Contrary to popular belief, Showtime is still in the boxing business. They have not done a ‘Championship Boxing’ broadcast since April 25th, when Carl Froch dramatically stopped Jermain Taylor in defense of his WBC super middleweight belt, but they get back into the thick of things this weekend – and yes, Showtime is still very much committed to ‘the sweet science’.
“We have a lot of great things in the works, first up Vic Darchinyan and Joseph Agbeko on July 11th and that should be a spectacular show,” said Ken Hershman, Sr. VP and General Manager of Sports and Event Programming for Showtime, AKA – ‘the Czar of Showtime boxing’. “There’s only going to be fireworks when Darchinyan steps in the ring. August 1st, Nate Campbell and Tim Bradley, a total pick’em fight, which I’m very excited about and interested in seeing and I’m not sure who wins. Then into the fall we’re working on some significant fights and we hope to have an announcement soon.”
When asked about his network’s hiatus, outside of a few select airings of ‘ShoBox’, ‘the Czar’ would answer, “We’re only going to put on things we believe are worthy. It takes time to put those things together and sometimes it’s not enough of a reason just to put on a show. So we’re very protective of the franchise and we think our activity level has been appropriate and it’s going to step up in the fall with some big shows.
So how many editions of ‘Showtime Championship Boxing’ can we expect in the autumn months? “Probably four or five,” is Hershman’s reply.
A few months ago, Hershman expressed interest in holding a tournament in the deep super middleweight division. All he would say about it last Thursday afternoon was, “It’s a very intriguing concept. We’d love to do it if we can pull it off. But as you can imagine, anything like that is pretty complicated and it takes a lot of time to put together.”
But reports are running rampant throughout the weekend that Showtime is very close to consummating this 168-pound scrum. The basic structure of this tourney according to various sources would be a round-robin where each of the participants (said to be Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Jermain Taylor) would fight three times, Eventually a final four would come out of that, with the semi-finals taking place in late 2010 and the finals being held sometime in 2011.
It’s a brilliant concept in many ways and this tourney would constitute a bulk of Showtime’s boxing programming for the foreseeable future.
It’s believed widely throughout the boxing industry that Showtime’s competitors across the street at HBO have mangled their 2009 budget worse than the nearby Knicks did their salary cap under Isaiah Thomas. It would seem to be a great opportunity for Showtime to capitalize on their plight. Hershman isn’t convinced it really changes anything. “It’s always a challenge to find the right fights, the right money, and the economy certainly has an effect. I don’t know if it changes the marketplace that much because you still need to adjust your expectations on all sides, given what’s going on out there,” he explains. “You just can’t ignore it. But it’s still a challenge – you’ve got to find the right fighters, the right promoters, the right events, put them together, make it happen, find the money to make everybody come to the table.”
If there has been a signature series that has defined Showtime’s boxing franchise recently, it is has been the rivalry between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. From March of 2007 to March of 2008, these two Mexicans put on perhaps the most memorable thrillogy the sport has ever witnessed.
But will there be a Vazquez-Marquez IV on Showtime?
“The first three were certainly beyond spectacular, I don’t know that there’s a need for a fourth. I understand why everyone would want to do it and I’m happy to entertain it at the right price and the right situation,” states Hershman. “But it’s not something that would be high on my priority list at this point.”
The bottom line is that because of Vazquez’s lingering problems with a detached retina (he has since been cleared medically to return to action) that the iron is no longer quite as hot as it once was for a fourth encounter.
“I think so, I think a little bit, yeah,” admitted Hershman, without completely ruling out the possibility. “I think that if it happens there would be a lot of anticipation about it, it certainly is a worthy fight and I would do it without hesitation. I just don’t know if people’s expectations and the change in the economy and the challenge for dates is going to allow that to happen.”
FASTER EDDIE
For full disclosure, I have not seen the complete fight between Eddie Chambers and Alexander Dimitrenko but I was able to view a few highlights and got some reports from people I trust, but it’s clear that a lighter, smaller Chambers is a better, faster Chambers.
And despite the difference in size between the two (Chambers is about 6’1, and weighed in at just over 208, while Dimitrenko is 6’7 and weighed in at over 253 pounds) it was Chambers who controlled the action and he didn’t really need to move around the ring all that much. He simply held his ground for the most part, I’m told, and used his superior boxing skills, quickness and hand speed. He even sent the lumbering Ukrainian to the canvas twice and dominated the action throughout.
Chambers’ manager/trainer, Rob Murray Sr. was absolutely prophetic in his statements about how titanic-sized heavyweights can be sunk with movement, mobility and more importantly, technique and skills.
Now the question is, does he match up well with WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko, who is certainly not the biggest risk taker in boxing, but is also a very sound heavyweight, with a jackhammer jab and has adroit boxing skills from the outside? And unlike the hulking Dimitrenko, Klitschko has a good deal of athleticism.
According to Chambers’ promoter, Dan Goossen, the WBO mandatory must wait until Klitschko faces his IBF mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin, in the fall. Goossen says that he will look to keep Chambers busy in the interim.
FINAL FLURRIES
Lightweight Vicente Escobedo tells me that he’s looking to return on the Marquez-Mayweather undercard on September 19th….With Setanta Sports no longer financially liable for David Haye, I expect no more ‘back problems’ with him as he gets a fight with Vitali Klitschko in the fall….There are discussions of a heavyweight bout between Odlanier Solis and Kevin Johnson on the August 15th ‘Pinoy Power’ card. Which guy is Filipino again?….Rest in peace to Steve ‘Air’ McNair. The circumstances around his death remind me of R Kelly’s ‘Trapped in the Closet’ series….Is it now a consensus, in tennis, that Roger Federer is the GOAT?….I’ll say it right now, on 4th and 1- I’d give the ball up the middle to Serena Williams…Trevor Ariza should fire his agent ‘Dumb’ David Lee, immediately. Although, even that’s too late. But, on the bright side, he can get to fishing (as Kenny Smith and ‘Sir Charles’ would say) much sooner and work on his golf game by late April, now….Speaking of which, with Circuit City now out of business and ‘the Tru Warrior’ Ron Ron taking a pretty significant pay cut to come to L.A, where will he apply now for a part-time job to get an employee discount?….Yes, I’m patting myself on the back, but I predicted that Chambers (at 3-to-1) would defeat Dimitrenko on both my daily live blog and my Twitter account….For those of you who have not heard, yes, it’s true Steve T. Kim has a Twitter account( twitter.com/stevemaxboxing)…. And what does the intial ‘T’ stand for in my name? ‘Tweetin’, of course….
