Frank Warren and Sky Sports 1995

See every other single sport

 

I think it was just inevitable for all sports, Cricket suffered badly

 

Spot on.

That single act of greed changed boxing in Britain forever.

By 1999 Boxing on mainstream TV was totally dead.....nothing....unless u count a once in a blue moon Shea Neary fight....4 years back than seemed a lifetime..when your 18-20 .....but it was a horrible betrayal to go from something you'd known your whole life ie boxing on BBC and itv...to zilch...

We hear Warren was such a genius....the truth is Hearn is not a genius either...he's just tapped into the millennial and gen z hunger for one off events....so no need any more to build careers and stars just have one off events that pull in 100 million.....not sustainable and in 10 years the sport will be further in a state of decay.....as people go off into other interests.....its happening to pro wrestling which has lost all its traditional fanbase when kayfabe went......

 

If Warren was smart he would've realised all this and at least agreed a monthly 2 hour highlights package with ITV or the BBC but pure shortsighted greed

 

Although it may have sped up the process it didnt stop people like Hatton gaining huge popularity so your theory is flawed a little bit.

Boxing has become a niche sport all over the world, let's be honest its a **** show of a sport, embarrasing on a regular basis and people have alot more that 4 channels these days with access to everything.

 

Can't blame Warren for crap Matchroom PPVs in 2021.

Can blame Warren for his own crap PPVs though.

 

The bottom line is we’re all to blame. Fans for lapping it up and paying, sky for fleecing us and promoters for having our kecks off.

 

If nothing else, Warren is a massive hypocrite.

 

The Nigel Benn - Gerald McClellan fight played a big part IIRC in boxing disappearing from terrestrial TV, there was even calls to have the sport outlawed, guessing the ITV bosses didn't want the heat boxing brought them.

Agree. If you were a boxing fan in the late 90's who you either had to have Sky or a mate who'd let you go round to his watch it otherwise boxing basically didn't exist, it was so bad I remember the BBC wouldn't report the outcomes of Naz's title fights for example, no mention of it whatsoever.

 

I used to watch a lot of boxing in the pub back in those days.

 

Cricket as a sport would be dead without sky TV money. Every county cricket club would be out of the business without the ECB money which much of it comes from Sky.

 

It’s crazy to think now because I doubt either could name a boxer other than AJ or Fury now, but my mum and dad would watch the big fights on ITV on a Saturday night, when I was too young to be interested in boxing.

I am pretty sure it was Eubank v Watson when the following day my mum said she wouldn’t watch boxing again, and she hasn’t.

This is just one example, but it shouldn’t be underestimated how this and the Benn McClellan fight turned off the casuals who would just watch because it was on a Saturday night on one of the two main channels.

 

The ECB did the same thing with Cricket. They are desperate now to get it back on terrestrial TV but there is no longer space in the schedules or the historical fan base. Now they've had to cook up this ludicrous Hundred thing.