What do you guys think about the boxing news and coverage we get in australia .I know its beter on pay tv because of the boxing on fox sports but you barly hear a thing on free to air un less its mundine or another aussie fighting for a title and its only about 3 seconds of footage.I think the aussie boxing comunity needs to let the tv stations know we need more news and coverage and boxing is a huge sport and to promote boxing in australia!
Boxing coverage in Australia is pathetic, even pay tv coverage is bad. Look at how much hype Fenech got for his fight with Nelson compared to say Jamie Pittman fighting Sturm for a belt or Geale winning the IBO, even Katsidis is bigger in the US than he is here. It just shows boxing in our country isnt covered by any major media. There will always be the real fans who go to watch fights and know their stuff but as far as the mainstream is concerned boxing is not news worthy.
Yeah it is hard for the real fighters.....it's sad when boxing sideshows like Hoppa get 10 times the media in his first fight than Geale got in his last title fight.....thats why Mundine has done so well....you need to be a media story, outspoken and talk ****.
I think you've summed it up yourself actually. Hoppa fights in an aggressive manner. Daniel doesn't. I like watching him, but I wonder how many non hardcore fans do. Also, I don't think the public is that gulliable. The IBO isn't a legit world title. Anthony is the best promoted athlete in Australia and one of the best promoted ever when you think about it. In regards to others, I think they get more coverage in their state. I think you'd be surprised by how many Qlders know who Katsidis and Paul Briggs are. They get a lot of coverage in the Courier Mail thanks mostly to Bernie Pramberg.
The bottom line is that in Australia the average sports fan doesn't follow boxing or wants to watch it at all. Get any newspaper in Oz and there is page after page after page of cricket/union/afl/rugby league and basically nothing else. I don't like that it gets no coverage but thats the way it is. If you did a survey of fans at an afl or league game and asked them who Miguel Cotto was i would say only 5-10% would know him.
The problem is that the general public of Aus don't understand the science of boxing. They think of it as a street fight, and expect action. I wish we had the HBO commentary team shown on our PPV more often, because these guys are great at pointing out the more technical things that the others always ignore. It is such a technical sport, if people in the general public understood it more, it would be much much more popular.
About 1% if you were lucky. Think about it. Say you go to the AFL and there might be 50,000 people (i have no idea how many people go to the afl mind you, so that is probably wrong)... 1% means 500 people knowing who he is. Even that IMO would be doubtful. The only reason my mates know about him is because i drag them along to the PPV fights.
Boxing gets little coverage in Australia because the government does not support it and the AMA want it banned. Boxing gets more coverage in America because of Showtime and HBO. If a network in Australia decided to bankroll boxing, it would get a lot of publicity. However, Australian boxing is at a low standard and for a network in Australia to make money from boxing, they would need to import fighters from America. Which I can't see them ever doing.
Mundine got bums on seats and created publicity hate him or love him. That's the truth. The point here; boxing in Aus lack superstars like a Tszyu and Mundine to bring exctement to the sport.
In VIC there's some coverage on our local Channel 31 TV station. Peter Maniatis has a boxing show on Tuesday nights. It's all interview based, with a few fairly random fight clips thrown in. There was talk Maniatis was going to bring out a TV Ringside style show but if he did I'm not aware of it.
im moving to the uk in august and thats ganna be a nice change ill have to make sure i get setanta put on tv
