Quote Originally Posted by albsur2006 View Post
This is the type of BS that ANGERS me about HBO.

There's absolutely NO REASON for these two guys to really fight right now. JoeCal has basically said goodbye to 168 and he's pretty much a light heavyweight now. Plus, he's already defeated the best at 168 and 175 minus Chad Dawson. He's really got NOTHING left to prove. He probably should retire or wait a year for someone to clean up either of those divisions and set up a big match that the public might want to see him in.

Jermain just showed up at 168. He's obviously trying to revitalize his career and get over the Pavlik losses. And I think he's got a good chance to reclaim some of that lost glory. He needs to not even think about JoeCal because JoeCal right now would probably wipe the floor with him; then where does Jermain go from there?

Jermain should fight another decent guy at 168, and there are plenty of them. Then he should take on a guy like Kessler or Bute, and then maybe try to get JoeCal before he gets way too old.

HBO just wants to stick JoeCal with any name and throw it on PPV. Seriously, these guys were hyping it up before the fight was even over. Jermain isn't even the top 168 pounder yet and they were basically annointing him as the new king of the division. All just to push another BS fight on the public that nobody is asking for right now. Even Jermain in his post fight interview didn't call out JoeCal, he seemed to just wanna say "look guys, can yall just give me a break and let me rebuild my career for God sakes?" But of course he said "anybody my promoter puts in front me is fine by me." HBO is the gift and the curse sometimes.

My point is that right or wrong, HBO has a lot of influence and often the fights that should be made aren't made in favor fights that are more marketable to the casual fan. IMHO, this fight shouldn't happen now, but I have a feeling we will be stuck with this. I agree, HBO is a gift and a curse. Oscar Pacman is a prime example of a fight that shouldn't be happening, but it is. Why? HBO and money. I'm afraid the are going to try to pull another one of these off with a Calzaghe/Taylor fight. I'm not saying that is should happen. I'm saying that HBO will try to make it happen, because that's exactly the kind of thing that HBO does all the time.