How does this work though...
Let's say Haymon wins the pursue and take the fight on Showtime, NBC or CBS...
What HBO does then? They fukk over their 2-3. most valuable, most hyped fighter and make him vacate or they can include an exception? WBA has Golovkin as a champ for the longest time and Golovkin always talking about unify all belts... Would HBO just pull a move like that on him...?
Also if Golovkin still decides to fight Jacobs on SHO/PBC despite of the exclusive contract can he do it legally or not? I doN't know if it's legal for a network to prevent a mandatory fight. Which is stronger, the exclusive contract or the right to fight the mandatory. If they go into a pursue bid don't they also voluntarily give up their right to enforce the exclusive contract if they let the bidding start and they lose on the bid? They knew that they might lose when they got into the biddig afterall...
Kovalev vs Stevenson was a situation where Kovalev didn't have to vacate anything so they could just say "this fight won't happen" and Duva + Kovalev didn't say much about it but this case would be different cause in order to keep their fighter only on HBO they might have to fukk over their own, currently probably most beloved fighter.
It would be a strange, interesting situation, that's sure...
Once it hit a purse bid I think they are at the mercy of the system. In the initial beginning 30 day negotiating window, it would be HBO/K2 negotiating with Jacob's team. Since Jacobs is signed to Haymon and not a network contract he has the ability to go between networks, if they want. Haymon would probably feel out Showtime and what they would pay and since his investment group PBC pays for non-Showtime cards he would know the out of pocket budget for that. HBO/K2 would have to step up to the plate and take on more risk and give more promises to Jacobs. Like the Stevenson-Kovalev situation there could be fukkery where Duva knew PBC would win the bid, so she called off negotiations...this time I think K2 and HBO are better off because PBC isn't as strong financially and is being far more careful with where they put their money.
Now this is just my opinion: I doubt PBC would buy GGG-Jacobs to put on their own networks (NBC, CBS, Spike, ESPN), so it would have to be Showtime. Showtime would have to invest quite a bit to pull it off and it would be for a guy they don't invest heavily in (Jacobs) and a non-Showtime fighter (GGG). That is a lot of risk for the assumed outcome (a GGG win), it would basically be a one off...seeing that Showtime just passed on a one off of Pacquiao-Vargas, especially since rumors are HBO still has future rights on Pacquiao. That leaves HBO in the drivers seat, but they still have to be willing to pony up the money and they have been stingy as fukk.
How it would go down if GGG actually had to fight Jacobs on a non-HBO network, I have no idea. So far I think PBC has let a few guys onto HBO in situations where they had to, but they weren't Showtime exclusive contract guys. I can't remember a recent situation where an exclusive network fighter was put into a situation where he was forced to fight off his own network and what happened.
This situation is just ripe for fukkery. I think casuals will think GGG-Jacobs have 30 days to negotiate, so whoever doesn't agree is ducking, but there is so much business hatred behind the scenes it could get messy. The only way it probably is a "clean" duck is if all the networks are agreed to and we learn that Jacobs wants more than HBO will pay, not in a Lomachenko-Salido rematch way (fight isn't being made this year due to money and Salido is waiting until next year when HBO supposedly will have more money - by all accounts he is asking for a fair amount), but rather an amount we know he wouldn't get and is pricing himself out a la BJS.
