In late 2018, when HBO announced it was exiting the boxing business, it seemed like such a big deal. It was like the kid leaving the house and moving to the other side of the country, breaking his parents' hearts. For those of us who loved boxing, HBO had been part of our lives for nearly a half-century when the head honchos took the final 10 count and gave up on the sport.
But then the final bout on the network that once billed itself as "the heart and soul of boxing," was a women's welterweight bout between Cecilia Braekhus against Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes, was an unceremonious dud, not memorable in any way. It reminded us that maybe it wasn't such a big deal because there would always been someone coming in to replace it and for all the cherished memories we had, there were plenty of duds, too.
On Saturday, the curtain goes down on Showtime's epic 37-year run as a leading boxing broadcaster in the U.S. It debuted with Marvelous Marvin Hagler against John "The Beast" Mugabi in 1986 and will exit with David Morrell against Sena Agbeko in 2023.
Those feelings of sadness are bubbling up again, much like in 2018 when HBO bade us farewell. This time, though, it's not for the franchise. Boxing will survive this, most certainly.
The feelings of sadness are for Showtime employees like Chris DeBlasio and Mitch Abramson and Flo Jocou, excellent publicists who put their hearts and souls into their jobs, promoting Showtime and the often-maligned sport of boxing.
There are many others like them at Showtime who have worked so tirelessly for the network over the decades who are left without a job as we move into the new year and a new era in boxing. Those are the people we'll miss, not the fights, not the fighters and not a TV channel. Morrell is one of the best young fighters in the world; we'll see him again. Whether it's on Amazon or ESPN or DAZN or an outlet we don't know about now, Morrell will be back.
But to prevent this thing from happening in the future, to avoid these goodbyes to the anonymous employees that most of the public doesn't know, it might be wise to adopt a philosophy of one of Showtime's finest.
Jay Larkin ran the boxing program at the network for a decade, and spent more than 20 years as a Showtime employee. He sadly died of brain cancer at 59 years old in 2010.
But while he was still senior vice president and executive producer of Showtime's boxing broadcast, he uttered the line that would be wise to be remembered today.
"Great fights and no rights."
When boxing largely moved from network television to premium cable in the mid-to-late 1980s and into the 1990s, one of its unintended consequences was the long-term contracts each network inked with their top fighters. It was a great deal for the fighters to have the security of a long-term deal with a network, but it wasn't so much of a great deal for the networks, the sport of boxing and most importantly and most often forgotten, its fans.
Boxing could survive the long-term contracts given to such athletes as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya and Mike Tyson, because they were among the greatest in the sport's history and they sold tickets, they generated ratings and they delivered pay-per-view numbers. People talked about them and they wanted to see them. But far too many boxers were given those lucrative long-term deals, fighters people weren't talking about nor demanding to see. It overwhelmed the networks with debt because often, the biggest fights couldn't be made.
Fighter A had an exclusive, long-term deal with HBO and Fighter B had a similar arrangement with Showtime. Far too often, it prevented the two fighters from getting into the ring against each other. Year after year, boxing journalists lamented the fights that could have and should have been made that weren't. And when they weren’t, it just eroded boxing's credibility.
The system has flipped a bit now. It's mostly the promoters who have the deals with the networks, and so ESPN, for example, pays Top Rank millions annually to put on the best fights possible.
But the best way to do it, for the sport, for those footing the bill, for the boxers and for the fans, is to invite bidding from all comers with a fight. Great fights with no rights, in other words. Promoters will have their favored networks, and networks will have their favored fighters.
But if a promoter is able to go into the free market and say, 'Hey, I have this fight that everyone wants to see, so submit your best bid because we're open for business," that's going to do many positive things. Number one, it's going to make it vastly easier to make the best fights. It's going to raise the most money for the boxers. And if a network is consistently putting on the bouts the fans want to see, they're going to wind up getting the best return on their investment over time.
The Premier Boxing Champions recently announced a deal with Amazon, for bouts to be streamed for Amazon's Prime Video customers. But let's take a fight that could -- and honestly should -- be made in the near future and discuss how it is impacted by the current system versus by the 'great fights, no rights,' system.
A super fight to make now is Gervonta Davis against Devin Haney. They're each among the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and both of them have fought at 140 pounds. Haney did so on Saturday in San Francisco when he routed Regis Prograis; and Davis did so on June 26, 2021, when he dismantled Mario Barrios.
Haney is with Matchroom, which has a deal with DAZN; and Davis is with PBC, which has a deal upcoming with Amazon.
Sadly, don't hold your breath hoping to see that fight anytime soon. We'll hear that Haney is too big (physically) or not too big (as a ticket seller). There will be all these excuses proffered for why the fight won't happen soon when the truth is, it would make the sport better if the fight happened in the short term future.
A rising tide lifts all boats, and if that fight was put up for bid, who knows who would wind up getting it? Look, Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, who as of November 2023 was worth $170 billion. If he wanted to debut boxing on Amazon with a bang, he could probably put together a tidy little offer to make Davis versus Haney. Since Matchroom has a TV deal with DAZN, it's like DAZN would go all out in order to secure the fights. DAZN is owned by Len Blavatnik, whose net worth is around $31 billion.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro would no doubt love that fight on his network, and he has the Disney riches to put behind a bid. And don't forget about the Saudis, who have more money than there are grains of sand on all the beaches and in all the deserts in the world and who have been desperate to bring big-time sports and entertainment to the Kingdom.
The bidding would be crazy in a scenario like that, and who knows if some other extraordinarily wealthy person would stealthily sneak in a bid?
The winners, though, would be the fans in the end because a great fight that should happen now would happen now. It's unlikely, though, because of these rights deals.
Showtime has been a fantastic steward of boxing for much of its 37 years in the business, just as HBO was for its 45 years broadcasting boxing.
The fighters, though, will find new broadcast homes.
So while Showtime goes away, we'll develop a fondness for a new outlet with new ideas and new ways of presenting the sport. It's a positive in that regard.
The sad thing is those who have worked so tirelessly for so long to try to make boxing work who are going to be out of jobs after this show. That's who to feel sad about.
Boxing has its ups and downs but is ultimately a survivor.
These other folks, though? The people like DeBlasio, Abramson, Jocou and photographer Tom Casino? Who knows? The one thing I know is I'll miss them, and others like them, most of all.