Ricky Hatton-Manny Pacquiao Goes To The Highest Bidder?

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

According to promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, the May 2 battle between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton is not a lock to land on HBO's pay-per-view arm. The Las Vegas bout may head over to HBO's network rival, Showtime, if the right deal is made. Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, tells the Los Angeles Times that Showtime's connection to CBS would be a major boost to help with the distribution and hype of the pay-per-view. [details]

[TheSurgeonMDMPH]

Do you guy see the writing on the wall. PBF bashes HBO, is seen at a Showtime event glowing while the talks of boxing going mainstream continue. Who would you launch in your network TV debut? Who would sell the best in a "24/7" type promo? Looks like an opportunity to showcase his next opponent. Far fetched, probably. But makes a ton of business sense = plausible!

[Vladimir303]

It's a good idea if they can really promote the fight through CBS.

It'll reach alot more homes then the usual HBO subscribers.

[Sinicle]

That will be horse$**** if showtime gets the ppv!!! It's not boxing if lampley is not calling the fight! Arum just wants hbo to open their wallets a little more, i can't blame him for that, however hbo is the marquee of boxing ppv... 24/7 on regular t.v? On sundays? Come on now, it can't compete with the sunday reg, shows... Hbo open your $$$$ wallets and get the fight!!!!

[-Antonio-]

I hope this doesnt force HBO to use more money from their budget than they need. Other than that, sounds good to me. Competition is good.

[WESS]

I love HBO but sometimes you just got to ****'em! This needs to happen. This is will get across to the general public. HBO RULES boxing, but it needs to branch off and a fight like this could really be the fight you tell all your non boxing fans to tune (for free) into. It should be May and Pac but that will happen later this year, especially when Pac destroys Hatton worse than Money did. It will have Mayweather coming out of retirement for a SUPER fight on PPV....

Don't get me wrong I like Mayweather, Pac and Hatton but they're in the respected order as to who is better by FAR! Pac will destroy Hatton and Maweathr will dance and out smart Pac. "At the end of the day" Hatton will walk away with a smile on his face, Pac will go back home and still be everyone's hero while Mayweather defeating both will STILL talk trash and want more, money that is.

[FatNJerseykid]

When is the last time one of the big 4 tv channels(Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC) showed a sporting event with two foreign competitors as the main event? Olympics, but most of the show had Americans. World Cup, but the show centered on what Team America was doing and they didn't hype the foreign teams well.

I see very little chance that we will see Hatton vs Pacquiao documentary on CBS. There are no Americans. This is a better plan if Mayweather was involved because he is American.

[Piper the Great]

im hoping they take it somewhere else b/c hbo will f*** around & have beavis vs butthead on the undercard

[RisAri0]

This is probably a negotiation ploy for HBO to step up their $$$, which they will. This is too good of a fight for HBO to pass up, especially both fighter's are HBO's top boxing stars.

[βetamax]

Right, just like Arum was considering holding the fight in Dubai.