It looks like HBO is finally putting their foot down when it comes to quality boxing matchups. Last week, HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg essentially announced that the network is getting out of the heavyweight business, opting to forego televising future bouts featuring heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko due to the "lack of interest in them in the United States." Apparently, HBO has also decided to pass on a September 18 pay-per-view card headlined by Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora.
The fight that HBO was hoping to stage was a matchup between Mosley and undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, however, Berto demanded a 50/50 split of the purse, which prompted Golden Boy Promotions to look in-house for a different opponent for Mosley, who's coming off of a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather. Looking to capitalize on whatever remaining drawing power that Mosley still has, Golden Boy Promotions decided to move forward with a pay-per-view card, giving HBO the choice as to whether or not they wanted to be involved with the event.
Thankfully, the network decided against it, forcing Golden Boy Promotions to shoulder the entire pay-per-view production on their own, much like the ill-fated rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. held earlier this year, which barely broke 125,000 buys. The decision to move forward with an independent pay-per-view card has become a growing trend amongst several promotional companies, including Golden Boy and Top Rank, leaving networks like HBO the dilemma of finding quality matchups amongst high-profile fighters. It should be interesting to see just how successful a bout between Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora will be without the help of a major network like HBO backing them, particularly when Mosley lost nearly every round in his last bout.