The Best and Worst from the 1st Half of Premier Boxing Champions' Inaugural Year

Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions is at the midway point of its first year since beginning operations with a huge announcement in January.

There have been some positive developments and some growing pains, but that's to be expected for a project this large. Not everything is going to be a home run, and sometimes you're going to just plain strike out.

Overall, PBC has been a positive experience for fans and the sport over the nearly four months it has been staging fights, but there is obviously much work to be done if it's going to reach its full potential.

It's time we take a hard look at what's worked and what hasn't for boxing's ambitious venture.

This is the best and worst from Premier Boxing Champions over the first half of its inaugural year.

Best: High Production Values

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This isn't your grandfather's network boxing show.

Premier Boxing Champions debuted on March 8 with Keith Thurman's one-sided thrashing of former multi-weight world champion Robert Guerrero, and you could immediately sense you were watching something different. 

The set designs, investment in high-end equipment and technology to bring fights to the fans in new and different ways and the overall modern, sleek feel of the broadcasts has differentiated PBC from traditional boxing programming.

Boxing, to a certain extent—and this isn't a bad thing—has largely escaped the trend of mainstreaming production that has swallowed up most other major sports.

HBO and Showtime both do good work, and there really isn't anything at all wrong with their presentation, but PBC is banking on this more contemporary feel to draw in a younger demographic with its flash and glitz.

You can turn on a PBC broadcast on NBC or CBS and easily feel like you were watching Major League Baseball or the NFL, which is precisely the point. 

And it works, as long as the fights are entertaining.

Worst: Announcing Teams

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PBC immediately went "big" on the "go big or go home" question by bringing in a slew of legendary analysts and high-profile former/current fighters to add some punch to the audio part of the fan experience.

Al Michaels, Marv Albert and Bob Costas, three titans of the industry, worked together for the first time on the Danny Garcia-Lamont Peterson scrap on NBC, and Michaels in particular has added some oomph to the weight of the production.

NBC's announcing has been a very up-and-down experience overall.

Sugar Ray Leonard is one of the greatest fighters of all time, but his announcing game?

Very, very "eh."

BJ Flores?

The former cruiserweight contender and part-time fighter is just not very good. His bizarre protestations that Adrien Broner's one-sided whupping at the hands of Shawn Porter was a close fight stand out for particular scorn.

Albert? 

A brilliant TV personality for decades, yes, but wholly out of his depth when it comes to the finer points of announcing the sweet science. He misses much of the action, and many of his points, unfortunately, don't seem either relevant or even accurate to the action.

CBS has been a little better at this slice of the pie than NBC.

Virgil Hunter brings some real-world knowledge of the nuances and technical aspects of the game but could sometimes stand to be a little more layman with those who might not be on that level of understanding.

Paulie Malignaggi (what can we say?) is brilliant, honest and has a real future in the announcing game, and Kevin Harlan provides a calming presence in the middle to direct the conversation.

Overall, this is something of a mixed bag—Spike TV crews have done well, and we have yet to see what ESPN will bring—but the announcing could definitely stand to see some across-the-board improvement.

Best: Boxing Is Everywhere, All the Time

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PBC has contracts with NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN and Spike TV, among others.

By selling his boxing product to the mainstream television networks and a pair of sports powerhouses, Haymon has ensured that his new brainchild will have every opportunity to reach a wide swath of the sports-viewing world.

PBC has been responsible for staging 12 fight cards since its March kickoff on NBC and has at least five more on tap for the summer, generally a period of reduced activity for the sport. They've been pretty evenly distributed, with NBC leading the way with five, followed by Spike with four and CBS with two.

It's hard not to appreciate the old-school model of network boxing that PBC has sought to recreate. 

Prime-time shows have been largely reserved for the upper-echelon talent and the most high-profile matchups, but getting the scheduling of fights on network television on Saturday and even Sunday afternoons is easily one of the best features of the new program. 

What's better than sitting on the couch on a lazy weekend afternoon and flipping through the channels only to discover an exciting young knockout artist like Artur Beterbiev or the all-action war that was Sammy Vasquez vs. Wale Omotoso on Father's Day?

At the very least it draws your attention, no? Especially given that boxing has been all but absent—at least on this level—from network television for quite some time.

There have been efforts, yes, but none with this much exposure and this much commitment to pushing the product to a wider audience.

Worst: It's Not Always Good Boxing

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Now, we can hardly blame the folks who run PBC and pick the matches when fights that appear solid on paper turn out to be duds once they meet the bright lights of the ring.

It happens all the time in sports—not just boxing.

You need look no further than Broner vs. Porter, easily the most highly anticipated showdown on PBC—it was even billed as the "Battle for Ohio," though it took place in Las Vegas—in its first few months of existence. 

Both Ohio natives were former welterweight world champions—Broner was a three-division champ. They were young, in their primes and were each badly in need of a significant win to reset their career after a bad loss.

Sign me up!

But then the fight happened, and one guy elected to not show up.

Broner had no interest in being there. He clowned, held and fouled all night. There is no justification for his performance, one that will likely follow him around for quite some time.

He made the fight ugly and borderline unwatchable for probably a good segment of the non-boxing public who tuned in because one of their boxing-crazed friends labeled it "can't miss!"

Porter did his thing, but his grinding style isn't necessarily for everyone. It's effective, if not pretty, but it was more than enough against an opponent who had no answers beyond clutch-and-grab.

Everything is "can't miss" until it does. So this is less a criticism than a cautionary tale. 

Boxing's being everywhere can be great, but only when the fights live up to the hype and don't turn off the viewing public.

Best: Figueroa vs. Burns

How's this one for an under-the-radar gem?

Omar Figueroa is a known commodity. He's never going to be the most technically skilled fighter, and he's always going to get hit more than he should, swallowing as many punches as necessary to land one of his own.

That's what makes him fan-friendly and limited in terms of his overall potential.

So when he signed on to face Ricky Burns, a seemingly faded former lightweight champion who entered the fight just 1-2-1 in his last four, most expected a showcase drubbing against a still-viable name.

Nope.

Figueroa ultimately picked up the win—not without a fair shred of controversy due to the notoriously sketchy officiating of one Laurence Cole—but it was anything but easy in what turned out to be a borderline Fight of the Year contender. 

Burns showed he definitely has some gas left in the tank. He started strong in the early rounds before letting Figueroa back into the fight. The momentum shifted back and forth several times, with both men trading shots at close quarters in the majority of the rounds.

The official scores—after two ridiculous point deductions by Cole against Burns—favored Figueroa by lopsided 116-110, 116-110 and 117-109 margins.

Jake Donovan of Boxing Scene panned the scoring, declaring that the judges had "all missed a hell of a fight," and he was right. You can certainly argue that Figueroa or Burns won this fight close. But those scores aren't a reflection of the reality in the ring.

Still, given the toe-to-toe action and the will of neither man to back down one inch, this fight stands out as PBC's best effort at the midway point of 2015.

Worst: Lara vs. Rodriguez

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No, this isn't going to be another "Erislandy Lara is boring" rant.

There are many who appreciate the subtle nuances of his approach to the sweet science. His jab, defense and footwork are absolutely first-rate, and you could easily make a case that there is no finer pugilist—from a technical standpoint—in the entirety of the seven kingdoms. 

Sorry, Game of Thrones withdrawal. 

Lara might float your boat, or he might not, but his Spike TV main event against Delvin Rodriguez in June was doomed from the minute the ink set down on the contracts.

And that part of the equation had little to do with Lara's risk-averse style.

Rodriguez, who had been knocked out by Miguel Cotto and held to a draw by Joachim Alcine in his last two bouts, had absolutely no business being in the ring with the Cuban southpaw. The talent gap was comically wide, and everyone who did an honest pre-fight assessment knew that.

Lara walked into the UIC Pavilion in Chicago and literally won every single round without breaking a sweat.

Rodriguez had nothing that could remotely trouble him, and the real shame is that the fight somehow managed to last the full 12-round distance. 

Lara has frequently lobbied for chances at the biggest fighters in the sport, and it's true that most avoid him, but he wasn't going to earn one by dragging a guy like Rodriguez, who was down in Round 6 and should've been finished, along for 12 increasingly dull rounds.

He had no business being in the same ring.

Best: Showcasing Young Talent to the Masses

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If PBC is indeed the future of boxing, which was the idea when this venture launched, then it makes perfect sense to use that platform to introduce both old and new fans to upcoming talent, right?

Check.

PBC has made a good effort at finding both quality slots and quality opponents to showcase rising stars in the sport of boxing. 

Beterbiev, who we mentioned a bit earlier, has appeared on both CBS and Spike TV in the last three months.

The 30-year-old Russian light heavyweight is a perfect 9-0, with all nine of his wins coming inside the distance and all but one in the first four rounds. And that record is even better than it appears at first glance.

Beterbiev has stopped a pair of former world champions, Tavoris Cloud and Gabriel Campillo (the latter on PBC on CBS) with a high-octane, thudding style that draws in fans of big power and thumping knockouts.

Errol Spence Jr., a blue-chip prospect and 2012 U.S. Olympian, has also put forth a dominant showcase performance on PBC.

He dominated and stopped late-replacement Phil Lo Greco on the undercard of Broner-Porter, showcasing the elite-level skill that has many salivating over his ceiling once he fully develops. 

Spence was originally scheduled to meet a slightly higher caliber of foe, but Roberto Garcia once again blew weight and forced the making of lemonade from lemons by the 25-year-old aptly nicknamed "The Truth."

You want to build the sport?

Get good young fighters in front of large audiences and let them grow.

Worst: Scandals/Lawsuits

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Haymon often comes off as a Keyser Soze-type figure manipulating the pieces on the chess board from the backrooms and seedy underbelly of the sport.

That might be a tad of hyperbole, but if you ask certain people, it's the absolute, stone-cold truth.

Ivan G. Goldman of Boxing Insider reported last week that Haymon has been holding up dates at popular Los Angeles boxing venues, specifically the Staples Center and the recently redone Forum in Inglewood, in an effort to block rival promoters from using them.

This was later denied by the CSAC through its chairman John Carvelli.

Rick Reeno of Boxing Scene reported that the commission had neither formally or informally investigated Haymon and that any quotes to the contrary in Goldman's story were either misquoted or misunderstood.

But, even with that cleared up, Haymon's project still faces legal challenges.

Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions filed a $300 million federal lawsuit in May alleging that Haymon and his business entities/partners have repeatedly violated the federal Muhammad Ali Act, which prohibits managers from also serving as promoters.

De La Hoya's suit also alleges that Haymon is seeking to monopolize all aspects of boxing promotion and management to force competitors out.

Some have dismissed the suit as sour grapes, but it does raise some particularly interesting questions about Haymon, who hires promoters on a fight-by-fight basis, and his business practices. The whispers have been there for a long time, and this might shed some light and cause some significant problems for PBC's business operations.

Best: Better-Than-Expected Matchups

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Thurman vs. Guerrero, Broner vs. Porter and Garcia vs. Peterson were easily matches that could've found their way on regular Showtime Championship Boxing programming, if not as co-featured bouts on pay-per-view telecasts.

All featured big-name fighters against big-time challengers with high stakes for each man.

Haymon has frequently received criticism (not without some merit) for softly matching his talents (Leo Santa Cruz, anyone?), but he's broken that mold to a certain extent on PBC.

There are obvious reasons for that.

You'd have to expect that the networks, who are going all-in on boxing, were promised fights with some meaning for their prime-time slots. And fans, of course, aren't going to watch garbage fights.

Haymon and PBC have delivered on that score in the first four months. Whether or not that trend will continue remains an open question, but the early returns have been good.

Thurman and Guerrero won the ratings war with all key demographics for their time slot on the inaugural card and peaked at 4.2 million viewers, according to TV By the Numbers. Garcia-Peterson peaked at 3.2 million viewers, as noted by Fight News, and you can probably safely bet that Broner and Porter will come in around the same.

It goes to show that when you provide good matches, the fans will watch.

PBC hasn't always done that—Adonis Stevenson vs. Sakio Bika was a stinker, and so was Lara-Rodriguez—but it's off to a better start than many expected, considering Haymon's reputation for sometimes protecting his fighters.

Worst: Venues

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PBC has one harsh lesson that needs to be learned, and learned fast.

Sometimes, even a significant fight doesn't belong in Las Vegas.

If you have fighters who are naturally marketable in certain regions of the country, it's OK to have them fight there. It generates more fan interest, and the arena has more life, which translates better on the screen.

Lara-Rodriguez in Chicago made no sense. The crowd was dead, there were plenty of empty seats and it was easy to see how this fight would've done better in an area (Florida) with a larger population of Cuban fight fans.

Likewise, Broner and Porter fighting the "Battle for Ohio" in Vegas seems to have been a big missed opportunity. There were, once again, some empty seats in the arena, and the crowd booed lustily when the action settled into extended lulls.

Had that fight been in Cincinnati or Cleveland, with screaming fans of both fighters dueling it out, the product presented on TV would've had more oomph. It would've felt like more of an event.

PBC has made a few smart decisions when it comes to placing its fights.

Stevenson's fighting in Montreal was a no-brainer, while Garcia will fight for a second time on the program at the Barclays Center in August—where he's drawn well—against Malignaggi, a Brooklyn guy. Thurman will fight Luis Collazo at home in Florida.

But then there's recently signed Haymon fighter Carl Frampton.

The Belfast-born super bantamweight champion will make his PBC and American debut on July 18 in El Paso, Texas.

Why?

Who the hell knows.