HBO Boxing Struggles to Stay Relevant Against MMA Competition

Near the top of the boxing news is word that HBO boxing is struggling to maintain its audience against stiff competition from MMA (mixed martial arts) programming that is bleeding off (no pun intended) hordes of younger viewers who find HBO boxing, ESPN boxing and Showtime boxing programming boring an repetitive. But what will HBO boxing do to stay relevant to these younger viewers? Well, for starters, Top Rank exec Todd Debouf told Michael Woods in an e-mail to the Sweet Science website, "The archaic TV world was so fixed on how it looked to the television audience that they abandoned the live site fans.  This is as a result of the promoters ceding their power to the networks.  All of us allowed the one entity that paid for the TV rights to dominate the environments where the events took place. What a mistake." So what Debouf is doing with HBO boxing is adding a live DJ playing music, lights, and anything else he can to generate a more electric atmosphere in televised boxing matches. And it's working, little by little, HBO boxing is winning back its audience.