Attendances at UK boxing shows

I was at Eubank vs Smith II in Manchester. I’ve never seen anything like it. Massive queues of guys waiting to bundle into the toilet cubicles in groups. Then several large and dangerous fights in the crowd.
It was very off putting.

 

No stars anymore. No interesting lads you want to support. Women fights everywhere. Women. I watched SAS who dares wins and the little, campest, gay you’ve ever seen off Towie who was scared of his own shadow held his own with the women’s heavyweight champ in the fight. Says it all won’t have anyone ever tell me they’re anything but garbage.

10 years ago there were great fights to be made domestically in every division nearly. Or British lads who were going and fighting in massive fights abroad. There were fights to be made which had things that made them interesting or just very good fighters. There isn’t that now, fair enough, just put them in York Halls, Olympias, leisure centres, warehouses. If that’s where we’re at fine, don’t be putting a pig in lipstick. At least in them venues it’s about the boxing not the show and instagram.

 

That's what I mean, aye - it didn't have the "Sky machine" referred to by other people, BT was good at covering boxing but unless you actively followed it or watched BT Sport you might not know it was on.

BT were doing good events back then - Frampton building up to that fight with his Belfast stadium night, Fury on the undercard, Warrington-Selby at Leeds (who can forget the Kaiser Chiefs randomly sitting in the corner for a warm-up tune!) - but you could go down the pub and nobody be that interested.

 

I’ve never been to one not like that you know. It’s nothing new. Went good few a year from 07-mid to late teens. Only been to one since which reflects the lack of interesting fights about.

 

Rose tinted glasses that. Even in the boom matchroom undercards were absolutely shocking and bemoaned on here. Tbas until last week of shows and 1/100 fights galore. Was lucky if the main event was a contest.
Despite all that though there were still plenty of good fights compared to now and more regular shows. Always seemed like a fight to look forward to was just around corner whether British title fight or huge fight.

 

Matchroom put on decent cards until Joshua became a main event PPV star. Everybody wanted that PPV money meaning they were just in knock over jobs as under card fillers or wanted crazy main event money. Calum Smith is a good example of this. PBC were pretty much the same too.

 

Really?

They are only starting and will not stop until Ronaldo level players go to Saudi in their prime with Salah and De Bruyne the next stars to join the gravy train.

Ask Spanish and Italian Fans if they are hacked off with cup matches being played in Saudi. Other leagues sure to follow when the loot is flashed.

The World Cup will be a stonker when they buy that as well.

 

Hearn milked the public and this is the fallout for boxing after people wake up.

 

You should have seen Gerry Cinnamon at Hampden Park.

There was a huge queue of women to get in the gents which I went past and just went in, the gents was fall of women pissing in the urinals, on the floor and doing the lines at the sinks.

Yet if a male dared to go in the ladies, feet would not touch the ground and straight on the sex register.

 

Same as Schofield is no different to Cheryl Cole, Rebecca Ferguson or Caroline Flack.

Have to be a special kind of simp to not enjoy seeing women’s moggys pissing in the urinals.

These slags are going to be daft lad’s wives one day. Vile.

 

Yeah mate it’s nothing that hasn’t already happened previously so can’t blame them for ruining anything

China went through a stage of paying massive to get big names over there, American MLS before that (still doing it). Russia had a period also

with regards to the Spanish and Italian fans getting annoyed the only people they should be annoyed at is their leagues and teams for accepting cash to play cup games abroad and FIFA for when club World Cup thing takes off. Let’s not forget these are the same countries, teams and fans that wanted the European super league to create a football cartel monopoly. Instead of building their leagues up properly like the premierleague they want to take a shortcut at the expense of everyone else.

with the World Cup again its nothing Qatar havnt just done with the previous World Cup so can’t blame the Saudis for ruining anything because everything they are doing in football has already been done previously by someone else. I’m more annoyed with the World Cup proposal of being staged in South America, Europe and Africa for same tournament, it’s FIFA destroying it for the fan.

 

Fair points

 

Surprised Neil Doncaster hasn't slapped a towel on his head and gone over to solicit the wares of Scottish football... How about the Riyadh Season Premier League? Premier Sports Cup played in Jeddah in early July?

 

Don't want to derail this thread too far with football chat, but this point is worth debating. I wonder how much the English Premier is down to pure dumb luck rather than slow build-up over the years? I mean it's fairly entrenched now at global scale but it took root because of a few things happening very quickly in sequence.

The EPL got going just as Sky needed a massive boost and a poster sport to get into high-price subscriptions; other countries already had pay or cable TV at big scale, the UK was led into it through football and movies. Just as the Taylor report changed the experience and made football more accessible and acceptable. Just as Euro 96 beamed English football around the world with a mixture of old school grounds, wild crowds and so on. Just as the Bosman changes took effect and made players come here for big money. Just as a globally massive club like Man Utd started to dominate. All of those things converged at once and the TV rights snowballed.

I think it's agreed that a confluence of things made Sky and Matchroom's boxing flourish, just as they've conspired to take it back down a level again. I don't think a few players drifting to Saudi is going to make a dent in football anytime soon though.

 

yeah, and there was a time when the UK had like 14 male world champions, so every month there was a world title fight in the UK on non PPV, like Mcdonnel vs Ray Vargas is a prime example, a card that went under the radar but was a world title fight with a Brit vs a foreigner, this happened nearly every month, can't even remember many non PPV UK world tittle fight nights in the last 2 years.