Monopoly is hurting British boxing and its prospects

I don't think a monopoly is necessarily a bad thing. The UFC had a monopoly in America during it's growth and that was beneficial to the sport. The issue is, monopolies are very rarely done properly because of things like greed, though if you believe Hearn has good intentions, as I do, then I'm not fearing a monopoly. I think it's better for the sport to have 3-5 promoters all working together and trying to compete but if there's a choice between one dominant promoter and 3 or 4 warring ones, I know which is more beneficial for the sport.

British boxing needs to be guided in a clear direction. In an ideal world, I'd have Hearn on Sky and then Coldwell, who seems to be an honourable man, with his own improved stable on a channel like BT or terrestrial. The key isn't so much 'competition' but competition from the right people, who are passionate about the sport and care about the wellbeing of the fighters.

I'm glad that certain promoters are going to go out of business. I think they deserve to and for the hurt they've brought to the sport, I won't be sad to see them go. I hope whoever picks up the like of Quigg, Price, Gavin etc., makes the most of it and gives the fighters and the fans what they deserve.

If there's a monopoly, fine, and if not, I don't mind either. British boxing needs to be guided properly and whether it's one man or 5, it doesn't really matter.

 

Its not just the monopoly, its other power hungry promoters who think they can control what people think and what people say. Threads have been removed today what were talking about what other fighters have said on social media. Yet they have been removed. As far as I'm concerned they can do what they want, they wont be around for much longer. Fighters are speaking up and rebelling. The fans dont need to do anything, nothing at all. Its falling and we are seeing it happen in front of our own eyes.

HOWEVER, if this happens and means we have a monopoly fully in place and no competition what so ever, then I am against that. Boxing will be worse of.

 

all these promoters who cant function without tv money and in most cases cant even function with it must be praying that bt sport step in and chuck some money around - bt have signed paul dempsey could be looking good for boxing on the channel

hearn basically taking over must have been basically **** easy for him the rest of them seem incomptent

promoters do themselves no favours at all with there mis matches cancellations high ticket prices crazy scheduling and corruption i think the public just gets sick of so the tv companies follow suit

maybe the boxing board should step in and try do something more to standardise and regulate some of these issues or they could be one of the problems.

 

It's true I often opt for a game of monopoly rather than tune in to Friday fight night

 

BT have just acquired their boxing presenter anyway so things might be looking up in terms of that being an outlet sooner rather than later hopefully

 

Whos that?

 

Dempsey. Hasn't got a boxing remit there at the mo but he hasn't gone there just to do BT's foreign footy, which is what he'll be doing to start off with

 

Thats interesting. When do BT start broadcasting?

Be interesting to see what they do. If they sign 1 promoter and do 14 shows a year will people be really pissed off about it?

 

1st August I think

 

Well just checked what I'm entitled to cos I'm with Sky for my tv and BT for internet and as long I register before Aug 1st I'll get BT Sport 1 & 2 plus ESPN in HD free through my Sky box as well as online. They have the first live Prem League game of next season which is Aug 17 so would assume thats the really big kick off.

As for the boxing, I don't know for sure. At Sky, Hearn has a hell of a lot of responsibilty and workload on his shoulders for a young promoter just starting out. And remember that is a unique set up to what we've known down the years in terms of exclusivity. I don't see any other promoter who could take on a similar exclusive role with somebody like BT who are thinking big and want to rival Sky. It depends on what mix they want to put out though

 

Is it really a unique setup?

Frank was exclusive with ITV. Was also the only promoter on Setanta for a long time. Hennesey was exclusive with ITV & Channel 5. I would say the situation where Sky were working with multiple promoters was actually the unique situation.

I think it would be highly unlikely that BT would chose to work with more than 1 UK promotional company.

 

So any boxing would kick in September onwards.

 

Yeah what I meant in terms of unique was in referring to Sky's history as our chief dedicated sports broadcaster. For them, the Matchroom deal is a change of tactics. Setanta came along and soon struck deals with Hayemaker and Hobson to supplement W*rren's.

Be interesting to see what tack BT take and what timescale they're working to.