F--- boxing

HBO agrees with the thread title.

HBO Says It Is Leaving the Boxing Business

 

Crazy.

 

It always kind of bothered me that they had the same influence on boxing that ESPN has on college football or Fox News has on politics. They didn't just show fights. They were opinion leaders. I never liked that.

It also kind of amusing how a boxer who had an otherwise undistinguished career could have a great fight on HBO and all of a sudden everyone talked about him, kind of like how whenever some numbnuts had a big game on Monday Night Football in the 70s or 80s, they suddenly became a star, regardless of what they did before or after that night.

 

Sometimes that wasn't a bad thing. I mean clearly they had an overinflated opinion of Auturo Gatti but he did make for great, dramatic television and they were/are in the television business. So for Gatti (and to a lesser extent Micky Ward) it was a lot of high paychecks he wasn't going to get otherwise.

Boxing on HBO was a institution for me for a long time. I remember where I was watching Buster Douglas get in Mike Tyson's ass and I remember where I was when Foreman dropped Moorer with a perfect 1-2 and I remember Lampley yelling "IT HAPPENED! IT HAPPENED!".

Oddly my favorite memory of an HBO fight was a Boxing After Dark telecast that had James Toney fighting Vasilly (sp?) Jirov for the lineal cruiserweight championship. HBO seemed pretty high on Jirov, calling him the King of Cruiserweights and they were clearly positioning him for more coverage had he won and likely jumped to heavyweight. But it was a great 12 round fight, hard rounds to score, fun as hell to watch the grizzled veteran Toney use all the tricks in the book and finally he hurts Jirov in the 12th and knocks him down en route to a unanimous decision. Such a great, random night of boxing.

 

I remember wanting to watch that live for the hell of it, since it was a rare Tyson fight of that era that wasn't on PPV. I watched it with my dad, jokingly asking about 10 minutes before the fight if it was over yet. And then it wasn't over quickly, and all of a sudden Tyson was done.
The best part of that was the eighth-round controversy and how King and Tyson refused to acknowledge the decision for a few days. My wood shop teacher brought in a tape of the fight the following Monday or Tuesday and we watched it instead of doing stuff in class. He was freaking out at the end of the eighth round, pausing it right before Douglas got knocked down and starting his own count. It amazes me that that part of the aftermath of that fight has been largely forgotten over the years. There was some serious talk about whether Douglas would have to give up the belt.

 

To be honest, I don't know how Douglas got up. Round 1 or 15...whenever Tyson caught someone flush with that uppercut it was nap time. And sadly King and Tyson were probably right. I don't think the official thought he was getting up and just didn't count in rhythm. I watch it now and still have questions

But it doesn't take away from the fact that Douglas kicked his ass for 9 and a three-quarters rounds.

 

The only count that matters is the referee's. The knockdown timekeeper is just a guide. Douglas beat the referee's count and that's all that mattered. Whether he was down for 8, 10, or 13 seconds is irrelevant.

 

Yes, without HBO, Gatti doesn't become the star he was., but I really wish TV would just show the competitions and not try to be opinion leaders.

 

Enjoy dying on that hill.

Boxing is completely numbers/promoters/PPV driven. HBO wanted to show fighters that drew viewers and could potentially be used on PPV. Promoters wanted to promote fighters that sold tickets. That's all it was.

 

And that whole policy of not mentioning the sanctioning bodies was just silly. I'm not condoning the WBA having three or four "world" champions in the same weight class but it's not as if any of them went out of business as a result of that policy.

 

Always loved Merchant on the HBO fights:

 

I assume this frees Kellerman to do color on ESPN fight broadcasts - if he wants.

Lampley stays at HBO.