HBO paid more for Dzinziruk's purse than for Montiel-Donaire...

Just shows their lack of interest for the 118 and below guys. With that money they can pust big fights for cheap price monthly. Would grow the divison. Then up the pay once people start following those guys. Should draw guys for the east like japan and indonesia once money starts getting good. But they want to waste there money on Berto fighting manditory for 3milliion a pop who's division sorta fizziled out. Which is ok too.

At least HBO is doing good in the 140 division.

 

No angst; I'm just sticking up for HBO who I feel are being overly criticized around here.

You claim to be as objective as possible but it's clear that your agenda is suited toward Top Rank's best interests. You said in an earlier post that they should just accept any fight by Cotto because he brings ratings. HBO offered Berto and Martinez to Cotto and Cotto/Top Rank turned both down in favor of another tuneup. HBO already gave Cotto a high paying tuneup last year after losing 2 of 4 and receiving a gift decision in one of his two wins. They have to draw a line in the sand at some point or else they will become Arum's puppet.

HBO did the same thing last year with Golden Boy who tried to set-up a high paying tuneup for Khan. They said Maidana or else they were not interested in Khan and Khan/GBP gave in and made the fight. If you want to offer criticism you must be willing to give credit where it's due.

 

edit

 

The notion that Berto was asking for a larger cut than Cotto has been disputed by Dibella. Arum claims they wanted 1.85 million out of the 3 million HBO was offering; Dibella says that number was how much they wanted out of the TV deal, site fees, foreign revenue, etc. I see no reason to automatically accept Arum's side of the story on this, especially since Berto asked for far and away the lowest amount of money to face Pacquiao.

I'm not crazy about HBO's policy of promising dates to fighters, but Dzinziruk was clearly the best opponent available for Martinez. Dibella claimed that there were other networks interested in Martinez, so if Martinez really wanted to avoid being stripped he could have mopped the floor with Zbik on Showtime or something. I think one of the reasons he didn't is because he could potentially be guaranteed a shot at Chavez, which might be the only big money fight realistically available to Martinez.

I am inclined to ask what people want HBO to do. Should they take a hardline stance and only accept the best fights from now on, or should they simply reward anyone who gave them high ratings? I hear constant complaints that they should pursue the former, but when they start taking active steps to do so, people start complaining that their favorite fighter was disrespected. Cotto gave them their highest-rated fight last year, but Martinez-Williams was right behind it and Martinez was actually willing to fight a live opponent. Also note that Martinez's knockout was one of the few non-Pacquiao and Mayweather stories to garner mainstream media attention, and it happened only a short while ago. Finally, as has been pointed out repeatedly in this thread, both Donaire and Montiel agreed to the amount HBO was offering. They also both turned down the Showtime tournament, which would have guaranteed them multiple TV dates. If HBO was lucky to get this fight for a small amount, it's largely because of the decisions of both fighters.

 

:deal



most fcking idiots here think boxing is just fighting