Well. That wasn?t the best way to build towards a Kovalev-Bivol light heavyweight super-fight, was it?
Last week, I was torn to shreds after posting an article questioning HBO?s matchmaking acumen for showcasing their star light heavyweight properties, Sergey Kovalev and Dmitry Bivol, against stylistically unfavorable opposition. For pointing out that Eleider Alvarez and Isaac Chilemba were almost guaranteed to kill any buzz leading to HBO?s planned Kovalev-Bivol war, I was called everything from the polite ?Debbie Downer? to the not-so-polite ?pompous asshole.?
But I was right.
And I was right to a greater degree than I could?ve imagined. Not only would the Kovalev-Bivol buzz be diminished, but HBO?s inept matchmaking would downright kill it.
I?ll be honest?I didn?t see Alvarez knocking out Kovalev. I knew there was a slight chance that the Colombia-born Canadian resident could outbox the ?Krusher,? but I (along with the rest of the boxing world) never imagined he could drop him three times en route to a TKO 7 win.
What I did know, however, was that Alvarez was a superb boxer and a born spoiler with the kinds of skills that could make a master of war like Kovalev look like a doubt-ridden second tier player. My take was that Alvarez would do enough to make the Russian look bad, but that Sergey would last the full twelve and win the judges over with his stabs at aggression.
But, yeah, being nullified and THEN knocked out was way worse for HBO?s plans to put together a legitimately salable all-Russia, champ vs. champ 175 lb. war.
As for HBO?s piss-poor matchmaking for Bivol, well, at least it wasn?t a total crash-your-plane-into-the-side-of-the-mountain disaster.
The 27-year-old Bivol ended up taking a unanimous decision over professional wet blanket, Chilemba, but not before being pulled off his pedestal, at least temporarily.
At the beginning of HBO?s telecast on Saturday night, fans were treated to Lamps and Kels doing their usual hard sell of HBO property, swooning at Bivol?s awesomeness and stopping just short of offering a reach-around. If you had closed your eyes, you?d have sworn that Bivol was administering a most brutal beating to Chilemba rather than merely winning early rounds with a measured and somewhat tentative aggression.
By the later rounds, however, it was hard to hide the fact that Chilemba was Chilembaing and Bivol was becoming devalued by the minute.
?Bivol isn?t putting on the kind of show compelling us to talk about the action in the ring,? Kellerman would say in the eleventh round, against a backdrop of random jeers and derisive whistles from the crowd at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City.
The less-than-explosive performance from Bivol brought out the ?he needs to develop?he?s green? talk from Lamps and Kels, while unofficial scorer Harold Lederman closed out the show by giving the last three rounds to Chilemba.
But this shouldn?t have been a real shocker to anyone who knows a bit about matchmaking or style match-ups. Bivol looked ?blah? against a guy who has built a career out of making opponents look ?blah.?
The 31-year-old Malawi-born South African had lost three of four coming into this bout, but hadn?t taken any real punishment in almost two years and, as a long and large light heavyweight with a good chin and outstanding defensive instincts, he could be expected to hang around for a bit.
HBO clearly expected Chilemba to be at the starting point of a steep decline and likely to be overwhelmed by someone like Bivol. But HBO clearly doesn?t know what the hell they?re doing.
An argument could be made that Bivol will be a better fighter for having fought a spoiler like Chilemba and I wouldn?t disagree with that. But fighting this fight now, when the objective was to build up steam towards a battle with Kovalev, was stupid.
And that was my point all along.
Why the hell would the brain trust at HBO Boxing pick two spoilers as opponents for their big light heavyweight double-header showcase? Why pick opponents guaranteed to make Kovalev and Bivol look bad when the idea was to build towards a very compelling and fan-friendly Kovalev vs. Bivol war? Again, as I wrote last week, the answer probably has something to do with HBO Boxing?s general ineptitude.
The end result of this matchmaking mistake is that HBO (and the fans) will miss out on a very marketable and entertaining Kovalev-Bivol fight. Kovalev may be finished as a main stage fighter and Bivol leaves Atlantic City as LESS of a star than when he arrived.
It?s also no guarantee that the Al Haymon-advised Eleider Alvarez won?t take the WBO belt he won from Kovalev to PBC-friendly territory (where there are plenty of big fight options), leaving Bivol without anyone to fight and HBO without anyone to match against their usually entertaining offensive powerhouse.
All of this because of someone?s odd matchmaking decision at HBO Boxing. It was such a bad decision that you almost have to consider that it might be intentional self-sabotage.
But, really, why would anyone at HBO Boxing need to sink their own ship when its captains keep crashing into icebergs?
