Been wondering the last few days. The british promoters (especially Frank) Are being incredibly greedy for short term gain. Channels such as boxnation etc. How are they expecting the fighters on there to ever be known by anyone but the hardcore fans? Surely they must realise that putting them free on terrestrial, or sky, will build up a bigger fanbase, and therefore ensure that if they become stars, the public will pay for big PPV events with them in. As it is now, no casual fan is ever going to pay for a James De Gale PPV!!! Surely they're shooting thensleves in the foot here? Why do they do it?
As you say, it's a short term outlook. Terrestrial TV would be ideal. Look what it did for Khan, but I'm not sure if these channels are willing to pay the big bucks any more. Worse than that though, I think is the inactivity these fighters suffer from as a result of promoters. It's totally ****ing up their careers. Certain promoters are treating their prospects as if they are superstars already. I thought it was great that Tyson Fury was fighting so frequently. It was refreshing to see. These days though he's gone quiet. As for De Gale and the other Olympians. Compare their progress with Khan. Khan became a household name by being in the public eye. Nobody knows who De Gale is. Nobody cares about these other olympians. They don't fight frequently enough, and when they do fight no one knows about it, and the opponents are no hopers. Get these guys some exposure, and let them fight frequently so they learn. Not this twice a year bull**** as if they are elite fighters already. How much have they progressed since they went pro? In terms of boxing ability they can't have improved much by fighting Lithuanian Maths teachers and Latvian taxi drivers, and in term of brand name, they are probably less known now than they were when they first went pro. People have forgotten about them.
Im sure that the next set of olympians however will have a much higher profile if they win gold in London in 2012 it will mean so much more on the cv and if these olympics are succsesful; I believe the BBC will jump on the hype i can see luke campbell thomas stalker and anthony joshua all having very big profiles when they turn over which i believe will be after the games witch will push boxers like joe murray further down the pecking order.
Very good point. The new kids on the block will be getting all the attention and the current crop of Olympians will probably fade further into obscurity. It's looking like a big **** up at the moment. I'm sure a lot of them four years ago would not have thought that this would be the position they would be in.
It is very frustrating for the boxers and the fans alike. Greed is the sin which took boxing from terrestrial to box office sadly. Look at all of them, they all took the jump. Sure, some had good reasons to like when Bruno fought Tyson, but now when you had Khan fighting PPV without a belt clearly it is never a long term plan.
But it's a good case in point. Terrible boxing career but he's made a lot of money because people know who he is. You won't get a panto gig in your 40's by fighting on Boxnation ;-)
Also, Harrison viewing figures on Sky were higher than pretty much everyone. Even Prizefighter sold out and had to be moved to a bigger venue mainly because of him. Terrestrial TV is gold. Only Hatton has got to the mainstream without it.
