Thats what happens when you "own" the fighters. Boxing's economic model is entirely diffrent. Its simply not that cut and dried nor economically practical for one promoter in boxing to hold all the chips. Golden Boy so far is doing great things for the sport. Have faith and most of all DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE. What is very good to see is belts like the WBU WBF IBU IBA that have tarnished the sport just simply disappearing. The days when Warren fighters could make money of that rubbish is gone. All the big promoters in this country need to work together if they want to beat the marketing might of the UFC. As a brand its uncontested. Thats bad news for combat sports as whole and should surely stir those that are not part of the UFC to get their finger and out and make the big fights, bring boxing back to terrestrial TV and bring boxing back to the limelight as it was in the past.
The IBO gets a small bly from me. As you can see form my original post i never included them. For all intents and purposes it is spurious. BUT the IBO have a computerised ranking system that is sound and have had far more "name" fighters as champions such as LL Vlad Hatton etc than the WBU. That being said there belt always just happens to be vacant when a big bout is scheduled. They also have had some joke champions over the years which is indicative of the belt. But there at least a peg up from the likes of the WBU which were simply a bad bad joke with zero legitimacy.
Wait, are they showing re-runs or are they getting the live shows? If so, lolchannel5. They're so poor and they can afford the UFC's? Damn. And I quite liked ESPN HD. ;-;
From the blog post by Gareth Davis it appears that it will be a regular one hour highlights show called UFC: Main Event, featuring recent UFC fights to promote the UFC brand and their star fighters. The UFC are certainly getting a lot of mileage out of each event. First it is shown live on ESPN at 3am. Then ESPN replays it a few times during the week in a better timeslot. Then the best fights from the event are condensed into a one hour show on C5 for terrestrial viewers. I'm guessing the UFC wanted to get their product on terrestrial TV in the UK and sold C5 this show pretty cheaply. Certainly cheaper than live boxing would be.
Domestic boxing needs to be consolidated somehow. The only belts allowed in the country should be traditional. Ultimately, everyone will have to fight for them before stepping to the next level. I believe that can establish the foundation for boxing amongst fans.
Thats still a big Coupe for the UFC because FiveUS is on freeview. Time for boxing to take note and start giving back to the fans that made the fighters rich.
I can tell - you didn't call MMA fighters sado-masochistic arse bandits like you normally do! Yeah, a highlight show will cost next to nothing to make and will probably have been sold to C5 for very little, or as you say for nothing at all, as basically an advertising feature for the UFC. They likely think that all combat sports fans are bloodthirsty, cave dwelling morons and as long as someone is getting their face smashed in the sport itself doesnt matter. In reality, there are a lot of boxing fans (like slip&counter) who dont give a **** about MMA and a lot of MMA fans feel the same way about the sweet science.
