PBC: More harm than good?

Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) was set up by Al Haymon and Haymon boxing back in early 2015. Its main aim was to give boxing a wider appeal to the 'casual' market by showing 'high quality cards' on major networks and cable channels as opposed to Pay Per View (PPV) and pay television. I want to take a look at how PBC has fared in its first year of broadcasting, and whether it is bringing a fresh competitive edge to broadcasting or having a detrimental effect to the sport of boxing.

Al Haymon, after setting up the PBC, has been somewhat of a cash magnet when it comes to recruiting fighters. It is estimated that Haymon has managed to convince 140-200 fighters to come and join the PBC from rivals Golden Boy and Top Rank. These include, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Carl Frampton, Amir Khan, Deontay Wilder to name a few. These fighters are all promised a world title shot and the chance to make so much more money than they would on any other promotion company, from a fighters perspective I can certainly see why they want to fight under Haymon.

However it is the fans who are losing out and in a big way. Although Haymon has brought boxing to cable network, which is fantastic for the sport, he has not helped himself by putting together sub-standard nights of boxing. This is the sad truth for the PBC, their cards are simply not good enough.

Take Danny Garcia for example, a fighter who was the best in the world at the light-welterweight division. In 2015, he fought Lamont Peterson at a catch weight of 143, Paulie Malignaggi, a fighter way past his best and now on Saturday he is fighting for vacant WBC welterweight title against a past his best Robert Guerrero. These are not fights a supposed world class fighter should be taking but since all of those three opponents fight for the PBC as well it should be expected.

This is what PBC has been doing with so many of its world class fighters; Deontay Wilder has fought bum after bum since he won the WBC title back in January 2015 and the same can be said for Keith Thurman. As I said in a tweet yesterday; cherry picking doesn't even cut it when it comes to the PBC. They are attempting to monopolise the sport by not putting any of their fighters in fights with Golden Boy or Top Rank and as a fan this is incredibly frustrating.

The PBC and Al Haymon are the worst thing that has happened to boxing in a long time, however if they continue on this road then they will go bust. It is an unsustainable business model where fighters get overpaid, shows don't even nearly get sold out and it is shown on cable television. There is a reason why Top Rank, Matchroom Sports, Golden Boy all have Pay Per View and that is so their fighters and the company can earn a lot of money. Without it they would all be bust and that is the direction that the PBC is heading unless they sort their act out quickly.

Tom Eckett

@boxingguru44

https://twitter.com/boxingguru44