HBO is asserting its dominance in the boxing world as never before in coming weeks. And in today’s world, that means the Philippines will be more visible than ever.
The build-up to the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton pay-per-view fight (Las Vegas, May 2) begins in earnest April 11 when HBO premieres the “24/7” series tracking the two combatants in their homelands and beyond. That very night HBO also takes us back to 1975 with the premiere of its “Thrilla in Manila” documentary.
The next five weeks present a flurry of activity for Filipino boxing fans, with legendary bantamweight Gerry Penalosa in an underdog role challenging for Juan Manuel Lopez’s WBO super-bantamweight title in Puerto Rico on April 25 after flyweight champion Nonito Donaire headlines an April 18 card at Araneta Coliseum, the very site of the 1975 Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rubber match now known as the “Thrilla in Manila.’’
What a great tie-in between the distant past and the near future. While the “24/7” cameras remain in the Philippines tracking Pacquiao’s wife Jinkee and their children, we’ll be seeing a much earlier version of the Philippines in the “Thrilla” documentary, which was still being edited as of last week.
“You can’t tell the entire Pacquiao story without the vibrancy of his connection to his people,” said HBO sports chief executive Ross Greenburg, who is long familiar with my rave reviews of HBO projects and granted me an interview last week. “It seems like it’s an analogous situation to Ali – when he became the beloved Ali after his comeback in the Seventies.”
Until I preview “Thrilla,” which emphasizes Frazier’s perspective, let’s focus on “24/7.” HBO has used this up-close-and-personal series with 30-minute episodes for two years now, starting with Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather. Hatton was put through this before his fight with Mayweather, and Pacquiao experienced it in Los Angeles en route to his victory over De La Hoya last fall.
Their increasing comfort with HBO’s surveillance enhances the current production, Greenburg says. “Once they get into that rhythm,” he said, “it really becomes kind of fly-on-the wall and seamless.”
It also relieves doldrums, he says. “They kind of enjoy it. It takes the monotony of training away.”
There’s nothing monotonous about HBO’s boxing schedule in April, even aside from the documentaries. The April 11 gala evening climaxes with Paul Williams vs. Winky Wright, for my money the greatest collision of left-handers since McEnroe-Connors. Penalosa-Lopez also will be on HBO, as will Edwin Valero’s April 4 battle with Antonio Pitalua for the vacant WBC lightweight title.
It seems that at least 80 percent of boxing’s most important fights are on HBO or its pay-per-view wing. That’s why it’s so awful that Gilroy junior lightweight Robert Guerrero seems to have fallen outside the HBO sphere for the time being.
The combination of intense interest in the Philippines and airwaves supremacy of HBO is reaching a zenith.
Source: examiner.co
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