Am I the only one scratching my head after learning of the uttter trash HBO has been approving these days?  Let's forget about that dreck of a PPV card that took place on December 11-the only PPV that HBO BOUGHT and lost millions of dollars on in 2004- and examine some of the garbage that no respectable network, let alone the premier network in boxing should ever approve. First up is Henry Bruseles. Does HBO stand for Henry Bruseles' Office? Has Bruseles (Boxingtalk #30) been approved because he's trained by Miguel Cotto's father? Is HBO so desperate to maintain a strong relationship with Bob Arum, who has already brought WBC lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo to Showtime, that they'll accept ANYTHING Top Rank offers?

Power to Arum and company though, because he's doing his job as a promoter. HBO however, is not.

Memo to Kerry Davis. If you're looking to build up a Gatti-Mayweather fight, (clearly the case here with both Gatti and Mayweather fighting on consecutive Saturday nights) putting Mayweather in a fight that the public wants to see would probably be a good idea.

The Jan. 22 co-feature between heavyweights Samuel Peter (Boxingtalk #20) and Yanqui Diaz (Boxingtalk #30) is another joke.

Much like Peter's last fight against Jeremy Williams, (which should have never been approved by Showtime) Peter-Diaz  has  ESPN, Shobox and maybe even a KO nation opener written all over it.

Like Henry Akinwande and Brian Nielsen before him,  Samuel Peter looked like a million bucks while knocking fringe cotender Jeremy Williams out cold.

But before that I remember his fight on ShoBox being so boring that I stopped taping it midway through the live telecast, an honor usually solely reserved for John Ruiz fights.

HBO must have been sipping some of Yori Boy Campas magic potion to garner the strength to air Peter-Yanqui Diaz on a World Championship Boxing undercard.

Barring another early knockout, I predict that by the time scorecards are read, even the Cubans in Miami will be saying, "Yanqui go home!"

Only God knows what the brains at HBO were thinking when they approved it for a co-feature on World Championship Boxing. (Perhaps this is HBO's way of keeping a non-DKP heavyweight in the mix, so next time they decide to lose millions of dollars on a Vitali Klitschko PPV fight at least they won't have to deal with Frank Warren)

Perhaps Larry Merchant in a show of his impartiality, will state that Peter has as much, if not more potential than his last great heavyweight Courage Tshabalala before he began losing to has been's and never were's.

Instead of HBO securing REAL championship fights like Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo, and Cory Spinks-Zab Judah II, both of which will be televised by Showtime in the coming months,  HBO subscribers suffer with Mayweather-Bruseles, Peter-Diaz, the seemingly eternal grooming processes of Jermain Taylor and Miguel Cotto and a plethora of Showtime rejects who have no business being on HBO.

I can't remember the last time someone like DeMarcus Corley, who took two consecutive beatings on HBO was good enough to come back against "a phenom" like WBO titlist Miguel Cotto.

Rest assured HBO's commentators will find some way to overhype Corley as badly as they overhyped Randall Bailey last month.

Despite Bailey not having a win against an opponent with a winning record since early 2002,  HBO's commentators still had the gall to desribe Bailey as  dangerous and dynamic against Miguel Cotto in December 2004.

HBO's hypocritical commentators love to point out how crooked and corrupt the sanctioning bodies are for appointing mismandatories and things of that sort, but shouldn't HBO uphold itself to the same standards?

HBO's stupidity for airing this crap must be mentioned in the same breath as the WBO's for rating Corley in the first place.

Don't expect Lampley or Merchat to raise the bar by telling the truth or trying to educate their audience.

I'd expect Lamps and Merchant to bring their pom-poms with them and say something like, "remember Corley had Mayweather in a world of trouble last May. "Boy, Cotto's looking comfortable dealing with Corley's southpaw stance" And, "isn't his left hand is a thing of beauty?."

And God forbid Cotto manages to knock Corley out.

I can  hear Lampley shooting from that surgically repaired hip of his already,  "Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah didn't do THAT to Corley, what a statement made by the rising young champion!"

Without saying a word HBO is making all sorts of statements to the boxing world, unfortunately for boxing fans, they're not in our sport's best interest.

Can you believe that instead of hiring a real boxing mind to help him out, HBO suit Kerry Davis managed to find and then hire someone who knows even less about boxing than he does to replace Xavier James?

Funny, I never knew such a person existed.



 

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