Large changes in the boxing world are coming for all fans as HBO seemingly delivered a knockout blow to Showtime boxing on Tuesday Sept. 23, announcing it’s signing of pay-per-view mega-star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez

When talks began that Alvarez was about to be signed for an extension with rival network Showtime, HBO swooped in to grab the young redheaded star for a multi-fight 3 year deal.

Stephen Espinoza, the man running Showtime boxing, claimed that Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s action in making the switch was deceitful, as they had apparently already made a deal with Showtime. Espinoza wasn’t too surprised by the change of mind, but didn’t appreciate the way in which it proceeded.

The blow is a big one, mainly due to the fact that Alvarez’s appearance with Floyd Mayweather last year was the highest grossing fight in boxing’s history according to BadLeftHook.com. Alvarez was already a major name with Showtime at the time.

The deal marks the end of the network’s continued “honeymoon phase” with De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions.

However, signs that the perfect union could end came months ago. Bernard Hopkins, another fighter in the Golden Boy stables, signed a deal for a mega fight with light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev to take place in November.

HBO is now making marketing Showtime’s lone remaining star Mayweather difficult as Alvarez has decided to rival the dates for the veteran boxer’s bouts in 2015, requesting the two major Mexican holidays of the year as fight dates.

“Canelo believes that he’ll be able to do better numbers than Floyd, primarily because he’s actually Mexican, and maybe the biggest star in Mexico right now, and so fighting on a Mexican holiday would obviously really pull in his fan base…” said De La Hoya in regards to Alvarez’s demands on the date of his fight.

The fighter’s signing also makes one wonder what Showtime will do in the wake of Mayweather’s upcoming retirement. Boxing’s pound for pound kingpin is only scheduled for two more fights before he’s finished. As he told reporters at the end of his bout with Marcos Maidana, “I’m out after this. The plan for me has always been to get out after 2015 and retire undefeated”.

Alvarez was considered Showtime’s young pay-per-view star. There are only two other fighters that consistently pull in viewers at such a high level as Mayweather: Manny Pacquiao, and Canelo Alvarez.

HBO now has both.

Showtime is left only with manager Al Haymon, “the poison of boring” as promoter Bob Arum described him, and his less than interesting fighters.

Haymon has largely been known for creating low quality fights in order to protect the records and names of his fighters. Most recently he put the lowest grossing world championship bout this year by placing rising star Danny Garcia with low-ranking opponent Rod Salka.

“The Garcia-Salka fight wasn’t even sanctioned by any championship organizations, as Salka was never ranked by any of the sanctioning bodies. That fight is a disgrace to the sport, and it shows that Haymon doesn’t care about the quality of boxing cards anymore…” said Arum.

Since Showtime’s numbers with Haymon have been historically bad, the network is at serious risk of losing the majority of boxing fans. HBO on the other hand is poised to completely take over with all of Golden Boy’s best fighters in tow.