Showtime really needs something similar to 24/7 for the upcoming SMW tournament. It doesn't have to be as well done (and expensive) as 24/7, but they need to pull out all the stops. I think there are a lot of good stories to tell. Taylor trying to put the pieces back together, Abraham moving up a division, Ward being the gold medalist and now fighting the best in the world, and the extremely talented Dirrell really taking a step up...
I agree. If they don't, then they're crazy - this is a chance to establish some big name fighters on their network.
A high profile **** on Palle would be appreciated - presumably the promoters involved would be cool with that. I actually would like to hear more about details around how Kessler's career has been messed with in the last couple of years.
I don't know about a 24/7 type show, but some good profiles would be a great idea. Make two seperate one hour shows, and give each fighter a 20 minute segment. If they replayed it a bunch of times, a lot of people would see it.
Frequent three-minute commercials serving as "mini-profiles" (as HBO sometimes has) at the very least.
I understand that it's not likely that any of the fights appear on CBS, which is a sister network to Showtime, but promos and snippets of the fighters' backstories during CBS' broadcast of football games (college and NFL) would go a long way to increase public awareness and overall interest in this tournament. The announcers for those games are ALWAYS plugging CBS programming during timeouts and before commercial breaks and such; it would be hugely beneficial for that family of networks if they did the same with the SMWs.
100% agreed that they need to do SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be 24/7. Actually, that's asking for too much considering their budget but definitely some preview show for each fight. I know Showtime did a preview show for the Vargas/Mayorga fight and it was almost as good as any HBO Countdown show. But it would really be a shame if all they did was show the fights.
If HBO had saved some of that 24/7 dough maybe they'd have a fight in July. 24/7 is cool but has almost no replay value, and shotime's version would almost certainly be worse LOL. I'd rather HBO abandon the series in lieu of good fights than have shotime take up documentary 101.
24/7 isn't going to happen because they don't really have the money. What showtime should do is use all of their outlets to spread the word on this tournament. Strikeforce championship shows, ShoMMA Challengers Series, ShoBox the next generation and Showtime Championship Boxing. Just a two minute profile on one fighter PER show, maybe with bullet points to showcase that fighter's best skills. Since 2 of the guys in the tournament probably won't be very talkative, It's imperative they work on those guys the most. Andre Ward will pretty much sell himself.
True. They have great content and should milk this. The fans are already VERY intrigued and calling for it. The opportunity for Showtime is right there.