HBO dominated the televised boxing market for decades, but recently decided to no longer televise the sport due to decreasing interest from customers. Where HBO enjoyed once enjoyed a stable of most of the top fighters, in recent years it watched that stable reduce to Canelo, GGG, Danny Jacobs, and some smaller weight fighters. While many will point to rival Showtime’s superior business model and talent, as well as Floyd’s departure from HBO to join Showtime as the main reasons, I feel that Roy shares some of the blame as well.

Roy was a phenomenal fighter, an ATG, and a good/smart businessman. Remember that prior to Roy ascending to the top p4p spot you had fighters like Hagler, Chavez, Meldrick Taylor, James Toney, Whitaker, Holyfield, and Tyson taking on top notch competition. Even while Roy was on top you had fighters like Oscar, Shane Mosley, and Fernando Vargas doing the same. After dominating Toney, Roy changed from fighting the best and focused more on minimizing risk while maximizing reward.

Fans initially supported Roy because he was such a dominant and amazing fighter. Potential super fights against Benn, Collins, Liles, And Eubank never came to fruition at 168. Roy unified at 175, but super fights with his most dangerous rival, lineal champ Darius McZlewski, and potential fights with Jirov and Douglas were left to the imagination as well. Roy, and HBO, eventually suffered a “Roycott” that hurt their bottom line, but did result with Roy facing legitimate threats in Ruiz and Tarver.

Where I think Roy shares some blame is that he was the first to put business ahead of what the fans and the suits wanted (a good thing for Roy). I don’t blame Roy at all for that, as the sport has left many great fighters worse off after their careers ended. My point is that Roy changed the way the game was played on HBO and they never adapted, which let Showtime steal their position by creating a superior business model.