Manny Pacquiao and HBO Make A Deal for Marquez Fight

By Charles Jay

The competition, or at least this round of it, between HBO and Showtime for the hand of Manny Pacquiao appears over, and the winner is HBO, which is news for those of you who like to follow what goes on in this business.

Photo Credit : Chris Farina – Top Rank

The third fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez will reportedly take place via HBO’s PPV apparatus on November 12. Pacquiao had taken off for Showtime and had a successful PPV experience against Shane Mosley (May 7), which left the battle between the two premium networks rather wide-open. According to Showtime, the fight generated between 1.3 million and 1.4 million buys (or “subs,” as they say within the TV business). That represented his highest pay-per-view total yet, surpassing what he did against Oscar De La Hoya back in 2008. Yes, the universe is bigger now, but to be able to sell a fight like that, which was not that competitive going in, as successfully as they did is a feather in their cap.

Mayweather has not strayed from HBO, but he is not married to the network either, and his people have indicated a willingness to listen to what Showtime has to say if it represents a better deal.

So if you are one of those people who believe that promoters are mostly “brokers” and the networks are the true promoters, this reaffirms that the two biggest names in the sport of boxing are free agents.

There are more factors thrown into the mix these days than there used to be. Whereas part of selling a pay-per-view fight involved a commitment on the part of the cable carriers to advertising and marketing, the networks are now constructing programming leading up to the event that is also meant as an ongoing infomercial. HBO has been successful in that regard with its “24/7″ series. Showtime, a Viacom property, produced “Fight Camp 360″ on CBS, a Viacom property, and greatly helped the Pacquiao-Mosley tally. So both HBO and Showtime try to make the collateral programming work in their favor, and promoters (or “brokers,” if you will) look for that as an essential part of the pre-fight promotional package.

HBO will collaborate with “Time Warner assets,” according to Top Rank president Todd DuBoef, to lend support here. And you know what that means: cross-promotion on perhaps multiple outlets the company controls, including the Turner networks. DuBoef told media industry trade publication Multichannel News, “HBO’s proposal included all of the Time Warner entities – which include both digital and cable nets, its publications and very aggressive marketing — and that was obviously something that we were interested in. It’s not just solely an HBO platform.”

They may need a lot of that selling strength for Pacquiao’s fight. Although he has had two good fights with Marquez, one of them a thrilling draw, several years have passed, and Mayweather slapped Marquez around with a near-shutout decision in September 2009. Mayweather also nearly shut out Mosley before Pacquiao got around to him.

The opinion of most people in boxing was that this was an illustration of Bob Arum flexing his muscles. It started with the move over to Showtime, which sent the message to HBO that he could indeed go somewhere else. It is no secret that Arum has been disgusted with what he perceives to be preferred treatment Golden Boy Promotions (De La Hoya’s company) has gotten from HBO, but of course, that came as a by-product of De La Hoya’s popularity as a fighter, which was still in play at the time he established his company.

Now he has the big PPV attraction, so he has a strong hand to play. Golden Boy is indeed involved in the upcoming Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight, but they are not an equity partner in it. Nor is Mayweather locked into them with a promotional contract. Arum was not a fan of Ross Greenberg (former president of HBO Sports), who is said to have engineered the rise of Golden Boy within the industry through his (and HBO’s) largess, and the conventional wisdom is that the recent “resignation” on the part of Greenberg was orchestrated in part by Arum.

Was this a “thank you” on the part of Arum, and if so, why did it take so long? Well, one could say that he didn’t want to leave the impression that it was strictly cause-and-effect on the heels of Greenberg’s departure, but it’s hard to think otherwise. The opinion on this end had been that he wanted to give HBO the impression that it was still very much in the ballgame, while at the same time having every intention of maintaining the relationship with Showtime, because it does, after all, create additional leverage for him, and that is something he can hardly afford to lose.

But as of now, HBO (which had yet to post anything about the fight on its boxing page as of early Friday afternoon) is not only very much in the ballgame, it once again IS the ballgame, and if serious discussions ever take place for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, this makes it harder for Showtime to jump back in; that is, as long as the new regime at HBO Sports creates a little more distance between itself and Golden Boy.

Editors Note: Dan Rafael of ESPN just posted the following HBO statement on twitter: ‘We’re thrilled that Manny Pacquiao’s Nov. 12 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez will be presented by HBO Pay-Per-View. “We look forward to working with Top Rank on this special event.”