I like it when Hauser writes about the business side of boxing...it's probably what he's best at. I'll definitely make time to read this today.
damn, that was long. i like idea of buffer becoming an analyst. he's been to just about every hbo fight since the 90s. i also agree with his take on kellerman. max needs to shut up or follow up on his bold remarks.
I think HBO went completely down hill when Dibella left. I'm not sure it's ever getting back to where it was then. There's decent points made about the G-HBO deal. G does bring in sponsors, but they're not a proven grass roots promoter at all and they haven't done much of anything to really build their young fighters like Top Rank does...outside of just getting them on television. The real trend in boxing promotion in the U.S. is away from live events and into television. Gary Shaw and Golden Boy control a great deal of the cable dates, yet a lot of their shows aren't that well attended...and it doesn't even seem to matter.
agREED... Buffer's TERRIBLE on Versus' "Legends of the Ring" Series...When he Gives his "Insight" it's APPARENT that he's REEDing from a Cue Card... Just the Other Day, he Referred to Wifred Benitez as WilfreDO Benitez...He Also Pronoucned Ayub Kalule WRONG...Buffer Said Ka-Loo-LUH, but it's Ka-Loo-LAY... He'd B DREADFUL Giving LIVE Boxing Analysis... REED::
Perhaps Buffer isn't up to it. But the “Watch a fight on HBO with your son and daughter” campaign sounds like a winner.
Hauser has another article ESPN that deals with the situation involving the Peterson brothers and Shelly Finkel. It deals with some of the same players, including Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, who both wanted their services. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=3414631 It quotes a Peterson counterclaim against Finkel at some length. Here's a few excerpts:
Its well known that Finkel takes big cuts to get people deals. He did the same witht he 2000 Olympians.
He's not really a promoter. I think he still has the Klitschko brothers. He recently became Victor Ortiz's manager and he just fought on the G/DLH-Forbes card. He's in arbitration with the Peterson brothers, and Robert Guerrero is one of his fighters and he's seeking arbitration with Goossen. He also has Rocky Juarez.
Haven't gotten through the entire article, but I can say that it is pissing me off in a big way. It's full of half-truths and mis-aligned cause/effect analysis. . So Calz Kessler got bad ratings. Does anyone want to make the argument that that fight wasn't HBO quality? Of course, HBO could have shown Kessler's eye-opening blast out of Beyer, but they dropped the fucking ball on that one. (see Hauser, this is how relevant criticism works) . And then to point to bigger fights in the past on HBO...well, I'll tell you the biggest reason. HBO shows a fuckload more fights these days. It's not even close. And the rating comparisons are conveniently changed between HBO or HBO Championship Boxing depending on the point the writer is trying to make. HBO is far better now than it was in the 90's. It's not even close. At least when HBO has a bad card, you know it will only be a few weeks before they try again. In the 90's, it might be 6 weeks (or more).
