The Rise and Fall of the HBO Empire – Part Two

This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue of The Ring, available to subscribers. 

Read Part 1: Building the Empire here, in the January 2024 issue.

HBO Boxing was the Roman Empire of the sport. It lasted a ripe 45 years, spanning global cultural changes and technological advances, all while covering an old but ever-evolving sport.

To commemorate the five-year anniversary of the curtain call of one of boxing’s great institutions, Ring Magazine interviewed many of the people instrumental in the rise and sustained excellence of HBO Boxing, as well as the handful who were still there when the fall came in 2018.

Presented in this issue are parts two and three of a three-part oral history told by those who witnessed the rise and reign of HBO Boxing (mostly from the inside), as well as the fall, which was accelerated in 2016 by AT&T buying Time Warner, HBO’s parent company, in a $85.4 billion deal that took 18 months to complete.

Part 2: The Empire Rises

Seth Abraham, former president of Time Warner Sports, at HBO from 1978-2000: “It was hard to say what the height of HBO Boxing was. I would say probably the Marvin Hagler-Tommy Hearns fight stands out. It was one of the greatest fights in boxing history and was on HBO. To be associated with an historic fight like that, to have it on HBO, when I think about being there that night sitting in the Caesars Palace parking lot, I still get goosebumps.”

Bob Arum, hall of fame promoter: “The height was in the mid-1980s into the mid-1990s. I think boxing people realized the people at HBO knew what they were doing and they knew how to keep their suppliers happy. When Seth left, that was forgotten. If you produced quality fights for HBO, they would do a fight for you that wasn’t as good. They had a favor bank. You were constantly looking to do events for HBO, knowing they would find a way to reward you down the road.”

Lou DiBella, hall of fame promoter, former HBO Sports Vice President in Charge of Programming, at HBO from 1989 to 2000: “We made it work, and why we made it work, for all of our egos, and despite all the shit going on, we believed in HBO Sports and we had pride in HBO Boxing. We felt we were the custodians of boxing. We believed we had a responsibility. It was our money back then that made the biggest and best fights happen. We felt our interests in HBO in providing the best programming was aligned with boxing’s best interests in having the best fights. 

“We felt we were the custodians of boxing.”
– Lou DiBella

“I lived in boxing gyms. Seth would always make comments about how I would be cruising into the office at midday. He always knew I generally was at a fight card or in a gym with fighters recruiting. I worked a lot of hours and spent a lot of nights at club shows. I knew who Marco Antonio Barrera was when he was 16. He was on my radar. He turned pro at 15. I was recruiting him for HBO. I lived in two worlds: Creating programming for HBO Sports and HBO Boxing, but I also lived in the boxing world of understanding the sport, knowing the players, knowing who was coming up, paying attention. 

“I remember the Duvas inviting me to a small show at the Ice Palace to see this fighter, but I remember seeing this little Italian kid that stuck out to me. He was in this blood-and-guts fight and I remember telling Dan Duva, ‘I want that kid on HBO, he’s a freakin’ warrior.’ The kid was Arturo Gatti. That’s how I found out who Arturo Gatti was. We all bought into that Tina Turner song, ‘Simply the Best,’ and we all thought that we were the best, because we were.

HBO subscribers were introduced to Arturo Gatti in 1995 when he took the IBF junior lightweight title from Tracy Harris Patterson. In his first defense (above), Gatti notched a sixth-round knockout of Wilson Rodriguez. (Photo by The Ring Magazine/Getty Images)

“Showtime was building, but we were dwarfing them in the 1990s. I’m not going to point to any one great fight as the height of HBO Boxing. We had great fights every fucking month. I would say it was the 1990s in general, probably starting in the mid-1980s, with great fights taking place with superstar fighters. I would say the height started with Hagler-Hearns in 1985 and lasted until 2000. That was the top. That period was incredible. HBO Boxing started Boxing After Dark, with some of the greatest fights in the history of boxing and doing ratings like a top series. 

Read “Barrera vs. McKinney: Fire at the Forum” by Lee Groves

“HBO Boxing and HBO Sports kept growing after 1985. HBO Boxing was a force in sports television. HBO Boxing was not only a force in boxing — we were a force in sports television. We put the tuxedo on boxing. My rolodex in the 1990s and early-2000s was filled with the names of Hollywood stars and actors and politicians and sports stars, because everyone who loved boxing was an HBO Boxing fan. I remember Michael Fuchs writing me a multi-thousand dollar check after I won a bet that the ratings would be better for Boxing After Dark than he thought.”

Ross Greenburg, former president of HBO Sports (2000 to 2011), at HBO from 1978 to 2011: “You could tell Ray Leonard was special. We knew Ray was not going to deny anyone a fight. The first big HBO fight was Leonard-Hearns I. It was a moment. I remember producing that fight. Sitting in the truck that night, Michael Fuchs came in, folded his arms and said, ‘Gentlemen, we’ve arrived!’ 

Click to read our special issue on Leonard-Hearns 1.

“We knew the first Leonard-Hearns fight would change the way people looked at HBO Boxing. In that fight, we were developing an art in production that was never done in boxing when I put microphones in each fighter’s corner. That’s when Angelo Dundee uttered the famous words, ‘You’re blowing it now, son. You’re blowing it.’ As our director, Marc Payton, zoomed in on Ray’s shut left eye, Ray came off that stool in the 13th round and flattened Hearns and won it in the 14th round. 

“We got Hagler in his prime. We got Ray Leonard in electric fights. I remember going in 1984 to Troy, New York, to see this kid as a guest of Jimmy Jacobs, who had sent me a three-quarter-inch cassette and a note that said ‘This is a new heavyweight I want you to look at.’ It was the first 11 fights of Mike Tyson’s highlight reel. I remember coming back to New York and telling Seth Abraham we have to get this kid. 

“Tyson was this monolith who blew into boxing and sports in America. When all of that was happening, HBO did a series of big fights with Larry Holmes. In the early-1980s, Seth had myself and a guy named Bob Greenway out there getting fights made, going into Don King’s office and signing the Holmes fight and making deals. We were a good team. We closed a lot of deals and Seth was a great leader. Every fight felt huge. They were huge. We had Hagler-Hearns, we had Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello. It was mind-blowing.

“The 1980s I felt were the zenith of HBO Boxing. But the 1990s were no slouch, either.”
– Ross Greenburg

“We felt dominant. We felt like we were not only buying the most-significant fights, but quite honestly, we put together the best broadcast team. First, with Ray Leonard and Barry Tompkins. I hired Jim Lampley in 1988. And getting Larry Merchant, who I was aware of when I got to HBO in 1978 from his work at NBC doing the NFL pre-game shows – I felt like Larry had this journalistic attitude and slant that our broadcast team, coming from ABC, should have this Cosell-like figure. George Foreman followed. I recognized during his comeback this was more than a prizefighter. He was charismatic. I flew down to Houston and convinced George to sign a broadcast agreement with us. 

“We assembled the team. We were always looking to innovate our production. We created the overhead camera. I remember seeing the picture of Muhamad Ali standing over Cleveland Williams in Sports Illustrated. We started putting cameras over the ring. We did the media translation from Spanish to English and with Bob Canobbio and Logan Hobson [co-founders of CompuBox] we created punch stats, since boxing was void of any statistics, and of course we added Harold Lederman. 

The iconic 1985 fight between Thomas Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler is emblematic of HBO Boxing’s heyday. (Photo by Walter Iooss Jr. /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)

“I’m 68 now and I was only 23, 24 when I started. I was 26 when I did Leonard-Hearns 1. I grew with the company and had all these opportunities. I was with HBO for 33 years. The 1980s I felt were the zenith of HBO Boxing. But the 1990s were no slouch, either. There were some fireworks in the 1990s, but there was a magic to the 1980s with the star power, with Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Duran, and then you had Holmes, Spinks, and Mike Tyson appears. We will never see the likes of that decade again, even though they were probably saying that in the 1950s. 

Read “The Champion” in the 2021 Marvin Hagler commemorative issue of The Ring

“Big fights were our Super Bowls. That’s what I used to call them, our Super Bowls. HBO had penetration throughout the world. We would go to London for Wimbledon and people would be all over us about our HBO Boxing coverage. When we went after a fight, we got it. We had the best director in TV in Marc Payton, we had an incredible broadcast team. Behind the scenes, we had people with incredible knowledge of the sport. Everyone in the office was totally immersed in making fights. It was not like buying an NFL package and having it for seven or eight years. We had to make fights with these promoters. I had to infiltrate gyms with Bob Greenway to convince the fighters themselves to fight the best fights. I called Larry Holmes myself. It was a struggle. We were open to everyone. That was the juggling act we did all the way through to 2011 when I left.”

Thomas Hauser, hall of fame boxing writer and HBO consultant (2012-2019): “They had a great run with Mike Tyson. Then they lost Mike but came back with Riddick Bowe, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and the Klitschko brothers in the heavyweight division. They did Marvin Hagler-Tommy Hearns in 1985. They did Hagler-Leonard in 1987. The first big fight of the 1990s was Tyson-Douglas, followed by Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor. They had Oscar, Roy Jones. It was quite a roster.”

Jim Lampley, hall of fame boxing broadcaster, HBO’s blow-by-blow commentator (1988-2018): “Easy, Tyson-Douglas. Why is it Tyson-Douglas? For all sorts of reasons, some positive, some negative. Number one, Tyson was the biggest public attraction in the world at that moment. Number two, America is preeminent enough in the global economic system that the Japanese were willing to put the fight in [the Tokyo Dome] and cater to the proper positioning of network TV in the United States. That meant prime time in America, which translated to before noon in Tokyo. Lampley, Leonard and Merchant calling the fight, and it all conspires because of the silence of the viewing audience in Tokyo and because of the austere sort of craziness of the event. It was so totally unpredictable. You were watching something unfold before your eyes that was obvious and undeniable, but that was so at odds with expected reality that it felt bizarre and the crowd made no noise whatsoever. They were all but whispering to each other.

Sometimes called the biggest upset in sports history, Buster Douglas’ knockout victory over Mike Tyson in Tokyo was immortalized with commentary by Jim Lampley. (Photo by Tony Triolo/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

“You can go back and can feel it. We wound up calling it almost like a golf tournament. You would have felt insane if you were doing what American network television commentators normally would have done while sitting there in front of the biggest upset in boxing history, going off at high volume with a lot of energy, trying to underline the meaning of this event. Instead, we were completely the opposite. We were talking more or less silently with each other about what was going on. It produced this monumentally, understated dramatic telecast. It climaxed with ‘Mike Tyson has been knocked out.’ That was my closing line. It was clear what was coming, and every bone in my body was saying ‘underact, understatement. Do not try to drive this up to a level where it has not been at any point in the telecast. Stay in the zone.’ 

“Frank Deford, the very famous American sports journalist, had a publication called The National. They had a TV sports critic named Norman Chad. The National was a must-read at the time. In Norman Chad’s review of the fight, he called it ‘the greatest telecast in the history of American sports television.’ His reasoning for covering it in glory that way was that it was understated. He said, ‘Such professionalism, Lampley and Merchant and Leonard understood what they were watching and worked very hard to bring it down to an understated level, rather than doing the absurd over-the-top shouting that so often accompanies this kind of thing in America. It’s a landmark; an amazing piece of professional work.’ The fact is, we were responding to the circumstances around us.

“There was never an articulated moment in my earpiece by Ross Greenburg to say, ‘Don’t go crazy. Understate this. Recognize the enormous majesty of what you’re watching. Treat it with quiet dignity.’ Nobody said that. It was the only way you would have done it under those circumstances. In other words, a propitious accident. At that moment, the whole image and aura of HBO as the place for boxing television goes to another level.”

Go to Part 3: The Empire Falls

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who was inducted into the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame in 2023. He has contributed to Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JSantoliquito