We need to take a second here and just be totally honest with ourselves: HBO Boxing is no longer deserving of the distinction of being the ?Network of Champions,? but more so ?Relic of Yesteryear.?
This isn?t coming as a delayed reaction to yet another underperforming pay-per-view, the second starring both Gennady Golovkin and Roman Gonzalez, nor is it because they are on pace of having one pay-per-view fight for each fight on their normal syndication. It is coming because a three-year plus experiment to rebrand the network has ultimately left them creatively bankrupt and with a budget that is so small that they might as well be transitioning out of the game altogether.
How did it get to this point?
A pair of uneventful transitions of leadership, a stale culture that proved unable to adapt to change as well as the most basic of all functions, delivering the fights people care for, all have brought HBO Boxing to its knees with a total overhaul necessary to bring them up to speed in this new era of the sport.
When Ken Hershman came on board, the writing was on the wall that budget issues were going to be a huge deal, so Hershman had to immediately cut ties with Al Haymon and his expensive, but marketable roster, as well as Floyd Mayweather at the peak of his drawing powers to rival network Showtime. Hershman?s tenure at HBO also coincided with the heavy investments made on both Golovkin and Gonzalez to become stars, as well as Light Heavyweight Sergey Kovalev and current Junior Lightweight king Vasyl Lomachenko.
The Golovkin/Gonzalez experiment has to be considered a disappointment at best because with as heavily hyped and forced upon the public as they are, the two failed to establish themselves as a paid commodity as indicated by their pay-per-view numbers. Not only that, the continued insistence of pay-per-view is continuing to become a pitfall for them.
This year alone, it seems that the network is on track for a 1/1 ratio of regular network fights to pay-per-views with four fights to be aired on regular HBO and two pay shows with at least three more that can be potentially scheduled in the coming weeks. Outside of Saul Alvarez and Pacquiao, there is no attraction that can merit a hefty $60 price tag to accommodate their shrinking budget.
