HBO DROPPING OUT of the Boxing Business, After 45 Years...

You've Consistently MISSED the Mark Regarding Al Haymon....

He's NOT a Matchmaker and he DOESN'T Pressure His Guys Into Taking TOUGH Fights...Haymon's a MANAGER/ADVISER and As Such He Allows His Fighters to Be as AMBITIOUS or SELECTIVE as they Want to Be...It's All on THEM...

When Spence Wanted to Face a Tough, Undefeated African in Just His 9th Pro Fight, Haymon Made it Happen...When Keith Thurman Wanted to MILK and Drag Out his Championship Reign for as Looooooooooooooong as he Could, It Happened...

Kery Davis Should've Been More DEMANDING of Opponents to Justify Paying Berto 7 Figures...That's NOT Haymon's Fault, Even Though You're Trying to Pin it on Him....

But to Sit Here and PRETEND HBO Wasn't Affected and Ultimately ENDED by Haymon Taking His Business and Fighter's Elsewhere, is Bullshit Bruh...

Deeeeeeeeeeeeep Down, You KNOW What Time it Is...




REED

 

I'm 100% with REED on this one. HBO Boxing would be fine right now if they had Spence, Wilder, Thurman, Porter, both Garcia's, Charlo bros, Davis, ect...

Showtime would have been the ones who would have been forced to drop out of boxing.

Haymon leaving with his entire stable killed HBO.

It the early 00s, it really looked like Showtime was gonna have to drop boxing one day. Tyson was there ONLY draw, and he became a shot old man on the verge of retirement.

HBO had EVERY fighter in boxing who mattered back then. All Showtime had was Kostya Tszyu, who couldn't draw flies to shit.

Amazing how times changed.

 

I feel like the network tide began to turn circa 09 when Showtime introduced the Super 6. That let the boxing world know that Showtime was interested in serious matchups. It was also around this time when 85% of HBO cards became "showcase" fights.

You can only pedal shit to the public for so long. HBO's business model became all about putting ALL their good matchups on PPV, whereas Showtime made an investment in providing their subscribers with quality fights at no extra charge.

In the end, it comes down to the fact that Stephen Espinoza CARES ABOUT boxing, and Peter Nelson never gave a shit about the sport from the moment he was appointed.

 

Obviously I'm in the UK so am a bit out of the loop so to speak. We tend to get HBO/Showtime cards with our own commentators. I'm aware of the legendary commentary teams via YouTube replays and stuff, plus what's posted about them on here. Anyway I'd agree that the HBO production quality was always the best, what are the chances of them returning in the future? We had a thing where boxing matches were exclusively covered by the BBC and ITV, before satellite took over. The BBC gave it up but then tried to come back in the 2000's. Unfortunately they invested heavily in Audley fuckin Harrison and lost loads of money before giving up for good. ITV stopped broadcasting live boxing after Benn-McClellan, it came back as a bit of a one-off for Calzaghe-Lacy and now as a more permanent fixture with PPV. Any chance HBO sorts out its issues with Haymon and comes back in the future?

 

You want me to give him "credit" for hbo ultimately getting out of the boxing business ? Not sure that benefits the game, the fans or is deserving of credit

Make no mistake, the showtime deal hinged on luring Mayweather jr. If haymon didnt have him he wouldn't have had the deal

 

HBO's "Issues" w/Haymon Have ALWAYS Been 1-Sided...

Haymon Eschews Publicity and Rarely if Ever ATTENDS His Own Fight Cards Anymore, Which Tells REED he's Not the Type to Hold Grudges, Burn Bridges or Flat Out REFUSE to Do Business w/Anybody...

The Fact of the Matter Is, HBO Talked Soooooo Much Shit About Him, They're Probably Toooo EMBARRASSED to Do What it Takes to Patch Up a Working Relationship...





REED

 

In Their OWN Fucking Press Release Announcing They're Closing Up Shop, HBO Stated "There's More Boxing Than Ever Being Televised and Distributed", Neil...

Fans Aren't LOSING Shit, Other than Memories and Familiarity...The Fights Themselves Are STILL There, Just via Different Sources...The Game Itself is No Less Benefitted Than it Was Prior to HBO's Demise...

Haymon Was ALREADY Deeeeeeeeeeply Entrenched in Floyd's Affairs...PRIOR to Floyd Taking His Talents to Showtime...

It's Funny How INCAPABLE You Are of Giving Credit Where it's CLEARLY Due...But Whatever Bruh...







REED

 

Renalo is good. Lampley is a shill these days. Al, Max, Paulie, and Roy all good, but Roy was better. Pacheco and Merchant sucked. Albert and Lamply were good. Czyz was the best analyst. Foreman was for children. He was harmless, but sucked. A lot like O'Grady.

 

What’s all this shit about Lampley being a “shill”?

One person says it and then another one follows and suddenly it’s clever and everyone who wants to be cool says it too. Is he a shill because he promotes his network and the fighters that fight on his network? Is that a criticism of his?

He’s supposed to promote his network and their fighters! He gets (got) paid the big dollars from HBO and “he who pays the piper calls his tunes”. If showtime were to recognize my superb announcing talents delivered with the charm and skill only a handsome Englishman could, and were to offer me an announcing job you damned right I would “shill” for showtime and their fighters so that they in turn will pay me the big bucks and continue to renew my contracts!

Besides that anyway...even if it were a negative, Lampley is clearly perhaps the most talented announcer we’ve seen. His command of the English language is second to none, his delivery is second to none, he has great knowledge of not just the boxing game but also pop culture and weaves that into his announcing. Lastly his speed of thinking on his feet and delivering “mic drop” one liners at opportune moments is the stuff of legend.

I’ll miss that dude.

 

If you don't see Lampley being worse at shillness than he used to be then argue that, not all of this irrelevant crap.

By the way, "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

 

Now we gotta consider what was the most famous quote in HBO Boxing History.

I'm gonna go with Barry Tompkins in Tyson-Berbick "And WE... have a new era... in BOXING."

 

That time Lederman said "JIM!" was really special

 

NATHAN Got REED's Boxing Juices Flowing More than When Lamps Would Yell "TALE OF THE TAPE!", Seconds Prior to the Ringwalks...







REED

 

HE BROKE HIS LEGS!

 

Yeah, so far as I am concerned, this doesn't really mean a lot. I guess it's kind of equivalent of SKY suddenly pulling the plug in the UK, but, even then, boxing has always had a presence, to a greater or lesser extent, on terrestrial TV or on other channels.

MTF

 

It happened! It happened!

 

"Powershot! Powershot! Powershot! That's Felix Trinidad!"

The bang bang shit was him copyimg himself.

 

Agreed 100%. As soon as Jim would say "and now the tale of the tape", with the boxer's pictures showing up on the screen, I'd start sweating and getting extremely nervous. I've just never had that same feeling in so many years. That anxiety and nervousness made it special. I haven't gotten that with anything regarding Anthony Joshua or recent Mayweather or Pacquaio fights or Canelo or GGG or any of the young guys in boxing.

 

Larry Merchant, who commented on boxing at HBO for 35 years, has this to say about the end of boxing on the premium network…

“Once upon a time we were a promising kid. Then a challenger. Then a champion. A great champion. A long-time champion. And then a has-been who finally retired.

“So long, champ.”

 

Lampley is definitely very underappreciated. But that's expected with a bunch of fickle boxing fanatics. Everyone's a damn critic instead of enjoying the show.

 

Bunch of cunts more like.

 

This is like the exact opposite of Lennox who tries to sound intelligent and eloquent but sounds like a slow retard during his sh*t commentary. LOL

"A lot of different basketball players play basketball." - Lennox Lewis

 

“Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Richard Steele stops the fight with less than 5 seconds to go. You’re gonna see Lou Duva go crazy now...your gonna watch Lou Duva go absolutely berserk!”

 

Lennox Lewis was the worst!!!! Literally the worst! He lacked intelligence big time.

 

Foreman was such a tool. Still he was infinitely better than boring ass Lennox Lewis.

 

Foreman was there just to chime in from his boxer's perspective really alongside Merchant who although didn't have any real expertise in anything, he was there to keep it real. Lampley was the quick off the mark play by play man while Lederman was there for giving us an idea of how the fight was going based on his scorecards. I enjoyed it overall with the 4 of them. I didn't care much for Roy Jones on commentary. Lewis was a hack. Bernard Hopkins was quite good the very few times he did some commentary. He did colour commentary with Bob Sheridan for Trinidad/Joppy and he had some good insight. Kellerman is a joke. A guy who read books and encyclopedias and thought he was a wizard on the sport.

 

Kellerman was a wizard on boxing. Not sure if he's kept it up as well, but he's still an expert, at least.

 

"Not much is a lot for De La Hoya"

 

Sad news. End of an era.

 

haha I didn't say that but it's at least over mine...