Boxingscene.com is reporting that HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg is leaving and an announcement is expected Monday. Greenburg’s departure is in large part to the company losing Manny Pacquiao to Showtime this year.
Although Greenburg downplayed the loss of Pacquiao, Bob Arum’s top draw on Showtime was a huge defeat for HBO Boxing despite a slight increase in ratings this year. With negotiations for Pacquiao’s next fight still up in the air between HBO and Showtime, both sides are making strong pitches to land the fight. The stakes for the fight are even higher with speculation that the network awarded the Pacquiao fight will also get the Margarito-Cotto rematch set for December.
From Bad Left Hook:
Adding Cotto vs Margarito to the Pacquaio vs Marquez deal — which is essentially what’s going on here — might make this a bit more of a race. Showtime may be able to come up with something bigger for Cotto vs Margarito than HBO can, which could help even out what is reported to be a monster offer for Pacquiao vs Marquez from HBO.
From an MMA perspective, Greenburg stepping down is a step in the right direction for MMA as it was known that Greenburg was not fond of MMA.
Payout Perspective:
The change at the top of the sports department at HBO is interesting considering the successful year it is having and the fact that the network is in competitive negotiations with Showtime to get two of the biggest fights of this year on its network. For the UFC, it can only hope that an executive open to MMA is placed at the head of HBO. With the departure of Greenburg, HBO could be another viable network for the UFC to jump to next year if a deal with Spike TV does not come through.
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