(Thomas Hauser) HBO and boxing at a Crossroads

You're right. I forgot about that. Like you said, it was a huge loss. :-(

 

I totally agree with this article in the sense you can almost smell the stench of desperation from HBO in trying to manufacture the sport's next superstar. Boxing is the theatre of the unexpected, and you simply can't bank on what can happen in an given fighter's career. Let nature run its course and come to its own conclusion.

 

Too long, boring and useless. Boxing is all about politics.

 

He was right about Golden Boy's fighters being exposed. Ortiz is a Glass Jawed quitter, Angulo got schooled, Kirkland is in jail.

Even more criminal is the stranglehold Golden Boy has on HBO fight dates we have to sit through more of their shitty fighters through 2011? What a joke.

 

The good old days (just a few years ago!) when there was not a week that went by without something on national TV seem like just yesterday. Now two or three whole weeks will go by at times, with FNF's abbreviated season and neither HBO or Showtime committed to a full calendar. :verysad

 

I actually thought Berto/Urango got what it deserved. Horrible match up imo. He was cool about Angulo Cintron. It was Cintron-Martinez and Angulo - Rivera that he complained about. Cintron - Martinez, you can't blame them for that one. But Angulo - Rivera, horrible imo.

 

I agree with you. I'm not advocating that HBO controls who fights who.

Though the truth is that the fighters and promoters want as much money as possible for their fights. HBO has the money that they desire. That gives HBO a lot of power. They need to use it. Obviously they try to but fail to pick the right fights. I can't recall but it seemed like they ran 3 rematches that where originally on Showtime. So the idiots at HBO where trying to cut into Showtime's business instead of creating their own. They took the easy way out and failed in doing so.

This recession will work in (the fans) favor. The big names have and will see that they cannot command the huge money unless it is a huge fight. The lesser fights just won't command much money. This will do a few different things. It will eliminate the "0" factor. Real fans really don't care if a fighter has lost at some point. We just want to see the best fights. If they refuse to pay for crap the promoters will realize that if they don't make the good fights they won't get paid. This will drive them to take more risks with their fighters. They can't hide the guys, fights a bunch of club fighters or has beens and get paid for those fights. This is what eventually will drive the UFC out of business.

 

Yeah, brother, it's gotten ugly. I'm old enough (44) to remember weekly boxing on ABC every Saturday, so this current situation is painful.

 

Angulo aint GBP. Kirkland aint exposed, he is the real deal.

 

margo was overmatched god knows only whyv he was in that ring

 

I'm pretty sure Rivera was a late replacement. Wasn't Mayorga meant to fight Angulo?

 

Another good Hauser article. The one I liked most was when he covered the Pacquiao-Hatton match.

 

I also recall people saying that about Hamed vs MAB...But no one was saying it after the fight...I remember people saying that before Margo vs Mosley, no one was saying that after the fight. As I stated boxing is a sport not a production and as such you have misses. Many fights that were said to be GREAT fights fights of the year turned out to be sparring sessions and flops in terms of entertainment value. You just never know. So no it isnt insight it is revision. Its like Nostradamus, after something happens and you look back at his 100,000 pages of writing it appears that he predicted things, but nothing that he predicts come to be, if you understand what Im saying:good

 

that is a ****ing book i am not reading that right now.

 

It's a very well written article. Very valid points. HBO has inflated purses by bidding against themselves for so long too many fighters won't fight a good fight unless there's "HBO" money involved. The market should determine how much a fighter makes.