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Saturday Night Results SHOWTIME KO's HBO
In the battle of cable TV Heavyweights this past Saturday night, underdog Showtime Boxing put a whuppin’ on "The Heart & Soul" of boxing and on this night it wasn't even close, HBO took one directly on the chin and went down for the count.
With their huge intercontinental budget, HBO traveled abroad and broadcast a fight from Wales, that was well, not much of a fight at all. Even worse, they gave us a preliminary fight that was just as much of an embarrassment, even though it did feature a potential hot prospect.
Meanwhile, Showtime brought us a non title bout from the humble setting of Springfield, Missouri. The fight was a compelling thriller that was truly an entertaining bout and will keep us coming back for more.
The same can't be said for HBO who once again served up a rotten egg instead of giving us the meat and potatoes they want us to believe they are cooking up.
It's funny to me that Larry Merchant kept droning on about this "Contender" Manfredo, and how you can't bring these wannabe Reality Star's into these fights and expect anything more than we got Saturday night. The reason I find this so amusing and downright ironic is that the "reality" is, that is what HBO has been shoving down our throats for quite sometime now, and Saturday night was no exception.
HBO announcers made a big point of saying there is a big difference between being a reality show fighter and reality, when in essence, at least half their fights are staged exhibitions. If you look at HBO, they are more like The Contender in that they build a fighter with easy fights for one big match. They structure their fighters’ career just like Jeff Wald and the rest of those ESPN suits.
It's the same old story. HBO showcases fighters in mismatches to "build" for the future, when in essence; Calzaghe gained no American fans from that effort.
In fact, not only did Joe not gain any fans with that performance, with the grumblings I have heard all weekend, I think any headway Calzaghe made with his victory over Jeff Lacy was nullified by this horrible display we saw against Peter Manfredo in front of Joe's hometown boys.
And that's what it was all about, a hometown fight and a hometown stoppage.
When referee Terry O'Connor waved the fight off in the third round when Manfredo was neither in trouble nor on the verge of any, what he did in “reality” was wave off any chance of Joe ever gaining the recognition or $$ he has been trying so hard to make us believe he has earned.
Look Joe, everyone in America just saw you throw a barrage of, (forgive me ladies), girl punches and slaps that were a true embarrassment to watch, and you should be ashamed too. That performance set you way back, 20 title defenses or not, you don't deserve American revenue off that fight, no matter what your delusional promoter Frank Warren is telling you.
Was Manfredo going to win that fight? Probably not, but hey, can you and your countrymen at least give the kid a fighting chance? Apparently not!
And on a side note, did anyone see or hear Sugar Ray Leonard either before, during or after the HBO broadcast? For Leonard to be giving his seal of approval on these "Contenders" being thrown in with real Champions is just flat out wrong. I can understand Jeff Wald feeding his guys to the wolves, he has no idea what he is doing, but for a Hall of Famer to be condoning this behavior is ridiculous, and trust me, Ray knows it. I hope that blood money you are getting to sign off on these fights is worth it Ray, because you are tarnishing your image in the process.
Now to the winning corner.
On what was probably a shoestring budget, Showtime put on a fight that was everything true boxing fans want to see.
They spared us a weak undercard, unlike their peer, and after setting up the show with some very insightful commentary, they got right to the action.
It was clear Showtime knew this was going to be a very competitive fight and they stepped back and let the fighters do the talking. It wasn't for a title and it didn't have any reality show star trying to make his dream come true. All it had was 2 fighters who were willing to put it all on the line in the hopes that this would launch them into a title bout in the 147 pound division. It was what fights are supposed to be.
After his fight with Jose Castillo that will live in infamy, to a succession of weight problems and losses, Diego Corrales was stepping up 2 weights to see if he could dance with the big boys. In the other corner was Joshua Clottey who just wanted to prove his close loss to Antonio Margarito would have been different had he not broke both his hands.
Clottey proved his point and Diego really needs to consider if he should try his hand in the Welterweight division, in fact it may be time for Corrales to consider whether or not to fight again at all. Chico was valiant and a warrior, just as we expected him to be, but he took a beating. His jaw looked broken after the fight, he was cut and his nose was bleeding, not a pretty picture. Clottey on the other hand was unmarked and happy, he knew had just defeated a true warrior.
And likewise, Showtime must have been pretty pleased as well.
They just put a beating on the undisputed and reigning champ in
HBO, and if things keep going this way, Oscar vs. Floyd or not,
HBO may be looking up at "THE NEW" Heart
and Soul of boxing...Showtime! |
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