Showtime’s risk taking and creativity should be applauded.
Like all networks that are still around since the late 1970s, Showtime has had to be innovative and continually come up with fresh idea — mainly to compete with another premium cable station, HBO.
Well, the script hasn’t change much at all since the tail end of the ‘70s. The two premium cable giants are still one another’s chief competitor and they both air similar programming — movies, original dramas, and sports.
And it’s sports — specifically boxing — where for a while HBO was outmaneuvering Showtime regularly; the can’t miss fights were HBO PPV.
But then in 2009, Showtime announced that it had struck a deal to start the Super Six middleweight tournament. I still don’t know the inner workings of the deal, but credit those over at Showtime for being able to put a palatable deal on the table for all five promotors and the six fighters in the tournament.
Of course, when it began in October 2009, there was a lot of buzz, a lot of hype, as well there should be. People in and around boxing also fantasize about tournaments. Finally, there was one, and in one of boxing’s deepest division, with arguably six of the seven best fighters in the weight class.
After many bumps in the road, the finals will finally be set Saturday night after Carl Froch’s bout with Glen Johnson concludes in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The winner of that, of course, will take on Andre Ward, who cruised into the finals after twelve easy fought rounds against Arthur Abraham.
While the tournament lost much of it’s steam, the effort should be applauded. Nobody knew Arthur Abraham would all but end Jermain Taylor’s career in Germany. Nor did anybody know he would end Andre Dirrell’s tournament life in Detroit — which is a statement that is still not definitive. Further, it was foreign to almost everyone that Mikkel Kessler was fighting with an eye injury.
So the tournament had leaks…major leaks. But nothing a few patches, or a tarp, couldn’t fix. So in came Allan Green and Glen Johnson — and Sakio Bika, but only sort of.
The Road Warrior proved he was the consummate professional, heading back to 168 pounds and taking care of the overmatched Allan Green — who on the same night confirmed that he is not part of the cream that rises to the top.
But now as the tournament winds down, the ship has steadied. It’s clear the patch-work held up just fine. On Saturday night we’re going to get a great fight between Johnson and Froch — and then we’ll get one more when the winner takes on Ward.
Showtime also ran a smaller, one elimination Bantamweight tournament — once again being innovative, and once again they were rewarded with delays that helped dull the excitement for a moment. This time, it was Joseph Agbeko’s health concerns before the Championship fight against Abner Mares.
No worries, though, that will now take place in August.
But it’s Showtime’s creativity and willingness to think outside the box that should be applauded — even if things don’t always work out as smoothly as planned.
A tournament with four 118 pound fighters I’m sure doesn’t seem like the best idea to less than casual fan, or to a boardroom. Nonetheless, they are taking chances.
There is also the fact that their parent company, CBS, can provide a platform for boxing to reach millions upon millions of more homes. When Showtime inked Manny Pacquiao, it was agreed that episodes of Fight Camp 360 would appear on CBS, which it did. There is hopes that CBS will continue to work with Showtime to bring actual prizefights back to basic cable, not just the documentaries about them.
There is no telling what Showtime does next, but it is clear that there are serious brainstorm sessions taking place.
Showtime has continued to think out of the box and they should be commended for their visible effort to create boxing buzz, no matter how self-interested the motivations are.
Kyle Kinder can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] or Twitter.com/KyleKinder
