Showtime’s Fight Camp 360: Inside The Super Six program premiered last Saturday and represents the network’s answer to HBO’s 24/7 series. Fight Camp, at least episode one, was a unique look at the birth of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. The folks at NFL Films produced the episode and captured not only fighters’ views, but it also showcased the promoters involved. If you missed it, Showtime will rebroadcast the episode throughout the week and has it available on its website. Not everyone, however, is as excited for the World Boxing Classic as the rest of planet Earth.
Kelly Pavlik’s view of the super middleweight tournament is either sour grapes or spoiled kid. Joe Scalzo of the Youngstown Vindicator had a chance to interview the middleweight champion after the super middleweight participants were announced. According to Pavlik, “[w]hoever the winner is…I’ll kick his [butt].” Thankfully, Bernard Hopkins isn’t involved.
Pavlik didn’t stop there. “Let them beat each other up. Let them ruin their careers for peanuts,” he went on to say. Regarding the prize money involved in the tournament, Pavlik said “[t]hat’s like [Browns quarterback] Brady Quinn playing for $300 a week. It’s bull[crap].” “[Showtime] never asked me and I never wanted to join.” “I fought my way up for seven years, I’ve fought for $3 million and $2.5 million a fight…[y]eah, the economy is bad, but there’s still more money out there.”
“Trust me, when the winner of that tournament fights his next fight, it’ll be on HBO,” Pavlik declared. “I like HBO,” he said. “I will fight for HBO. All the big-time fighters like Floyd Mayweather, [Manny] Pacquiao, [Miguel] Cotto, Shane Mosley, the Klitschkos — they all fight on HBO.”
Interesting. Is this the same Pavlik who received critical television exposure as a featured fighter on Showtime’s ShoBox: The Next Generation? Is this the same Kelly Pavlik whose beloved HBO wouldn’t air his fight against Marco Antonio Rubio and it had to be broadcast on pay-per-view independently by Top Rank, Inc.? The same Pavlik who will be summarily dropped by HBO if he loses to welterweight turned middleweight Paul Williams?
The powers that be at Showtime, the promoters, and the fighters need to be celebrated for getting the World Boxing Classic booked. The tournament, it is true, is more about the men than the money. It is not a fight series to fleece fans out of an extra $40 to watch a grainy Top Rank pay-per-view broadcast. The super middleweight division is one of the deepest and all six fighters will be showcased in a way that might not otherwise be available to them. Those are good things.
Showtime kicks off The World Boxing Classic this Saturday with Jermain Taylor meeting Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch facing Andre Dirrell.
