A worrying piece of news coming out of ESPN has revealed that major US TV network NBC are not putting on any more PBC boxing events for the remainder of 2016.
This is particularly an adverse bit of news as anyone at all connected with the entertainment ratings or advertising business in any shape or form will tell you, these next few months before now and Christmas are the peak months where advertisers spend.
That’s the thing though with PBC in the first place, networks were not spending and were given content for free in time buy deals in a bid to bring boxing back to the masses on network television long-term.
There’s a lot of speculation out there at the moment that Premier Boxing Champions fronted by influential global boxing manager and adviser Alan Haymon, could be on it’s last legs, but if you’re a true boxing fan – lets hope that’s not the case.
Sure, the matchmaking in PBC hasn’t been the best at times, fighter purses got massively over inflated and now, cash seems to be drying up in terms of what was initially there last year when Haymon first started the business and raised a whole pile of investment.
But as boxing fans it should still be supported in my view and encouraged to learn from it’s mistakes and social media lobbied from fans to get better, as at the end of the day, competition in any market place is important and after all they were trying to do something new, innovative and start a business for the better of boxing, which takes balls.
Granted balls backed up by a whole pile of investor cash, but nonetheless, trying to start anything with the intention to better an industry is an admirable trait.
But now they’re just going to have to adjust the sails, and bloody fast.
Any start-up will tell you that pivoting and changing strategy on the fly is important when trying to get something off the ground from day one, and boy, now we are going to see PBC roll up their sleeves like never before I suspect.
Haymon moving into the booming UK boxing market soon to open up new markets wouldn’t surprise me at all, but with what broadcaster or under what type of model remains to be seen.
It’s easy to kick someone when they are down or when times are not going well, but I’m not sure I subscribe to the whole PBC being on it’s last legs theory, just yet anyway.
I just can’t see why Haymon would have (allegedly) blown a large investment fund without having some sort of back up plan.
Between now and Christmas will tell a lot for PBC.
For boxing’s sake, I personally hope they do make it through, as competition is important but perhaps now Haymon will need to start operating based off a more realistic model and tighten the purse strings.
(Image source and credit: PBC)
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