Boxing Challenge: Davis dominates homecoming

The Showtime portion of the weekend looked to be the weaker of the two events and it lived up to expectations as both the main event and the top supporting bout both ended in two uncompetitive rounds from Baltimore.

Gervonta "Tank" Davis rolled his treads over an overmatched Ricardo Nunez in two rounds to retain his WBA junior lightweight championship.
Some questioned referee Harvey Dock's stoppage, but I thought it was fine, Nunez was about out on his feet and unless he slipped on Ted DiBiase's mysterious loaded black glove, Nunez wasn't going to threaten Davis on this night, or likely any night.
Davis, who did what you would hope he would against a huge underdog, then called out Tevin Farmer for a unification fight, carried out the IBF title belt that he lost on the scales, claimed he was the IBF champion and said he hoped to make a Farmer fight before the end of the year.

Here are my problems with that:
One, Davis lost that title due to his own actions and that belt should have stayed in his trophy case (When a champion loses a championship, they do keep the physical belt, which is how Davis possessed an IBF title to display)
Two: Fans still learning the sport are often confused by the excessive amount of championships as it is, no need to confuse them on who the champion is.
Three: Jim Gray, who did mention Tevin Farmer, didn't correct the Davis claim to the viewers, which would have been as simple as saying "this is the title that you lost by missing weight, which Tevin Farmer now holds".
Coming on the heels of Fox/PBC not listing Terence Crawford as a welterweight champion on the Thurman-Pacquiao fight, again this looks like PBC propaganda.
And finally-Four: As much as I would like to see Davis vs Farmer and that's a fight that I think Davis would win, PBC and Floyd Mayweather (Davis' Promoters) have shown almost no exertion in making fights with other promoters as we have seen with Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Matchroom and nothing I've seen so far makes me think they'll start now.
I really get annoyed when fighters from all promoters call guys out for fights that are unlikely to occur, but it REALLY bugs me when PBC guys use this tactic as they have been the largest impediment to signing inter-promotional big fights.

I'd like to see Davis-Farmer next, but it's more likely that we'll see Davis against another Nunez type in his next fight.
Much as PBC can ice Terence Crawford from their top welterweights, Top Rank can do the same to Davis with their top fighters at lightweight and junior lightweight.
The state of boxing today, ladies and gentlemen.

The undercard was underwhelming as aging Yuriorkis Gamboa swatted aside a badly shot Roman "Rocky" Martinez in two rounds in a lightweight match of two former champions at lower weights.
Gamboa knocked Martinez down in the second and finished him off with a right hand later in the round.
Martinez looked nowhere near his old self and needs to step away from the game before he gets hurt.
Gamboa, who scored his first KO in five years, will likely return in a fight that will be used to build a younger fighter's resume.

In the first fight, lightweight Ladarius Miller won a controversial split decision over Jezreel Corrales in a less than memorable and very awkward fight that if remembered at all, will be recalled only for the awful decision by referee Brent Bozell to deduct a point from Corrales for holding with 40 seconds remaining in the fight.
That deduction cost Corrales a draw as one of the two cards for Miller saw Miller win 95-94.
I had Corrales a 95-94 winner after the lost point, so I wouldn't scream robbery by the judges, but the Bozell decision clearly cost Corrales on his record.

Speaking of Maryland's judges and referees, Maryland is beginning to host higher-level boxing cards
far more often than in the past and yet on far too many occasions, their referees and judges are shown to be not up to the task.
If Maryland is going to stage bigger and better fights, they need to improve the quality of their officials, either by licensing top officials from other states or training better ones here.

Finally, it was nice to see veteran Barry Tompkins back with the main crew announcing for Showtime.
I'm not a hater of Mauro Ranallo, but not a fan either of his forced puns and pop culture takes along with his Gus Johnson-like tendency to inject exciting commentary when there is often no reason to
do so, but Tompkins is a much better fit for boxing telecasts than Ranallo, who seems to be far smoother for his other gigs with mixed martial arts and pro wrestling.
Showtime has the best production and the best two color commentators in the sport with Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi and it would be nice to see more of Tompkins, who does blow by blow for Showtime's ShoBox series, and has been the voice of so many famous boxing highlights from his time on HBO and ESPN, on the main offerings on the network.

In the boxing challenge, I added four (Two each from Davis and Gamboa) to two for Ramon Malpica (Two from Davis) to extend my lead to 198-173.

Boxing Challenge: Prograis and Donaire score WBSS KO wins

Plenty of catching up to do here after my weekend trip to Virginia and I'll be writing about those stops along with catching up with the remainder of the Cleveland Browns draft picks, including one that I am very excited about.

However, first, we start with the weekend in boxing and after a tremendous card from Matchroom and DAZN on Friday night, the Saturday portion had a high bar to leap to match that card and although some performances were excellent, that bar didn't come close to being reached.

The financially troubled World Boxing Super Series finally returned with two semi-finals and they were pretty predictable from Lafayette, Louisiana.
Regis Prograis won the WBA junior welterweight title from Kiryl Relikh when Relikh's corner stopped the fight with Prograis in full control in round six.
Prograis knocked Relikh down in the first round and never was threatened after that, cutting Relikh's nose, which bled most of the fight and simply didn't allow the champion to sustain any sort of offense.
Prograis will fight the winner of the Ivan Baranchyk-Josh Taylor fight which will also be for Baranchyk's IBF title in the finals of the tournament in a unification fight.
It's strange how boxing works as just 18 months after Terence Crawford vacated all four titles in a division that seemingly was cleaned out, the division has four exciting young champions (WBA Prograis, IBF Baranchyk, WBC Jose Ramirez and WBO Maurice Hooker) has another in Josh Taylor, who would be right there with a win over Baranchyk and looks like it could be on the verge of some compelling battles.
Meanwhile, Crawford, who moved up because of a lack of remaining challenges, looks to be filled with struggles with a lack of options at welterweight due to a top-heavy division that has most of those fighters promoted by someone else.
Only in boxing.

Also, in Lafayette, Nonito Donaire retained his WBA bantamweight belt with a highlight reel knockout in the sixth round over late replacement Stephon Young.
Young, who was on the undercard in a fight made for this exact situation, replaced WBO champion Zolani Tete, who pulled out on fight week due to a shoulder injury.
I like that the WBSS thinks ahead for these concerns, but Young wasn't on the same level as Donaire or for a world-class level tournament and it showed as Donaire won every round on his way to the one punch knockout.
Donaire will move on to the finals against the winner of the Naoya Inoue-Emmanuel Rodriguez tilt for Rodriguez's IBF championship.

I'm usually quite complimentary towards Showtime's boxing program.
Their production is top notch, Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi are the best color commentators in the game and even though Mauro Ranallo isn't my choice of blow by blow men that man the mike, he's not like Gus Johnson and ruins things for me.
Still, even with all of that, the three-bout card from PBC, Saturday night was to put it nicely- a snoozer and should I prefer to go negative- the worst card from a major boxing provider perhaps ever.

The main event was for one of those minor trinkets that the WBA likes to hand out in return for sanctioning fees as former IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter drew with former IBF junior lightweight and lightweight champion Rances Barthelemy in one of the worst fights that you'll see.
A draw was the fairest verdict in a fight that saw NEITHER fighter land 55 punches over 12 rounds.
Just awful in the ring and awful that Showtime accepted this as the main event, to begin with.
I scored it 114-114, but hell, score it as you wish, I'm just lucky I stayed awake during it.
Let us all simply hope that the WBA, Showtime, Al Haymon, or anyone else does not decide to make this one happen again because this was arguably the worst main event that a major boxing network has televised in years.

The semi-main looked bad from the day that it was announced and it was just as bad in the ring as former WBC junior welterweight champion Viktor Postol won every boring round on my card (100-90) over Mohammed Mimoune.
Mimoune fell behind early against the taller Postol and with Mimoune's two career KO's. he wasn't coming from behind for a knockout.
Postol will become the mandatory contender for WBC champion Jose Ramirez, which will hopefully be more entertaining than this one was.

Heavyweight punisher Efe Ajajba blew out Michael Wallisch in two rounds of a squash match that was as competitive as expected.
Ajajba will hurt whom he hits but needs time to develop and I'd bet he's another year away from fighting someone that will really test him.

In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica eleven to eight for the Saturday totals to move my lead to 108-95.
The difference was maybe my best night for bonuses ever for me as I added points for calling the rounds for KO's by Prograis, Donaire, and Ajajba.

Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge is very light this week with two fights on Showtime, which is a card that isn't up to the usual quality of the network and shows a sign of what could be an issue in the future.

The main event offers the return of former WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara against Brian Castano of Argentina, who holds one of the WBA's minor titles.
Lara, who lost a narrow split decision last year to Jarrett Hurd in a title unifying match, was unusually entertaining in his fight with Hurd and it'll be interesting to see if that was Lara engaging offensively against Hurd was a sign of an aging fighter without the legs to fight in the style that he once had excelled in or did Lara choose to fight in such a manner because he thought it gave him the best chance to win.
Castano lacks a win over a top ten contender with his only win over even a fringe contender, an unimpressive split decision over Michel Soro last July.
However, Castano was a highly rated amateur with victories over Errol Spence and Sergey Dereyvanchenko and appears to have a background that one would at least think could give Lara a run for his money, should the Hurd fight prove to be the last stand for the Cuban as an elite fighter.

I'm not sure Lara-Castano is a true Showtime-level main event, but I'm definitely sure that the co-feature lacks that panache' with a top-five heavyweight in a stay busy fight.
Luis "King Kong" Ortiz is a top-five heavyweight that almost knocked out WBC champion Deontay Wilder before being stopped himself in a great fight and will be fighting for the third time since that loss (Wilder has fought only once), but isn't taking any chances with another fight against a marginal fringe contender in Christian Hammer.
Hammer has losses to Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, and Marius Wach, in other words, so each time the competition increased to the world-class level, Hammer gets knocked out.
This one really shows the dip in quality of late and gives me pause enough to write this- Does PBC and Al Haymon have a deep enough bench to give two partners in Showtime and Fox the type of boxing that both deserve?

The Showtime season is off to a slow start (to be generous) with Gervonta Davis one round crushing of smaller and overmatched Hugo Ruiz and even though Ruiz was a late substitution, I think the original fight vs Abner Mares was the same type of fight vs a smaller and outgunned opponent for Davis, although the more established Mares might have lasted a few more rounds, leading up to Lara-Castano after the Saturday card no fights are on their schedule until mid-April and that is a female fight (I'm not a fan of ladies boxing) of note between Clarissa Shields and Christina Hammer.

Fox has been showing name fighters from the promotion thus far with Keith Thurman and Leo Santa Cruz, but both were against essentially showcase opponents, although Josesito Lopez badly hurt Thurman in a strong effort to the point of making one wonder-if Thurman had been facing a top ten opponent, would he have survived?
Next week's WBC welterweight title bout with Shawn Porter against Yordanis Ugas is a more competitive fight and Danny Garcia's April fight against Adrian Granados could be another showcase fight, although Granados has exceeded expectations in the past when seemingly overmatched.
PBC has increased the quality of cards for FS1 with two main events already in the books (Caleb Plant-Jose Uzcategui and Anthony Dirrell-Avni Yildirim) and two others scheduled for March (Lamont Peterson-Sergey Lipinets) and April (Peter Quillin-Caleb Truax) that are of equal to better quality than what Showtime has been receiving thus far.

What makes this worse for boxing fans is that Showtime has the best announcing crew ( I'm not a huge Mauro Ranallo fan, but he is not terrible when he keeps the canned puns to himself and Al Bernstein with Paulie Malignaggi are the best color commentators in the game) and the best production as well, so it is missed when their program isn't getting the best fights.
The involvement of Fox (who has the worst blow by blow man arguably in decades in Chris Myers) in boxing can be a good thing as a network presence can attract new fans, but hopefully, their rise won't mean the beginning of demise at Showtime.

In the Boxing Challenge, Ramon Malpica leads me 41-40.

Junior Middleweights. 12 Rds
Erislandy Lara vs Brian Castano
Both; Lara Unanimous Decision

Heavyweights.12 Rds
Luis Ortiz vs Christian Hammer
R.L.: Ortiz KO 5
TRS: Ortiz KO 3

Boxing Challenge: Stevenson draws with Jack, Russell tops Diaz

Sorry, this is late, but the PC is having issues that I think are related to the latest Windows update.
Hopefully, I have smoothed those out and will have no future issues, but it did cause me to lose the entire column on the Cavaliers game three thrashing of the Celtics.
Fingers crossed that this is not an issue that continues!

Kudos to Showtime for the three fight weekend from three cities, two countries, and two platforms.
I'll have more on Showtime below.

Adonis Stevenson looked to be the fearsome champion of old for six rounds and was far ahead on my card to retain his WBC light heavyweight title in Toronto.
When the bell rang to begin round seven, everything changed for the reluctant one and he would win just one more round against the challenge of Badou Jack.
That round was enough to salvage a 114-114 draw on my card and saved his title on the judges' scorecards as Stevenson kept his championship with a majority draw.
Two judges saw it as I did with another scoring 115-113 for Jack.
It was a good enough fight, but nothing that I have to see again soon.
Stevenson was badly staggered by Jack in the 12th round, looked every one of his forty years of age and might be the sports most vulnerable champion as contenders elbow their promoters for a shot at the aging Haitian expatriate.
Jack would love a second shot, I'm sure, but the WBC allowed this fight as long as the winner agreed to fight Oleksandr Gvozdyk next.
Stevenson's track record shows that he is likely to put that fight off as long as possible and the WBC has given him more breaks than any fighter that I can remember in years, so I'm not sure that fight happens next, but it should as the WBC should order that fight or mandate that Stevenson vacate the title.
Badou Jack now owns two draws in his two biggest fights ( He drew with James DeGale in a super middleweight unification contest in 2017) and really can only blame himself.
Jack gives away far too many early rounds and makes a late charge to get back into the fight only to be at the mercy of the judges in hairline fights.
It's easy to say that Jack needs to start faster, but perhaps he simply cannot.

Meanwhile, in beautiful Oxon Hill, Maryland (and I really need to hit one of these cards sometime), Gary Russell made one of his yearly appearances and for six rounds was in a dogfight with mandatory contender Joseph Diaz.
The problem with that was that title fights are twelve rounds and Russell kicked the fight into a gear that Diaz wasn't capable of keeping up with over the second half of the fight to win a unanimous decision to keep his WBC featherweight strap.
Diaz did exactly what Badou Jack in the half of the fight-he simply didn't throw enough punches to keep Russell honest and for some reason after investing lots of bodywork in the first half of the bout didn't follow up over the second half.
I thought this is how this fight would play out and as someone that has always thought the world of Gary Russell the fighter and yet next to nothing of Gary Russell's management, I hope to see Russell back in the ring before the end of the year and against good competition too.
Gary Russell deserves better, he simply needs to step up and fight for it- outside the ring as well as inside.

The afternoon fight from Leeds, England saw Josh Warrington surprise Lee Selby with a split decision win to take Selby's IBF featherweight title and attempt to place himself in the bigger picture at 126 pounds.
Selby was never able to accomplish that throughout his title reign, so we'll have to see if Warrington can pull that off, but on this night, Warrington should have won a unanimous decision as the 115-113 Selby card was ridiculous.
Warrington has one of suffocating styles that smothers others (like that?) but is never going to bother anyone with his pop (6 KO's in his 27 wins) and against the elite of the division I would be dubious of his chances, but one thing is clear-If Warrington gets that shot against the top names- they better be ready to fend him off for twelve rounds.

A few words on Showtime, if you please ( An nod to Gordon Solie there) and their growing dominance in televising boxing.
Putting aside their connection with Al Haymon's PBC, which is often more than tentative about putting their best against the best), Showtime consistently is making solid fights, if not fights that make the world stop on a dime and have made themselves the network that I have always hoped to see in televised boxing.

Showtime is making bouts happen more than any other network and keeping boxing fans active and eyes on their product that not only helps the sport but the network as well.
Not every bout has to have championship connotations and I would like to see some fighters against better competition (most notably the Charlo's), but it's tough to argue against an active network that brings boxing to fans multiple times a month in at least interesting fights.

Showtime also offers the fairest broadcast set in the fight game as well and I was struck by this watching the Gary Russell-Joseph Diaz bout last night.
The easy way to cover this was to shower Russell, a Showtime/PBC fighter, with praise while discussing Diaz, a Golden Boy Promotions, and non-Showtime fighter, with some distance as Showtime would not gain anything from a Diaz victory.
Instead, their three-man crew of Mauro Ranallo, Al Bernstein, and Paulie Malignaggi called it straight, gave both fighters their due with what happened in the ring with no consideration for their connections outside of the ring.
This would be a layup to say that is the way all events should be called, but it isn't the case.
ESPN is somewhat of an offender with Timothy Bradley, who is quite friendly with many of Top Rank's stars outside the ring, and Mark Kriegel, who is from a writing background and calls fights with a wish for a storyline and not what is actually happening in the ring.
The opposite of what Showtime does with their commentators is HBO, who has the solid Jim Lampley, but employs Max Kellerman and Roy Jones (and occasionally Andre Ward), who enter the fight with a narrative, rarely deviate from said narrative and definitely choose a side more often than not.

I've been critical on occasion of Mauro Ranallo for often generating artificial excitement when it is not needed, but I think it's his legitimate if somewhat misguided enthusiasm for the sport that causes this and I cannot knock that.
Al Bernstein has been a favorite of mine for years and even though I wasn't always a fan of Paulie Malignaggi in the ring as a fighter, I think as a commentator, Malignaggi brings up points from the fighters perspective that aren't always about his career as is often the case with the aforementioned Roy Jones.
Showtime's announcers are the fairest in the game and from the viewer's standpoint, that's all boxing fans can ask for from the new leader in boxing television.

In the boxing challenge, I scored two points to Ramon Malpica's one.
I added two points from Gary Russell's win with Ramon scoring one.
No points were scored from the Stevenson-Jack draw and both of us selected Lee Selby to defeat Josh Warrington.
I now lead the challenge 90-71.

Boxing Challenge

The Boxing Challenge kicks off August with four bouts on the Showtime platform-two on the network and one for free on the network's Youtube and Facebook pages.
The fourth may be televised if time permits...

The big bout of the weekend features WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia moving up to junior welterweight against multiple division former champion Adrien Broner.
Garcia is a big hitter,but started his career at featherweight and you wonder where he will meet the weight class where his power levels out.
Broner has won titles in three weight classes,but has never beaten a top five in his division fighter,let alone a fighter of the talent of Mikey Garcia.
Broner has shown a pretty solid chin among all of his fights,so it'll be interesting to see if Garcia can hurt Broner.
A loss wouldn't hurt Garcia,but a loss might send Broner to special attraction status...

Showtime also will have the return of former IBF junior middleweight champ Jermall Charlo,who looked so spectacular in winning as an underdog against Julian Williams in the final defense of his title before he vacated and moved to middleweight.
Charlo should have been right back into the ring to take advantage of the huge win,but eight months have went by since the win and the momentum has been lost.
As for Jorge Sebastian Heiland,Charlo's opponent in this WBC middleweight eliminator,he is 1-1 against anyone I've heard of and his only big win was a knockout three years ago over a faded Matthew Macklin.

Showtime might not have the cache' or the wallet of HBO,but they are light years ahead of HBO on streaming,where they stream their fight live to subscribers (HBO does not) and on Saturday,the network will be showing one challenge fight (maybe another) and a ladies bout for free on YouTube and Facebook

Talented,but untested heavyweight Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller takes on his first real test against former title challenger Gerald Washington.
Washington was stopped by Deontay Wilder in five in his last bout for the WBC heavyweight title in a shot that was undeserved,but fought on equal terms with Wilder for four rounds before the stoppage.
Miller has some talent,but doesn't always come to fights in shape,so it'll be interesting to see if Miller is in shape and how he matches up with the 6'6 Washington.

In the "television time remaining" category,former WBA bantamweight champion Rau'shee Warren drops down to junior bantamweight in an IBF eliminator against another former champion-IBF 122 pound champ McJoe Arroyo.
The winner will fight IBF champ Jerwin Ancajas,who dethroned Arroyo.
Warren lost his title in his last bout in a split decision to Zhanat Zhakiyanov in a fight that I scored for Zhakiyanov by one point..

I lead the challenge over Ramon Malpica 87-80

Junior Welterweights.12 rds
Mikey Garcia vs Adrien Broner
Both:Garcia unanimous decision

Middleweights.12 rds
Jermell Charlo vs Jorge Sebastian Heiland
R.L:Charlo unanimous decision
TRS:Charlo KO 7

Heavyweights. 10 rds
Jarrell Miller vs Gerald Washington
R.L:Miller KO 5
TRS:Miller KO 7

Junior Bantamweights, 12 rds
Rau'shee Warren vs McJoe Arroyo
R.L:Warren unanimous decision
TRS:Warren majority decision

Adonis Stevenson leaves for Showtime

In another shot in the Cold War of boxing between HBO and Showtime, WBC Light Heavyweight champ Adonis Stevenson decided to sign with influential (not influenza, which might be a better description for his effect on boxing) manager Al Haymon and take his next defense against Andrej Fonfara to Showtime.

What's the big deal?
Well, instead of boxing fans getting a superfight between two of the most exciting fighters 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, but insisted on fighting Kovalev
 (even if on HBO) And if he defeated him, Al Haymon could 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 been my "free" choice when DirecTV wants to make things up to me for 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, subscriber 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 Pacquiao, 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...