Re: Did RJJ Kill HBO Boxing?
What killed boxing on hbo was that they didn't have the stamina to keep scouting. They had previous looked for young up and coming talent (bojado, ricardo williams) to fill their ranks later on and they just stopped and just started renting themselves to big fights for guaranteed money. A couple of events I would link this too:
The departure of ross greenburg to showtime after 33 years. Hes probably someone responsible for the groundwork that showtimes operating on now.
The wane of the heavyweight division and the onset of fighters trying to win Olympic style fights. When stuff started getting boring is around the same time that HBO refused to pay fighters to televise boring fights/styles. The Klitchskos, Ward and Rigondeaux are people i remember being particularly boring.
And the aforementioned rise of homegrown programming
They want your @$$ beat because upsets make news. News brings about excitement, excitement brings about ratings. The objective is to bring you up to the tower and tear your @$$ down. And if you don't believe that, you're crazy.
Roy Jones, Jr. "What I've Learned," Esquire 2003
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