I posted the following in another thread on Sky's boxing coverage. That thread got derailed but I think it's an interesting subject, so I wanted to know what everyone else thinks of the current boxing we get on Sky. Personally, I'm glad that we aren't getting weekly shows because when we did have them, they were always of poor quality. The Hearn shows we're getting now, outside of the Prizefighter series, are packed with quality and that's the way to go for me. ... I'm probably in a minority here, but good. I don't miss the plethora of dire small hall shows with one passable fight as the main event on top of an undercard of absolute mismatches. They're shite and don't do boxing any favours. If I had a choice between four awful cards, like the ones Frank provides, or one big show every four weeks, I know which I'd choose. Boxing fans should demand quality not quantity. In an ideal world, you'd have four good cards but that isn't going to happen, so it's a choice between quantity and quality. That's not a tough pick for me. And I can't see why people hate Sky for this either. If I was running a company which needed TV ratings to make me money, I'd want good quality TV shows. Go back a few years ago and look at the dross we had on a weekly basis. Those shows would have done ****ing awful TV ratings so why should Sky accept that? Why should they show cards that nobody was interested in when they could show a much better run sport in, say, rugby league or something like that? It's not popular to defend the big companies, but Sky deserve a return on their investment which they weren't getting. Frank, Hatton and Maloney are the people at fault here because they provided a shower of shite which nobody cared about and they are the ones who ****ed up. I hope we do get more boxing but I hope we've seen the last of the terrible cards which have plagued Sky in recent years. They are awful for the viewer, they don't bring in good ratings, fans who buy the tickets are given **** shows, they don't attract sponsors and they won't generate interest in boxing. Quality is the way to go, not quantity.
I agree with what your saying but Sky need to provide us with more international shows even if its delayed coverage on a sunday morning. One big US show per month on top of what Matchroom are providing would be fine.
We're certainly getting better cards, but I'd like to see Sky bring in the likes of Coldwell, the only way that will happen is with Hearn co-promoting, more International Boxing is needed. I don't have Sky for Boxing though, I have it for Football mainly, then the likes of Boxing, Golf, programmes like Boardwalk Empire, Game Of Thrones, The Walking Dead. I also have BoxNation so I'm not really missing any available Boxing. People love to moan about Hearn ruining Sky Boxing, but lets be honest pretty much everyone on this forum has BN and Channel 5, I don't see the problem.
i think to say it was dross is a bit harsh, has it really been "quality" under hearn? jones brook was a great fight, did he expect it to be? no, he and most others expected kell to whitewash jones, we got more than we were expecting. other than that what have we had? brook saldivia? bellew miranda? all "one fight" cards that weren't foty candidates, but thaats boxing, if you market it right people will watch regardless of the quality, because the general public hasnt got a clue. haye-harrison probably earnt them **** loads, not from me because i wasnt remotely interested, how much did hatton earn them in mismatches?
Sky sports i have for football only There boxing coverage and production etc is good but no where near enough good quality cards domestic and international
It was something that I suggested when we had the weekly saturday or friday fight night every week we were getting a British title fight, Euro if we were lucky and Commonwealth if we werent and then prospect v journeymen. promoters were complaining about a lack of funds. What this did was prohibit class international opposition being imported and competitive domestic undercards to British title fights. I think doubling the budget but having a good 3-4 hour show every other week was the answer. I think the rumour was a FFN card was worth £80k from Sky. Double that you can afford a few good domestic fights or a decent international name. The cards at the level Sky were pitching at the time weren't good enough to be put in arena's. That then opens up bigger revenue streams for promoters from the gate and additional advertising.
I don't think there should be a choice between either quantity or quality! I want both, they get that in America so why can't we?! I totally agree that there is no place for poor cards with bad match-ups, and the current model that Matchroom are running is a big improvement IMO. But................ Sky are not doing best by the customer by having an exclusive contract with just the one promoter. I don't blame Matchroom at all, I blame Sky.
Right, this is the 2009-2010 season of boxing (chosen at random) up until the Christmas break that was on Sky: 04/09/09 - John Simpson vs Paul Truscott II 11/09/09 - Tyson Fury vs John McDermott/Martin Power vs Stuart Hall 18/09/09 - Lenny Daws vs Barry Morrison II/Matthew Marsh vs Josh Wale 20/09/09 - Floyd Mayweather vs Juan Manuel Marquez 25/09/09 - Matthew Macklin vs Amin Asikainen 02/10/09 - Prizefighter: Heavyweights III 09/10/09 - Nathan Cleverly vs Courtney Fry 16/10/09 - Jason Booth vs Michael Hunter 23/10/09 - Jamie Moore vs Ryan Rhodes/Ian Napa vs Gary Davies 30/10/09 - Paul Smith vs Tony Quigley 06/11/09 - Sam Sexton vs Martin Rogan II/Paul McCloskey vs Daniel Rasilla 07/11/09 - Nikolai Valuev vs David Haye (PPV) 13/11/09 - Lovemore N'Dou vs Matthew Hatton/Renda vs Samuels I/Lawton vs Derry 15/11/09 - Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto 20/11/09 - Rendall Munroe vs Simone Maludrottu/Scott Haywood vs Scott Woolford 27/11/09 - Anthony Small vs Thomas McDonagh/Crolla vs Brodie/Quigg vs Voronin 04/12/09 - Prizefighter: Light Welterweights 05/12/09 - Amir Khan vs Dimitry Salita/Kevin Mitchell vs Breidis Prescott (PPV) 12/12/09 - Vitali Klitschko vs Kevin Johnson 12/12/09 - Carl Dilks vs Charles Adamu/Albert Sosnowski vs Paolo Vidoz This has been Sky's current season (plus scheduled shows) in the same time period: 08/09/12 - Tony Bellew vs Edison Miranda/Lee Purdy vs GL Carrasco/Ochieng vs Toms 08/09/12 - Andre Ward vs Chad Dawson 22/09/12 - Carl Frampton vs Steve Molitor/Paul McCloskey vs Manuel Perez 06/10/12 - Prizefighter: Lightweights/Rocky Fielding vs Carl Dilks 20/10/12 - Kell Brook vs Hector Saldivia/McDonnell vs Zamora/Reid vs Anderson 03/11/12 - Prizefighter: Light Middleweights 17/11/12 - Carl Froch vs Yusaf Mack/Tony Bellew vs Roberto Bolonti 08/12/12 - Lee Purdy vs Carson Jones/Rees vs Murray/Barker vs Hope I know which one I'd pick.
I'd vote for quality except I haven't seen any evidence of that from Sky/Matchroom yet, just not quite as bad as maybe it had been, won't see any quality until the December show imo. edit - I mean quality spread through the card, for the most part it's been one half decent fight carrying a poor undercard
I have highlighted 3 fights JMM V Mayweather, Pacman v Cotto and Vitali v Johnson. Sky could of picked up similar fights this year and their boxing output would then be fully acceptable.
:deal Great post! Perfectly illustrates the drop in output and for me the quality is no better! Their argument just doesn't work.
I'm no Stephen Hawking Jonsey but I make that 58 shows? Thats pretty good wouldn't you say? Thats nearly 3 times what Sky are showing. End of.
tbf sky cant blame anyone else for hta? that was their decision, and the output has massively decreased in quantity and probably quality. If they don't want to work with the two franks fine whatever, but why no bring in a coldwell or wood and fill the gap left? they cant just say "well we sacked two of our main promoters and dont want to do international cards, what else do you want us to do?"