’s 2002 blueprint, Part One: The heavyweights

In the first of a three part series, SecondsOut.com’s Contributing Editor Paul Upham speaks with Kery Davis, HBO Sports Senior Vice-president of Programming about the television network’s plans for boxing in 2002.
For a boxer to have a contract with HBO, it means that he is at the top of his game and one of the stars of the sport. The HBO cable network invests many millions of dollars into the sport each year making it one of the most powerful entities in boxing. As HBO Sports Senior Vice-President of Programming, Kery Davis is a very important figure in deciding what fights are made and not made on HBO. With so many super-fights already planned, 2002 is shaping as an important year for the future of boxing.

With a huge vested interest in the sport, the American television network is determined to ensure boxing’s future by bringing the very best fights to the fans throughout the year.

In the heavyweight division the landscape is poised to dramatically change over the next 12 to 18 months. There is intense interest and speculation on the final matches of the big three of the last 15 years in Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson.

History has shown that heavyweight is the most prominent division when the sport is being recognised by casual fans. At HBO, there is a genuine resolve towards developing the next heavyweight champion of the world.

The impressive television ratings for John Ruiz v Holyfield III in Connecticut on December 15 again showed that there are very few boxers who are known by fans who don’t follow boxing on a regular basis. Even at the age of 38, Evander Holyfield is a major ratings drawcard. The Real Deal, Lewis and Tyson won’t be around forever and now is the time for the next generation of heavyweights to shine through.

“We thought that the ratings would do well because of Holyfield’s name,” said Davis.

“If you talk to any fan in the street, there is still only four or five boxers who are household names, who the general sports fan and the average person on the street who doesn’t even like sports recognises. Those names are Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Oscar De La Hoya. Those are the four huge names that transcend the sport. Whenever you have one of those four fighting on the networks, they tend to draw the biggest ratings.”

Davis confirmed that HBO is very interested in Evander Holyfield in 2002 despite him being in the twilight of his career.

“There a number of fights and match-ups we are interested in. If Holyfield continues to fight then we’ll continue to be interested in him. I thought from a fans standpoint that he certainly gave a very good account of himself against Ruiz. I thought he actually won the fight. Any match-up that includes Holyfield we will be interested in,” he said.

One fight being talked about is the matching of Holyfield with Hasim Rahman. Both fighters need an impressive win to force a shot at Lennox Lewis, John Ruiz or whoever is holding world title belts later in 2002.

“Holyfield-Raman is a fight that we would be interested in. If Don Kind is interested in putting that fight together, we would be interested in talking to him about it,” said Davis.

Germany’s WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko is the brightest star on the next level down. HBO has great confidence in the 1996 Olympic champion that he may become the future undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

“I think Wladimir is an important player for our network. The one thing we do recognise, Holyfield, Tyson and Lewis, the youngest of the three is 36. We realise those guys are getting on in age,” said Davis.

“They could probably fight for another year of two, but certainly they are closer to the end than the beginning. We realise that there has to be a future heavyweight to carry the sport on. We think Wladimir Klitschko could be that heavyweight. Not only is he talented, we feel he is charismatic, he is learning English and he has a fan friendly style of fighting. We think he could be an important player in the future. Yes, we are looking to utilise his talents and hopefully watch his talents grow.”

“It’s clear, the one thing he does need is more United States exposure. It was unfortunate that he had to cancel his last fight last December against Izon due to injury. We are hopeful that he will come back this spring and he’ll fight maybe two or even three times in the United States this year.”

HBO is negotiating with Klitschko’s promoters Universum regarding his return to action in the USA some time in April.

“He was going to fight in December and then come back in April. The problem was that we had already booked those first three months of the year with other fights when he was injured. We have to figure out a way to get him in and at the latest he’ll come back in April,” said Davis.

While Klitschko missed out on the December 1 card in New York due to injury, two new heavyweight contenders in Jameel McCline and Fres Oquendo continued to impress and have forced their way into HBO’s big fight calculations for 2002.

“Both of those guys did themselves a lot of good that night. I was very impressed with Jameel McCline. We didn’t get to see much of McCline when he beat Michael Grant, it was really one punch and the fight was over. We didn’t really know what we had. I was extremely impressed with him against ‘GOOFi’. His athleticism was the one thing, he was able to box and stay upon his toes. He isn’t a devastating puncher, but when you are that big I don’t know that you have to be. He can wear you down, he is very athletic and he throws combinations. He can be a very, very dangerous fighter in the heavyweight division,” said Davis.

“Although he is 31, in boxing years he is very young. He has only had 32 fights and it doesn’t seem that he has had a lot of wear and tear on his body. He could be a factor for the next four or five years and I’m not sure that there are many guys out there who can beat him at this point.”

“Oquendo, I think is also a very talented fighter, but he has the problem that a lot of heavyweights have right now. Ten years ago Oquendo would have been a big heavyweight, now he is a small heavyweight. At 225lbs or so, when he’s fighting these goliaths he’s going to have issues. That being said, Oquendo obviously has some skill. We are going to keep looking for him. I understand that there is a possibility of a big fight for him against Chris Byrd. That could be a very intriguing fight because they are both about the same size and both have terrific boxing skills for heavyweights, so we would be interested in that.”

HBO is very keen on seeing Klitschko stepping up his level of competition in 2002, so everyone can see where he stands in the heavyweight mix.

“I think the guys you’d like to see on Klitschko’s dance card in 2002 would be Ray Mercer and Jameel McCline. I think those two guys would be the two guys that we would look to see Klitschko fighting in the upcoming year,” said Davis.

“It’s important that he has a measuring stick. Right now he hasn’t been fighting guys that we can measure how good he is against. We know that if he beats Ray Mercer or Jameel McCline we know he is a very good heavyweight.”

It’s not just making the really big fights that will help the sport of boxing with it’s long term survival and success. What really counts is having the big fights become great fan pleasing fights, says Davis.

“That’s the key. One of the things when you talk about what state boxing is in, in order for boxing to get back to it’s pre-eminent position a couple of things have to be accomplished. One of those things is we have to have big fights. We have to have fights between players where the fans know who the players are. There are a number of things that also have to happen, but we have to have big fights and when those big fights happen, they have to be successful nights,” he said.

Davis gave Lewis-Holyfield I as the perfect example of a big fight backfiring on the sport after the controversial drawn verdict handed down although it was clear that the Britain had won

“We had a huge fight back in March 1999 with Holyfield-Lewis for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Everything looked terrific about that fight, but the decision gave the sport a black eye,” said Davis.

“Instead of the sport taking a step forward because it had a great night and an exciting boxing match, then an undisputed champion emerges. Instead, you had a relatively slow fight, then the disputed decision. Suddenly with the world watching, instead of the sport taking step forward it took a step backwards.”

“We have an opportunity this year with all the good fights on the horizon with Mosley-Forrest, Barrera-Morales, potentially Lewis and Tyson and then De La Hoya-Vargas and Jones-Hopkins, we have an opportunity to have the sport make a statement.”

“To me, it is a critical time in the sport. If the sport can make that statement and all these fights turn out the way we as boxing fans and lovers hope that they do, good entertaining fights, clear decisions, no drama, no trickeration, no backroom politics, if all of those things happen then I think in the fall of this year, boxing will be in a very good position in the terms of the sporting world.”


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor