WBC CHAMP WITH SIGNS WITH AL HAYMON!
Las Vegas, NV- HBO’s boxing woes continue as yet another one of the signature fighters Adonis Stevenson (23-1, 20 KOs) on the network has brokered a deal to fight his next bout on a May 24th Showtime broadcast vs. Andrzej Fonfara (25-2, 15 KOs).
SHOWTIME NABS ANOTHER STAR FROM HBO
HBO Boxing In 2014
In 2012, Home Box Office fell asleep and almost dared Floyd Mayweather to look elsewhere. Failing to match a $100 + million offer by Viacom/CBS/Showtime, they eventually would lose his services. According to various reports this situation was similar as HBO had the right to match whatever offer Showtime made. However with no contract in place and Stevenson now being advised by the most powerful man in boxing, Al Haymon, Stevenson, Big Al & Showtime have agreed on a deal that HBO didn’t feel it could match.
HBO NODS OUT & GETS JACKED!
The reality here though is while HBO had recently invested in both Stevenson, a Haitian living in Montreal, Canada and WBO light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KOs) who fights this Saturday on HBO, the Haitian was more interested in fighting Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KOs) who fights exclusively on Showtime. Hopkins, while an experienced professional is almost 50 years old and appears to be an easier fight for more money. Stevenson and Kovalev both fought together on a doubleheader at the end of last year in an effort to build towards a light heavyweight unification bout in 2014 if both guys were successful in their bouts. Both won impressively.
“SUIT JOBS” IN JEOPARDY AT HBO?
So lets get this straight, last year HBO loses both Floyd and Mexican star Canelo Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KOs). Alvarez was a fighter that they had invested money in only to lose him right before he signed to fight in what became the biggest money fight in boxing history against Floyd Mayweather. Around that same time HBO basically banned Golden Boy Promotions from their network partially because of Golden Boy’s somewhat incestuous relationship with Mr. Haymon. Now HBO loses the world’s #1 light heavyweight to Showtime after airing his last three bouts and building him into a bigger star. Saturday night they air Kovalev versus a relative unknown in Cedric Agnew (26-0, 13 KOs) hoping to further build Kovalev’s profile for a potential super fight with Stevenson that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon. Will heads roll in the executive branch at HBO? It remains to be seen.
Kevin Perry