Why do they even bother staging these nickel and dime affairs? Pavlik-Rubio? Go fly a kite! Hell, the Cotto-Jennings/Clottey-Hlatshwayo double bill that same day would be every bit as legitimate. I just don't understand why HBO bothers to continuously annoy their estranged boxing demographic with these wastes of time. There's no law written in stone that there has to be a paid event every month. If in a given month, the only cards to fill the four weekly spots are of BAD/WCB caliber - so be it. We can be understanding and forgiving. **** happens, it is what it is. If this happens for several months - hey, that's life. We're not going anywhere. We'll watch a dozen consecutive B-grade fights if they're the only ones available. Don't insult our intelligence with this flim flammery, though - passing off one of these B-grade fights as a Pay Per View event. They're not cheap shows to put on, either - I can't imagine they're reaping that much profit, especially when more and more jaded fans who aren't willing to shell out the cash (realizing that just as good if not better cards are regularly staged on free television) either wait for the replay or find an illegal stream (thus causing them frustration at having to watch what ought to be a WCB fight on their television instead on a slow, crappy feed). Lose-lose all around. Why not go quality over quantity and promote however many big, juicy cards they can scrape in a year - even if it's only as few as four or five? The appreciation (in both senses of the word) would go up, and more fans would return to the PPV fold and probably even be willing to pay a higher premium of $50 a pop! This beleaguered mediocre market oversaturation is nonsense. It's exacerbating the quagmire of marginalization in which the sport struggles, AND it doesn't even seem to make (much) business sense. :? Pavlik-Rubio. Go suck an egg, HBO.
Butt, it's so bad, even HBO didn't buy the broadcast rights. It's a Top Rank PPV, HBO is not involved. Better than that: there's no HBO PPV scheduled for 2009, and we pretty much know all fights coming up till May.
Hmm, boxrec has it listed as HBO PPV. So if your info about Top Rank is the most recent and accurate, either BR made a mistake/assumption or HBO was attached at one point and said "actually, screw this..."
Yup, exactly. I think Hausler has really gotten to the HBO brass with his articles. But yeah, Pav/Rubio and Cotto/Jennings wasn't even good enough for Boxing After Dark. No network wanted it, so Arum gives hardcore fanbase a ticket to the fights.
That's possible, it even says HBO PPV on the front page of ESB, but I'd only ever heard it anounced as Top Rank PPV.
I agree, to many and to many that just don't warrant PPV status. Pavlik and Cotto on one card is definitely a card most of us don't want to miss since those guys have a lot to prove but they're both coming off of extremly humbling losses. While both guys are big names in sport their fights are comeback or re-establishment fights and I don't understand why anyone thinks that will sell. This card belongs on WCB and nowhere else...at least in my opinion. I think PPV's should be reserved for the biggest fights of the year, champion vs, champion, grudge and rubber matches....you know fights that carry a bit more weight than "oops I just got my ass handed to me, watch me beat up this lesser opponent now"
The fact that they're coming off losses isn't even the main issue, IMO. It's about the match-ups. If they were coming off losses but with dance partners that could produce FOTY-level fireworks, it would be far worthier. I mean, I know some consider Jennings a live dog and Rubio does stand the proverbial puncher's chance, but these are hardly attention-grabbing match-ups. If they were matched tough, headlining a PPV after having their L-cherry popped wouldn't really bug me.
