Promoted by Michael Rome

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine over at HBO (who will remain anonymous) and they want nothing to do with "bastardizing" (as he put it) their Boxing product.

It seems Golden Boy offered the Arlovski/Barnett fight on the under card  of Hopkins/Pavlik... but HBO rejected the idea.

We also discussed the end game:

If Golden Boy is successful what then?  You just converted another fan pool for the UFC.  The casual UFC fan will not order these mixed boxing/MMA cards who wouldn't already... so the best case scenario for Golden Boy is to convert their boxing fans into MMA fans.

Is Golden Boy taking a risk may bite them in the ass?  It seems HBO is not.

If you work the numbers and realize that in order to be successful you would have to convert a good portion of the boxing fans into MMA fans... that opens up alot of  variables that can blow up in your face - for example: right now boxing ppv's are hurt by counter programming via other boxing events on other networks...

This would create a situation where counter programming by other MMA events can then have a similar effect.

For HBO It would be like playing chess against 2 players where you only have one set while the other 2 each have their own... how can you conceivably protect your king?