The boxing world was spun on its axis in 2015 when Al Haymon announced his new series, Premier Boxing Champions, as it was looking to be a platform to gather more mainstream attention to the sport of boxing by allowing every household a chance to be able to view the top athletes the sport has to offer.
On March 7, 2015, NBC premiered the series with a world title bout between welterweights Keith "One Time" Thurman and Robert Guerrero, in which Thurman won by a wide unanimous decision. The fight was exciting throughout, showing all that PBC could potentially offer to the fans. This particular event also featured the popular Adrian Broner taking on John Molina Jr, as well as PBC staple Abner Mares in action. Premier Boxing Champions was all but guaranteed for a weekly card throughout the whole year and even into 2016, and more often than not, the fights would be evenly matched or at least exciting to view.
Fast forward to today, and we see a much different PBC than that from its inauguration in 2015. A simple search will show that Haymon has one fight card schedule for the remainder of 2016, unfortunately it being the putrid Danny Garcia-Samuel Vargas bout set to take place in Philadelphia on a November 12th Spike TV telecast. Vargas (25-2-1) was last present on a PBC card while being demolished by fellow welterweight Errol Spence Jr. in April of 2015 over 4 rounds. Although he has won his 5 fights since that blowout against sub-par competition, fans and haters alike of Garcia's have been clamoring for him to to step up his competition level, and Vargas is a far cry from a step up. Rumors are currently abound that this Garcia fight, should he come through victorious, will lead to a huge matchup against fellow title holder Keith Thurman early in 2017.
Due to lack of activity from a plethora of its top fighters and a decrease in production value, many have began to question whether the PBC has much of a future whatsoever in the sport. Haymon gathered millions upon millions from investors to start the series, however the benefits have not been profitable whatsoever up to this point. One promoter, Yvon Michel of GYM, who promotes quite a few big-name fighters under Haymon such as Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, and Lucian Bute, disagrees with the masses, saying that he works and converses with Haymon often and the PBC is going nowhere anytime soon. "I speak regularly with Haymon and he gives me no indication the series is about to run out of steam" Michel was quoted as saying, adding that "he only talks about the future".
While it is good that those working closely with Haymon have faith in the series, it will require a lot more quality matchmaking to ensure that it does not go under sooner rather than later. PBC was an amazing idea, providing a stage for both fringe and die-hard boxing fans to avoid paying hundreds of dollars each month of pay-per-view fights and still viewing quality matchups. Haymon now has deals with networks such as NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX, as well as BET, Bounce, and Spike, but with only one show in the works, will need to announce a group of fights soon to maintain any momentum he has gathered. There is a large sum of fighters under Haymon that are world title holders or incredibly talented prospects, which could lead to easily building story lines and future stars, all the while making the fights the public really want to see. Regardless, Michel thinks the PBC has been a benefit to the boxers themselves, claiming "in the short, medium and long term, the PBC series will have done a lot of good, and it's not finished".
For Michel to be correct, Haymon will need to focus on the short term and commit to retaining the fan base he has built over the past 2 years. Many experts expect PBC to be announcing a handful of fights in the very near future, which could truly end up dictating exactly how long of a future PBC has in boxing.
