Quote Originally Posted by chamiley
Quote Originally Posted by Bilbo
Quote Originally Posted by SweetPea
As people have already mentioned, the 2 big reasons that 24/7 will only be done for certain fights are:
1. Cost
2. Personalities of the fighters (including whether or not they speak fluent English)

4 episodes is a lot of time, and therefore you need guys who will provide entertainment and quotes. For example, there was no way a fight like Cotto-Mosley would ever get a 24/7, because neither of those ever says anything controversial. And while Cotto has done a great job at learning English, he's still not overly fluent in it.

Hopkins-Calzaghe is a natural for it, just like Floyd-Hatton was. Both guys speak English, and both have a way with words and enjoy trash-talking.
Trust me there is no way in hell Calzaghe Hopkins will get a 24/7 show. You've got a man in his mid 40's who the HBO commentators have urged to retire following his absolute stinker of a fight with Winky Wright versus the man responsible for the lowest viewing figures for a championship fight in HBO history.

This fight will be lucky to even make it to PPV. I'm not even sure it will merit a Countdown To show to be honest.

If tarver-hopkins was a ppv then this is a sureshot PPV. I am sure Hopkins will try to reignite the British-American rivalry.
The Tarver fight was a much bigger fight though as far as mainstream America goes. You had Bernard Hopkins stepping up two weight classes to fight the man who knocked out Roy Jones and was the universallyrecognised light heavyweight champ.

I agree Calzaghe is a bigger challenge and a much more entertaining fighter but stateside he has zero marketability. When he fought Kessler the fight was on for FREE and it scored the lowest television figures for a HBO Championship fight ever!

Considering that level of mainstream disinterest how could HBO possibly justify the cost and expense of a 4 part 24/7 show?

I'm not talking about the talent of the fighters or how much we want to see it, I'm talking merely about mainstream American.

For mainstream America it's probably not that big a deal. Hopkins isn't a big PPV star and Calzaghe clearly has zero pulling power in the states.

It's not even a dead cert for PPV. It probably will be but Margarito Williams wasn't, I don't think the upcoming Klitschko Ibragimov fight is so there is a chance that this fight won't be either.

Realistically it most likely be a PPV and get a Countdown To episode. That would be a fair amount of coverage for the fight, there just isn't enough stateside interest for it to merit much more.