Ring of Fire: Wolak vs Rodriguez ESPN Replay Tonight, Dirrell Pushed Back, More
by Scott Christ on Jul 22, 2011 7:41 PM EDT
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Wolak vs Rodriguez to Reair Tonight
Last week's incredible fight between Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez will re-air tonight at 9 p.m. EDT on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, ahead of the scheduled live Friday Night Fights broadcast main evented by Anthony Dirrell (not Andre) and Kevin Engel. For those who did not see the fight last week and haven't tracked it down on YouTube, this is your chance to see it on your TV in all its brutal glory.
Andre Dirrell Comeback Postponed
We noted a couple of days ago that Andre Dirrell was scheduled to return to the ring on August 5 after 17 months out of action, but that is being pushed back to August 19 at the request of Dirrell's team. He'll still face Sebastian Demers in Oakland.
HBO's New Boxing Series Coming in January
Dan Rafael reports that HBO's new prospect-centric live boxing series will be coming in January 2012 to HBO2, airing most likely on a weekday night. This is tremendous news for boxing fans in the United States. The show will have a $150,000 budget (about three times the cost of Friday Night Fights, for example). It was going to debut sooner, but Bob Arum raised a stink about not being involved, so he's getting three dates to match those of Golden Boy Promotions, Lou DiBella and Gary Shaw.
This show could put a dent into Showtime's similar, less expensive series, ShoBox: The New Generation, in that it could cause more lackluster ShoBox airings. It's not like ShoBox would go anywhere, but they may have a harder time showcasing the best young talent, because HBO can pay the best young talent a little more.
In other prospect news, Lucky Boy Omotoso (trained by Freddie Roach) has signed with Top Rank.
Freddie Roach Working with USA Amateurs
As you likely know, Freddie Roach was signed a while back to work with the U.S. amateur team, and with the Olympic trials nearing (July 31-August 6 in Alabama), he's been doing just that. Last week Roach worked with a trio of hopefuls, and had this to say:
"I know I spread myself thin, but I like to work. It keeps me alive," Roach said. "The more time I can get with the kids, the more we can mentally connect.
"I know there'll be arguments, but arguments are a good thing — it shows the passion we have for this sport. Everyone has their own methods. I've had good success with mine, but my mentors always told me not to be one-sided. … The day I stop learning is the day I die."
Hopefully Freddie can get some results, because the U.S. amateur program has become something of a laughingstock, having won just three gold medals since 1992.
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Shobox used to show a lot more domestic contests from Britain back in the olden days. At this point, they could license fights from all over the world and then have them beamed over in HD via the internet and lay an english PBP on it by 11PM any Friday night. I wouldn’t mind an extra special Shobox showing the Tarver/Green replay; things like that would be fine to me.
There’s nothing worse to me than delayed airings of things that already happened. I see no point in it whatsoever. It’s 2011, and 90% of the U.S. audience that might care about seeing Tarver vs Green already has and won’t go out of their way to be in at 11 p.m. on a Friday night to see it on their TV. There are a lot of young fighters they will still be able to showcase, but I think they’ll lose out on featuring some of the power broker prospects like Diego Magdaleno or Sharif Bogere or Lateef Kayode. Which doesn’t exactly mean they’ll be losing quality, and maybe they can work closer with smaller promoters, which isn’t so bad.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 22, 2011 8:21 PM EDT up reply actions
A good amount of the audience that might potentially care isn’t going to know it is happening either. Look, I think that delayed airings aren’t the best thing in the world. Sure. Agreed. I’m not a giant fan of watching fights from Japan on Box Azteca two weeks later. On the other hand, if they weren’t on Box Azteca, I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to watch those same fights via Youtube or streams. Only so many hours in the day and what not. And fights from Japan, Australia, Thailand, Britain, and so on – even if it is 2011, people aren’t going to find spoilers for things like that without logging into Fightnews or whatever.
Ultimately, what I’m saying is this – I’d be willing to take “less” if I can get more. 5 years ago there was no live kickboxing on free or premium cable. None. Zero. Now, there’s been Its Showtime events like 3 of the last 4 weeks on cable. Were they tape delayed? Yes. Is that better than nothing? Yes. Are good tape delayed, same day fights on a Friday better than crappy live fights on a Friday? Put some Commonwealth title on the line between a couple Irish/British featherweights and then on the other side have your average Telemundo card. Which do you want to watch more?
by VirtualBalboa on Jul 22, 2011 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions
A bad ShoBox is better than your average Telemundo waste of time, so I don’t think that’s really the question here.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 22, 2011 9:16 PM EDT up reply actions
That’s not what I’m asking either. I’m saying this – Look, its Friday night when Shobox is generally supposed to be on. They can’t get the same level of guys as before because HBO took a bunch of them away with their dates and whatever. Fine, sure. It’s irrelevant. Instead of showing nothing at all or stealing from Nokia Fight Club or Solo Boxeo, they’re going to offer up Daniel Geale/Eromosele Albert on tape delay. Its 11EST, Solo Boxeo isnt on for hours, and Telemundo is showing, well, what Telemundo usually shows. Are you really going to complain that much?
by VirtualBalboa on Jul 22, 2011 9:26 PM EDT up reply actions
Geale vs Albert is worse than the average ShoBox fight! (Now I’m purposely being difficult.) We just have different outlooks on this. Honestly if SHO went your way now and then, I wouldn’t really mind, I just wouldn’t watch. If they wound up having to scrape down to the GBP Fight Club crap, then yes, show anything else.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Jul 22, 2011 9:40 PM EDT up reply actions
It was the only thing on the schedule that made sense to me to use for this, OK? Cut me slack. LOL.
But yeah, look, I think ultimately this is the route they go if there’s nothing else. And it costs a lot less than $90K a show to put on or whatever the present Shobox budget is, so as far as I’m concerned, why not? I wish a lot of those flyweight and under battles were going on there so I guess both of us don’t get what we want. :)
by VirtualBalboa on Jul 22, 2011 9:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Also, I should note that I’m a little biased because, honestly, I don’t watch all the fights I see live. I can’t, for starters. I usually have to block off my DVR space to run recording for Azteca America/FSN En Espanol/TyC Sports then go to HBO and Showtime after that.
by VirtualBalboa on Jul 22, 2011 9:18 PM EDT up reply actions
I love the idea of boxing during a weeknight on my TV, so here’s hoping they follow through.
by The Boxer Rebellion on Jul 22, 2011 9:40 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
I have no problem with used fights if I haven’t seen them, and sometimes I enjoy rewatching fights on tv, partly because the tv image is (usually) so much better, or because the fight was either a. real good, or b. real controversial.
I’d be thrilled if Asian or other faraway fights were rebroadcast here, spoilers or not.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else--James Thurber, 1939
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