https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/spor ... oxing.html

I guess it makes sense but still a bit of a shocker.

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A great Boxing match is still a cool thing to watch. I'm surprised interest has waned with the Klitschko brothers out there. There are still big named boxers that draw an audience but not as many I guess.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Is Larry Merchant still alive?

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Not surprising, but kind of a sad state of affairs. I have seen some good matches on their channel over the years but ever since PPV
came along they can't compete. Before PPV you always knew either a buddy who had HBO or your local watering hole that would have
the fight on TV. The sad part is that they do a very solid broadcast and have very good announcers and color guys. Just a losing
proposition for them, and people aren't that interested in the flyweight and smaller fighters that they generally broadcast as much as
the heavier weight classes.

Merchant is still kicking Boyd

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Absolutely. I'm a bigfan of Jim Lampley.

One of the best fights I ever saw on HBO was Bradley vs Provodnikov in 2013. I remember if vividly. My wife and I had just adopted our first kitten, so we were staying home and having a few drinks. She likes boxing too, so having this on was great for both of us. Hellava fight. These guys went toe to toe and kicked the crap out of eachother for all 12 rounds. Bradley won in a unanimous decision, which I agreed with, but he had to enture an absolute beating.

I remember watching boxing on HBO with my Dad as a kid. Sad that I won't be able to do that with my son.

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It's a pity that this has happened but not entirely unexpected. The two biggest American promoters in Haymon and Arum both got better offers for guaranteed dates and matchmaking rights on other networks, and HBO's smaller and smaller budgets meant that the few times they did get good fights, they were often stuck on PPV.

I'm probably not going to miss their coverage too much if only because as much as I loved Lampley's voice, he more often took away from my enjoyment of fights in recent years due to an inability to follow the action and ridiculous bias in favor of one of the fighters (Lederman was especially guilty of this as well).

Opinions vary.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Merchant has been doing international feeds for PPVs in recent years. It's hilarious when he calls them with "Colonel" Bob Sheridan because it sounds like they were trying to outdrink each other before going on the air.

This is really sad news, HBO covered boxing better than anyone else. Lampley is a straight-up GREAT fight announcer no matter who they paired him with. Larry Merchant post-fight interviews were always entertaining. My favorite HBO fight memories will always be back in the '90s, the Arturo Gatti heyday. Not only his fights with Mickey Ward (which were all great) but EVERY Gatti fight was an event. I remember a memorable fight he had with Ivan Robinson where Gatti got all cut up to shit and almost pulled off an amazing last-second miracle KO but Robinson was saved by the bell. I also remember some fun fights with Prince Naseem Hamed, just great fight entertainment. Watching him get knocked around by Marco Antonio Berrera was awesome fun. I was surprised to see how far back HBO fight coverage goes - The Rumble in the Jungle? I had no IDEA they had that kind of history.

Sad day for all fight fans.

You just knew it was a big fight when you heard Jim Lampley's voice. The end of an era.

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Lampley sucks. His bias - due, I would assume, to him feeling like he had to take a producer's interest in a few of the bigger fighters and their stories - is a big factor in people turning against HBO.

His announcing the last decade or so was just a crock of bullshit.

Shame about Max, but he'll hook on somewhere.

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I like thinking big. . . If you're going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.
-Donald J. Trump, BPE

Whoops. Didn't see this thread before I posted mine.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

I haven't watched boxing on HBO in a long time, but remember in the 90's watching it a lot, like someone put earlier watching with their dad, I did that too.

I remeber watching when Foreman won the title on there, I was going crazy that night.

I would have to google it, I think his name was Ray or Oliver Mccall against Lennox Lewis, but if right on name, Mccall started acting weird and I think started crying during the bout.

Probably number 1, I Andrew Golota vs Riddick Bowe, when Golota low blowed him a couple times, then started a melee, went into the crowd.

Top Tank Boxing

James "Quick" Tillis.

/thread

Julio Cesar Chavez vs Meldrick Taylor was my favorite

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

I saw an interview with that ref not all that long ago, and he stands by his decision to wave that fight off with only 2 seconds left. He said Taylor was out on his feet and he didn’t care if there were 2 minutes or 2 hours or 2 seconds it was the right call to make.

This Browne /Pascal fight on FS2 is something. I can’t even tell if it’s live. Just fun.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Aww shit a head butt ended it. Damn.

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Hawaii (fuck) You