By Rocky Esposito: The second part of my article goes right to the heart of the matter (and really is no secret).. Showtime, Golden Boy and Al Haymon simply have acquired the best assortment of talent, period. HBO has great fighters, don’t get me wrong. But, Showtime has depth and youth, which is why they have the luxury of stacking their cards so well. What confuses me about HBO is this… Bob Arum stated at a recent press conference that HBO brings in a Billion dollars a quarter. Then why don’t they invest that money and sign some more talent?
Why are some of their best guys jumping ship or tied up in legitimate lawsuits? Another issue…They have a potential star in (Triple G) Gennady Golovkin, the WBA Middleweight Champion of the World who is (29-0 /26KOS). Instead of headlining the guy on a Saturday night HBO card back on February 2nd, he fought Osumanu Adama (23-3) in Monte Carlo and HBO didn’t even broadcast the fight. If you have a promising fighter, he needs exposure!
*At this very part of my article I promise you I was going to finally give HBO and Arum some praise for getting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (48-1-1 / 32KOs) and the Gennady Golovkin fight done for July 19th. I would have been wrong in doing so. Dan Rafael from ESPN reported earlier today the fight is all but scrapped. One major reason Chavez Jr. backed out? His contract expires in October 2015, Arum said as part of scheduling this fight, he wanted Chavez Jr. to sign an extension right now! Also, how do you think Timothy Bradley got his rematch vs Manny Pacquaio? Tim’s contract ended initially at the end of this year (2014), but he agreed to sign an early extension in order to get the Pacquaio rematch.
Showtime, Golden Boy and Al Haymon know Boxing and the business of it all too well. If they play their cards right. And that truly is a terrific thing. If you happen to think I am reaching with Arums antics imploding? How many fighters on Showtime sincerely praise Al Haymon in their post fight press conference? I have to admit, I use to be suspicious of this for a while, but fighter after fighter off camera speaks the same way about him. Also, Al Haymon is not one of those guys who likes to be out in the spot-light . He just signs talent, sets up great fights, and let’s the fighters earn it in the ring. Another major point, when a fighter switches networks, where does he go? All of those Showtime/Golden Boy fighters are just waiting for their contract to expire so they can run to Top Rank.
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