For all
intents and purposes, it looks like HBO Pay-Per-View will be distributing and
broadcasting the rematch between WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto
and Antonio Margarito, which is scheduled to take place on December 3rd at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York.
Todd
DuBoef, President of Top Rank, promoter of this event, told Maxboxing on
Wednesday afternoon, "Mark [Taffet] and I met Tuesday and I went over some
of the things I had to do and we're going to have a follow-up meeting to iron
out the details." Taffet, Senior VP of HBO Sports and HBO PPV, confirmed "There's
a couple of dotting of the I’s and crossing of the T's that we still have to
do. Their first fight was an incredible fight and we think with the strength of
the fights happening this fall, with Mayweather-Ortiz [September 17th],
Hopkins-Dawson [October 15th], Pacquiao-Marquez [November 12th]
and now Cotto-Margarito, it's going to be an incredible fall and year-end for
boxing fans."
But with a
monthly pay-per-view slate scheduled from here on out, it will also be an
incredibly expensive end to 2011. You figure that with each show costing
roughly 60 bucks a pop, it will cost well over $200 of discretionary income to
get all the cards. And right now, times are tough. You wonder if this is a bit
of overkill.
Regardless,
Taffet is perhaps the most relieved man at HBO Sports. It was just a few months
ago that he was looking at a year with no Pacquiao or Mayweather on his docket.
He was in danger of being boxing's version of the Maytag repair man.
"Yeah,
we spoke about this a few weeks ago but we had a few months off at the
beginning of the year," said Taffet, with a grin. "We got a lot of
pent-up energy on our staff. We're ready to go and we know that for the sport,
for the industry and for the fans, it's going to be a fantastic time and we're
really excited to get going."
