Around this time last year, veteran sportswriter Thomas Hauser reported that HBO Boxing would be cutting nearly $15 Million worth of fat from its budget in order to remain competitive. A good portion of the money that remained was poured into the coffers of Golden Boy, in the hopes that the relatively young promotional firm could help solve boxing's rating woes. Whether or not the gamble paid off can best be summed up in the outcome of the Victor Ortiz-Marcos Maidana fiasco. Ortiz was being groomed as the next big thing in the junior welterweight division and he ended up taking a pounding from the heavy-handed Maidana that lasted six rounds.
Losing the fight was not the great sin that Ortiz committed that night, however, as even the best fighters carry an "L" or two on their record. What hurt young Victor was the manner in which he surrendered. Bleeding but still able to continue, Ortiz had a "no mas" moment that was exponentially uglier than Roberto Duran's refusal to meet Ray Leonard for yet another round of punishment. In his post-fight interview, Ortiz admitted that he was too young to be taking this kind of punishment and that he had some serious questions to solve.
Say what you will about someone like Cris Arreola, who some have called a club fighter, but he will not quit, as was proven in his fight against Vitali Klitschko. Arreola hearkens back to the same school as Vinny Pazienza or Arturo Gatti; they both took a lot of heat for their come-forward styles, but they definitely didn't have any trouble selling out Atlantic City Boardwalk.
Another fighter who hints at HBO's suspect alliance with Golden Boy is Amir Khan, himself the owner of a questionable set of whiskers. Golden Boy has poured a lot of time and money into Khan, giving him the best trainer that money can buy, as well as a top strength and conditioning coach. The only problem is Khan has already suffered a devastating first-round knockout loss and he is making his bread and butter in a division where the competition is fierce. If the supposed stars keep losing when they are supposed to win (i.e. Angulo's loss to Cintron), where does that leave HBO, who do not seem to be diversifying their promotional portfolio, but rather hitching their future solely to the Golden Boy wagon? It doesn't make sense that the biggest network in boxing should rise and fall based on the performance of one promotional firm.
Golden Boy does, of course, get things right on occasion. When Amir Khan was looking for his next opponent, GBP suggested that he fight the winner of the Maidana-Ortiz fight. Dmitri Salita was ruled Khan's next mandatory, but after watching him go down within 15 seconds and getting knocked out in less than three minutes, is there any question that Golden Boy was right and that the sanctioning bodies were wrong about Salita?
Maybe HBO can't really be faulted for their new business model. Top Rank, a Golden Boy rival, failed to make at least two fights that the public was dying to see in the last couple of years. The first was a showdown between Paul Williams and Kelly Pavlik, which never happened due to an ugly Staph infection that Kelly contracted. The other was a fight it's best not to dwell on, since it causes true pain to all the diehard fans of the sport, and that is the super-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Most reports, including a recent update from the "White Gorilla," Michael Marley, seem to suggest that for once, HBO wasn't responsible for the fumble and that this time, the big roadblock was Bob Arum's acrimonious relationship with Floyd Mayweather.
Still, there is no excuse that could explain why HBO is finding themselves beaten to the punch (pun intended) by a network they dwarf in budget, like Showtime. One would think that HBO would dictate the market, that they would lead and others would follow, but the opposite seems to be the case. HBO bought Bute-Andrade 2, but Showtime was the first to make the match-up. Ditto with Chad Dawson vs. Glenn Johnson. Why is the leader in boxing feeding off the table scraps of a supposedly lesser network? Does it make sense that HBO would pass on the Froch-Taylor match and instead shell out major dollars for the Taylor vs. Lacy crossroads fight?
Showtime has managed to be the center of attention yet again with their revolutionary round robin tournament, "The Super Six Boxing World Classic." It has its drawbacks, not least of which is the length of time between matches (it won't be over until 2011), but it is the most unique thing happening in boxing right now and HBO is offering nothing half as innovative. The last time HBO had anything similar was the four-man tournament that took place between Bernard Hopkins, William Joppy, Felix Trinidad, and Keith Holmes. It was a brilliant showcase for each one of the fighters and gave subscribers a real taste of what the middleweights have to offer. There really is no reason why HBO's Ross Greenburg can't do what Showtime's Ken Hershman did: round up some of the best fighters and promoters in the business, get them in a room together and don't leave until you've hammered out an agreement.
The heavyweights would be ideal for this format. Imagine Alexander Povetkin, David Haye, Tomasz Adamek, Samuel Peter, Wladimir Klitschko, and an American Heavyweight of your pick all contractually obligated to fight each other over the course of two years, with belts, trophies, and acclaim as the ultimate prize. People seem to think that HBO and the American public want no part of Klitschko, but they are wrong. We want no part of Klitschko vs. a sub-par opponent, and the ratings will reflect this anytime promoters call snake-oil Kool-Aid and expect us to drink it.
A Marquez-Diaz rematch on Pay-Per-View is palatable, but who in their right mind, except for the mothers of the respective fighters, really wanted to see Bernard Hopkins fight Roy Jones Jr. yet again, especially after Jones was stopped in one round by Australian Danny Green just one fight prior?
One area where HBO deserves some credit is in their ability to confer star status on fighters. Even with ratings woes and internal political strife, if you're fighting on HBO, you've made it. If you're fighting on HBO and you feel like a million bucks, there might be a reason. HBO can afford paying over one-million dollars in licensing fees and sundries, whereas Showtime typically shells out $100,000 or less, and ESPN pays roughly $25,000 per show.
HBO should not be in the business of finding young prospects and giving them a chance to shine. That is a job for ESPN, and to a lesser extent "Shobox." Hardcore fans my age and older will remember HBO's ill-fated "KO Nation," which lasted a whole year from 2000-2001. It was a hip-hop themed extravaganza that featured dancing girls and an in-house DJ. Still, bells and whistles cannot sell a fight, and no ring girl is beautiful enough to make anyone believe that HBO is the place where prospects slug it out.
HBO Boxing is a place for stars to fight, but both HBO and Golden Boy seem to have gotten it backwards. You don't groom a fighter, proclaim him a star, and then release him onto the world, where he promptly gets knocked out or otherwise embarrassed. You let the fighter rise or fall on his merits. This system is much easier. If he wins and keeps winning, he's a star. If he loses, and keeps losing, no matter how much hype there is around him, he's a dud.
Sergio Martinez is a good example of how this system should work. Anyone who knows "Maravilla" knows him by virtue of his track record. He's been cheated out of decisions more than once, yet he has consistently bounced back without much fanfare or many write-ups. He showed how flimsy the present star system is, first by giving Paul "The Punisher" Williams all he could handle for twelve rounds before unburdening Kelly Pavlik of his middleweight belt. Honestly, how many HBO subscribers were aware of Martinez as opposed to Pavlik, and who is the better fighter at the end of the day?
Golden Boy has fighters with great records, and HBO loves giving them primetime slots to decimate inferior opponents, but many of these bouts are travesties. A recent example of this is the Timothy Bradley vs. Carlos Abregu fight, in which Abregu found himself a 10-1 underdog. These are frankly not the odds that you expect in a fair fight, but more like the line you would have expected in ancient Rome, when a Christian was getting ready to face a lion in the coliseum. HBO should not in good conscience buy or exhibit fights in which the odds are greater than 5:1.
So what should HBO do in order to put on the fights that people want to watch? They should remember the law of Occam's Razor, which states: "The correct answer is usually the simplest." Ask the fans which fights they want to see and then make those fights happen. HBO.com has an open poll on their website asking this question, which is a nice start, but if they feel like getting a more scientific read on what the people want, they should send surveys out in the mail to fans and ask them which fights they want to see. In addition to multiple choice bubbles on the form, there should be ample space for fans to give their "write-in" candidates, just like in elections. If enough fans have a unanimous opinion, the message should go all the way to Ross Greenburg, who should be forced to listen.
As the O'Jays sang all those years ago: "You've got to give the people what they want."