me alone! No deal! (Initially Reggie Johnson was supposed to face the loser, and Eubank's WBO belt wasn't going to be on the line in Eubank-Benn II to allow for that in case Eubank lost. If Benn lost, which was expected, he was going down to middle to face Reggie and possibly McClellan (after Mc dealt with Pyatt) if not the Nunn-Eubank loser at super. The winner of Eubank-Benn II was supposed to face Nunn in London, and the winner of that to face Norris (after he dealt with Rosi). But Reggie lost to John David Jackson and Eubank's WBO belt ended up being on the line.)
I wasn’t talking about Joe. You said that Showtime were a dead network. What I’m saying, is that whilst Showtime had an interest in Joe, they aired about 7 of Mike Tyson’s fights as well as other top level fights. Showtime were not a dead network in the late 90’s-early 00’s. They were still a huge TV network.
McBride was 2005, Lacy 2006. I don’t know if they showed the Ashira and Veit fights. I can’t remember. Showtime lost interest in him before that, and labelled him ‘No show Joe’
So King went with Benn-Nunn, which was scuppered when the WBC ordered Benn to defend against Henry Wharton, and Nunn lost on the undercard!
Also, Norris, Rosi, Reggie, Pyatt and JDJ incredibly all lost voluntary defenses in their next fights anyway! So it all went down the pan! Nunn too of course. Eubank went to Germany, King won the purse bid of mandatory Close II fight to try to bump Eubank off by putting it in Belfast and giving him a tiny box of a dressing room (and arranging a leprochaun to throw glitter at him in the ring!), Eubank won so his big switch to Sky was on for the proposed 'world tour'. What was King left with in the end? Nigel Benn and Gerald McClellan......
the business of boxing isn't so straight forward. It seems to be a lot more flexi these days, with different belts being created overnight, socal media, Internet and even boxing board of controls being created or shipped over to get fights on. 1900-2005 it wasn't
