HBO’s Final Farewell

[Onetimeonly]

Everybody who watched streams instead of ppvs should be ashamed

The shame was in charging people far more than it's worth for a PPV. Football fans don't have to pay extra for their sport, Baseball fans don't have to pay extra for their sport, Basketball fans don't have to pay extra for their sport. Why do Boxing fans owe it to the promoters to spend excessive amounts of their hard earned money?

They don't.

If Pay Per Views were 10 dollars or 20 dollars a piece I'd have bought a sh*t load more of 'em than I did I'll tell you that. Instead they expect you to go without eating for a few days to watch a fight. F*ck that.

I'm not a businessman. People streaming ppvs instead of buying them put HBO out of business. I'm guilty of doing this myself. Hbo should have offered a streaming service and cut the price of ppvs. They didn't adapt to the changing market.

Their subscribers didn't watch boxing. HBO's money was not at risk at ppvs, it's the promoters.

[NoScoutingReports]

Great video, some top memories.

[mrdonleon]

I really enjoyed the final farewell, it was so beautiful.
Loved the commentary and i will never forget the amazing HBO Boxing intro!

Bye HBO.......
Hello..... DAZN?

[HomicideHenry]

It's a shame being "at that age" where magazine's go by the wayside and are replaced by a digital screen, and home television is replaced by cellular viewership. Somehow I feel gypped not only as a boxing fan, but as a consumer.

I remember when I was a kid, that my dad's dad was the only person we knew who had HBO he'd call us after the fights were over and tell us who won--- if we couldn't make it to his house.

Simpler times, yes, but exciting times. HBO's departure from boxing is something of a tragedy--- but it is it's own doing. Not EVERY championship fight is PPV worthy. Not EVERY championship fight is worth the big paydays. When I was a kid in the late 80s early 90s I remember seeing world champions fight on regular television.

The business was more genuine and pure then. The fighters were relateable in those days. Tim Witherspoon for crying out loud was World Champion twice and still lived in an apartment. We saw them, it wasn't some big secret. Even Sugar Ray Leonard and others fought on Tuesday Night Fights.

Boxing dug it's own grave, and HBO just so happens to be the first of many victims to come in the near future. Rumors of SHOWTIME folding have been around recently too. When you have big time promoters like Bob Arum trying to keep ESPN Friday Night Fights afloat, you know the sport is in big trouble.

But we fans are also at fault. All this instant gratification. No patience. We have effectively killed boxing by demanding livestreams of fights all over the world, rather than supporting our own country's productions on television.

But it is what it is. Someway somehow we've only made the promoters richer and made it less prestigious at the same time. Nothing will ever beat PPV on television with good friends and good food and really having an atmosphere of a fight night.

Holding a stupid phone watching a Championship fight... Ehhh... Might just backfire in all these assholes faces, because who wants to really do that all the time?

If HBO was smart they'd do what WWE has done and watch 45 years of matches on their network for $10 a year or whatever it is. Then again, what's the point? It's all on YouTube anyways.

What boxing needs is an NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL type of organization. Then you could have a "season package" seeing all the fights for a low price all year long--- but on television. Not this computer and phone business.

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

Full picz