What's the big deal?
Well, instead of boxing fans getting a superfight between two of the most exciting fighter in the sport between Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, they will get Stevenson against the winner of the Bernard Hopkins-Beibut Shumenov unification bout, which would give boxing 1 fighter with all three of the recognized titles (I don't recognize the WBO despite the organizations having some of the better fighters as champion), but would not have the two best fighters in the division deciding who's better.
I am all for unifying titles and think it's for the betterment of boxing.
I think Hopkins vs Shumenov is a good idea and I wouldn't even argue against the winner fighting Stevenson, but the setup has been for Stevenson-Kovalev on HBO as both fought on the same card, Kovalev defends against Cedric Agnew this Saturday, and Stevenson-Fonfara in May was the setup for the fall superfight between the linear 175-pound champ (Stevenson) and the possible top fighter in the division (Kovalev).
Fans lose that fight because of the influence of Al Haymon, who signed Stevenson and took him to Showtime because HBO refuses to deal with Haymon after the loss of Floyd Mayweather to Showtime
After the card that showcased both Stevenson and Kovalev, Kovalev demanded Stevenson next.Stevenson mentioned Bernard Hopkins and said Kovalev had not beaten anyone (Like the overrated Chad Dawson was the return of Michael Spinks) but would fight him "if the price was right".
Right there was your first hint that Stevenson really didn't want this fight.
Put the network and promoters' claims aside of who's at fault-there is plenty of that for all sides.
HBO for not getting things locked up legally, Stevenson's promoter for trying to hold HBO up for more money, Al Haymon for steering an agreement away in order to send Stevenson to his pals at Showtime, and Stevenson himself for not making himself fight the best.
Stevenson could have KO'ed Fonfara on Showtime, insisted on fighting Kovalev
(even if on HBO) and if he defeated him, Al Haymon could then shove the shiv to HBO by THEN taking the lineal champion and conqueror of Kovalev to the rival network.
I fault just about anyone other than Kovalev in this whole mess, but other than fans of the sport, there is truly one big loser in this-HBO.
HBO has gone from being the giant of the sport to rapidly losing ground in this fight against Showtime.
HBO has built attractions in Gennady Golovkin, Stevenson, and Kovalev over the last year, but even they have problems.
The lineal 160-pound champion Sergio Martinez is doing the same thing as Stevenson by fighting Miguel Cotto for more money instead of the best fighter in the division in Golovkin.
HBO doesn't have a problem with that because they are showing Martinez-Cotto, although it's the same thing they are grilling Stevenson for-more money and less risk.
Golovkin is so desperate for opponents that he moves up to 168 for the exposed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in order to make money.
I'll excuse Golovkin though for the following reason-He holds the WBA belt, the WBC champ is aforementioned Martinez, the new IBF champ is Felix Sturm, who never leaves Europe, and the (unrecognized by us )WBO beltholder is Peter Quillin, who is locked up with Showtime, so not a ton of big money bouts when you consider none of those guys will fight him for various reasons.
Kovalev now has no one to fight other than undistinguished contenders or maybe Andre Ward (who HBO has perhaps foolishly hitched its wagon to for one fight a year) as it appears that Showtime has a lock on the light heavyweight division for some time to come.
I have been an HBO subscriber for years mainly due to their boxing programming and sports specials, but Showtime has always has been my "free" choice when Directv wants to make things up to me on a mistake.
If the boxing battles continue to fall this way, I may have to flip-flop those choices by making Showtime my subscription and HBO the backup.
Others are likely making the same choices which allow Showtime to gain on HBO in the most important battle subscribers numbers.
When HBO brought in Ken Hershman to run their boxing department from ironically Showtime, Hershman had done a nice job with a smaller budget, but his run with HBO has been a failure.
I didn't like the Showtime hire of Stephen Espinoza as the replacement for Hershman because what I thought would happen has-Showtime has become a Golden Boy mouthpiece run by GBP and Al Haymon.
However, I cannot argue with their success with the decision and for now, I suppose it has been a good one.
HBO is rapidly painting itself into a corner with a seemingly endless round-robin with Manny Pacquaio, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Timothy Bradley along with new stars that cannot seem to get the fights that they want or need.
Here is hoping that things change for the best-not for HBO or Showtime, but for the sport of boxing...
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