Canelo Alvarez made a power move last weekend when he signed a long term deal with HBO. That set a lot of things in motion in regards to possible fights at HBO and left some wondering what would be going on at Showtime, especially with the quality of fights that have been broadcasted on the network. Even as rumors broke yesterday that Al Haymon may have an exclusive deal with NBC Sports and plans to complete with HBO and Showtime, both networks who have showcased his fighters currently (Showtime) and in the past (HBO).
To Teddy Atlas, things of this nature should come to no surprise to anybody he feels it’s all on who you know is how fights are made.
“Look I think there’s a lot of stuff going on in the promotional trenches,” Atlas told ThaBoxingVoice.com. “I think a lot of these guys quite frankly don’t talk straight forward, want to be on both sides, they want to do business, or they don’t know what’s going on, or they don’t know which way the winds blowing.”
Atlas feels there’s a lot of “I scrub your back, you scrub mine” type of business going on and the Canelo move to HBO wasn’t surprising to him, in fact it should have been expected with the way the business had turned in the last few months.
“A lot of these guys have sweet deals with the heads of these networks, whether its Espinoza ( Showtime) takes care of a lot of these guys or whether its HBO who takes care of a lot of these other guys,” stated Atlas. “A lot of these guys have sweet deals with certain promoters and getting all the fights. Right now there’s been a little bit of switch over (with Canelo) and it’s not by accident. It’s about who’s at the helm there and whose giving who fights.”
