Former HBO Sports Senior VP/Programming Lou DiBella
resigned last week after "months of wrangling over how to
work out a contractual breakup," according to Ron Borges of
the BOSTON GLOBE, who wrote that DiBella is a "victim of
time, circumstance, office politics, and probably the simple
fact that boxing grinds down anyone who tries to keep some
kind of ethical standards alive." DiBella, on his decision
to resign: "Sure I'm sad. I know I'll probably never work
in television programming again so it's like a death. It's
like a divorce. Once the news got out, I found out very
quickly who your friends are. My phone got very quiet. ...
HBO gave me great opportunities and a lot of latitude to do
things I wanted and to stand up for things I believe are
important in boxing." Borges wrote that DiBella, "more than
anyone else, tried to push HBO to fight the alphabet
organizations that are the ruination of boxing, challenging
their ratings and attempting (often without much success) to
avoid some of the mandatory mismatches." Borges added that
HBO "will continue to be the leading buyer of bigtime
prizefights, with Kery Davis moving into some of DiBella's
role, although without much of his authority." But Borges
wrote, "What we likely won't see is HBO taking the hard line
toward those alphabet organizations that Lou DiBella did the
last three years" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/20). In Houston, W.H.
Stickney Jr. wrote that with DiBella's resignation, "boxing
and in particular the folk at HBO Sports ... should be a
little morose" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/21).
