Say what you will about the foul-filled, nut-busting finale of Showtime’s Bantamweight tournament last weekend, but outside of the conspiracy theories regarding a payoff of incompetent referee Russell Mora or the Golota-like tactics of Abner Mares, it was a good fight that concluded yet another intriguing tournament on the Showtime network. The controversial ending is a blessing in disguise as the outcry for a rematch between Mares and Joseph Agbeko may not have come otherwise and it has established the initially less-known Agbeko and Mares as marketable and exciting fighters. Showtime, who has been fantastic in bringing light to the obscure weight classes, now has two more fighters that can bring the network and boxing great fights.
Whoever wins Agbeko-Mares II will be a shoe-in as the next logical opponent for “The Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire. And who wouldn’t want to watch a rematch with either men against all-action Vic Darchinyan, who also competed in the tournament? That’s the beauty of what Showtime is doing. They are creating marketable fighters and making us want to watch them without depending on uncooperative promoters or managers.
I’ve been an advocate of the tournament formula for a while now and I think that it is the quickest and most efficient way to generate excitement for a fight; and nobody is in more dire need for better fights than HBO. Boxing’s biggest network has a much bigger budget than Showtime, yet constantly blows it on awful fights. Their basis for approving fights is head-scratching, at best. Let’s use Sergio Martinez as an example. HBO can’t seem to find an opponent for him at all, resorting to no-hopers like Darren Barker, having no way of getting Top Rank-controlled Miguel Cotto to fight him, which is what Martinez has been hoping for. Guys like Peter Quillin, WBO champion Dmitry Pirog, Matthew Macklin and Sebastian Zbik have called out Martinez, but won’t get a fight with him because they aren’t household names, despite their reputation as fan-friendly fighters.
