How
Floyd Mayweather's Mega-Deal with Showtime Affects HBO
Boxing
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The
biggest loser in the new six-fight deal (h/t
Boxingscene.com) between pound-for-pound champion Floyd Mayweather and
Showtime is HBO Boxing.
Mayweather is set to fight six times over a 30 month time
frame and is said to make the deal the "richest individual
athlete deal in all of sports" if all six fights are
carried out, according to the press release. The first bout
of the six-fight deal will be against Robert Guerrero on
May 4.
The home of Mayweather's bouts for the past few years, HBO,
has kept ahead of Showtime and its boxing program largely
through Mayweather and programming leading up to his fights
as well as the fights themselves.
HBO's documentary series, 24/7,
gained in popularity following Mayweather leading up to his
bouts beginning with Money's bout with Oscar De La Hoya in
May of 2007. 24/7 showed Mayweather's outlandish
lifestyle and a behind the scenes look at what his
relationships with his trainers, friends and family
consisted of.
Being able to feature Mayweather's fallout with his father
and on-again-off-again trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., was
rating gold and got people talking about Mayweather, thus
further hyping up his 2011 bout with Victor Ortiz.
A big tool in advertising other big boxing events, HBO will
no longer have Mayeather's bouts and the added programming
to try and get more attention on the other bouts the
channel has to offer.
Showtime will now have a chance to move in on HBO's boxing
empire, as they have been kings of the ring for some time
now, and landing Mayweather until he will likely retire
gives Showtime a huge upper hand going forward.
HBO still has great production and a cast of analyst that
include Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman, Roy Jones Jr. and
Harold Lederman to name a few, so they still have a
top-notch product to offer. Now lacking one of their
biggest advantages over Showtime in Mayweather, HBO will
have to focus on other ways to promote their bouts besides
riding Mayweather’s coattails, which will be aided with
their partnership with ESPN that went into effect in 2012.
Although product-wise HBO has been more appealing than
Showtime, the loss of Mayweather will be a huge deal to
their product and we could see Showtime knock HBO out of
its rank of undisputed champion of boxing entertainment in
the years to come.