A Joe Calzaghe related question to ALL Americans

I don't want to start a Joe Calzaghe related thread to slag off Bernard Hopkins, Joe, Frank Warren or any of the girls he's fought in his career. I just want to keep this nice and simple really.

In the middle of Joe's reign as WBO champion of the SMW division, Frank Warren and Jay Larkin (then of Showtime) hammered out deals to show Joe's fights "as live" on Showtime/ShowBox (forgive my ignorance but the one where you get Jimmy Lennon Jnr). Now apparently, there was a fair few fights shown on there pre-Lacy like the Mitchell, Brewer, Sheika fights amongst others.

I may be wrong but whenever debating Joe's career with Americans, I get the impression most have only seen his career since the Lacy fight which was also shown on Showtime.

I'm just curious to find out the answers to some of these questions:

1. If you saw Joe's fights before the Lacy bout, what did you think?
2. Did they show the whole fight or was it just highlights?
3. Since hardly anyone had seen much of Joe pre-Lacy, is there much point in getting on Showtime for non-Americans for exposure unless you're fighting a big name/hyped prospect?
4. Are viewers of boxing on Showtime subscribers, therefore more hardcore boxing fans or not?

I have bundles of other questions but I guess I want to find out what was going on from 2000-2005 Stateside in regard to Calzaghe. I know that Showtime is a poor man's HBO but don't really understand why. I want to find out if Carl Froch is going to get much exposure when his fight in shown on Showtime soon.

Many Thanks for reading, I hope you can help a Brit in search of answers.

 

1. i assumed jeff lacy was going to annihilate calzaghe

2. they were shown in their entirety... showtime also showed a lot of hatton's fights long before he fought tszyu

3. of course... showtime is one of the main avenues by which fighters get known, the other two being hbo and espn

4. showtime, like hbo, is a premium channel and requires subscription

 

Good post. I myself never saw Calzaghe fight before the Lacy fight. You're right, Showtime is a 2nd rate HBO. It has nowhere near as many subscribers. There are probably many reasons for this one of them being that HBO is owned by Time Warner.

It's hard to get exposure as a boxer in the U.S. It's almost impossible to do so without being on HBO.

 

:blood

I'm not sure I like where this is going...:verysad

 

this is my only answer as an american:hey

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I was watching Calzaghe well before Lacy. At the time I thought he would pose a genuine threat to Roy Jones (which happened to be who he would call out after he won). Wasn't sure he could defeat RJ but knew he would give him a decent fight. I remember the night all too well when Lacy fought Joe. My friend asked for a prediction, which is a tradition before we watch fights, and he was shocked when I picked Joe by UD. Needless to say we were both shocked at the way he destroyed Lacy. I am not biased towards any nationality and have been hoping Joe will finish his career undefeated. Cross your fingers

 

Thanks Nick... do you guys have to subscribe to ESPN also?

 

Thanks for your reply duran77. I'm crossing nothing. If he does retire undefeated, he does. I too was shocked at the ease that he dealt with Lacy. Everyone was, including Joe. That fight made his career at the point it should have ended. Nobody outside of the UK would have remembered him for very long if he didn't produce that performance.

So it seems you liked to watch him before 2005. That's good.

 

they showed his entire fights and i saw all the fights you mentioned pre lacy except for the shieka i just saw that one about 1 1/2 years ago then i saw the eubank and the ried about 1 year ago i've been a fan since the first time i saw him

 

- I watched quite a few of Calzaghe's fights and always thought him a top talent. I knew that if he was in top-form it was Calzaghe's fight to lose, but was also seriously concerned that he wouldn't be in top-form (see his performance against Ashira Evans where he broke his hand early, and stunk up the joint while still beating Ashira with only his jab). Turns out Joe turned up in top-form and dominated.
- From what I remember, when he was on Showtime his full fights were shown.
- Showtime, HBO and ESPN all give great exposure to those who earn it. There are other avenues of exposure for South/Central American and European fighters though.

 

I hadn't seen Calzaghe pre-Lacy. Actually, I might have on the Tyson-Nielsen undercard, but it wasn't anything that stuck in my memory banks. I was only a casual fan until about 4 years ago. Not coincidentally, I became more of a fan after I had the money to start subscribing to HBO and Showtime. Far fewer people watch and subscribe to Showtime than HBO.

ESPN is on basic cable, so you still have to pay for cable, but you don't have to pay extra for it like HBO and Showtime.

 

Thanks Guido, very informative. What else can be done to get exposure in the States?

The problem for Brits (or Europeans for that matter really) is that they also want a fanbase at home for that extra bit of security... especially early on in their careers. With the internet being as it is, exposure leaks out all over the place if you want it bad enough... I doubt anyone Stateside would have heard of Amir Khan otherwise just yet.

 

So ESPN would be the best/cheapest/easiest way to get exposure early in a career? Say the last couple of fights before a title shot?

 

Well, he did fight on the Calzaghe-Manfredo undercard on HBO.

Only diehard fans are going to check out sites like this. Best way to get name recognition is either (a) fight a guy who has name recognition, even if it means taking the fight for less money or on less than optimal terms, or (b) get the top undercard slot in a major fight where casual fans will be watching, and impress in that slot. It's part of the reason I was so surprised so many fighters turned down the top undercard slot for Mayweather-DLH. Sure, they were paying ****, but it's short-sighted to turn down a fight just because it pays poorly. You impress while a million people are watching you, and your future earning potential goes up exponentially.

 

See my response above.

To the best of my knowledge, the ratings on ESPN aren't much higher, if at all, than the ratings on Shobox or BAD. Shobox and BAD pay better than ESPN, and unless you're going to get top billing on FNF, you're probably better off taking the bigger paycheck. IIRC, about 500,000 people watch FNF, about 300,000 people watch Shobox and about 350,000 people watch BAD, on average.