HOLIDAY BRO-NUS Broner-Maidana Is OFF PPV, on Dec. 14

Adrien Broner will fight Marcos Maidana on Dec. 14, but that fight will not be on PPV, as previously announced. Instead, Showtime boxing boss Stephen Espinoza and Golden Boy boss Richard Schaefer said, as a thank you to fans, the card will be on regular Showtime. The duo (pictured above in Jayson Colon/FightImages photo) spoke in AC, at Boardwalk Hall, before the Hopkins-Murat card kicked off.

That scrap will top the Dec. 14 card, which will unfold in San Antonio, and also feature bouts between welter champ Keith Thurman and Jesus Soto Karass; Leo Santa Cruz vs. Cesar Seda; light heavy titlist Beibut Shumenov vs. Tamas Kovas and Victor Ortiz coming back against Alfonso Gomez.

The Dec. 7 Barclays card got more packed, the duo announced. A Zab Judah-Paul Malignaggi faceoff still headlines, but that is now joined by a Devon Alexander title defense, against Shawn Porter. Erislandy Lara meets Austin trout as part of a stellar undercard, and Sakio Bika takes on Anthony Dirrell in the Brooklyn arena.

Espinoza said that Showtimes’ boxing rating are up almost 60% over the last two years, and he asked for and received financial concessions from Golden Boy to make these two packed cards happen. They all still see Broner as a PPV attraction int he near future, and said this tussle likely would have done 200-300,000 buys…but right now, it’s better for more eyaballs to be on Broner.

Here is the release which went out after the announcement:

Throughout this past year, month after month, week after week, SHOWTIME and Golden Boy Promotions have featured the sport’s biggest stars in the most significant and meaningful fights in every relevant division in boxing.  They joined forces to produce the most lucrative pay-per-view event in television history with perennial pound-for-pound superstar Floyd “Money” Mayweather,grew the average audience for live boxing on SHOWTIME by more than 30 percent from 2012, and attracted record crowds at sold-out arenas from coast to coast.

Beginning Dec. 7, the first of consecutive quadrupleheaders takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn when former five-time, two-division World Champion Zab “Super” Judah(42-8, 29 KO’s) and former two-time, two-division World Champion Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi(32-5, 7 KO’s) clash in the main event, a 12-round showdown for Brooklyn bragging rights.

The co-feature will match IBF Welterweight World Champion Devon Alexander “The Great” (25-1, 14 KOs), of St. Louis, Mo., against unbeaten Shawn Porter (22-0-1, 14 KOs), of Akron, Ohio. Also on the card will be Erislandy Lara (18-1-2, 12 KO’s) of Houston, Texas against former world champion Austin Trout, of Las Cruces, N.M., for the vacantWBA Super Welterweight Championship.  Rounding out the televised card, Sakio “The Scorpion” Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO’s) makes the first defense of his WBC Super Middleweight crown against unbeaten Anthony Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO’s), of Flint, Mich.

Then, on Dec. 14 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, the super-talented WBA Welterweight World Champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s), of Cincinnati, will make the first defense of his title when he meets the toughest opponent of his career, the dangerous, hard-hitting Marcos “El Chino” Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s), of Santa Fe, Argentina in the main event.

A ratings goliath, Broner will be making his first start since capturing the 147-pound belt with a hard-fought 12-round split decision over defending champion Malignaggi. He made history when he became the fourth fighter to jump two weight classes and win a welterweight world championship, joining Hall of Famers Henry “Homicide Hank” Armstrong, Roberto “Mano de Piedra” Duran and future candidate “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

Maidana has won three fights in a row, including a smashing sixth-round technical knockout over Josesito Lopez in scintillating slugfest and Fight of the Year candidate last June 8 on SHOWTIME.

In 12-rounders underneath Broner-Maidana, undefeated Keith “One Time” Thurman (21-0, 19 KO’s), of Clearwater, Fla., gets tested when he defends his WBA Interim Welterweight World title against tough-as-nails Jesus “Renuente” Soto Karass (32-12-4, 19 KO’s), of Mexico City, Mexico, who owns back-to-back impressive victories over world-ranked Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto.  And recently crowned WBC Super Bantamweight Champion Leo “Terremoto” Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KO’s) of Los Angeles, Calif. will make his first defense against Cesar Seda (25-1, 17 KO’s) of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The card will also feature, in separate bouts, former WBC Welterweight Champion Victor Ortiz (29-4-2, 22 KO’s) against Alfonso Gomez (22-5-2, 11 KO’s) of Los Angeles and Light Heavyweight Champion Beibut Shumenov (13-1, 8 KO’s) against Tamas Kovacs (23-0, 14 KO’s) of Slovakia.

2013 SHOWTIME and Golden Boy Promotions Highlights

On April 27, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Danny Garcia faced Judah and Peter Quillin met Fernando Guerrero in two thrilling fights on SHOWTIME.  The event set an attendance record for the largest crowd for a boxing event at that venue.

More than 40,000 fans, the largest paid crowd for a boxing event in the U.S. in nearly 15 years, filled the Alamodome in San Antonio for the Canelo Alvarez vs.Trout fight that headlined a card on April 20. The peak audience on the telecast was nearly 1.1 million viewers, making it the third most watched boxing event on record for SHOWTIME.

On June 8, the largest crowd in the history of the venue turned out at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., for an event highlighted by all-action brawls between Maidana and Josesito Lopez and Lara and Alfredo Angulo, both Fight of the Year candidates.

On June 22, undefeated rising superstar Broner and hometown favorite and defending world champion Malignaggi attracted more than 11,000 fans to Barclays Center and drew an audienceof more than 1.3 million viewers on SHOWTIME, the second-largest rating for a bout on the premium network on record.

The April 20 and the June 22 events, two of the top-3 most watched boxing events on record for SHOWTIME, anchored a viewership boon in 2013 whereby the network saw more than 30-percent increases in average viewership for the second consecutive year.

On Aug. 24, a  crowd of 7,686 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. witnessed perhaps the Upset of the Year when Two-Division World Champion Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8, 47 KO’s) captured the WBC Featherweight Championship with a stunning knockout, 2:55 of the first-round over previously unbeaten Abner Mares.

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