Ross Greenburg Expected to Be Replaced at HBO Sports
by Scott Christ on Jul 15, 2011 6:09 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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PrintHBO Sports President Ross Greenburg is expected to be replaced, according to Lem Satterfield and Rick Reeno, and an announcement could come on Monday.
Sources indicate that Greenburg's run as the head man at the cable giant's sports division is thanks in large part to Manny Pacquiao jumping ship to Showtime for his May 7 fight with Shane Mosley, which left HBO without a huge event marquee fight until July 2's Wladimir Klitschko vs David Haye fight, and that wasn't a pay-per-view event. Ratings have actually been up for HBO's boxing events this year, but this has been churning in the rumor mill for months now, and should come as no surprise to anyone.
HBO still has a good shot at landing Pacquiao's next fight, which would give HBO four straight months of pay-per-view boxing events: Mayweather vs Ortiz (9/17), Hopkins vs Dawson (10/15), Pacquiao vs Marquez III (11/12), and with the latter fight, Cotto vs Margarito II (12/3).
But that just doesn't appear to be enough. Greenburg and HBO Sports -- including, most notably, Kery Davis -- have been criticized for not often using their budget effectively, and for often playing favorites with certain managers (Al Haymon) and certain promoters (Golden Boy and to a lesser extent Top Rank). They've also been criticized for overpaying for fights of certain fighters, with Andre Berto and Chad Dawson standing out in that regard.
The bottom line, I'm guessing, is that Greenburg, Davis, and the rest of the guys leading HBO's boxing group just haven't made any real progress in years, and even though ratings are up a tick this year, they probably just aren't up far enough. In 2007, a fight between Humberto Soto and Joan Guzman on Boxing After Dark drew 1.4 million viewers, for instance. In April of this year, during a free preview weekend, the Berto vs Victor Ortiz fight drew 1.5 million and was celebrated like a major happening. The next month, Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal did 1.8 million viewers, HBO's highest mark since 2009 (Klitschko vs Arreola, which got a bump from the Mayweather vs Marquez replay). It may all have been too little, too late, with emphasis on both counts.
Back in May, Yahoo! Executive Vice President Ross Levinsohn was rumored to be Greenburg's impending replacement, and ESPN.com boxing reporter Dan Rafael was rumored to be in serious talks to join HBO Sports as a matchmaker.
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Despite better ratings this year
I’m glad to see HBO changing personnel. I think they need to do more. They need to change their whole model from overpaying fighters to build them up to just buying good fights, which surprise surprise will build the right fighters up (I know we have discussed this ad nauseum).
HBO boxing has been a disaster the last few years and they only have themselves to blame. HBO has tremendous power and influence in the sport. They could really make some very positive changes to boxing if they just wielded their power more consistently and effectively (not just against Sergio Martinez for instance).
What I’m hearing:
1. Greenburg is definitely out
2. Kery Davis is going with him
3. Production will be overhauled
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 15, 2011 6:31 PM EDT up reply actions
and frankly Dan Rafael CANNOT be the best candidate out there to be matchmaker. Dude can’t even score a fight correctly. I nominate Scott Christ, who’s with me! :)
and frankly Dan Rafael CANNOT be the best candidate out there to be matchmaker.
He isn’t.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 15, 2011 6:36 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m sure in HBO’s ivory tower they think Rafael is some sort of man of the people. His “fight freaks” (a term I’m not fond of) will love it!
FIGHT FREAKS!!
ATTENTION FIGHT FREAKS!!
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 15, 2011 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions
You could expect a lot more push for “important” fights like Bradley vs Alexander.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 15, 2011 6:58 PM EDT up reply actions
To be fair
As little as I think of Rafael’s scoring of fights, he’s pretty consistently called out HBO for overpaying boring guys for crap fights against crap opposition.
And say what you will about Bradley/Alexander, but while HBO overpaid for it, that was a function of their having overpaid for all their previous fights against middling opposition. The fight itself, while it turned out underwhelming, was a fight between (at the time) two of the top three in the division, and that should be a big deal.
by Verklemptomaniac on Jul 15, 2011 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions
HBO had only televised Bradley once before then, and they had long misread Devon Alexander (as did a lot of people, myself included). Alexander was also coming off of a very iffy performance against Andriy Kotelnik and the fight really had no buzz going in despite months spent attempting to create a demand. Neither Bradley nor Alexander were exactly riding a wave of momentum going into that fight and when your only selling point is “it matters because they’re ranked high,” then failure to draw in more than the people who watch everything is the general result. Say what you will, but nothing about that fight came off well in the end, and the end result matters.
Bradley with HBO is sort of like the deal where they brought Chad Dawson over from Showtime — it turned out to not really be worth the effort (money). Both Shaw guys who Gary did a great job getting exposure on Showtime and then selling to HBO as “stars.” Yes, they’re perfectly good fighters, but nobody is rushing to see their fights and if you overpay, then you expect a return, and the return isn’t winning fights dull fights, it’s drawing viewers. Dawson’s rematch with Glen Johnson on HBO drew less viewers than Peter Manfredo Jr did on Friday Night Fights earlier this year. That Manfredo fight also did better than Judah vs Matthysse. I know some folks don’t care about this, and they think, hey, just make the fights, but if people don’t watch the fights being made, the ones you want to see have a lowered chance of being made, and the risk of someone pulling the plug on boxing on HBO does exist. It’s not remotely likely any time soon, but it does exist, and obviously they’re not happy with what’s been going on under the Greenburg/Davis regime.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 15, 2011 7:33 PM EDT up reply actions
It is beyond stupid that HBO allocated a third of their entire boxing budget in 2011 to both Alexander and Bradley which means having fights like Hopkins/Dawson on a PPV that will be lucky to get 75K…
"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."
Come on man, in all fairness, Bradley Alexander was the biggest fight in boxing to be made at the time, and despite stinking sort of, there’s no way pple could have predicted how it would have turned out. Also, not like Klitschko vs. Haye was a barnburner, if anything, it was far worse, the Hopkins Jones 1 sort of way, and pple complain WAY less about that fight than they did about Bradley Alexander. Holler!
"According to all the laws of aerodynamics the bumble-bee should not fly, but the bumble-bee does not know this and so flies anyway."
biggest fight in boxing? You can argue that it was the most “important” because of rankings, but there were/are tons of “bigger” fights. The “biggest” fight in boxing is not one that draws less than half what they expected and does terrible ratings.
Managing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jul 16, 2011 8:53 AM EDT up reply actions
Bradley Alexander was the biggest fight in boxing to be made at the time
Are you high? If it were, then it would have drawn something. It was not even close to the biggest fight in boxing to be made at the time. Either one of them against Zab Judah would have been bigger, but maybe not as “important,” although watching Devon Alexander’s last three fights I think we can all quite easily argue how important Bradley vs Alexander really was, as opposed to how it was sold as being important. They told the public it was big, and the public said no. The public dictates these things. If I tell you tomorrow that Sergiy Dzinziruk vs Cornelius Bundrage is a big fight, are you going to just go with the flow? Because despite the TV exposure, Alexander and Bradley aren’t stars. Then they told the public it was important, and frankly the public was still lukewarm.
Also, not like Klitschko vs. Haye was a barnburner, if anything, it was far worse, the Hopkins Jones 1 sort of way, and pple complain WAY less about that fight than they did about Bradley Alexander.
It has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the fight, but I will say I thought Klitschko vs Haye was actually a better fight in that at least there was some atmosphere and tension and it was actually a big, “important” fight. It was nothing at all like Hopkins-Jones I, which was an undercard fight that didn’t appear to mean much of anything at the time.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 16, 2011 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions
I kind of have mixed feelings about this. Yes lots of things about HBO’s decision making has sucked for a while now. At the same time however, I feel like lots of writers and fans pin way more blame on the network for the state of the sport than is reasonable. Hauser especially is terrible on this in my opinion; his monthly screeds about all the evil HBO has wrought on the sport of boxing started to descend past the point of self-parody this year, and his suggestions for how the network could turn things around (come up with your own useless rankings, advertise fights on rival networks, sell HBO Sports merchandise, and highlight Chris Arreola as a dynamic personality) were truly laughable. Many of the sport’s biggest problems are a lot more fundamental than the mere fact that a network overpays certain fighters.
Likewise, I think a lot of people wrongly assume that their problems with HBO as fans are the same as those that ultimately led to the demise of Greenburg and Davis. Every indication is that losing the Pacquiao-Mosley fight was the main impetus behind this decision. Quite frankly though, I don’t care to see HBO overpay for Top Rank fights any more than I care to see them overpay Haymon fighters, and Arum wants nothing more than his own sweetheart deals and output guarantees. I fully expect the replacements for Davis and Greenburg will be more willing to jump through additional hoops to keep Mayweather and Pacquiao’s people happy (and whoever surrounds the next generation of PPV stars should any emerge), but I don’t think they’ll have a greater commitment to making good fights than the previous regime.
Look, if you know that there is one fully active star in boxing and you lose him to your biggest rival? That’s bad. The problem with overpaying for fights is if you’re not getting a big return on your investment. You get big returns on big investments for Floyd or Manny fights. You don’t on locking up a ton of cash on Alexander and Bradley.
HBO has spent years propping up promotional golden boys while Showtime worked on building up their brand with exciting fights and attempts at innovative concepts.
Showtime shouldn’t be competing ratings wise given the difference in subscribers between the networks.
So Showtime, a smaller network, is competing in the boxing space far too well. HBO loses a huge fight/fighter in Manny. And their matchmaking has often been transparently shady. It’s time for a change.
Managing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Jul 16, 2011 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions
I don’t really disagree with much of what you say, but I must reemphasize that I believe that losing Pacquiao to Showtime is the main thing that resulted in this change. That kind of mistake alone is certainly a firable offense for business reasons, but the actions needed to keep Pacquiao and Mayweather on a network are not necessarily connected to things like making good or exciting fights (and may often be antithetical to them).
The very thing that set Arum off in the first place was HBO’s refusal to let Cotto take a tune-up after he had turned down fights with Berto and Martinez and the network had already promised the date to the latter. I simply feel like a fair bit of the criticism aimed at the network seems unfair; HBO rightly catches shit for airing uncompetive mismatches and handling certain fighters/promoters with kid gloves, but when they try to take pro-active steps to make those stars take tough fights (as was the case with the Cotto-Vanes situation), fans of those fighters criticize the network even more (and even those who are not fans of those fighters criticize the network for trying to play matchmaker) and promoters begin threatening to remove their entire stable from the station.
Being in a position where Showtime can actually represent a credible threat in such situations is also grounds for termination. I just believe that this outcome and the events that most likely precipitated it are more likely grounds for celebration for Top Rank, not for boxing fans in general.
Two words:
Good riddance.
Most people don't know shit about boxing. At all. Period. - Roger Mayweather
by The Kittitas Kid on Jul 16, 2011 10:00 AM EDT reply actions
Also,
good call on Soto/Guzman. Remember when we got fights like that?
Fuck Rafael, get DiBella back in the house.
Most people don't know shit about boxing. At all. Period. - Roger Mayweather
by The Kittitas Kid on Jul 16, 2011 10:01 AM EDT reply actions
I’ve said in about 15 conversations that I wish Lou were the matchmaker at HBO instead of a marginal promoter. He could do a lot more good for The Sport and all that shit.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 16, 2011 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions
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