Showtime had been in business for a decade when it started with boxing as a live programming event in March 1986.
Showtime Championship Boxing made a long climb from startup, to worthy challenger to HBO as TV's main source for top-flight boxing, to driving HBO from the boxing business in 2019.
The reopened and much-refurbished Minneapolis Armory hosted its first boxing card in April 2018. Since then, there have been a dozen Premier Boxing Champions cards at the Armory, all through PBC's tie-in with Fox and FSI.
The next two PBC cards are set for the Armory — this Saturday night and June 4 — and they will be Showtime events, which is fully the big leagues for boxing.
On Saturday, the two headline events feature super welterweight Tim Tszyu, 20-0 with all previous bouts in his homeland of Australia, and lightweight Michel Rivera, 22-0.
Tszyu, 27, will be facing Terrell Gausha, 22-2-1, a 2012 U.S. Olympian. Tszyu is a minus-$700 (to win $100) in Las Vegas sportsbooks, even though Gausha, 34, revitalized his career with a second-round TKO of Jamontay Clark last March.
Tszyu is the son of former champion Kostya Tszyu. Was it his father's influence that got Tim to the point a potential world title bout?
"He tried to keep me out of boxing,'' Tszyu said. "I was in gymnastics as a young kid and then played [Australian rules] football. My father didn't like the brutality of boxing, not for his son.''
