BAD likely off the air for three months later this year

For budgetary reasons.

And HBO is leaning towards Klitschko-Rahman in November.

From Thomas Hauser:

Sources say that Boxing After Dark will probably be absent from the screen for three months this autumn for budgetary reasons. More significantly, after HBO’s July 14th welterweight tripleheader, there most likely will be an eleven-week gap between World Championship Boxing fights. WCB is the anchor for HBO Sports. This hiatus is not good.

Meanwhile, insiders say that HBO is leaning toward televising Wladimir Klitschko versus Hasim Rahman in November, although rumors of a Klitschko-Holyfield match-up have surfaced. Klitschko is probably the best heavyweight in the world right now, but he won’t prove it by fighting Holyfield or Rahman.

 

dsimon writes:

Oh man! who wants to see Rahman. This is horrible. :doh:

 

HBO is going to break the bank and bankrupt their boxing budget for the rest of the year to show Klit batter Rahman? Insane.

Rahman looked shotter then John Tate in his last fight.

 

dsimon writes:

How did Rahman get a shot at Klitschko fer chrisakes? :doh:

 

He "Earned" it by Getting KO'ed by Maskaev...

Didn't U KNOW???


REED::

 

It's pathetic. Rahman doesn't even deserve to be fighting on cable after his performance against Sykes...and he's had many of those kinds of outings in his career.

I'm sure HBO isn't opening up the bank for a Klitschko fight in Germany...they want it in the US, and that means they want a somewhat marketable American opponent...and Rahman fits that bill.

It's unfortunate. Liakhovich is a much more worthy opponent, IMO, but that fight won't garner much interest domestically.

 

Wank:doh:

 

this just cements my utter hatred for Wlad. and HBO. let's hope there's plenty of PPVs during the 11 week period or else i'm going to start cliff-diving.

 

Fucking pig. The motherfucker has a perfect window to schedule the winner of Chagaev/Sultan. It would be a great fucking fight yet this pig wants to fight Rock. Don't blame Rock for the fight, blame Wlad for accepting it and HBO for making it. The fucking horrible thing will be after he fights Rock, then he will fight the highly anticipated rematch of the winner of the Brock/Byrd fight, but cumon, he has to fight his IBF mandatory?:dunno: :doh: :flip:

 

Wlad should be ashamed of himself for fighting that washed up bum. No way in hell I'm ordering that mismatch.

 

I haven't read anything about this fight being on pay per view...have you read that somewhere?

 

Oh my bad I thought assumed it was a PPV. Still, I have little interest in seeing it. Its a mismatch, Rachman is shot and wasnt even good in his "prime". He hit the lottery in the first Lewis fight, and hasnt done shit since.

 

ok. here's the path by which we'll have arrived at a shit match-up like Wlad/Rahman:

HBO offers exclusive contract in which opponent's purse comes out of contract holder's --------------------->

Rahman loses his last fight by KO to a perceived soft touch and then looks like shit in his come-back fight --------------------->

Wlad figures he can get Rahman in the ring for much less than he could a guy like Ibragimov or Chagaev since Rahman's options are so limited
--------------------->

Wlad chooses Rahman as an opponent citing his American fan-base and previous fights with Lewis(HBO) as his primary motivation
--------------------->

HBO signs off on the shit match-up
--------------------->

Boxing fans once again subjected to a meaningless heavy-weight fight, this time in place of countless other non-heavy-weight fights that are 10 times more meaningful and compelling
--------------------->

HBO's disconnection from their customers, and abuse of their influence continues as the sport's credibility is further chiseled away.

 

I'd prefer to see a holyfield rahman rematch than any fight mentioned in this thread.

 

there's an idea! however, for Holyfield, it's a bit of a high risk/low reward scenario. if he loses, he's completely derailed since he'll have lost to a dud. and if he wins, it'll be to another Oquendo-type fighter.

still, i guess if Holyfield's only goal is to be on TV, and keep fighting, it's worth his while since it will probably draw better than his last fight.

 

Wlads last 4

Byrd
Peter
Brock
some guy
Brewster

Uh........who should he fight???

Valuev just got whupped.

The Outback Boys are fighting each other

Ruiz is gay.

Peter Panned is fighting Maskaev.

:dunno:

 

Seriously, OC. You are not going to defend Wlad fighting Rock are you?:doh: Sergei is a better choice. But in reality, he should be fighting the winner of Chagaev/Sultan.

 

He shouldn't fight anyone. He should get the fk off my TV. he's horrible to watch and only takes up TV slots from other more deserving fighters.

 

he should fight the Chagaev/Sultan winner. On the last interview Wlad mentioned how the IBF will not enforce a mandatory since they considered Brewster a mandatory. So he mentioned he could choose his next oponent.

After saying that he has to fight another champion.

Rahman is a fucking scrub and as great a stable as Arum has I don't understand why he keeps promoting that clown.

 

oh from making Vitali retire to not being worthy to fight his little pussy brother...

damn harsh those Rahman fans... ::


Seriously the other champions have a fight scheduled and Liehoewitch was KOed by zero workrate Asthma Briggs who was then beaten...

He's not a better opponent than Rahman - both are shit and not deserving but if Wlad wants to stay busy and if someone gives him money for fighting and the other champs are not available this year...

WHO ELSE should he fight?

 

switch the fk your TV out if u don't like watching him... :tease:

 

Chagaev/Sultan is for Oct 6. If he got a fight scheduled with Rock to happen between now and November, I would be cool with that. But HE NEEDS to step up and say something about fighting the winner for a unification fight. Rahman isn't relavent anymore. The fight with Sergie would be better because he beat the man who took his belt. Did Sergei get ko'd by a slow ass Briggs? Yes. Does Briggs have one punch power? Yes. Rahman has struggled with lesser fighters than Briggs(which is :shit: ) very recently.

to make a long story short, Fighting Rahman isn't a crime AS LONG AS HE FIGHTS THE WINNER OF CHAGAEV/SULTAN.

The problem will come from the IBF saying after he fights Rahman he has to fight the winner of Brock/Byrd :shit: as a mandatory:doh: :flip:

 

Rahman? Holyfield?

How many times can they recycle these old, washed up heavyweights? And I see Oliver McCall is ranked 3 by the WBC!

What's wrong, Henry Akinwande isn't available? Alex Garcia? Joe Hipp? Wolfgramm?

Sad. Very Sad.

TFK

 

He says he wants Chagaev/Ibraghimov i'm just not sure if they put enough effort behind that.

I don't think Kohl would let Chagaev fight Klitschko... but hey i didn't think he would let him fight Ibraghimov either. Maybe he thinks Ruslan has a good chance there. I honestly think those champions aren't too positive about their chances against Wlad...

 

This is truly the worst era of heavyweights ever. The heir apparent is a glass chinned zombie who was knocked out in 2 rounds by a fat, inactive golfer. Imagine if Muhammad Ali had been knocked out in 2 rounds by Chuck Wepner, would his legacy be as solid? :dunno:

 

That's not a fair comparison...

Ali was in his 30's when he fought Wepner.

Imagine Ali getting KO'd by Chuck Wepner when he was 25 or 26.

::

 

yeah or if Pacquiao would have been knocked out cold twice in 3 rounds by some asian midgets...


oh wait??!!! :: :tease:

 

Well, he turned pro when he was 20 so he was only like 22 when he fought Purrity.

 

:nono: ::

 

I'm not worried about BAD when Showtime is showing better matchups every first Saturday of every month