HBO Passing on Mosley-Mora PPV a Potentially Good and Bad Sign for Boxing Fans

by John Chavez

Pay-Per-View events are the scorn of boxing fans especially here in the United States of America.

In this day and age with the abundance of "free" entertainment outlets via the internet, asking someone to shell-out $50 to watch anything on television is akin to paying the milk man to deliver your fresh cow juice.

Anything less than the highest quality product on the PPV outlet leads many long-time, loyal fight fans to look the other way and disregard certain boxing events altogether. It has an extremely negative effect on the popularity of the sport in totality as missing one Pay-Per-View has led many fight fans to miss two, three, and eventually lose interest in the sport as a whole. I've seen it happen first hand and it's pretty discouraging to observe from the perspective of wanting to see the sweet science expand it's fan base here domestically.

As was reported on Fighthype.com, HBO has decided to pass on it's involvement regarding the September Pay-Per-View card between Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora. This is a very interesting move as it seems as though the "Heart and Soul of Boxing" is finally getting it right as it pertains to their subsidization of the sport.

In a recent rant I wrote here at The Boxing Truth, I suggested that HBO start to make drastic changes in their fight buying style and offer fair deals across the board for top talent. If promoters and most importantly, fighters are unable to agree to the financial terms offered, there are always the fellows across the street (Showtime) and the independent Pay-Per-View.

As we all know by now, Showtime has a strong policy of buying meaningful fights that fall within their budget range so in essence that eliminates anything involving say... Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. until he fights a meaningful opponent. (Who by the way generated less than 50,000 buys against human punching bag, John Duddy.)

In order to satisfy their fighter's demands and more importantly... their egos, the independent Pay-Per-View is absolutely the only other alternative that these promotional firms have when showcasing their talent. That is... unless they are able to convince their clients to be a bit more realistic with their earning power and popularity outside of the bubble created by HBO.

So now onto the bad...

Pay-Per-View will be used in abundance over the next several years by promotional firms such as Top Rank, Golden Boy Promotions, and the strange non-descript firms that continue to stage bouts such as David Tua vs. Monte Barrett. Seriously... does the buy-rate for the aforementioned heavyweight fight even surpass 87?

It's the necessary evil of the sport when guys such as Kelly Pavlik, Antonio Margarito, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, and Juan Manuel Marquez cannot understand that the intrigue level in their fights isn't exactly what it once was.

You can attempt to explain to these prize-fighters that the current economy isn't what it once was due to the collapsed residential and commercial real estate markets, impending stock market collapse, sky-high unemployment figures, and the lack of tangible goods exported by this country all leading to less disposable income for the average American. Either they don't understand, don't care, or their egos are too big thinking that everyone is still interested in shelling out the dollars to see them perform.

So usually what might happen is that fighter "A" has a certain minimum purse amount figure but can be coerced into taking a smaller minimum in exchange for headlining their own card and taking a percentage of the Pay-Per-View upside. There's always that strange infatuation with headlining a Pay-Per-View card with a fighter regardless of whether the fight will actually sell or not. Look at the purse structure of the Roy Jones Jr. - Bernard Hopkins rematch in which Hopkins took a minimum purse of $750,000 based on potential upside on the final tally of PPV buys. This is a figure that Bernard would have never agreed to had HBO dellusionally bought the rights to air that rematch for a price of lets say... $2 million. Sure there would have been no Pay-Per-View upside but then again, it would have been guaranteed money in hand without having to convince anyone to purchase it.

I just tend to believe that it is a huge transition time for boxing.

Many fighters and promoters will take substantial losses in the coming years on these independent Pay-Per-View shows.

HBO must realize this and structure their payouts for their events accordingly.

There is absolutely no reason for them to shell out any unwarranted dollars for perceived "Big-Fights" that wouldn't draw independently.

Yes, I understand that Ross Greenburg wants to air Paul Williams-Sergio Martinez II and Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander on HBO but still... there's no reason to overpay or even deal with the posturing from the promoters involved. Dan Goosen, Gary Shaw, Lou Dibella, and Don King wouldn't have the nerve to even attempt to put any of those fights on independent Pay-Per-Views and Showtime doesn't have the budget to even compete with HBO to purchase those fights. These are hardcore boxing fan fights which points to the fact that even if they were even shown via PPV, these fanatics would find a way to watch them for free via the internet.

So there we have the formula...

1. HBO passes on lack-luster match-ups "forcing" promoters to either make better match-ups or go the independent PPV route.
2. Fighters take lesser minimums with PPV upsides that never come to fruition while the promoters make little money or even lose money in the process of staging the event.
3. Promoters and fighters realize that they must restructure their contracts or agree to financial offers set forth by HBO.
4. This gives HBO the power to offer fair but lesser payouts than in years past allowing them to schedule more bang for their buck across the calendar year.

The biggest question I have is just how long this "cycle" will take.

With the short-sightedness of the industry based on it's track-record and the posturing involved by all of the entities... it could take years for this cycle to play out.

Even worse would be HBO not realizing that this cycle is even occurring and continuing to overpay for certain key match-ups while leaving their budget completely dry turning off HBO boxing subscribers.

Seriously... what would benefit boxing more?

HBO shelling out $3 million in order to make the Alexander-Bradley fight a reality in January 2011 or offering $1.5 million, risking it not happening due to unrealistic demands and taking the left over $1.5 million and putting on 5 or 6 B.A.D. shows?

I can guarantee them that the total ratings for 5 or 6 "Boxing After Dark" shows will far surpass the one-time ratings figure for Alexander-Bradley.

The good of HBO distancing themselves from unwarranted Pay-Per-View cards is that there is a certain credibility to a fight once HBO puts it's stamp and marketing muscle on it. It leads to an elevated number of buys that the promotional firms and boxers feel they are single-handedly responsible for when in reality, it is the premium network that should be given the credit.

I'd expect a smart numbers guy like Richard Schaefer to pick up on all these things sooner than the rest of the pack but the fierce rivalry with Top Rank can cloud judgment especially when it comes to disgruntled fighters possibly jumping ship.

Does any of this make any sense?

Probably not.

All I know is that boxing fans are most probably in-store for a hellish amount of independent Pay-Per-Views in the coming years and if HBO doesn't restructure their payouts as it pertains to perceived "big-money" fights, the boxing schedule on the "Heart and Soul" can possibly end up being rail thin with a few marquee fights taking place with nothing left in the budget to continue showcasing the best upcoming talent for years to come.

Boxing here in America needs this transition period to adjust sooner than later in order for the sport to avoid a similar crisis to what occurred here on a financial level.

It's just the opinion of an idiotic boxing fan...


PS. The new age of boxing fan doesn't even bother to complain about the excessive amount of boxing Pay-Per-Views as most of them are very well-versed in watching these events free online. The figures do not lie...

truth@theboxingtruth.com