Losing Greenburg to the rival was massive and the inundation of so many forms of competition followed. I think partially hbo got to full of themselves and fans helped them do it thinking it was THE only platform of star potential and massive fights. In fairness it was to a degree but they lost their way when they started thinking they knew what was best for fans by effectively black balling top caliber fighters. Remember when they tried using Ed Lover to host a KO hbo brand or something? That certainly didn't help them. They had a bad run of trying to microwave potential phenoms to star class as mentioned. Bojado, Williams, and even Vargas to a degree and at the end were trying the same failed process with the likes of a Cletis Seldin and calling him a Mike Tyson ffs. Roy Jones was given a red carpet and at the time had the largest contract they had ever afforded and they shipped in one to many rotating 'mandatories' all in the name of Roy covering himself in a layer of belts. Hyping the whole two sports schtick and rolling him out literally on a Broadway stage and allowing middleweights like Otis Grant to be butchered for the lt heavyweight title. I don't blame him completely as he just milked the cow that was given to him but still fans fell for what were some guaranteed mismatches and just yelled greatness. In hindsight you get the feeling the writing was on the wall for hbo for some time but they kept plugging along riding a ghost ship and went out meek.