5 of the most memorable fights in Showtime Boxing championship history
If one thing is for sure in life, it's that things are bound to change. Sports are just like life in that things operate differently from era to era. After weeks of rumors, 2023 will mark the last year that Showtime Sports will air combat sports on its airwaves. The entire Showtime Sports division will be shut down, meaning there will be no more boxing or MMA shown on the network.
Boxing has been part of the Showtime network since 1986, providing fans with some of the most significant fights of the last few generations. The signing of Mike Tyson in the 1990s and Floyd Mayweather Jr in the 2010s closed any perceived gap with its then-network rival HBO.
Along with its championship boxing series, Showtime's Shobox: The New Generation put a spotlight on upcoming prospects. This program, in particular, will be what is missed the most.
The decision by Showtime's parent company, Paramount Global, isn't as surprising as potentially detrimental. It leaves a looming question about where the sport is headed and its future.
However, since boxing moved primarily into the premium network market of HBO and Showtime in the 1980s and 1990s, its audience has diminished in size with few outliers.
The sweet science used to be considered one of the few major sports in the United States. It sat right beside football, baseball, and basketball. Now, the only headlines on major sports networks the sport receives are when Jake Paul or Canelo Alvarez are fighting. That isn't enough and hasn't been sustainable.
In 2017, one year before HBO chose to end its relationship with Boxing, longtime promoter and the head of Top Rank promotions, Bob Arum, foresaw that keeping his fighters on HBO was a dead-end and moved his stable to ESPN.
"Nothing against HBO and Showtime," Arum told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2017. But they are premium channels that mostly do entertainment and a little bit of sports and Boxing. They are not sports stations, and no one covers sports better than ESPN."
Premier Boxing Champions has been the leading content supplier for Showtime Sports for over a decade. The company headed by Al Haymon will be looking at other avenues to broadcast their fights, such as Amazon Prime or even DAZN. There will be just two more boxing telecasts on the network. David Benavidez will take on Demetrius Andrade on November 25th and one yet-to-be-determined show on December 9th.
With the impending demise of Showtime Sports on the horizon, the drums of the death of Boxing can be heard rumbling again. That notion has existed since Muhammad Ali's retirement in the early 1980s. However, some fundamental changes need to take place to keep the sport competitive in today's streaming marketplace.
The future of Boxing is in a fog, but the history and legacy that Showtime Championship Boxing left on the sport is clear. Fansided MMA will take a look at five of the most memorable bouts to take place on the network.