Floyd Mayweather Jr. and welterweight titleholder Victor Ortiz will fight under the banner of HBO PPV in their Sept. 17 showdown after Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer and network executives reached an agreement Wednesday. "We have finalized our deal with HBO. We obviously had very intense negotiations," Schaefer told ESPN.com. "What we wanted to do is ensure that all the different Time Warner (HBO's parent company) assets will be in play one way or the other, including the Turner Broadcasting assets and the Time Inc. assets, which is their magazines." It is a significant development for HBO, which was rocked earlier this year by the loss of pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao when Top Rank promoter Bob Arum took Pacquiao's May 7 fight against Shane Mosley to rival Showtime, which handled the pay-per-view production and distribution. Did that help Schaefer make a favorable deal? "I'm sure it didn't hurt," he said. "Do I think HBO was especially motivated to get the biggest and widest exposure? Sure. HBO is very motivated, and Time Warner is very motivated to show the boxing world and public what they can do. I was negotiating with very willing partners." Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=6694503
