HBO Needs To Wake UP

By:  | Posted: Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 2:34 am.

Just because a fighter is willing to take a terrible beating doesn’t make him worthy of a huge payday. The big paydays should be reserved for those fighters who have, through skill, talent, and accomplishment, earned the right to them. Courage alone isn’t enough. HBO PPV and HBO should stop looking for opponents-who receive by far the biggest paychecks of their careers-solely for their willingness to take excessive punishment in fights they’re not supposed to (and can’t possibly) win. We’ve got to stop valorizing fighters simply because they can get beat up.

I can get beat up. You can get beat up. There’s no great talent needed. In the past few months, we’ve seen three guys in main events either on HBO PPV or on HBO who had no business being anywhere near fights of the magnitude they were in.

First, in April, we saw Alfonso Gomez accept the Just Happy to Be Here Award while getting kicked around long enough to qualify as having been beaten up, at which point he acceptably quit. Gomez, who I gather worked part time as an actor on a silly television show called “The Contender” better not leave his day gig: this kid is clearly no fighter.

Why use him? HBO brought him onboard because Miguel Angel Cotto, having beaten the very tough Shane Mosley in his previous fight, and having been scheduled to fight ridiculously tough Antonio Margarito in his next, needed a sacrificial offering he could rip apart. Okay, I’ve got it. That works for Cotto (and he’s justified in expecting it), and it might work for HBO (Cotto draws good numbers), but it doesn’t work for you and me paying the tariff.

If you don’t want to put Cotto in with anyone who’ll trouble him much, at least give us a brawler to watch–someone who’ll come to win and who’ll go out on his shield. Let’s not have an opponent who simply stands around getting beat up.

One would hope the Cotto-Gomez fight would be enough HBO nonsense, but they came right back with in June with the fiercely determined looking Gary Lockett. It turned out that the Welshman could also find work on “The Contender,” since he was merely another actor. His role was, of course, “the fiercely determined looking fighter.” Once the bell rang, however, he patiently took a pounding for three rounds, occasionally dropping to a knee when the heat became too much for him. Like Alfonzo Gomez before him, Lockett didn’t do anything to suggest he was trying to actually win the fight. (Parenthetically, who is it who said that Enzo Calzaghe knows how to train fighters? Just because he has an extraordinarily talented son doesn’t necessarily mean that Enzo is responsible for his success.)

Not learning from its mistakes, HBO upped the ante and, for fifty bucks, brought us David Diaz. Admittedly, Diaz worked hard for his payday and tried his damndest to beat Manny Pacquiao. But Diaz is no pay per view fighter (and he’s not even an HBO fighter. Except that, unfortunately, he fights on HBO.)

HBO, please stop putting non-fighters in your feature bouts. I’m sympathetic to your not wanting to put your high profile guys in wars between their bigger fights. And I understand that it’s to your advantage to keep the A List faces before the public. But I assume that you’ve hired guys who scout prospective opponents. How long should it take them to figure out that Alfonzo Gomez and Gary Lockett can’t fight even a little bit?

And no; attaching a bullshit narrative to the no-hopers’ crusades to gain a title doesn’t help any.

As long as I’m saying please, let me say it again. Please, please don’t make PPV cards where the main event doesn’t feature two guys who can really fight. Fifty bucks is too much to pay to watch any one fighter, no matter how impressive, perform solo.

And please, if you have any regard for our intelligence, no more Tye Fields or anyone like him, ever again. You must think your audience consists of a bunch of fucking idiots.

I understand that the first obligation HBO has to its shareholders is to make money. And so I’m not offended when you take, at best, mildly interesting matchups like the two Floyd Mayweather had with Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton and turn them into must-see bonanzas. It’s unbelievably good marketing on your part. And De La Hoya and Hatton, although not world beaters, are both topnotch pros with enormous followings. It’s no shame for them to be completely outclassed by Floyd Mayweather (forget the preposterous split decision verdict in the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight: that was just window dressing to protect the biggest cash cow in the business.) So I’m okay with those fights.

But HBO subscribers are entitled to better opponents than Alfonzo Gomez and Gary Lockett. Look a little harder, dig a little deeper, and find us some fighters (even if they’re brought in to lose) who’ll do more than stand around and take beatings.

And if you’re going to charge fifty dollars for a PPV event, please don’t put someone like David Diaz in the feature bout. Fifty dollars buys half a tank of gas these days. Don’t make us have to choose.

PS If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss the replay of tonight’s Showtime bout between Ricardo Torres and Kendall Holt. I’m not going to give away the result. Just watch it.

CATEGORIES:Editorial