The new breed of fans

Well I have been to two boxing events recently and the crowds have varied. I went to Sunderland, which was part of the Hatton PPV, and there was quite a few idiots there. Firstly there were a load of women who thought it was a perfect place to 'show off' and tried to look there best, with them obviously not having any interest in the boxing. Secondly there were many people there who were not exactly boxing fans (half the crowd left when Munroe was fighting), which was evident when they were supporting McDermott because he wore a Sunderland top. Plus these idiots blocked the stairs and I had to leave early (before the Jeffries fight), due to the car park closing at 12am, which was a showing of their ignorance towards general health and safety.

The other event was the recent prizefighter tournament in London. This crowd was much more respectful and there was certainly more fans of boxing at this event and there was absolutely no trouble at all.

Overall these differences could have been because of the areas the fights were taken place, or the star appeal (Tony Jeffries) of the Sunderland card. Either way I noticed varying differences at each event.

 

Think Gavin does support them, don't forget Jeffries with Sunderland, he is already huge up here.

 

These Jeffries/Sunderland fans hopefully can be converted to real boxing fans in time, and thats possible as long as there is an interest for them. Some times fans need to latch on to something or someone rather than the sport itself but we should hope they evolve beyond that mindset, I think:think

 

Ricky Hattons fault.

 

There were plenty of idiots at Munroe vs Martinez II.....

 

thewre is a lot of truth in that ,he seems to attract people who have a football fan mentality to his fights ,simple really .not a bad thing but they do my head in with there one song (winter wonderland) and it seems to be every other fighter fr0m the north of england has there own wee band of merrymen who want ot sing this song about there fitghter.
leave it for the football lads ...

 

Do you blame him for the expenses row as well :think

 

Frank Warrens fault. He packed out the M.E.N with those cretins on purpose because it was easy money.

 

No. But i want all my money back from when he was on SKY during the WBU days.

 

Hmmm......

48 months x average £35 a month.... £1680.00 + interest probably about £1850 ish

 

I w

 

If my understanding is correct, the orginal question was about fight fans now being tribal and following a boxer rather than just being interested in the fight?

If this is the case then I think this occurred as soon as boxing dropped from terrestrial tv! As soon as this happened most working class fans had to pick or chose which fights to watch and which ones not to watch (either PPV or just going out somewhere to watch it as they dont have sky). I know that this certainly happened with my Dad. He was a massive boxing fan but as soon it dropped off ITV/BBC he lost touch as he refused to pay for Sky. As a result, the only fights he seen were the ones he chose to make the effort to watch.

The same now really, there is too little on terrestrial TV and even some of the shows on Sky/Setanta/Eurosport you have to go out to look for. As a result, fight fans like us see loads of boxing because we're the mugs that subscribe to it all. Whereas casual fight fans pick and chose. As a result, if they are please with one fight, they'll pick the same fighter again to avoid the risk of being disappointed.

I know a lot of lads who only watched Hatton early doors because they enjoyed his fights and wouldnt risk paying to watch or taking the time out to watch anyone else in case the fight was poo. As such, they became Hatton fans rather than fight fans. (Just using this as an example, the same applies to any other boxer before the boo boys get excited).

If I've misunderstood and the question is why do fans these days bay for blood? Or why are most fans football fans? Then I'm afraid nothing has changed. Always been that way. As mentioed earlier, some people are just muppets. As for the football link - both are traditionally working class sports. No shocker they share a fan base.

 

yes but in those days the fighters neverplayed to the football fans like they do now. And maybe the vast majority were football fans but they was also boxing fans. Nowdays alot of football afns go for the event.

like 3 lads down the pub

'aye bill got tickets for that Amir Khan fight wanting to go'

for example.

 

They did in a way... Kaylor wore West Ham colours as has been said

But it was arguably more genuine back in the day, as I believe it was with Hatton

Watson-Eubank was given the Arsenal-Spurs treatment; even though I'll bet Eubank knows nothing about football... that was just a cynical ploy (by Warren I think)

The recent spate of fighters associating themselves with teams is mighty cynical too

I think Lennox tried it as well with West Ham I think, but with his accent it was a non-starter lol

 

Haye and Millwall seemed a little "forced" as well.