After nearly 38 years in business, Showtime will be calling it a day on their sports branch which mainly consists of boxing and Bellator. The rumor to this effect began a little over a month ago. Showtime boxing head Stephen Espinoza didn’t exactly make a firm denial of the rumors, nor did he outright confirm them.

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Espinoza will be among 38 regular employees that will ne jobless at the end of the year. Dan Rafael reports that freelancers/contractors will not be affected by the staff cuts. There’s a lot to unpack in this episode, even though it’s one of our short shots—which means it’s 100% FREE. Here’s a list of the topics:

Topics

* What Showsports going out of business mean for boxing

* What it means for Bellator

* Who's going to pick up the slack for boxing?

* Is Bellator getting bought or just going out of business?

* Are there similarities in the way Strikeforce and Elite XC were basically given the Old Yeller treatment with what’s potentially happening to Showtime?

* Can any of this turn up in the antitrust case somehow?

* How bad will the market be for fighters?

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