Lucian Bute and the Super Six - HBO Trying to Crash Showtime's Party?
by Brickhaus on Feb 7, 2010 10:56 PM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
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As previously reported, on April 17, HBO is planning on airing a split-site doubleheader, with the undercard being Lucian Bute against Edison Miranda in Montreal, and Kelly Pavlik facing Sergio Martinez in the main event. Pavlik's fight hasn't been officially worked out yet, but either way, Pavlik will be getting that spot. Just one issue - on April 17, Showtime is also airing its own split site doubleheader, with Andre Ward facing Allan Green and Mikkel Kessler facing Carl Froch.
That's right folks - HBO is squaring its own super middleweight directly head to head with Showtime's lauded super middleweight tournament.
This is a case of pure gamesmanship by HBO. Showtime put in the effort and is putting in the money to make the Super Six tournament happen. While it's still an exciting event and Showtime should be lauded for their efforts, it did not invite either Pavlik or Bute to participate in the tournament. If you believe Showtime, it's because they would have been too expensive, and if you believe the conspiracy theorists, it's because Kalle Sauerland was trying to set up a tournament where his fighters - Abraham and Kessler - would be in the finals. Ironically, Pavlik in his last fight probably made a fraction of what Kessler or Abraham are making on a per fight basis to participate in the tournament.
Because Pavlik and Bute were not invited, HBO is using the opportunity to build up its own super middleweight, the HBO way. Rather than having an egalitarian tournament to determine the winner of the spoils, HBO knows that Bute and Pavlik are the two biggest threats to the winner of the Super Six. HBO also knows that if Bute and Pavlik fight each other down the line, the winner of that fight would likely be in the top 2 in the weight class, and thus the winner of the Super Six won't be a true champion.
By setting this split-site card, and by pitting it directly against the Super Six, they are putting Showtime on notice: they will build up a Pavlik-Bute fight to make it big; they will pit the two against each other around the same time as the finals for the Super Six; and after the Super Six is over, they will outbid Showtime to get the most significant fight of them all, the Pavlik-Bute winner against the Super Six winner, after Showtime has already invested its money to turn the Super Six winner into a star.
What HBO is doing is nothing short of brilliant or evil, depending on how you look at it. But while Showtime is forcing HBO to raise its game, HBO just has too much money compared to Showtime to let them win. On one hand, this probably means that we'll get a megafight that creates a true champion a couple years down the road. But on the other hand, they're marginalizing the Super Six, turning it into an eliminator for the right to face Pavlik or Bute.
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HBO rules, showtime drools
The Dude Abides
by battle axe of doom on Feb 7, 2010 11:10 PM EST reply actions
What HBO is doing is nothing short of brilliant or evil, depending on how you look at it.
Evil for the only reason that it means I have to sacrifice watching fights live and depending on my workload that week sacrificing watching good boxing semi-live
Bruce Seldon > Ali
Dr on espn said bute was on April 17 because
That was the only open date he could get at the bell centre.
I think it’s brilliant by hbo because I don’t have showtime. I look for the live results in the threads here.
by cardscott5 on Feb 8, 2010 4:31 AM EST via mobile reply actions
I’m all for competition between the networks, even cutthroat competition, as we’ll be the ultimate beneficiaries of that. But this isn’t competition so much as it is cannibalism or parasitism. HBO isn’t trying to “one up” Showtime – the Pavlik and Bute events are not better events than the Super Six. Instead, they’re just trying to harm Showtime’s product for its own sake. I have a big problem with that.
Competition ought to lead to an incentive to create a better product. But this, I feel, will only discourage Showtime from daring in the future to invest its money into creating an event that might overshadow HBO.
Having touched the subject
Who would win a possible showdown between Pavlik and Bute? I think Pavlik struggles above 160 and as meager as the competition may be on that weight class, I think he’s better off staying on it and just build and lengthen his reign. Williams and Martinez are still available, though.
Shrewd move by HBO but I feel bad for Showtime on this one. Why can’t HBO just let the other network party? I know the reason but they are evil here. What Showtime’s doing is good for boxing and HBO should best just do another good for the sport rather than try to better Showtime at this point.
See, I don’t even think HBO has to let Showtime party. If HBO competed with Showtime by putting on cards that were even better than theirs, that would be perfectly fine with me. But that isn’t what they’re doing here, because the cards they’re planning aren’t better. Instead, they’re just trying to sabotage Showtime’s investment.
Even if we assume that this all builds up to a big fight between the Super Six champ and the Bute-Pavlik winner, HBO deserves no credit for that because it would be derivative. It isn’t a card they would have built up themselves. It will be something they stole from Showtime like parasites, for the deliberate purpose of discouraging Showtime from ever trying something like that again.
HBO is behaving like a monopolist (which is sort of what they are). Their goal isn’t to win by putting on the best product, but to win by punishing anyone who tries to disturb the status quo. Showtime has consistently put on better fights than HBO despite having the smaller budget, because they’ve shown an open mind about who the best fighters might be, unlike HBO, which has been totally unwilling to deviate from its marketing strategy. HBO’s response to this isn’t to improve its own product but to screw up Showtime’s. It sucks.
i’d rather watch pavlik-martinez than dirrel-greene any day. this isn’t some kind of tragedy for boxing, its good for it. the super six is great and all, but without lucian bute, pavlik, or other dudes (bika would have something to say about allan green being automatically in the tourney) the super six won’t give you a true champion. if hbo pits bute against the winner of the tourney, and a megafight is born, why the f not? super middleweight hasn’t exactly been a glamor division lately, and if bute-winner can do great numbers why not
Texans 19-0 in 2010-2011 season PERIOD
by battle axe of doom on Feb 9, 2010 1:53 AM EST up reply actions
I guess I was wrong with saying "party"
But well put, man. Plus, you know, they don’t really have to set the fight on the same date if they can help, at least right now. HBO is good for the sport, but HBO is sort of trying to pull down the sport by deliberately sabotaging Showtime here. Imagine if they took another date, both events would have more opportunities to be bigger because the match-ups are good by themselves. Something like that. =)
Marginalize
the Super-Six? I don’t know if they can do that. I’m perfectly happy to watch the Showtime fight and DVR the HBO show. There’s a chance that I’m missing some important point that doesn’t bode well for future productions, but I don’t see this move discouraging Showtime, unless—and I guess this is possible—HBO blows them out of the water. I do see what taco pal is saying about the rigidity of HBO, and don’t feel it is a good thing that instead of trying to top Showtime they only try to undercut them. I don’t know, maybe HBO is like Wal-Mart and if they can corner the market they’ll put ever more marginal cards on for “free” and push a growing number of PPV fights.
either way you put it its good business for hbo to do this
"After this, I'm gonna kick Bob Arum's ass."
-George Lopez
by Eddie Gonzalez on Feb 8, 2010 5:47 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Super Six, carry the 2, add the 1, minus the other....What is going on?
I’ll try to keep this short but I am finding it hard to buy into the Super Six. I am as die hard a boxing fan as you can come by and I just don’t get excited about it. Jermain I wish you the best and hope you can remember the good times. Andre D I wish that Froch fight had been in the North pole for a fair scorecard. Andre W I wish you were not stuck in this tourney so you could make fights with Pavlik, Martinez, Bute and Williams. Arthur you motor boatin son of a….Keep learning that english language buddy i see a Stevan Segal film in your future! Mikkel K ….YAWN….. And Mr. Froch your fly is down and we see the truth. Not much to get excited about Mr. Cool Guy.
Nobody should bad mouth HBO or Showtime
BECAUSE THEY BOTH GIVE US HIGH QUALITY BOXING.
Feel free to hate on Kellerman as much as you can and want to. He will make you want to listen to your wife while the fight is on!
It’s bad enough HBO decides to go head to head, but worse yet they are setting things up to intentionally muddy the waters and undermine the legitimacy of the Super Six champion. They are behaving like rival promoters, not networks. To me this is no different than the sanctioning orgs playing games with interim belts and rankings.
DUELING NETWORKS!!
We all know that HBO with at least twice as many subscribers has WAY deeper pockets than Showtime, Show is trying to stay in the game by giving us some damn good fights. Its my hope that Showtimes powers that be don’t get discouraged and just give up on going head to head with HBO and just present Showbox only. When Showtime first presented the Super 6 idea, I e-mailed them with support, prolly wouldn’t hurt to keep doin’ it,..can’t hurt. Hopefully it just makes Show more competetive. Peace!!
Showtime is never going to back down. They still have fantastic fights. HBO can’t put on everything, you know? SHO has really gotten back into the game after a dreadful 2007 (outside of the two Marquez-Vazquez fights that year). Since then they’ve been tearing it up and so far, this year looks no different.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
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