Does HBO Even Care About U.S. Boxing Fans? Upcoming Schedule Might Surprise You

For many years, HBO seemed to treat its subscribers very well.  Boxing fans, specifically, were accustomed to seeing high quality fights among elite boxers, and knew that if a fight landed on HBO Championship Boxing, it was probably worth seeing. 

Even HBO Boxing After Dark, in its original form, delivered for fans, with such fare as Barrera-McKinney, among other great slugfests.  But somewhere along the way HBO started slipping, as old favorites such as The Sopranos and The Wire went off the air, all without any mega hits stepping up to take their place.  So too did the boxing franchise seem to fall, and with it the entire sport appeared to take a body shot, from which it is still reeling. 

There are many reasons one could point to as an example of HBO’s boxing franchise trending downward.  From the appearance of favoring certain managers and promoters, to the alleged effort to push Larry Merchant out the door in favor of Max Kellerman, or the hiring and subsequent releasing of Roy Jones and Lennox Lewis as analysts, to the debacle of letting Fran Charles hold a microphone anywhere near a boxing ring, HBO seemingly can’t get out of its own way. 

Now, Roy Jones has reportedly been rehired and Bob Arum has recently decided to bring Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Shane Mosley over to Showtime PPV, both serving as more evidence of HBO’s general confusion. 

More important, however, has been the issue of HBO PPV, and what is worthy of such a platform, along with decisions made by HBO brass concerning which fights to televise for “free” on its regular HBO service.  While someone could go on forever and a day about HBO’s decisions relating to PPV (Mosley-Mora, anyone?), this article will take a look into the recent history of regular HBO fights and how they seemingly don’t cater to the U.S. boxing fan.  Specifically, let’s examine the quality of recent fights on HBO, along with the quality of some upcoming shows.

Low Risk = High Pay; The HBO Way!

Put aside for now the obvious issues with HBO’s scheduling, from having long stretches of inactivity last year, to their usual October shyness (gosh, we wouldn’t want boxing to be on TV, what with all the MLB and Winter Olympic viewing options), and focus on some recent match-ups. 

For every solid fight like Khan-Maidana, there are far too many cupcake fights like Berto-Hernandez, Berto-Quintana and Angulo-Alcine.  These cupcake bouts offer very little in terms of competitiveness and appear to benefit certain fighters with certain connections. 

HBO is supposed to be the pinnacle platform (aside from PPV) for the top fighters to ply their trade.  If this is true, why are the viewers subjected to such mismatches so often?  Where is the excitement in totally one-sided blowouts?  Worse are the guaranteed return bouts that fighters can secure contractually, just for being willing to accept a tough assignment.  Case in point:  Bradley-Alexander, where it has been highly publicized that both fighters were promised return dates on the network, win or lose, with purses in excess of a million dollars each. 

Obviously, this has the potential to impact a fighter’s effort in the ring, which in turn could influence the outcome of a fight, as one could argue happened in Alexander’s case.  Besides committing a hefty chunk of the annual boxing budget to just three fights involving two fighters (Bradley-Alexander and a return bout for each guy), it also leaves us with the promise of having to watch Alexander again.  After the way he performed and allowed the doctor to stop the fight, who exactly is clamoring for him to be on any network again, let alone HBO?  It is a shame that he’ll be taking up yet another premium slot on an already limited schedule. 

How does this make any sense for boxing fans, the people who, you know, largely subsidize this channel?  It doesn’t, but does HBO care?  By removing the risk of losing and ensuring big bucks later on, HBO is harming its content.  Speaking of scheduling, between HBO’s final show of 2010 (Khan-Maidana on 12/11/10) and Alvarez-Hatton this year (3/5/11), HBO will have televised just two shows, one of which was the aforementioned Bradley-Alexander.  Not exactly the bang-for-the-buck most boxing subscribers were hoping for, I’d imagine.

Toto, We Aren’t In Kansas Anymore

Judging by the upcoming slate of fights on HBO, you could be forgiven if you began thinking that HBO was no longer an American network, with subscribers living in the U.S. and paying with U.S. currency.  This is not to say that foreign fighters are not desirable to the American viewer, but rather an indication that, at the very least, the American fan should have some inkling of both fighters appearing in the main event of an HBO card.  A quick glance at three reportedly signed HBO fights, all taking place from 3/5/11 to 4/16/11, raises eyebrows. 

On 3/5/11, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a very popular fighter from Mexico, is headlining a show on HBO.  For the casual fan, this fighter has very limited appeal, given that the majority of his U.S. television exposure has come on PPV, and the rest of his career was spent mostly in Mexico.  However, the diehard fan is well aware of him, and given his exciting style, he makes sense as someone that HBO would be willing to televise. 

The problem is his opponent, Matthew Hatton, the brother of Ricky Hatton, both of England.  Ricky, while hugely popular in the UK, was barely accepted by U.S. fans who were not enamored with his punch-and-hold mauling style that reminded some of a mix between John Ruiz and Zahir Raheem.  If you are unaware of that reference, consider yourself lucky. 

By contrast, Matthew Hatton isn’t quite the bore that Ricky was in the ring, but is about 1/100^th as well known to U.S. fans.  This translates into being unknown to anyone outside of the UK.  So why is he in the main event on HBO?  To make matters worse, he is a welterweight that will be moving up in weight for this fight (a theme you see often in HBO fights, where the obvious “A”-side fighter enjoys the weight advantage), and has four losses with two draws against fairly modest competition. 

Keeping with that theme, welterweight Andre Berto’s next fight will supposedly be against Victor Ortiz (though it hasn’t been signed yet), another guy being forced to move up in weight for an apparent Chosen One, but I digress.

On 3/12/11, Sergio Martinez, originally from Argentina, takes on Sergei Dzinziruk, a talented Ukrainian fighter, but one that is completely unknown here in the U.S.  In fact, other than his most recent bout, he has never fought outside of Europe, fighting mostly in Germany.  Showcasing Martinez is appropriate, as he has consistently proven himself to be an outstanding talent, has been seen on American television a number of times against quality opponents and is the undisputed middleweight champ. 

But Dzinziruk?  Quick, a show of hands, how many readers can even pronounce his name?  I assume most of us couldn’t pick him out of a lineup if he was wearing a name tag.  I’ve seen a few of his fights and I know he is talented, but what good is talent if none of HBO’s subscribers bother to tune in to the fight in the first place? 

I seriously doubt that Martinez-Dzinziruk is appointment viewing for U.S. fans, so why is this on HBO again?  If that wasn’t enough, just take a look at the relative styles involved, and you see even further reason to not watch this fight.  Both fighters are southpaws, neither is overly aggressive, and both are adept at counterpunching and possess a solid jab.  This doesn’t exactly scream Gatti-Ward in terms of action, does it? 

While this match looks good on paper, like Bradley-Alexander did, it will probably fail in terms of excitement in the ring, just like Bradley-Alexander.  Additionally, HBO’s insistence in having Martinez fight on this date reportedly led to HBO passing on Miguel Cotto against Ricardo Mayorga, which was then brought by Arum to Showtime PPV. 

Cotto is wildly popular in the U.S. and delivers consistently strong ratings on HBO, indicating that the subscribers want to watch him and will support his fights.  I mean, if he can do a strong rating while fighting guys like Yuri Foreman (HBO’s highest non-PPV boxing rating in 2010), then imagine the rating when you include a guy like Mayorga, who is very well known to the American public from his myriad high profile bouts on American television.  Mayorga has been in the ring with Felix Trinidad, Oscar de la Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Shane Mosley, Vernon Forrest, Cory Spinks, and many others.  Dzinziruk has fought….Joel Julio.  Which fight do you think HBO subscribers would have rather seen?

On 4/16/11, Amir Khan, a British fighter largely considered to be the second best junior welterweight in the world, takes on Paul McCloskey.  Paul who?  Now, there are relatively unknown fighters, and then there are really unknown fighters, and McCloskey fits the latter.  He holds the European title, which may carry weight in Europe, but it hardly qualifies you to fight one of the best in the world, such as Khan.  And one look at McCloskey’s resume indicates that he has never faced anyone even close to the talent level of Khan.  His resume is, to put it nicely, lacking.  His most notable opponent is a totally shopworn, faded veteran, Cesar Bazan, who took him the 10-round distance in a losing effort. 

McCloskey is also 31 years old, which makes his utter lack of quality opposition even more alarming.  So explain to me again how this fight makes any sense for HBO?  Is the junior welterweight division lacking quality fighters to showcase?  Hardly, as it is one of the deepest divisions in the entire sport, with plenty of well known high quality fighters.  Khan, for all his talent, has been fairly reluctant to fight tough opponents, and seemingly has HBO’s blessing to continue this cherry picking.  Even Khan makes no bones about whom this fight appeals to, as he offered the following quote to the media: 

“This is a match-up the British public wants to see.”

Well, I’m glad someone wants to see it; I just wish the American public wanted it as badly as the Brits apparently do.  Are there a lot of British HBO subscribers?  The last time I checked, HBO was an American company that should at least make an effort to cater to its American subscribers.  It is fine to showcase foreign fighters in an obviously global sport, as long as those fighters are relevant to the audience, have proven to be of high quality (this is the biggest platform in our country), and are matched appropriately.  Let’s do away with the unknown, unwanted, unworthy fighters that are increasingly populating HBO’s schedule.  If not, maybe subscribers will begin to do away with the extra monthly fee.  After all, The Sopranos isn’t coming back, so you may as well fuhgeddaboudit.

Lee Harris co-hosts a weekly boxing podcast, In The Corner, available at Podbean and iTunes.  You can follow on Twitter – @inthecornershow – and at Facebook.  You can also email him at [e-mail] with any questions.