HBO Archive

[cupcrazy01]

I wish HBO would do something with its boxing archive for the fans.

The Legendary Nights series was well done and fun to watch, but if nothing else it made me want to see the ENTIRE fights that much more. I remember when they first starting promoting the series, I was overjoyed, assuming that I would get to see these fights unedited and in their entirety. How awesome that would have been...like jumping in a time machine to watch those Hagler-Hearns, Leonard-Hearns, Holyfield-Bowe, etc. fights.

But instead, I was very disappointed when I saw that they were just 25 minute retrospectives with highlights. The production was great and the backstories were very informative, but I just wish they would have shown the entire fights. Will HBO ever rebroadcast entire classics? I know that occasionally they will show stuff like MAB-Morales I and Pac-Marquez on HBO 2 and on HBO On Demand during the weeks of PPVs they want to promote, but call me greedy, I want MORE! I want classics On Demand, or hell, if they put full fights on DVD I'd buy most of them like that. These boxing DVD websites make me weary...are any reliable and good enough quality to make a purchase worthwhile?

What do you guys think? I'm sure most of you have a bunch of fights on your comp (must be nice), but wouldn't you like to relive some of these fights in their entirety on TV? And not just the Legendary Nights fights, stuff like De La Hoya-Quartey, or Vargas-Wright, or Holyfield-Foreman. Man, oh man, if only...

[boxernyc]

I wondered the same thing myself. I have a friend who has a contact with the HBO legal department and I had him ask them why HBO doesn't release the DVD versions of the fights. He told me that HBO does not own the rights to the distribution. Those rights are usually part of the contract between the two (if there are two) promoters. Why Don King doesn't sell them is beyond me. He could probably make a mint. DVD's are cheap to produce and there is a large profit margin. Plus he has tons of fights over the years that he must own the rights to. And we all know he has no aversion to making money.
My only thought is that sporting event DVD's don't do so well. If you think about it how many people go out and buy the World Series on DVD or the NBA finals or Wimbleton? I will grant you that boxing is a different animal though. It is built upon a rich legacy and has hardcore fans who are wanting to watch old fights more than fans of another sport want to watch their past games. Maybe because boxing has had some of the greatest matchups in the past and sometimes there are so few good fights in the present it would be nice to revisit an old Tyson fight or a Duran fight. I am all for legitimate high quality DVD's and I too would pay for them. Until then I will visit the boxing d'l forum and get what I can from b*xing t*rrents. If the quality is good enough I burn a few fights onto DVD and watch em in my living room.

By the way, I am fairly new to the boxing game and love the fact that people love the history and champions of the past as much as they do. I have been voraciously going back in time and finding fights to wacth that were amazing. I feel most other sports focus heavily on the current season. We ususally have to wait a while between big fights.

[tri4ben2]

I think there are too many people that have rights to the fights, and for the same reason that you don't get big fights all the time because of money, this is the same way.

I saw Tyson Douglas on Espn Classic the other day and it was the first time that I saw a fight from the 90s.

There were some great fights from the 90s that people are more interested in than seeing Ali - Blin every two weeks.

I am kind of sick of ESPN classic fights that are in black and white.