The premium cable channel HBO has reportedly terminated its business relationship with boxing company Golden Boy Promotions, according to Yahoo! Sports boxing insider Kevin Iole:
Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com is reporting about the split via Ken Hershman of HBO:
This is a seismic shift in the boxing landscape, as HBO has been one of the powerhouses in televising the sport since it first aired HBO World Championship Boxing in January 1973.
HBO had been the Mecca of boxing on TV for years, but Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s decision to sign a multi-fight contract with HBO competitor Showtime (h/t New York Daily News) sent shockwaves through the sport.
It’s obvious now just how deep the repercussions of that deal have run.
Golden Boy Promotions works with huge stars in the sport like Mayweather Jr., Victor Ortiz, Bernard Hopkins, Adrien Broner and Saul Alvarez, just to name a few, and that business will likely all be taken to Showtime.
According to Ben Thompson of Fight Hype (from a March 10 article), the issues between Golden Boy Promotions and HBO have been going on for months, and this is the end result of the in-fighting:
Evidently, when undefeated pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather, who had previously fought exclusively on HBO, decided to sign a multi-fight deal with rival network Showtime, a line in the sand had been drawn. During a time when HBO made it clear that they were being much more selective on the matchups they were looking for and cutting back on their boxing budget, both Richard Schaefer and influential adviser Al Haymon let it be known that they had no problems with moving the majority of their business over to Showtime.
Now that it appears Golden Boy Promotions has put all of their eggs in the Showtime basket, the two biggest superpowers in the sport—Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank (has the majority of its fights on HBO)—will now be going head-to-head.
Top Rank works for many top stars in the sport as well (Manny Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley, Juan Manuel Marquez and more), and the competition between the rival promotions and cable channels will likely only heat up as time passes.
This could be a budding rivalry that rekindles the excitement of the sport for the causal boxing fans.
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