Like most of you, I was shocked to see Williams-Martinez II announced this past Saturday on HBO's telecast of Gamboa-Salido. As a hardcore boxing fan, and certainly a fan of the first outing, I check my sources regularly and had yet to hear confirmation prior to the revelation. I was not surprised, however, to discover that the information was bogus and the fight has not yet been sealed. Desperate times call for desperate measures and HBO Boxing in particular Ross Greenburg has gotten extremely desperate in their efforts to put together the best fights in order to keep the network performing well while its figurehead sport is in a serious rut. Not only are they stonewalling fighters from appearing on their network unless the fighters come to terms with a select few specific opponents, apparently, they're now announcing these fights without contracts even being signed. Obviously, it's an attempt to coerce the parties involved to either come to terms or face the wrath of a soured and disappointed public who were led to believe otherwise.
As devious as it is, I can't blame them. Moderately-popular fighters overselling themselves to the point of denying themselves meaningful fights is the last thing the sport needs, and when HBO failed to put together the biggest fight of all time the same year they had their budget severely cut...well
like I said, desperate times call for desperate measures. That's not to say HBO hasn't contributed to some of boxing's problems themselves. Their history of passing off great fights to Showtime and severely overpaying fighters who've failed to amount to worthy crossover appeal is well-documented. Showtime's Super Six tournament was a passed up opportunity that was relatively cheap, but ended up being hugely impactful, and would have been even moreso had it been aired on HBO.
But let's just be grateful that HBO is exploring new and daring avenues in getting us the fights we want. Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez are both excellent fighters and a rematch between two champions, two pound-for-pound leaders, with a complete stylistic dynamic that produced fireworks the first time around, would be fantastic. If HBO has to pull the "it was an honest mistake your honor, I swear" card in announcing the bout prematurely, then so be it. It's not like it would be anything too shocking or diabolical in a sport full of faked injuries, cinder-blocked gloves, and fudged numbers.
So let's applaud HBO for employing psychological warfare and manipulating public opinion to get us the fights we want, and boxing needs.
Fake it 'till you make it.
Now then...when did you say Mayweather-Pacquiao was on again?
[EDITOR'S NOTE: FightHype would like to welcome the talents of Ryan Kennedy to the team.]