PROMOTER Mick Hennessy says ITV would be "crazy" if they pulled the plug on boxing again. ITV only returned to the sport two years ago and got massive figures for Carl Froch's WBC title win over Jean Pascal in Nottingham last year. ITV4 have also been showing Hennessy's successful small-hall shows, but their deal expires at the end of the year. It casts another shadow over Froch's proposed unification fight with IBF champion Lucian Bute, which he hopes will be in Nottingham on September 5 or 12. Talks have already stalled after the Canadian -based Romanian apparently upped his demands and a new date of October 3 has been mentioned. And if Hennessy cannot get television coverage over here, the fight may have to be switched to Las Vegas or Canada, where Bute is big box office. This content is protected The BBC pulled out of boxing after getting their fingers burned by Audley Harrison while Setanta, who are in financial trouble, also declined to screen Froch's last fight. This was eventually bought by Showtime and was also shown live on pay-per-view on the internet. ITV screened it the following day. A spokesman for Hennessy Sports said: "Carl was never signed up exclusively to ITV so if these rumours ever turn out to be true it will not affect Carl's next fight. "Currently Mick is in discussions with all UK broadcasters regarding TV rights."
it all seems doom and gloom however if you try and look at the positives, if they fail to get any tv deals especially from satelite networks it might get the promoters and fighters to lower their demands and would actually increase the chances of the likes of the beeb getting involved providing there was pressure and demand
Hennesy needs Fury to become a well known name by keep KOing people, so that ITV would be crazy to drop him
I was thinking that the other day, he's really getting publicity..... more than most expected at this stage of his career, and if he carries on they might start showing him on ITV1? He is a Heavyweight KOing people too which makes him easy to market even more so who knows?
Hennessey has Froch, Murray, Thaxton, Fury and Witter. Hennessey can and has delivered good cards. British boxing is actually very healthy at the moment but we need the channels to back boxing.