By Dave Lahr: According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, IBF/World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is angry with HBO because he says he had been given a promise by them to have his title defense against unbeaten Alexander Povetkin (19-0, 14 KO’s) shown on HBO on September 11th. Apparently, HBO was going to pay Klitschko $250,000 for showing the fight.

However, HBO president of Sports Ross Greenburg announced recently that he wouldn’t be showing any of Wladimir’s fights unless it involved someone like WBA heavyweight champion David Haye or heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek.

Greenburg said that he wouldn’t be picking up the Klitschko-Povetkin bout. This angered Klitschko, because he had Showtime that had offered to put his fight on their network for September 18th, but he had declined, thinking that HBO would be showing the fight on September 11th.

The deal that Klitschko had was with HBO vice president Kery Davis. However, Rafael thinks that Greenburg stepped over Davis’ head and put a stop to airing the Klitschko vs. Povetkin fight. Klitschko manager Berned Boente is seething mad, saying “If they [HBO] had told us this at the beginning, we would have had the fight on ShowTime. Now we have neither. Not only is HBO screwing us, they are screwing the American boxing fans.”

Boente says this cost them $250,000 because of this. What is unclear is why Klitschko and Boente didn’t get anything in writing in their dealings with HBO. It’s kind of hard to imagine that they made such a big decision with $250,000 hanging in the air without even getting it in writing.

Perhaps there’s a lesson here. Nothing is written in stone unless it’s in writing. I can’t blame HBO for looking out for their best interesting in wanting to show the best fights that boxing fans are actually interested in seeing.

Few fans, outside of the hardcore variety, have heard of Povetkin, so it’s not really all that surprising that HBO has opted not to show this fight in these lean times of belt tightening budgets.

This is all the more reason for the Klitschkos to get things in writing. Boente hopefully will learn something from this.

Boente went on to say that neither of the Klitschko brothers will have any of their fights against David Haye shown on HBO, saying “Whether Wladimir or Vitali fight Haye eventually, we’ll make sure the fight is not on HBO.”

That sounds like a self-defeating move because HBO might end up paying more than Showtime, and it will mean the Klitschko brothers will possibly lose money if HBO offers more than Showtime. More than that, if Showtime is aware that the Klitschko brothers won’t be letting HBO show their fights against Haye, then Showtime could end up paying less if they know that they have no one to compete against.

It doesn’t sound like a smart move by Wladimir or Boente. A more adult way of looking at this is from HBO’s side. It’s not personal what they did. They just want to put on fights that they feel are competitive and ones that the American fans want to see.

I don’t see the Klitschko-Povetkin fight as being competitive and if I was in Greenburg’s place, I wouldn’t opt to purchase this fight either. I wouldn’t have paid for Eddie Chambers or Chris Arreola fights against the Klitschko brothers either.