Proksa isnt mandatory for anything ,stop trying to cod people with that shite. Lee would give barker a career high payday and a world ranking with the WBA but barker would rather take on the midget light middle for less money and no ranking with any organization in a VOLUNTARY.
I think the reason for Lee just doing 2500 is two fold, a lack of an exciting opponent and a lack of a better venue. In Lee's hometown, besides the UL Arena there isn't really any other bigger venue that I can think of. And I can't think of any other venue nearby that would be suitable. To get bigger I can think of the O2 in Dublin or Millstreet Arena in Cork. However then for Lee's fans to travel and to get other Irish boxing fans to come, you need a decent opponent. Lee's opponents have been poor, partly I think because he hasn't been great himself for a while, and they were giving him time to get back his form. The other option in Limerick is Thomond Park, but he needs a title and/or a good opponent to get a draw for that. I don't think it's unrealistic for him to be fighting there soon, whether Barker is the opponent for that or not. He's very well known and popular in the country, and as somebody said, we're waiting for our next big fighter to come along. If people see him set up in competition, which I think he believes he's ready for, they'll come in droves. For what it's worth I think you're right about having Barker above him in the rankings at the moment, you made a good argument. I hope they get this fight made soon, regardless where it is.
First off I am gettng Proska cofused with Priog. But anyway... 1) Where is the career high payday. We have no clue what Barker is getting paid and there no evidence that Lees promotional team are prepared to 2) Proska has not weighed in anywhere near the middleweight limit for 4 years. 3) If Proska is so bad why are Lees managment claiming to have made offers to him 4) Now that Gevor is fighting elsewhere, Barker will have a new mandatory. Its likley to be Proska
where does it say they offered him 100k???? again there seems to be a sense of self worth within Irish Boxing. If you want the titles, come and get them. If not have fun watching your prospects fight guys who have been retired for 3 years for vacant Irish belts, or claiming someone is Irish because there Great Grandad went to Dublin for a 4 week holiday in 1902.
btw I guarentee Barker would come to Ireland if he was made a legit offer from lees promotional company. But it hasnt happened, and I dont think it will.
Who are we claiming is Irish who isn't? Man you're really on your high horse over Irish boxing, and yet your guy is the most shameless paper champ around. The fact that Barker could pick up the vacant title against Belgecham is a joke.
You can't say Barker is the most shameless. He chased fights with Elcock and Macklin and they pulled out. When he won the european he was told by the EBU that his two mandatorys which he had to fight 2 in a row due to winning the vacant belt would be Gevor and Priog and he is prepared to fight both. You telling me if the EBU had given Andy Lee the chance for his fight with Belgecham to be for the vacant title he wouldnt have taken it??? Your right he is a paper champ but he is more of a champion than Lee at the moment. Barker was the number 1 avalbile contender when the title was made vacant, and Belgecham was the highest avalible challanger. Thats how it works when titles become vacant. HW - Harrison* CW - Macceranelli* LHW - Cleverly SMW - Magee MW - Barker* WW - Hatton* LWW - McCloskey* LW - Murray* SFW - Kyakosion* FW - Yefimovich BW - Jamie McDonnell FlW - Sarritzu 12 out of 14 European champion have picked up vacant titles. I have places a star next to those who won the title agaisnt an opponent that wasn't good enough to fight for the title. Barker is not the biggest paper champion. Harrison and Hatton have not even won a Commonwealth or British title. Only Rhodes and Munroe have won the title agaisnt a Champion.
we're not saying that Barker/Lee should be in Ireland, we were just saying that it probably (maybe it doesn't, i don't know) makes more financial sense. If Barker offers Lee the fight but insists that its in England than fair enough, Lee should go to England
Rob you are coming across as a total *****, remind me how many British prospects travel for Euro title shots? Not too many so don't start with all that "sense of self worth" bull****. As for the Dunne Munroe situation, everyone knows the score there, Munroe turned down a career best payday to fight Dunne because he wouldn't travel even though he won the title off Kiko Martinez who was willing to travel to defend it. This is now the same crap we're hearing again with Barker, the fight will sell more in Ireland, that is a fact so if Barker declines for this reason we will all see through it. The Irish belt is being fought for more regularly now due to the resurgence of boxing in the country over the last few years and that is a good thing as it gives the title more value so to imply that is a bad thing just shows your ignorance. Matthew Macklin will tell you himself that he is Irish so of course we will claim him but isn't it you who includes McCloskey, Lindsay and Magee in your World Ranked British Fighters thread when they are in fact Irish, so who's claiming who Rob?
TBH i agree with Rob in that its Lee who should have to make the concessions and if barker wants the fight in England (even if its for less money) than Lee should have to travel. Also as Lee isn't the Mandatory challenger i thinks its unfair to say that he ducked (i think thats what u were implying) Lee if the fight doesn't happen
If Barker is confident enough that he can beat Lee then why not travel? Like I said it will make more money in Ireland. How many times have fighters travelled to Britain to defend their titles because it makes more business sense? I do think that Lee should travel if Barker is not willing to come to Ireland, Lee will beat him in Ireland, England or anywhere else but you can't deny that it will make a pittance compared to what it would make if it were held in the O2 in Dublin.
I said majority of 26,000(as that is the size of Thomand park), but the figure I was thinking of was 18-20,000. Now you laugh and say how can there be a jump from 2,500 to figures like that and from someone who's not from Ireland it's understandable how you feel a gap like that can't be bridged. People in Ireland generally aren't great at regularly supporting a common event(such as league sides for football/soccer), but they are event junkies and will come out in huge numbers for anything deemed worthy. If you look at the Irish Sports of hurling and Gaelic football, most county teams will be drawing 4 figure capacities during the league. Yet when it comes to the All-Ireland Championship(essentially the Cup, but it's seen as more important), most decent sized counties will draw 25,000 plus, and bigger counties will draw 40,000 or so. This culminates in the All-Ireland final which is a guaranteed sell out at just under 83,000 at Croke Park in both hurling and football. My own County drew as low as 500 for some league games(in Gaelic Football), yet if they made the All-Ireland final they'd make up more than 50% of that 83,000. Leinster's average attendance for the Magners League in 2001 was under 3,500, they now draw an average of over 16,000 a game in the same competition. Are they better now......well yes, but they were still very good back then(they did win the competition in 2001) and it seems almost illogical that their attendance has grown by 4 times the amount. But Leinster games are now seen as events and worthy by the Irish sports person. The real difference is the media attention and hype it receives now. Heiniken Cup games were always seen as big so attendances for that were decent, but Magners League games were quite poor. Hype and media attention has changed this. The Championship receives so much more hype and attention than the league in both Gaelic Sports and plays a large part for the difference in attendances. Ireland drew 30,000 fans to Croke Park for our home game with Bulgaria in a World Cup qualifier, and then drew 0ver 70,000 for our home game with Italy. Now Italy drawing more than Bulgaria makes sense, Italy drawing more than twice what Bulgaria did doesn't. If a Lee vs barker fight was promoted right, get Lee to come out at half-time during Limerick's GAA matches with a Limerick shirt on announcing about the Barker fight, get him coming out at half-time during Munster Rugby games at Thomand, put him on the Late Late show a month before the fight, put fight posters up in every ticket master office in Ireland, promote the fight with tv and radio ads. It would require way more promotion than a normal fight, but you'd notice the fight would become the biggest sporting event in Ireland that week and infact would become the biggest event in Ireland that week. The event junkies that we have in this country would jump on it. Lee vs Thiam was promoted on a weeks notice, there was no title on the line and Lee was fighting a shot non threat of a fighter with no really big ticket sellers supporting him on the undercard. Not to mention Katie Taylor, Ian Tims and Coleman Barrett all pulled out. If you announced Katie Taylor was fighting on a Lee undercard well in advance it would seriously help sell the fight. The Lee vs Thiam show wasn't an event, it was like just another GAA league game, or a Magners League game before the recent surge in popularity, just another match......... Lee has no promotional company btw, just a manager. Brian Peters does promote his fights in Ireland but he's not his 'promoter' I wasn't aware Barker could draw around 3,000(a number I'm taking seeing as you said the place was around 90% full and mainly Barker fans), and apologise for underrating his selling power. If he could draw around 5,000 for a fight with Lee, then fighting in London may be viable. The UL Arena can hold more than 2,500, however it would require more work to be up to fire safety standards but those problems aside you could get around 4,000 in there. One question I have is how many fans were buying tickets for cards Kevin Mitchell was on just because of him before last weekend ?
The difference in Value between a fight in the UK vs Ireland is maybe 20k, the difference in value between a fight in the UK/Ireland and Spain is 100k++ Enzo Macceranelli and Jamie McDonnell all went abroard to win European titles in the last 2 months. Magee also counts as British. Macklin Macklin, Paul McCloskey, Martin Linday and Brain Magee were all born and still live in England or Northern Ireland. I am not going to get into a political debate but Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain and they have also won the British title so they count as British as much as Irish. I am happy to share. There are no facts in place that show that the fight would be better of financially in Ireland. So far niether Barker or Lee have headlines a show infront of more than 3000. I havent seen this Irish title resurgence you speak off. Heavyweight - Title last contested for in a vacant title fight between Kevin McBride and Paul Douglas (1-1-1 at the time) in 1997. when was the last time someone defended the Irish title......its just vacant title fights between fighters that dont deserve title fights. Cirian Healy lost in 1 round to James DeGale in his 3rd fight, then went on to lose in two Irish title fights!!!
BigEars i still think 18000-20000 is still a figure way to high, you have to remember that Dunne only drew 10000 for the cordoba fight and 8-9000 for the Poonswat fight, maybe Lee could get close to those numbers if it was for a world title fight but not for a European