HBO Boxing Boss Sees a Bright Future After Banner Year in 2014
If you’re at all interested in the goings on of the business side of boxing, there’s no more compelling interview than that with HBO Sports president Ken Hershman.
Hershman has been with the cable television giant since 2012, taking over the top position with HBO Sports from Ross Greenburg after spending 20 years with rival network Showtime.
Speaking by phone from his New York office, Hershman told Bleacher Report he believes 2014 was a banner year for HBO Boxing.
“We feel like we’re firing on all cylinders at this point,” said Hershman.
That didn’t appear to be the case this time last year. If anything, HBO Boxing appeared to be on the ropes when longtime HBO fighter Floyd Mayweather ditched the company for Showtime back in 2013 to sign the most lucrative six-fight deal in boxing history.
But Hershman contends HBO was never actually reeling from the move, and that if it appeared that way to outsiders, it was only because the company was busy planning for its future.
“We laid the groundwork back in 2013 for all of this to come to fruition, and we’re seeing the fruits of that now. That was always our strategic objective: to put in place a system and foundation that we could grow from and rely on for years to come. So a lot of what you’re seeing is the organic outgrowth of that.”
HBO has seen a robust growth of newfound talent over that stretch of time. The "friendly but ferocious" Gennady Golovkin and the mostly just ferocious (especially when he’s hungry) Sergey Kovalev have become two of boxing’s marquee talents.
Hershman and company also played bandit at the end of 2014 to bring Saul “Canelo” Alvarez back into the fold after a stint with Showtime, including a mega fight against Mayweather that skyrocketed his career into the stratosphere.
Hershman believes those three fighters, along with 2014 breakout star Terence Crawford, will become cornerstones of HBO’s big-money fights for years to come.
“We’re committed to all four guys, and we think we have the foundation with those four for some of the biggest fights in boxing in the coming years. It’s an exciting time to be associated with them. They’re great people outside of the ring. They’re represented by terrific management, and it’s going to be an exciting ride with all of them.”
If you’re the kind who frets over matchmaking and wonders who you’re liable to see in the ring with any or all of those four in 2015, Hershman urges you to have patience.
“I think that the biggest challenge for all these guys is finding top-tier opponents who will get into the ring with them. That will continue to be a struggle in 2015 just because how dominant, how good and how exciting they are. But that’s kind of a great problem to have.”
HBO faced similar problems for marquee fighters in 2014, but Hershman said he was pleased with how things turned out. HBO delivered the top 13 fights on cable television, averaging 978,000 viewers, and arguably put on the two most significant PPV fights of the year in Pacquiao-Bradley 2 and Cotto-Martinez.
“We’re thrilled with the marquee fighters and the marquee fights we put on. When we look back to Marquez-Alvarado, Kovalev-Hopkins, Crawford-Gamboa, Cotto-Martinez and those kinds of fights, we’re really happy with the A-level talent we have who were in meaningful and important fights.”
And Hershman said he’s just as excited about the next crop of HBO stars that is currently being developed through televised undercards on HBO, as well as stand-alone cards on HBO 2 and HBO Latino.
“We’re thrilled with our development of young, next-generation guys. We started to introduce the audience to Crawford, Nicholas Walters, Vasyl Lomachenko and, ultimately, Felix Verdejo and Gilberto Ramirez and fighters like that.”
Just because you have boxing’s largest television audience doesn’t mean it’s time to rest on past accomplishments, so Hershman said he and others at HBO are always looking for ways to improve.
“We’re always the most critical of ourselves, so we’re always looking at ways we can make the shows more exciting. One thing we’re looking at going into 2015 is our start times, so we can start the shows sooner and get to the main events sooner, too. We’re not thrilled with our late start times the last couple of weeks. We’re looking to improve that to make a quick and immediate impact.”
If you’re a longtime fight fan and a subscriber to both HBO and Showtime, you know the key differences between the two entities goes well beyond HBO’s larger budget.
Where HBO focuses more on building narratives around fights and fighters to create a connection with the boxing audience, Showtime emphasizes the importance of exposing fighters to their audience through televised undercard action, often putting over four hours of boxing programming on the air for any given fight card in an effort to accomplish the same thing.
Don’t expect HBO to follow suit in 2015.
“I think more boxing on television is a good thing. It’s just a question of whether it’s right for our audience. To date, we’ve put our energy into trying to make our HBO events as big, as important and as fun as possible for our subscribers. We have been doing more shows on HBO Latino and HBO 2—for example fights from Macau that might not be as marquee, but they give people an opportunity to be seen by the HBO audience—so that strategy seems to be working nicely for us.
“Looking forward to 2015, we’ll probably continue with that tactic, as opposed to putting four hours of boxing on in one night.”
But Hershman also cautioned those keeping score of such things at home not to confuse quantity of fights with overall quantity of boxing programming. He pointed to HBO’s development over the past year of a robust digital platform that he said allows fight fans to dive deeper into the sport than ever before.
“The more connection the audience has with the athlete, and the more connection there is to the story, the more they get out of watching them participate in their athletic endeavors. There’s no better entity at storytelling than HBO. We wanted to bring that storytelling more and more to boxing.”
Hershman believes insight into a fighter’s life—whether it be the personal journey, preparation for a particular fight, or just life at home with family and friends—is something that sets boxing apart from other professional sports.
“One of the benefits of being in boxing is that this is the one sport where you get the most unique and in-depth access of any professional sport. You can be everywhere with these guys, and for the most part these guys are inviting and open to it. You don’t really see that in other professional sports. You’re always closed off from the locker rooms, meeting rooms and those kinds of things.”
Hershman said fans can expect even more compelling fights and surrounding narratives from Hershman and crew in 2015. HBO fights already on the horizon include Klitschko-Jennings, Rios-Alvarado 3, Kovalev-Pascal and Golovkin-Murray.
“We’re happy with how 2015 is already shaping up to be so interesting with really important fights. And keep your fingers crossed for Cotto and Canelo to cut a deal, too, because that one would be awesome. But most of them are all pretty much lined up already, so we feel really good about where we’re going.”
Kelsey McCarson writes about boxing for Bleacher Report and TheSweetScience.com. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
