Hauser: HBO and the State of Boxing - Part I

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/main-lead/hbo-and-the-state-of-boxing--part-one1

What did Hauser say ?

Ali wrote:

What did Hauser say ?

Breaks down how HBO operates, their ignorant strategies, overpaying for chumps, and the Haymon factor

Some highlights

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But ratings for HBO’s live fights have been disappointing. And HBO CEO Bill Nelson is said to be particularly troubled by the fact that, in recent years, African-American viewership of HBO Sports programming has dropped significantly beyond the drop for other demographic groups.

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Sources also say that Greenburg has told Nelson and HBO President Richard Plepler that boxing is struggling because 1) despite HBO’s best efforts, it was unable to consummate a deal for Manny Pacquiao to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr this year; 2) there are no stars because promoters aren’t developing them, and 3) there are no good American heavyweights.

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But the prevailing ethic at HBO today seems to be, let’s get him an alphabet-soup title and then find out if he’s any good.

Arum on HBO's Kery Davis, pretty much runs boxing for HBO on day to day basis

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“Kery isn’t a boxing guy,” Arum continues. “To do that job, you have to love boxing and be part of boxing and get boxing. Lou [DiBella], for all his craziness, was a very, very good boxing guy. Kery has no feel for the sport. He would dispute that but I’ve been in boxing for a long time and I know what I’m talking about. The biggest need that Ross has right now is for someone to advise him who knows fighters, knows what makes a good fight, and knows what’s really going on in boxing. Otherwise, HBO will keep making the same mistakes again and again.”

“Ross needs someone with his finger on the pulse of boxing,” says another promoter. “HBO got burned last month when it came out that Alfredo Angulo is in the United States illegally. A lot of us have known that for a long time. I mean, come on; Angulo drove cross-country for an HBO fight because he couldn’t get on a plane. Why didn’t anyone at HBO know?

The HBO brass need to get rid of Greenburg and Davis, bring back Lou Dibella as an adviser and find a suit who actually has a passion for the sport.

Al Haymon

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But sources say that Haymon has influence beyond the skills of his fighters and that it comes from a series of personal alliances as well as his ability to assist in providing talent for HBO entertainment specials.

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Al Haymon is a very powerful concert promoter. Among his many ventures, he promoted Beyonce’s ”I Am … Tour.”

Beyonce, like other Haymon clients in the musical world, has appeared on HBO.

“If I had Beyonce,” Kathy Duva says, “I could get dates on HBO too.”

Kery Davis rejects the notion that Haymon leverages his non-sports relationships to gain favor from HBO Sports. “No person at HBO outside of sports has ever spoken to me about Al Haymon,” Davis says. “And the music business is different from the boxing business. In the music business, Al is a promoter, not a manager. And in the music business, the person who would sell a concert to HBO is the artist’s agent or manager, not the promoter.”

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There are also complaints that HBO has empowered Haymon to act as an unlicensed promoter.

Because of his relationship with HBO, Haymon is in a position whereby he rarely has to give a promoter long-term contractual rights to one of his fighters. Often, the promoter has little more than a handshake and Haymon’s word that, where this particular fighter is concerned, the promoter is Al’s guy. That gives Haymon enormous leverage over the promoter in terms of how income generated from each fight is split. Promoters put up with the arrangement because, over the years, HBO has been remarkably generous when giving out dates and paying license fees for fights involving Haymon’s fighters.