It makes you think though, how short sighted are Sky, they've got a talented pundit like Spencer Oliver, who is the only one who doesn't come across pro British, and they will give major role to someone like Johnny Nelson. Anyone with two cells can see Spencer would do a better job, and would be received better by the audience. Johnny Nelson asks questions that are laced with bias to, like the questions he asked Groves during Groves-De Gale (ringside).
jim watt to go by the wayside for the new season....... and to be fair to sky they show a lot of fights that are ppv in the states for free live, ok probs due to the 4/5am start time but jim watt aside i have no qualms with sky sports.... ok id like to see charlotte jackson doing a midnight sky sports news report topless.......
Only qualms i have with them is the lack of airtime the undercard fights get, even when they do show them they breifly show 20 seconds of each round.
Don't forget Matthew Hatton :yep:deal McDonnell vs. Jamoye, Webb vs. Arron, Simpson vs. Smith II, Edwards vs. Edwards, Booth vs. Arthur, Lindsay vs. Simpson, Webb vs. Concepcion, Molitor vs. Booth, and Hall vs. Donnelly are some of the main events Maloney has put on this season, plus he had Munroe face Nishioka and Sykes vs. Johanneson on another promoters bill. Last season he had Moore vs. Rhodes, Hall vs. Power, Fury vs. McDermott I + II, Munroe vs. Terrazas, Concepcion vs Hammond I + II, Booth vs. Marsh, Napa vs. McDonnell, Booth vs. Hunter...This season he already has McDonnell vs. Hall, Booth vs. Quigg and Price vs. McDermott lined up...
Kos you really do nuthug the garden knome - btw how many of those shows had a good under card? Concepcion v Hammond, Booth v Hunter, Hall v Donnelly, McDonnell v Jamoye are hardly stand out main events either....
Whilst i understand the general public as well as the hardcore fans have been burned somewhat in recent times with the overhyped PPV's / mismatched fights etc, IMO you wont get more fans interested in the sport if you still dont show enough of it on a regular basis. Everyone starts off as a casual fan, but surely its down to the broadcasters to ensure the promoters are putting on events that are worthy of their broadcasting time to make sure that the casuals keep an interest in the fight. Case in point, Khan. ****ed himself up by going to primetime for his last fight, now its like he's fallen off the face of the earth cuz Sky sports dont care to talk about him and the casuals barely know he's fighting this weekend (never mind who). Im not complaining about the sky on the whole because as previously mentioned, the return of ringside was fantastic to say the least, the change to sat fight nights were for the better imo, i just purely think to keep people interested in the sport it needs to be more than the 1-2 'big' fights every few months or so and a couple of sentances on the ticker on SSN.
I like him, mainly because he's the only promoter that puts on decent shows in the North-East. I wouldn't say that I overly like him, but I do stick up for him on here (perhaps too much, hence why I'm being called a nuthugger here ) when I think he's getting unnecessary criticism. Concepcion vs. Hammond I + II were both undercard fights, and I think you're being harsh on Booth vs. Hunter and McDonnell vs. Jamoye, the former being a well anticipated fight which resulted in a great performance from Booth, and the latter producing a fantastic fight. Hall vs. Donnelly I'll give you though I'm not going to go into the undercards too much, but I do think that people just look at his heavyweight match-ups - which is fine, because they're the ones Sky pick - and come to the conclusion that Maloney puts on **** undercards (with recent match-ups like Price-Dallas and Dallas-Page being the exception). Despite that, he does put on decent undercards most of the time. Ochieng-Cameron was a great little match-up, as was Place-Grant. Hill-Samuels, Dallas-Page, Rose-Welsh and Bhatia-Jones were all on the same card, plus it was topped by Webb-Arron! He also puts on some duds and card fillers, but for the most-part, I think Maloney's shows are decent. They're not world-beaters by any means, yet the shows aren't exactly left in the wake by those that Matchroom, Hatton Promotions etc. put on. However, Maloney gets a lot more criticism than them by some people on here, which I think is unfair.
I like Jamie Moore but people are going over board about him. Personally I have always rated Nelson and McGuigan is class. thank **** they got rid of Piper. The reason Nelson has got the gig as the main pundit is because he can also present.
I don't see why we need more fans interested on the sport. If the average casual fan doesn't know Khan's fighting Zab Judah tomorrow night, why should we worry? Decent boxing is not the right of the casual fan, and nor should it be in my opinion. Anyway, Khan v Judah may not have been hyped much, but it's not a secret either. My girlfriend is barely more than a casual fan but she knew it was on and asked me if we should get the PPV. If casual fans want to be more interested in the sport, they should make the effort themselves. Anyway, we've got Chisora v Fury on Channel 5 tomorrow, that's far more mainstream than we're used to.
I dont think its only about living for today though, they should be thinking about the future, cause if they alienate the next generation of fans cause they allowed Haye to fight someone like Harrison on PPV, then........... I would say short terms gains are just that, only in the long run, it will even itself out with how many fans you deter.
I agree with you on Moore and McGuigan. I have said many times that Nelson is fine in the studio doing Ringside and visiting the gyms for the recorded pieces. But, as a pundit on fight night, he is truly awful, as is McCrory. They appear to do very little homework on the fighters and come out with lazy, cliche-ridden babble. The only time I remember Nelson actually say anything interesting was a few months ago when he gave some good insights into a Sheffield-based prospect (forget the name of the boxer), but he should be providing that level of rich analysis every week. Nelson and McCrory doing the Haye-Vlad fight tactics roleplay in Hamburg was embarrassingly poor, Jaysus they were a right state.
Tris Dixon was good when they got him in for one of the American fights in the early hours would be nice to see somebody like him get a bit more time. Somebody without an agenda who is articulate and well schooled on all parts of the game.