GB Amateur Boxing Championship finals to be screened live on BBC!

[kosaros]

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The inaugural GB Amateur Boxing Championships will be shown live on the BBC, with competitive women's boxing broadcast for the first time.

The finals will be broadcast from Liverpool's Echo Arena on 13 November.
It will pit the best amateurs from Scotland, England and Wales against members of GB's elite Olympic squad.

The intention is to create an opportunity for those not currently in the squad to force their way into contention for the 2012 Games.

The finals of the Championship will be broadcast live on the BBC Red Button with a highlights package on BBC Two the following day.

Claire Stocks, BBC Sport's Olympics sports editor, said: "We hope that sports fans will enjoy the chance to watch live amateur boxing on the BBC and get behind our Olympic hopefuls.

"The depth of talent is great amongst the men, who won 11 medals at the Commonwealth Games, including three golds for England's Simon Vallily and Tom Stalker and Scotland's Callum Johnson, as well as five medals at the recent European Championships.

"And the promise of our women, two of whom won silver medals at the women's world championships in June, bodes well for the 2012 Olympics and beyond."

News of the deal was welcomed by the BBC amateur boxing summariser, former Olympic bronze medallist and WBC super-middleweight champion Richie Woodhall.

Woodhall, who is also a coaching consultant to GB Boxing, said: "This is great news for boxing and great news for sport on the BBC.

"It will be a chance for the wider public to witness the talent that exists in Great Britain and get a first chance to watch some of the athletes they will be cheering on when the Olympics get under way in 2012."

Commentary will come from Jim Neilly and Woodhall with Steve Bunce providing punditry.

[wrimc]

Well this is good news !

[Mr Butt]

boxing on tv is good but the am's scoring system makes me turn the telly over , they dont seem to count body shots at all

[Wickio]

Good news, any coverage is a plus. I wonder if this will be streamed online like the Commonwealth games.

[ApatheticLeader]

This makes me happy.

[LP_1985]

great news

[pathmanc1986]

Originally Posted by nutjob

Load of fucking shit, fuck the BBC.

Honestly this is only being done because of the Olympics, don't misread this as the BBC showing a interesting in Boxing.

They don't give a fuck, this Amateur type boxing is pretty sub standard shite, how BBC want it. Boxers padded up who can't get hurt.

As i say boring as hell, get some Pro Boxing on.

ah shut up you whiney twat


you want pro boxing on BBC? a publicly funded body to fork out crazy amounts of money for greedy promoters at the same time as thousands of public workers are losing there job?


amateur boxing is the bed rock of the pros. sugar ray leonard was so well known because of the olympics, and besides even if it is just for the games so what?! it still raises boxings profile


this is great news. by the time the olympics roll round these guys will be famous and built up. then comes the pro game. everybody wins

[duagre]

absolutely delighted that a network has taken an interest in the amateurs

[robster]

It's the best of England, Scotland & Wales up against those already in the GB development programme, so a lot of boxers with plenty to prove.

I go to loads of amateur boxing and there's plenty good action, despite the headguards.

It's on the red button, live from 7.30 pm, 10 senior mens bouts plus 3 womens so that's got to be over 3 hours of live boxing.

Wonder how many will watch this over the Haye Harrison PPV?

[JonOli]

Yea caught a mention of this on 5Live earlier. Good news I say and will be tuning in, no doubt there will be a fair bit of rivalry.

[Vantage_West]

http://rlv.zcache.com/epic_win_tshir...4035jn_400.jpg


by the way who is the bbc's boxing interviewer. looks about 175lbs 6'7 massive jaw and talks like valuev trying to speak english?

[kosaros]

Originally Posted by Vantage_West

by the way who is the bbc's boxing interviewer. looks about 175lbs 6'7 massive jaw and talks like valuev trying to speak english?

Ron McIntosh?

[GazOC]

"Punditry"....I like that word!

[Curious Orange]

Haha, I wondered when someone would try and spin this into a bad thing. Incredible. Of course, it's because of the Olympics. And that's a fucking good thing!

Football is a working class sport, rugby union is in Wales, the rugby league they show is. Most of the Forumla One fans I know are thouroughly working class. Just because the folk at the top are not means nothing - how working class is Bob Arum or Oscar de le Hoya?

They spent on Forumla One because it gets bigger viewers and, crucially in relation to boxing, gives them a pre-planned schedule at which the event is guarenteed to take place. This is a tournament, the BBC know it will definitly happen and they can be assured that the casaul sports fan might comprehend some relevance in it. This would not happen with a one-off fight.

If it was some liberal agenda, they wouldn't be spending the money on a bunch of environment-destroying petrol engines, would they? Think it through.

['Ben']

It is good news but I just hope the scoring don't ruin it.