April Super Six doubleheader could be moved back a week
by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2010 5:03 AM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
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The Super Six World Boxing Classic double-header set for April 17 on Showtime could be moved back to April 24, says Rick Reeno.
The move is somewhat surprising, though totally understandable. With HBO making an April 17 double-header featuring Kelly Pavlik and Lucian Bute, plus HBO's availability in twice as many homes as Showtime, plus the fact that the biggest star on either card is still Kelly Pavlik, Showtime was in a bit of a spot.
Promoter Dan Goossen is unhappy about the whole thing since he has Cristobal Arreola going on April 24 on HBO, likely against Tomasz Adamek, but Showtime is playing tiny violins for the promoters given that Goossen also promotes Edison Miranda (fighting Bute) and Lou DiBella promotes Sergio Martinez (fighting Pavlik). DiBella also promotes Allan Green, who faces Andre Ward in the Super Six on whichever night it winds up being.
It's all a bit of a mess, really, and it seems like a case where really nobody could be made totally happy, whether they go head-to-head with HBO on the 17th or move it to the 24th. As a fan, I'd be thrilled if they'd move it to the 24th. The card mentioned here that I'm by far the least interested in is Arreola-Adamek, which is paired with Alfredo Angulo-Joel Julio. It's not that I have no interest in that card, especially the main event (should it go through), but Pavlik-Martinez and the Super Six trump it. Put it this way: I'd rather miss Arreola-Adamek live than I would Pavlik-Martinez or the Super Six show.
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CBS also has a Strikeforce show to air on one of these April weekends
Moving the Super Six back a week would allow CBS to air a free, freakshow less MMA card without counter programming their own Showtime event.
Though I doubt they’re terribly concerned about Strikeforce and the Super Six interfering with one another (network MMA v. premium channel boxing, after all), it’s certainly another decent enough reason to do it. Honestly anything that gets these two cards off of the same day is great by me.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2010 10:38 AM EST up reply actions
Definitely better for the fans.HBO made a bit of a douche move in counter programming in the first place.It might be good business for them in the short term but is bad for boxing in the long term and bad for the fans as Showtime’s quality fight cards keep HBO on their toes.
If they ever happened to sink Showtime boxing,or at least scare them off with these aggressive bullying tactics,it would be the fans that suffered
OK seriously, what is with everyone thinking that HBO running on April 17 is going to make the Showtime executives pack it in with boxing? This isn’t the first time that HBO and Showtime have had head-to-head boxing shows. It’s not the 20th.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2010 1:44 PM EST up reply actions
Certainly, anyone who puts it that way is overstating the case.
I do think that HBO’s actions could discourage Showtime from being ambitious about its programming. In other words, the goal is to make Showtime “know its place,” as if to say: it’s alright to show fights that appeal to hardcore fans and fights that are basically second-tier in their level of mass appeal. But don’t do anything that generates buzz on the level of the Super Six. Don’t do anything that would make anyone question that the best fighters by definition fight on HBO.
And my point was if they did this on a regular basis,it would make no sense for Showtime to try a big idea like Super6 becase HBO will just go one better.
By the way HBO havent counter programmed for a quite a while npow with a big show.
They just did this because they didn’t like Showtime having the a bigger share of the limelight than usual.
The Super Six isn’t really all that expensive. It seems like a lot of people are taking this counter-programming far harder than usual and speculating that it could be the beginning of the end at Showtime. It’s weird is all, and I wonder exactly where it’s coming from.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2010 4:58 PM EST up reply actions
The counter-programming per se isn’t the issue. One night of counter-programming isn’t going to hurt anyone. But as Brickhaus noted in his post on this, it looks like HBO’s long-term plan is to create a “parallel universe” of 168 fights right alongside the Super Six every step of the way, ending with a Pavlik-Bute showdown simultaneously with the Super Six final. The purpose of this appears to be purely vindictive – to reduce the cachet of the Super Six.
I think everyone always expected Bute to fight the Super Six winner eventually, but only after the Super Six had its “moment in the sun,” so to speak.
Having fights “alongside” the Super Six isn’t so awful. I highly doubt they’re going to go head-to-head every stage, anyway, especially since the Super Six still has the third stage, the semifinals and the finals to go, and in theory HBO is in “the semifinals” on April 17. If they’re really trying to make sure they have a Bute-Pavlik fight with the winner facing the Super Six winner, they’re going to have to avoid rushing it, and what’s more, the whole thing could bite them in the ass since every other remotely marketable super middleweight is IN the Super Six for the foreseeable future. If they rushed out Bute-Pavlik by the end of the year (and “rushed out” is only applicable if we’re going with the idea that sinister HBO is trying to ruin the Super Six by … setting up a guy to fight the winner?), who do they fight after that? Sakio Bika? Jesse Brinkley? Stieglitz?
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2010 6:26 PM EST up reply actions
In the third fight, they’d be going against each other. And in the semifinal round, they could fight the two guys who get eliminated from the Super Six after the group stage. So they’d only have to make one more “warm-up fight” for each of them. Bute could fight one of the guys you mentioned, and Pavlik could stay in the middleweight division for one more fight and go up against Williams or Sturm.
I do see your point, and there certainly is a good chance that HBO doesn’t actually execute this plan (either because they decide not to or because it doesn’t work out). But I am absolutely convinced that they’re thinking about it and will go through with it if the stars align.
In the third fight, they’d be going against each other. And in the semifinal round, they could fight the two guys who get eliminated from the Super Six after the group stage.
Are either of those fights really marketable? “Tune in to see Lucian Bute/Kelly Pavlik take on a guy who couldn’t cut it in the Super Six!”
Then again these people put on shitty fights all the time. Bute-Miranda, for instance.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Feb 11, 2010 7:28 PM EST up reply actions
Means to an end! And it depends on the circumstances. If Dirrell gets eliminated, I could see HBO marketing it as Bute/Pavlik vs. a guy who got robbed in that bulls—- tournament on that other network (not quite in those words, of course, but that would be the undercurrent).
And yes, HBO puts on bad fights all the time. To them, the quality of a fight is measured not so much by whether it’s actually entertaining as by whether the fighters fit its predetermined marketing strategies.
HBO will take their sweet time in setting up Pavlik-Bute
The way I see it, they’ll have Pavlik-martinez, then Pavlik-Williams (if it can happen), then Pavlik will vacate and move to 168 (which seems pretty inevitable in the next year – Pav is starting to get that really gaunt look at the weigh ins), take a warm up fight there against a name who’s no threat (i.e., a Peter Manfredo type), and THEN match Bute. In the meantime, all they need to do to build up Bute is keep playing his fights on TV, which they can get the rights to pretty cheap because he makes so much at the live gate.
That’s the plan as I envision it anyway. That would lead to Pavlik-Bute happening around the same time as the Super Six finals. A lot of speculation, I know, but it doesn’t make sense that they’d schedule this split-site doubleheader if that wasn’t the plan.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
And yes, Pavlik or Bute could lose, which would throw a wrench in all of that.
However, to me it’s becoming more apparent that (a) Williams isn’t a middleweight, (b) Pavlik’s strengths are all wrong for Williams (Pavlik has a great right hand, is a better boxer on the outside, and has enough strength to keep Williams from letting it become an inside brawl), and © there isn’t anyone out there who would be better than a 5-1 shot to beat Bute at SMW who isn’t in the tournament.
I actually think Martinez has a better chance of beating Pavlik than Williams would have. If Martinez goes back to fighting like a cutie, he could give Pavlik (who hasn’t faced a true slickster or a southpaw in a while) some real problems.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
I would pick Pavlik over Williams too.Pavlik only needs to land few of them right hands to REALLY get Williams’ attention.
I also agree that Martinez is certainly a tricky opponent for Pavlik and one more likely to give him real problems than a guy with Williams style and build would.
If Martinez is 2-1 or more in that fight i will be taking a bit of that action methinks.
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