HBO Boxing Faces an Uphill Battle After a Tough 2016

By any objective measure, 2016 will go down as a trying one for the folks at HBO Boxing.

The network, which has long prided itself—and not without merit—as the home for premier network-television boxing limped through a year that produced more criticism than significant matchups.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reported in September that HBO’s struggles were the result of reductions in the network’s boxing budget that necessitated Peter Nelson, executive vice president of HBO Sports, to try to become smarter and more efficient with the money he had to spend.

A lot of that had to do with the changing economics of the sport, which have moved away from huge transcendent names like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao to the likes of Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, who aren’t (yet, maybe not ever) on that level.

"The network has been cutting back because there are fewer new bankable stars," a former HBO executive, who asked not to be named, said to Pugmire. "Without big marquee names, the economics are terrible."

The result—at least in 2016—was 20 percent fewer fights than HBO had put on just three years prior and an overall 10 percent drop in ratings. And you can hardly blame the fans for their lack of interest with some of the duds HBO showcased last year.

Terence Crawford is one of the sport's brightest young stars, and the fans got to see him pummel overmatched Hank Lundy and John Molina on the network. His unification clash with Viktor Postol was sadly shifted to pay-per-view, where there was little market for it.

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Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward met in the year’s most significant fight for HBO on PPV, but that fight was preceded with each man taking low-quality tune-ups on the network. The fight bombed on PPV, and that lack of build didn’t help matters.

Perhaps the biggest black mark that HBO endured in 2016 was that from September 10 (a tremendous split-site card featuring Golovkin vs. Kell Brook and Roman Gonzalez vs. Carlos Cuadras) to November 12 (a stinker between Luis Ortiz vs. Malik Scott), not a single fight took place on the network.

HBO showcased a PPV mismatch in that time when Canelo, who left the middleweight division in pursuit of a mismatch belt-grab opportunity, thwacked Liam Smith around the ring before stopping him with a vicious ninth-round body shot.

In many ways, that fight microcosms a down year.

It was a mismatch that few (if any) people wanted to see.

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And things don’t appear to be changing, at least in the near term.

HBO has only one network show listed on its 2017 calendar.

It figures to be a good one, but it’s not enough to help ease the anger many fans feel about whether the network is just going through a hiccup or if there’s some deeper problem.

Francisco Vargas defends his WBC Super Featherweight Championship January 28 against Miguel Berchelt in a main event supported by Takashi Miura and Mickey Roman’s impending war.

Both are sure firefights—from the network that brought the 2016 Fight of the Year between Vargas and Orlando Salido—and could hopefully lead to even more tantalizing matchups down the road.

But that’s literally the only thing on the network slate as of this writing.

HBO has committed to two first-quarter PPV shows in the new year.

Miguel Cotto will meet James Kirkland February 25 in Frisco, Texas, at the Ford Center at The Star, in a fight that probably would’ve done OK on network but is sure to be a complete bloodbath when asking fans to fork over extra cash to see two guys coming off a loss (to the same guy) who haven’t fought since 2015.

A better bet is Golovkin’s March 18 showdown with Daniel Jacobs at Madison Square Garden in New York for all the middleweight gold that matters. That’s a questionable PPV fight as well, but—given the circumstances of making it—it's more defensible than Cotto-Kirkland.

Meanwhile, HBO’s rival Showtime has loaded up the front end of its calendar with marquee matchups that should produce great television.

James DeGale and Badou Jack will unify 168-pound titles January 14 in Brooklyn, New York, at Barclays Center.

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Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz battle at the MGM Grand in a featherweight rematch—their first fight received FOY consideration—January 28 in a Las Vegas doubleheader Dejan Zlaticanin’s lightweight defense against Mike Garcia will co-feature.

Adrien Broner fights Adrian Granados the following month at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, and early in March, Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, a pair of unbeaten welterweights, will unify 147-pound titles in one of the division’s best fights.

You can see how the early part of 2017 is shaping up to be dicey for HBO as it seeks to hold off Showtime's latest challenge to its crown, and it better get its act together in a hurry.