By Cliff Rold

This weekend, boxing fans with subscriptions to premium cable outlets HBO and Showtime can complain that the two shows will run head to head.

They can’t complain about what they’re getting. Both networks have the sort of matches that can provide fight of the year type action in the main event. Showtime might be able to say the same about their co-main.

It’s a good night of boxing.

It’s also a night that should serve as a model for the rest of 2017. Showtime’s slate of scheduled fights says they’re already doing their part. The ingredients on the HBO side need to be consistently assembled still.

What is the model?

It’s all about playing to the strengths available to each side in terms of divisional matches that can build to future divisional action.

While we are seeing some upcoming crossover between the Haymon boxing universe that does a lot of business with Showtime and the business done at HBO, it’s still sparing. Hoping for a full on round robin is, well, hoping. Hope only goes so far.

Boxing fans, press, and pundits have been critical of HBO for some of its programming choices in the last year. It’s not unfair. HBO subscribers with an interest in boxing, and limited budget, have very little to get excited about right now outside of pay-per-view replays. This Saturday is an exception.

The Jr. lightweight match between titlist Francisco Vargas and top ten contender Miguel Berchelt could be a very good fight. It comes in a division that HBO has invested well in over the two years. Vargas’ fights with Takashi Miura and Orlando Salido won consecutive Ring Magazine Fight of the Year honors. It is also the class Vasyl Lomachenko took by storm last year.

By featuring multiple members of the class, HBO is able to create some narrative direction at 130 lbs. and play to an available strength. If we can ultimately get to a unification match or two, then the investment pays off in full.

That’s not to say HBO has the market cornered in the class. Showtime’s clash two weeks ago between Gervonta Davis and Jose Pedraza was pleasing fare. Davis, who stopped Pedraza for a belt, can move forward and begin to build his brand.

But the bulk of the marquee action is across the street for the moment.

130 is just one class. In looking at the scale, here is an idea of where both networks can focus their interests in the year ahead to deliver maximum value for subscribers.

Shared Ground

Both networks right now have some footprints in the heavyweight division. HBO has had a long, if on/off again relationship with Wladimir Klitschko. There is reportedly a bidding war going on for Klitschko’s challenge of titlist Anthony Joshua, the hottest young fighter in the class since Klitschko in the early 2000s. If Klitschko wins, HBO keeps strong at heavyweight. Behind Klitschko, they brought promising young heavyweight Joseph Parker to their air last year and have stayed in the Luis Ortiz game.

Showtime has a contracted relationship in place with Joshua and access to Haymon client Deontay Wilder. If both keep winning, heavyweight is the strongest it’s been for Showtime since they had Mike Tyson as their premiere star. For now, let’s call it shared ground.

Additional shared ground can be found at welterweight. Showtime has a wider range of the best available action in class, leading the way with a Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia unification clash that could be the most watched championship match in the US in years when it airs on CBS. Errol Spence also works with Haymon and may be the division’s best fighter within a year. Showtime has more but they don’t have it all. While they didn’t air his last fight, Manny Pacquiao has still done most of his business at HBO over the last fifteen years and remains the biggest name in the class. Terence Crawford seems inevitable for welterweight, a growing investment for HBO.

Showtime Strengths

Showtime deserves kudos for their first two shows of 2017 and signs point to more where that came from. All around, we see their investments paying off in good fights that can lead to more good fights. Their main event this weekend pits titlist Carl Frampton against Leo Santa Cruz in a rematch of their 2016 clash at featherweight. On the undercard, they will feature titlist Lee Selby.

Maybe this leads to a big UK showdown between Frampton and Selby; maybe we get Frampton-Santa Cruz III. Either way, it’s going somewhere. Add in another titlist in Gary Russell Jr. and Showtime has the same sort of pool to play with that HBO does four pounds higher. Featherweight Oscar Valdez has been working on HBO; like Davis at 130, he could find himself outside the mix by way of alignment for the time being.

On the undercard, Showtime will feature a title clash between Dejan Zlaticanin and Mikey Garcia at lightweight. They just announced another title clash pick-up at 135 lbs., a rematch between Jorge Linares and the man he won his current belt from, Anthony Crolla. Their first fight was excellent. The winners would make fine rivals.

Perhaps best of all, Showtime’s relationship with Haymon opens doors on arguably the deepest pool of young, world-class talent in the sport. Jr. middleweight is hot. Late last year we saw Jermall Charlo-Julian Williams in a title clash. It was a breakout performance for Charlo. His brother Jermell also holds a belt in the class, prospect Erickson Lubin is out there, and Demetrius Andrade might be the best of the bunch before he’s done. This is all while not forgetting veteran Erislandy Lara.

This division can be mixed and matched many ways and come up with something good. The more Showtime puts into Jr. middleweight, the better it will be for fans.

HBO Strengths

Of course, HBO could also claim strength at Jr. middleweight by way of the biggest draw in boxing for the moment, Saul Alvarez. Alvarez has a belt in the class but, being honest, he’s not really competing there in a serious way. He came back and won a belt there in his last outing but his next fight is a catchweight super middleweight clash with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. If he wins there, signs point to a clash later in the year with Gennady Golovkin.

That makes middleweight a strength at HBO and a place where they continue to invest. Their only other subscriber show announced so far is a middleweight clash between former titlist David Lemieux and puncher Curtis Stevens. While middleweight isn’t remarkably deep right now, Alvarez-Golovkin has superfight possibilities and continuing to build men around them is wise. Of course, Daniel Jacobs could upset Golovkin and March. As the Jr. middleweight grow into the larger clash, a Jacobs win would shift the balance at middleweight across the street.

Already discussed is action at Jr. lightweight. HBO is doing well there. They also are investing at Jr. bantamweight. Roman Gonzalez has been on HBO in 3 of his last four with an additional pay-per-view undercard appearance in the books. His next fight will be on the Golovkin-Jacobs undercard and the man he beat in his last out, Carlos Cuadras, will also be on the show. 115 lbs. is a fascinating, deep, and exciting class right now. The size won’t ever make it the sort of money-maker we might find at welterweight, but real value for subscribers is here. If HBO can get Juan Francisco Estrada and Naoya Inoue on air in 2017, they could put on a strong of fight of the year level matches in the division.

There is plenty of action in other classes (notably light heavyweight and cruiserweight) that can fill out the docket for both sides but these divisions seem the ripest with possibility. If both sides play to their described strengths, with HBO catching up to the momentum Showtime is already accumulating, we can have more weekends like the one ahead.

Weekends where we can be happy about those premium charges on the monthly bill because we sat back, watched the fights, and got what we paid for.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com