HBO 24/7 is back on November 17, immediately following the Adrien Broner-Antonio DeMarco card on HBO, focused of course on the December 8 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, the fourth meeting between the two legends.
As excited as I am for the fight between the two (I doubt I'll ever not be excited to see them duel), I'm totally without enthusiasm for the 24/7. It's not that the series has gotten bland or tired or old -- as we've seen recently with short series for fights like Ward-Dawson and Chavez Jr-Martinez, 24/7 still works. It's just that the Pacquiao story, especially, has gotten very predictable and overly familiar.
The Pacquiao-Marquez III series last year was a snoozer. I see no reason this one won't be, either, if I'm being honest. I'll hope for the best, but I doubt we see TV as captivating as Chavez Jr-Martinez or Cotto-Margarito II, which gave us some new ground to cover in both cases. We know what Pacquiao-Marquez IV is about. We know what they're going to say. But maybe they'll surprise us. I figure you'll be able to tell by halfway through the first episode if there's anything you haven't seen and heard before.