It's very rare these two rivaling networks teamed up, but besides Lewis-Tyson (2002) and Klitschko-Joshua (2017), did the two networks air any other fights together?
I have feeling you may be giving yourself an "oh, DUHHHH!!" when I likely remind you that Mayweather Jr v Pacquaio was joint. The Klitscho vs Joshua fight isn't exactly a joint effort though, at least not in the manner of Lewis vs Tyson and the May Pac fight, which I shall explain thus: Lewis vs Tyson's live broadcast consisted of Lampley of HBO paired up with Bobby Cyzz of Showtime. Both Showtime and HBO had secondary commentary crews calling the fight at the same time as a deal had been struck whereby if Lewis, HBO's fighter were to defeat Tyson, Showtime's fighter, as he did, the replays on HBO would be that commentated by the secondary crew, which is what happened. Whether the Showtime version of the fight with their secondary commentary crew has ever aired is one mystery I am unaware of. The Mayweather vs Pac fight had HBO's Lampley and Roy Jones Jr calling the fight with Showtime's Al Bernstein. I do not know if the replays were handled in a similar manner to Lewis vs Tyson or not. I know that I have seen a version of this fight on "ESPN's Classic Boxing Matches" with Andre Ward and I believe Ray Flores doing the commentary. These fights which air on ESPN usually originate from what is called the International feed. As to Klitscho vs Joshua. That isn't exactly a joint venture in the way the previous two fights were. This fight aired on both channels in the states, but there was no sharing or splitting up of commentary crews. Maybe because they were both non-American fighters, who's main TV contracts weren't through either HBO or Showtime, caused a situation that wasn't laden with the massive amounts of red tape and back and forth negotiations etc, thereby making everything regarding the US broadcasts much easier to deal with and less hassle? Anyway, I believe that what I have down for the first two fights is pretty solid, but I am going strictly off memory of things I read some time ago. I am less certain of my explanations regarding the Klitscho vs AJ fight. Hopefully that shed some light on this, if light was what you were looking for, that is. Sorry for the novella
Thank you! No worries -- I like novellas . I was happy what you offered, any way people comment is fine by me. I'm happy folks such as yourself comment in the first place. Besides all of the fights both of us have mentioned, are there any others we can add to the list?
As far as I am aware, those are it. It is only a thing that will happen when the potential dollar signs for a fight between two fighters became so absurd that neither side can turn it down. Actually, after just writing that I am reminded that the Wilder vs Fury II fight was exactly the type of situation you are mentioning. As for HBO/Showtime, I am fairly positive that it only happened the two times mentioned already
