Boxing fans will have a tough choice this Saturday night as HBO will air the Miguel Cotto vs Daniel Geale bout while NBC will air the “Premier Boxing Champions” event co-headlined by the Vic Darchinyan vs Jesus Cuellar WBA World Featherweight title bout and the welterweight ten-rounder between Robert Guerrero and Aaron Martinez.
Boxing power player Al Haymon and his “Premier Boxing Champions” concept has put boxing back on television and in households, as he has cut deals with roughly half a dozen companies (such as NBC and Spike TV) that have shows airing weekly. There has been a lot of boxing airing in the United States this year, but “Premier Boxing Champions” has certainly been leading the way.
HBO still considers themselves the leaders in presenting premier boxing, and in many ways they are on a peak run. Regardless of the in-ring stinker put on by Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, there is no doubt that the match put a significant amount of cash in HBO’s coffers. They followed that fight with Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who delivered a crowd pleasing third-round KO of James Kirkland, and the Pac-Mayweather fight was preceded by world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s win over Bryant Jennings. Add to that this Cotto-Geale fight, and consider that Cotto remains one of boxing’s top draws, especially in New York City and HBO Boxing seems to be healthy.
Which is why it is interesting that Haymon would chose to run this card at the StubHub Center on Saturday going head-to-head against HBO and Cotto-Geale. Cotto is defending his world middleweight title against Geale, who is a long time, high-level middleweight, while Cotto earned the title by defeating an injured and aging Sergio Martinez and is not accepting any challengers who wont take a catch weight of 157 lbs.
While Darchinyan is a former world champion in multiple weight classes, at 39 years old he is considered to be well past his prime, and Cuellar is little known outside of his native Argentina. Guerrero is a draw, but he is coming off a loss and this match is not really expected to be competitive. It will be intersting to see what the numbers of viewers are for the two programs, as a lot of money was poured into both promotions.
