President of HBO Sports Leaving After 33 Years -- New York Times

By RICHARD SANDOMIR, The New York Times

Ross Greenburg, who has run HBO Sports since 2000, is leaving the network after 33 years, saying he is fatigued by his work on its boxing business.

He said he was not renewing his contract and was not being dismissed.

“I’ve accomplished everything I hoped for,” he said in a telephone interview.

He denied reports that he was fired for losing Manny Pacquiao, one of HBO’s strongest pay-per-view stars, to Showtime for his fight on May 7 against Shane Mosley.

“That’s a silly rationale,” he said. “That added to my angst, but one fight doesn’t determine whether I stayed or didn’t stay.

“I lived through the loss of Chavez and Tyson,” he said, referring to Julio Cesar Chavez and Mike Tyson, and he added, “I’ve been through a lot of wearing negotiations.”

He said that he was not renewing his contract, which was expiring soon, and that he had been thinking of leaving HBO for the last three months.

Richard Plepler, the co-president of HBO, and Michael Lombardo, the president of HBO programming, said in a statement that Greenburg “helped redefine the sports programming genre and set an extraordinary standard of excellence in the industry.”

Greenburg, 56, became the executive producer of HBO Sports in 1985 and followed Seth Abraham as its president 11 years ago. Greenburg created the “Real Sports,” “24/7” and “Hard Knocks” series, and he oversaw production of dozens of documentaries.

His last deal for HBO was a collaboration with Major League Baseball Productions on a documentary about Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit, to be shown soon.

Greenburg has won 51 Sports Emmys and 8 Peabody Awards.

“That’s who I am,” he said, referring to programming other than boxing matches. “I create programming that makes people laugh and cry.”

Greenburg said that the toll of dealing with promoters and managers made him want to leave. One promoter in particular, Bob Arum, has criticized HBO and Greenburg, saying they exert too much control over boxing and do not make the most competitive matchups.

Arum’s displeasure with HBO led Pacquiao, whom he promotes, to fight on Showtime Pay-Per-View, which got a marketing assist from CBS’s heavy promotion. “The problem HBO Sports got into,” Arum said in May, “is they became defenders of the status quo.”

The bout generated a reported 1.3 million to 1.4 million pay-per-view purchases.

Greenburg would not discuss Arum or his criticism.

“I love the sport; I grew up in it,” Greenburg said. “We made the sport relevant when people thought it was dying.” He cited HBO’s productions of Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya’s bouts as having helped to breathe life into boxing.

He said that the speculation that HBO’s loss of Pacquiao, a huge pay-per-view attraction, would cause his firing demonstrated that “the boxing media can be really mean-spirited and they look for items to bury people.”

Source: nytimes.com

Marquez unloads Mexican dynamite, calls for war with Pacquiao Nov. 12 -- Examiner

By Michael Marley, Examiner.com

One minute, 47 seconds of the first round.

Promoter Bob Arum could not have scripted it better as Juan Manuel Marquez, age 37 but still a dangerous counterpuncher, used one countering right hand to blast out Colombian southpaw Likar Ramos (now 24-4) in the opening round of their scheduled 10 round junior welterweight bout in Cancun.

Now it's on to the big bonanza, the third bout between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Ma, on Nov. 12 in Las Vegas.

This KO 1 certainly lights match to the promotion for the trilogy bout.

"Dinamita" Marquez extended his Hall of Fame pro record to 53-5-1 and notched his 39th knockout.

"I happened to get a great punch on him and he couldn't take it, sometimes that is the way fights go," Marquez said.

"I will prepare well for Pacquiao and I want him to do that also. We can give the fans a war. (Floyd) Mayweather is so defensive a fighter...but with Pacquiao, it's going to be a war," Marquez said.

Marquez weighed 138 pounds for this bout.

Los Hermanos Marquez, Juan Manuel and Rafael, topped a festive boxing show Saturday night at the Plaza de Toros in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Juan Ma fought the main event against Likar Ramos in what was scripted as strictly a tuneup, and hopefully not a tuneout, for the third bout between Juan Ma and Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao.

With a guaranteed $5 million payday for the trilogy bout against Pacman, the 37 year old Juan Ma took the calculated risk against southpaw Ramos to prep for lefthanded Manny.

A treat on the undercard was the showing of the son of former great world champion Ricardo “Finito” Lopez fighting another boxer with the same last name.

Familia Marquez got the fistic evening at the bullring in Cancun off to a good start as Rafael “Raffa” Marquez, still fighting at age 36, had his way from start to finish in a “stay busy” bout against Eduard Becceril.

Becceril, now 12-8-2, was just a glorified sparring partner against Raffa, who improved his pro ring record to 40-6 with 36 knockouts.

Marquez played with Becceril, who had great former world champ Lupe Pintor working his corner, for the first three rounds and then floored him in the fourth with a sweet left hook.

A round later, Becceril landed some decent punches of his own. But he was still taking a bunch of head punches.

But, suddenly, the great Senor Pintor in Becceril’s corner halted the mismatch.

Marquez may never attain another world title but he’s still a viable top echelon featherweight contender. The fact that Raffa is still competing after he split those four ring wars against archrival Israel Vazauez is just short of amazing.

Last November, Raffa was stopped after eight full rounds by Puerto Rico’s wunderkind, Juan Manuel Lopez.

Becceril lost his first two pro bouts and then reeled off 13 successive victories. He was, however, 2-4 in his six prior bouts.

Source: examiner.com

The punch was great the acting was better -- 8CountNews

By Brad Cooney, 8CountNews.com

The boxing world has been on a moral roller coaster ride for the past few weeks and last night's fight in Mexico did nothing to stop the ride. Recently up in New Jersey a trio of judges were given pink slips by the NJ Commissioner for incompetence. Cuban star Erislandy Lara as a result of, let's face it folks, piss poor judging, was robbed of a brilliant victory over the former world champion Paul "The Punisher" Williams.

This past Friday night the sport bounced back and we all witnessed a thrilling classic war between Polish bruiser Pawel Wolak and Danbury CT' Delvin Rodriguez. The two fighters went to battle and provided the fans with action packed, back and forth action from the beginning bell to the ending bell. After the fight, ESPN's Teddy Atlas thanked both men for doing the sport proud.

Last night in Mexico the legendary Juan Manuel Marquez entered the ring for his so called tune up fight Vs. Likar Ramos. When the bell rang for the 1st round both fighters circled a bit and a few punches were exchanged, none of which really mattered. Marquez circled and threw a straight right hand that did indeed land right on the chin of Ramos. It was a good clean punch, but the acting afterward was better. Ramos fell backward and braced himself for the fall. He braced himself for the fall and once on the floor he then decided to go to sleep? Looked a little suspect to this writer.

Ramos sprawled himself out on the floor, eyes squeezed shut, arms laid out wide. The fans can decide on this one. It is what it is and so now we go forward and get ready for Marquez Vs. Pacquiao.

There are some promoters throughout the land that would not pay a fighter for taking a dive. Did Ramos take a dive last night? That's certainly the buzz this morning as both fans and scribes would really like to know. And so the ride continues, and all we as boxing fans can hope for is that the next stop will be similar to what Rodriguez and Wolak did on Friday night.

Source: 8countnews.com