NBC Sports Officially Announces Boxing Series in Association With Main Events
by Scott Christ on Nov 22, 2011 3:52 PM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
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Today via press release, NBC Sports officially announced their partnership with New Jersey-based Main Events. The series will debut on January 21, 2012, live from Philadelphia at the building formerly known as the ECW Arena (or Viking Hall, or Asylum Arena, or whatever).
The series will air on NBC Sports Network, the re-branded version of Versus.
With Main Events promoting, and hoping to work with other promoters to make compelling fights, it's also worth noting that J. Russell Peltz will serve as a matchmaker and "quality control" adviser for the series.
"This is a unique approach to have multiple promoters competing to put fights on NBC Sports Network," said Jon Miller, President, programming, NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network. "That, coupled with the legendary matchmaker J Russell Peltz serving as our quality control expert, ensures that boxing fans will enjoy exciting and competitive matches."
"We are reaching out to all promoters to get involved in the series, and our priority is simply to make exciting fights. We don't care who brings the fighters," said Kathy Duva, president, Main Events. "We expect that multiple promoters will be involved in each of the Fight Night programs. All fighters who are willing to further their careers by engaging in compelling, interesting, meaningful matches are welcome."
"Fights in this series will be solid, competitive and exciting," said Peltz. "Borrowing the philosophy of the late Madison Square Garden matchmaker Teddy Brenner, my bouts will be made on the following criteria: Do the fighters' styles mesh to make an exciting fight? Does this fight lead to something? And would I buy a ticket to it? These should be good fights for boxing fans."
Currently, the series has four, two-hour broadcasts on the schedule: January 21, March 24, June 16, and December 8 in 2012. The March 24 broadcast will start at 10 p.m. EST, with the other shows at 9 p.m. EST.
Boxing fans, of course, are hoping that this goes a lot better than the last regular boxing series on the channel, when Top Rank presented the Tye Fields Bum of the Month Club with a few other non-compelling fights along the way.
Right now, former heavyweight titleholder Sergei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KO), welterweight Ray Robinson (12-2, 5 KO) and lightweight Korey Pritchett (1-1, 0 KO) are tentatively penciled in for the January 21 show in Philadelphia, but no fights have been announced.
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Its hard to believe looking back that Versus boxing series sucked so bad when you look at how it started (Viloria/Romero I & Zertuche/Bojorquez) and how it ended (Cunningham/Adamek, Pascal/Froch). But it did suck. Really, really bad. Top Rank’s show on FSN is infinitely better in spite of being a time buy, which is pretty embarassing IMO.
the latter two weren’t part of the Top Rank debacle
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 22, 2011 6:13 PM EST up reply actions
don't worry, he's not good
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 22, 2011 6:13 PM EST up reply actions
I remember watching him on espn2 a while back, and he was an average guy. It was one of those things where every 5 seconds they made a reference to his name.
by Kory Kitchen on Nov 22, 2011 10:08 PM EST up reply actions
That’s a good point re: those fights being a license buy and the other a deal with Main Events based on the value of the matchup. No matter what, the card already looks a lot better than a lot of the Fight Night Club cards that I’ve had to suffer through and most Broadway Boxing cards. I’ll always accept boxing on TV given that I have the ability to not watch if I choose. I like personally choosing over networks making that choice any and every day.
This deal has been rumored for awhile to have a clause allowing fights to be moved to NBC. Whether or not that ever happens is a who knows situation. The last time boxing was on broadcast english language TV, it was NBC, I believe, in tandem with Telemundo. That would have been around 2002.
by VirtualBalboa on Nov 22, 2011 8:32 PM EST up reply actions
wait, so help me out.
this is cable tv and not major network nbc?
The series will air on NBC Sports Network, the re-branded version of Versus.
so, yes.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 23, 2011 8:32 AM EST up reply actions
I like the idea
But by choosing Main Events as an exclusive partner, this series is DOA. Peltz has the right idea in his quote, but I’ve seen a fair number of his shows and they’re rarely that good. More evenly matched than some cards, sure, but he sure lacks talent for finding exciting fighters.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Kathy Duva has a few name fighters that could potentially fit into high-level, competitive matchups.
Something like Adamek – Chambers, Joel Julio – Jo Jo Dan, that sort of fight.
My question is: will the budget of the show be enough to attract these kinds of mid-level boxers? Obviously, there’s also the issue of the willingness of Kathy Duva to put her guys in risky matchups, but that aside, does anybody have any idea if these sort of fights would fit into budget?
Budget was said to be about $100K per show. Double what FNF and ShoBox have.
You’re not going to get major fights. At best, this will be a beefed up FNF, and while that’s not bad, the tendency of promoters to do showcases means it’s guilty until proven innocent.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Nov 23, 2011 8:32 AM EST up reply actions
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