Forty years ago it would have been a trip to the Town Hall to watch the fight on a 18" TV with a hundred + other people, that may not have sound and probably cuts out every couple of minutes. PPV is an easy and relatively (I understand some have different values to money) cheap night in.
Friendly reminder that a large amount of Benn and Eubank fights (inc McClellan) were on ITV free on Sat night.
Yes, and even in the early/mid 80s it would be quite possible that would have been only way to experience it without actually being there. PPV has done a favour to the sport, certainly nowadays I cannot go to a dozen shows a year, and I suspect many my age with a family are in the same boat.
A friendly reminder that was thirty years ago, not forty! But even then, it was only the main events shown on prime time. Sportsworld Extra may have shown undercard fights, that would not be until the Monday night/Tuesday morning. But I suppose you did occasionally get a full US show, shown live overnight in the late 80s.
Yes sometimes we got lucky and had a cinema show. Also remember in the late 80s, there use to be closed circuit fights shown down the pub. I think that might have been Warren.
You mean the way we get more sport into our home has done the sport a favour. PPV hasn't done a favour to the sport at all but that's an entirely different and very boring discussion.
Yes, we are probably going to differ on how boxing is going to be funded. I understand that the fancy resent lining promoters pockets with such events, I do as well. But it does lead to improvements in pay for all involved, which I think is generally a positive.
The sad thing is that far more people listen to the fight on the radio these days than buy PPVs. A very tiny % age of UK people pay to watch PPV fights. Never bought a PPV myself, never will and will never miss a fight I want to watch.
I don't have an issue with PPV as much as some on here A) because I rarely pay it and B) "get" that the sport needs funding. However, the issue almost always comes back to the quality of shows that PPV's are being used to fund as well as secondary issues such as what is the "academy" set up for amas to pros? Is there one, like rugby or football? If not why not? Why aren't PPV's being used partly to contribute to the ama set up etc etc to ensure the sport doesn't go the way of the dodo, or become niche.
The 'Olympic legacy' has been a huge boon to the sport in the UK. This thread has shown my age, and in all the time I have been a fan, the pro sport in this country has never had so much quality. It could rightly be argued there have been bigger mainstream stars, and that is mainly down to no fights on prime time free 'terrestrial' TV. But as 'hardcore' fans, we have never had it so good!
