no longer the heart and soul of boxing

[Surj]

"My sources in New York tell me that there is a sizable billboard out there that reads 'The Greatest Fighters in the World Fight on HBO', with the images of Winky Wright, Jermain Taylor, Arturo Gatti, Oscar De La Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera, Vitali Klitschko, Fernando Vargas, Erik Morales, Antonio Tarver and one Floyd Mayweather Jr., who capped off his 2005 campaign on Saturday night with a one-sided pasting of Sharmba Mitchell that saw him halt the former junior welterweight standout with a right hand to the body in the sixth round at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.

It caps off a year in which Mayweather - who many believe is the world's premier prizefighter, pound-for-pound - took on a triumvirate of Henry Bruseles, Arturo Gatti and Mitchell. Not exactly three the hard way, huh?


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'The Pretty Boy' is the newest endorser of the Jordan Brand, and seeing him tear through this trio was akin to seeing 'His Airness' drop fifty in the NBDL or CBA.

Just moments before the opening bell on Saturday night, HBO's Larry Merchant asked if we were going to see a concert or an actual fight between Mayweather and Mitchell. Unfortunately, what we witnessed was a one-sided fistic concert put on by Mayweather, who never let Mitchell into the fight.

That's par for the course in 2005 for HBO, as they've shown more 'concerts' than MTV and BET combined. It's true, the best fighters are on HBO; too bad that they're never in real fights. This year we've seen non-descript foes like Bruseles, Yanqui Diaz, Daniel Edouard, Raymond Joval, Eliseo Castillo, and Hector Velasquez on the B-side of HBO house fights. And they conclude the year by pitting Wright against the awkward and unknown Sam Soliman, a fight that almost couldn't be given away to SCAM throughout the country. On January 28th, HBO kicks things off in 2006 with Gatti facing Thomas Daamgard.

I hate to say this, but I think like many others, I keep subscribing to HBO more and more for shows like 'Entourage', 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'Deadwood' than for their once illustrious boxing program. What about 'The Sopranos' you say? Hey, like 'Championship Boxing' and 'Boxing After Dark', I'm waiting for it to return.

There used to be a time when a bout on HBO meant something. It meant that you got the very best and most compelling bouts in boxing with top-notch story-telling and production. Well, we still get the latter at least. But now 'Championship Boxing' seems to be just a vehicle to show replays of their pay-per-view shows, and 'Boxing After Dark' has become (as I've dubbed it in the past) the Betty Ford Clinic of boxing programs, where damaged fighters like Vargas rehab their careers.

It's a far cry from the days of Seth Abraham (who loved hoarding stars for his network) and Lou DiBella (who knew how to make a good fight). Currently, HBO's leadership is comprised of Ross Greenburg, a brilliant producer, who seems terribly out of place in his position as the president of HBO Sports. The hard truth is, under Greenburg, HBO will win bushels of Emmys for their various Yankee documentaries and other programs, but you'll most likely see fewer and fewer good fights on the network under his reign. Then there's Kery Davis, who has proven to be a poor successor to DiBella (and let's just leave it at that). And then there's Mark Taffet, who heads up their pay-per-view division, and who is respected throughout the industry for his vision and foresight.

HBO Pay-Per-View has had another banner year with events like Mayweather-Gatti, Tarver-Jones II, Morales-Pacquiao and Hopkins-Taylor.

But on the flipside, fights like Barrera's blowout of Mzonke Fana and his one-sided decision over Robbie Peden were also on pay-per-view because HBO has so many fighters under exclusive contracts that dates are now limited to a point that sometimes their own fighters don't get to perform on HBO all that often.

In examining those boxers featured on that billboard, you see that Wright had his fight against Trinidad on pay-per-view along with his December 10th appointment with Soliman. Taylor took on Edouard in February and his two fights with Hopkins will be on HBO PPV. Cotto actually fought twice on HBO this year against Mohammad Abdullaev and Ricardo Torres. De La Hoya didn't fight at all in 2005 - although he is promising another return to the ring for next May. Vitali Klitschko, betrayed by his body, has retired after four separate postponements of his bout against Hasim Rahman. Vargas got two fights against Joval and then Javier Castillejo. Morales' bout against Pacquiao was on pay-per-view, and his upset loss to Zahir Raheem was on regular HBO - on a telecast which for all intents and purposes was a commercial for Morales-Pacquiao II (which by the way, will be on pay-per-view), and Tarver gained revenge on Glen Johnson on HBO and then won his rubbermatch against Roy Jones on pay-per-view.

In other words, you see HBO fighters on HBO about as often as you've seen James Gandolfini recently.

But what's even more distressing is that perhaps they really don't care to put on competitive fights anymore. Could it be that HBO is just happy to have fighters like Mayweather, De La Hoya and Taylor on their network roster just as they are proud to have the Larry Davids, Gandolfinis and Bob Costases?

It sounds a bit far-fetched I know, but think about it - for years they got mileage out of having Roy Jones take on one mis-mandatory after another (while of course saying the sanctioning bodies were irrelevant), but outside of the outspoken Merchant, they really took pride in pushing 'Roy Jones, the greatest pound-for-pound fighter ever' on their airwaves.

While fights against Dariusz Michalczewski were allowed to die on the vine, HBO happily hyped up his bouts against the Richard Halls and Ricky Fraziers of the world. Yeah, it's a bad fight, but HBO had Roy Jones under their banner and that may have been the most important thing.

Now, fast forward to the present day and you have the case of Mayweather, who made about $3.75 million for facing Mitchell. Now, you can't blame Mayweather for taking this fight. It was 'easy work' as Floyd would say, for big money. But why did HBO accept it? This is the reason why our own Doug Fischer has dubbed him 'Roy Jones III'. Fighters are allowed to be better managers than fighters under the current structure of HBO contracts.

But don't hate the players, hate the enablers.

With him getting this amount for fights like the one he participated in at the Rose Garden, you wonder if it will hinder efforts to make bouts against Zab Judah or Antonio Margarito in the future.

If he can make nearly 4 million for Mitchell, why would he ever make much riskier fights against the two above-mentioned gentlemen if his paydays wouldn't be exorbitant? But what's ironic is that not only does Mayweather have the talent to win those fights, he still NEEDS them for his own marketability. There's a reason why, for all his prodigious skills, he has fought in half-empty arenas from Fresno to Miami, to most recently, Portland, Oregon.

But then, maybe I'm missing the point. The venue he fights at isn't important. He's fighting on HBO (for a lot of money).

Because it's not about fights. It's obviously about the fighters.

It's not TV, it's HBO.

MARGARITO-VILLE?

It looks like Margarito, who was scheduled to face Manuel Gomez on the postponed pay-per-view event featuring Vitali Klitschko-Hasim Rahman on November 12th, will be getting his own pay-per-view event in early 2006.

"We're looking to put something on the board for a pay-per-view fight, hopefully on February 18th, and do that with Margarito and Gomez and put a really good supporting cast of fighters on with that," said Todd DuBoef, V.P. of Top Rank Boxing.

You can expect Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Jorge Arce to round out that card, which will most likely take place in Las Vegas.

BAD CHAD

I thought super middleweight prospect Chad Dawson looked good - well, at least as good as you could be - in facing Ian Gardner and stopping the stinky southpaw in 11 rounds.

I think he and Allan Green give the super middleweight division some fresh, new faces."

[GAZ]

I enjoy copy and pasting text too

[Surj]

I enjoy copy and pasting text too

got that from my boxing website www.boxingfanatics.com its my friends site not really what i would call "big" but its a good site