With such a large financial and credibility investment involved, we should expect nothing less than a stellar promotion leading up to the night of the May 7Th pay per view fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley by Showtime and CBS.
Parent company CBS wrested the fight from HBO which it seems has had no competition from Showtime since the Mike Tyson era.
Let’s hope the fight lives up the the hype.
A camera crew is already in Baguio City, Philippines covering the beginning of Pacquiao’s sparring and a crew is in Big Bear, CA covering the doing’s in the Mosley camp.
The CBS/ Showtime version of HBO’s “24/7” called “Fight Camp 360” begins Saturday on CBS at noon eastern time. It’s a four – part series leading up to the night of the May 7Th fight.
CBS has been running 30 – second spots for the fight throughout the NCAA Final Four Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The involvement of CBS will add millions of more casual sports fans getting exposure to the event for this fight and hopefully in the future.
We can also expect HBO to answer with an aggressive counter attack and that can only be good for boxing and both the casual and die hard fans.
HBO Boxing has long been rumored to be in the pocket of promoter Golden Boy Promotions. I don’t know if that is true but with more competition between HBO and Showtime more fighters are going to get the opportunity to be seen by the public.
As usual, competition makes everything and everybody better.
Dallas-area fans gave me their opinions of Showtime re-entering the boxing business in a big way.
Sonny in North Dallas: “This is more important than a big fight. Competition is the key to everything in business and now HBO has to counter with something and the fans will benefit.”
Scott in Uptown: “Obviously this is good for everybody. HBO has seen the quality of their shows go down hill dramatically and now with competition from Showtime they have to go after better fighers and better fights than what they have been giving us.”
Mike in Addison: “The fights recently have been horrible. Obviously better fighters and fights are out there and hopefully this will help bring them to the surface.”
