Irish Boxing

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Ignoring a certain ridiculous response to this(involving the word 'proper'), I think it would generate quite a lot of interest in the North, particularly if Hatton won the purse bids and it was put on in Belfast. If that were to happen the fight would generate huge local interest, similar to Rogan vs Sexton II I reckon.

But when you look at Ireland as a whole fighters from the North(who predominately fight on Sky because they take advantage of the British/Commonwealth title opportunities available to them) aren't really that well known outside of the North. Only fighters that fight on RTÉ(Dunne when he fought, Andy Lee, John Duddy when he's in Ireland) are well known in the 26 counties.

Fighters that fight on RTÉ also get much greater coverage in the sports media than those that fight on Sky. Paul McCloskey had some of his very early fights(undercard highlights) on Sky before he moved to fighting main events(or main undercard) on RTÉ and started to build quite a name all over the country. However since he's been fighting for British/European titles he's been exclusively on Sky and while his reputation has continued to increase in the North, it has diminished over the country as a whole.

It's a problem that I'd like to see addressed really, I'd really like to see more of the Northern fighters earn a reputation throughout the whole island, as nearly half the pro fighters we have are from the North.

Anyway Magee vs Smith will be big in the North if held there. If it's held in Liverpool I'm not sure it'll receive anything more than moderate press in the North, and almost nothing at all in the Republic.

 

Is SKY not available in the Republic?

 

it is but u have to pay for it rte is "free"

 

Not only do you have to pay for Sky but Sky Sports is extra again(being premium channels) and of course just like HBO they've plenty of ppv's aswell so there's times you've to pay extra again.

Compare this to RTÉ who show boxing at Primetime on a Saturday night, where they pick up a huge audience by default. Imagine if NBC, ABC or another terrestrial American channel showed boxing at a primetime slot on a Saturday night what kind of exposure they'd get.

Also in Ireland if people don't have Satellite tv(or cable for those in cities), they only have 4(Terrestrial channels to choose from), it's not like in the UK where there is a freeview(digital) service which provides 40+ channels to basically everyone. As such fighting on RTÉ Bernard Dunne was able to receive viewship figures in excess of 600,000. When you consider how small Ireland is that is absolutely massive. if an Irish fighter fights on Sky you'd be lucky if 20-30,000 saw it.

 

learned alot today BigEars lol :good

 

dean byrne will fight on may 14th. he has been sparring khan in training.:good

 

corbett failed to make weight first time today

 

In fairness, that's pretty much what i said.

 

Hope he didn't hit him...

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0429/1224269283656.html
Durable Duddy ready to bask in the spotlight


AMERICA AT LARGE: After seven years and 30 professional fights, Derryman John Duddy will share top billing with Julio Chavez Jnr on the ‘Latin Fury 15’ bill in San Antonio, writes GEORGE KIMBALL



MORE THAN a year has elapsed since John Duddy last boxed in a main event (and come to think of it, that one didn’t work out too well) but when promoter Bob Arum trotted out the dramatis personae in Los Angeles on Tuesday to formally announce his June 26th “Latin Fury 15” card at the Alamodome in San Antonio, he revealed the 12-round battle between the Derry middleweight and Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr would be the headline act.
After seven years and 30 professional fights Duddy isn’t easily starstruck, but he couldn’t help but be flattered by getting top billing on a show in which his supporting acts will include Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera and at least two other former world champions.


On the other hand, if he paused for even a moment to consider the circumstances, Duddy probably realised the promoter, who is also Chavez’ promoter, isn’t bringing him to San Antonio to beat a Mexican fighter in front of 20,000 Mexican fight fans.


(That figure represents Arum’s probably optimistic projection. Chavez’ father put 63,000 people in the Alamodome for his 1993 draw with Pernell Whitaker, but just three years ago a Top Rank show headlined by Manny Pacquiao drew 14,000. The latter number is a more realistic expectation for Latin Fury 15.)


Even his detractors concede Duddy’s remarkable drawing power, particularly among the Irish diaspora, is among his greatest assets, but the number of tickets his presence will sell at the Alamodome promises to be insignificant.
San Antonio is nearly 60 per cent Hispanic, most of those Mexican-Americans, and is but a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the Mexican border. The city’s Hibernian heritage, on the other hand, is pretty much limited to the 13 native-born Irishmen who perished in the Gringo cause at the siege of the Alamo in 1836.


At least on paper, Duddy-Chavez promises to be what boxing people describe as a 50-50- fight – one of those rare contests in which each man has such a legitimate chance of beating the other that any prediction should be regarded as pure speculation.


Duddy’s vulnerability was evident in his loss to Billy Lyell a year ago, but Chavez’ roster of prior opponents has been even more carefully selected. The reputation of both is, at this point, considered so fragile that a loser will in all likelihood be effectively finished as a player on the world stage.
There will be a championship belt at stake, albeit a pretty silly one. The World Boxing Council has put its newly-created “Silver” belt up for grabs by the Duddy-Chavez winner.


In announcing yet another level of championships (and a new source of contribution to its revenue stream through resultant sanctioning fees) last month, WBC president Jose Sulaiman described the Silver Championship as a more credible alternative to the deplorable practice of awarding “interim” championships.


Does this mean a fight against new middleweight champion Sergio Martinez might be in the offing for the new Silver champion? Guess again, Grasshopper. But Arum did say the winner would be line to face Sebastian Zbik, the German-based middleweight who holds the WBC’s “interim” title.
Tuesday’s announcement was made in LA, a curious choice of venues (the Los Angeles Times didn’t even bother to cover it) apart from the fact that it was chosen mainly for the convenience of Chavez’ new trainer, Freddie Roach, who has so many clients training for important fights at his Wild Card Gym in Hollywood that it was in the end easier to fly Duddy, Chavez, and Arum in than it would have been to pry Freddie loose for a day.
Given he is already overcommitted, why would Roach add to his client list a boxer like Chavez, a career underachiever who has been described, probably not unfairly, as both “spoiled” and “lazy”?


The simple answer is Roach didn’t pick Chavez; Chavez picked him.
Having paid a visit to the Wild Card two months ago and watched Roach’s work as he prepared Pacquiao for his Dallas fight against Joshua Clottey, Chavez seemed astonished by the furious work-rate witnessed.


“It actually scared me,” said Chavez, who had previously been trained by two of his uncles back in Culiacan. “I knew it was what I needed.”
That the bout will be contested for a middleweight title of any description required some shoe-horning by the WBC, since Chavez has only had one fight as a full-fledged 160-pounder, and after that one (a decision over Troy Rowland on last November’s Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto card) his post-fight drug test came back positive for Furosemide. Chavez, in fact, was just five months into a seven-month suspension when this week’s announcement was made.


Chavez has fought incrementally above the 154-lb light middleweight limit on two other occasions: He weighed 156 for both of his 2008 bouts against Matt Vanda. (Chavez struggled, particularly in the first of those, a split-decision win, against Vanda, who Duddy fairly dominated at Madison Square Garden last year.)


Duddy, who will be facing his fourth consecutive Mexican opponent, is under few illusions when it comes to the task now at hand.
“I’ve had some tough fights and been asked a lot of questions, and I think I’ve answered most of them,” said the Irishman.
“We’ll see if Chavez can answer the questions I put forth on June 26th. Once the bell rings it’s going to be just me and him. I have all respect for Freddie Roach, but Freddie can’t get in the ring and help him that night.”

 

Rough. Is there any reason RTE couldn't work out an arrangement to simulcast some SKY events, or are they considered direct rivals? For instance, are they both throughout the UK or is RTE exclusive to Ireland? Excuse my ignorance of the markets over there and thanks for being consistently informative. :good

 

Duddy is bang on. Freddie Roach, Emanuel Steward, Angelo Dundee - I don't care who you have in your corner, if you're as ****ed as Chavez is ****ed against Duddy, they can't un**** you.

Duddy will knock this punk clean out and show that while he himself isn't much more than a B or B minus, he is head and shoulders above the C plus Chavez.

 

RTE can't show SKY events because SKY want Irish customers, it's not really in their interest to let RTE show their shows. Simple as that really.

 

RTÉ is exclusive to Ireland, but within the Irish market they are technically competitors. Occasionally(although not often) they will go head to head over tv rights for Irish sport.

However a lot of it is RTÉ just being reluctant to show boxing.
While boxing can be an expensive sport to show(if you're the one providing for all the cameras, analysts, commentators), RTÉ likely won't show boxing even when it makes financial sense. Even when viewing figures are good, boxing isn't the mainstay of their sporting entertainment and as such RTÉ would rather stick to the old reliables of soccer, rugby and GAA(the Irish sports of hurling and football), these are sports where RTÉ are always guaranteed high viewing figures and anything shown outside of these sports requires massive consideration(as it's seen as a gamble), they'd prefer to stick to non sporting programmes where there is a lesser risk-reward ratio.

There are exceptions, certain horse raising/athletic events/showjumping and other minority sports are guaranteed minor coverage for certain events.

Another major problem is that boxing on RTÉ is a bit of a monopoly, only Brian Peters' cards are shown on RTÉ. Now there is an exclusive deal between them, but I've no idea whether this means Peters' can't screen cards without RTÉ, RTÉ can't screen cards unless they're Peters' or both.
That's one of the main stumbling blocks.

To be honest I don't think RTÉ would believe paying Sky for Irish viewing rights to boxing would be worth the hassle. With all the Friday Fight Night advertisement people would be aware the event was being covered by Sky, and RTÉ would be afraid of losing viewers to better commentators. Sky meanwhile wouldn't want to be giving away a large(ish) section of their viewership during Irish fighters fights.

To sum it all up really, RTÉ don't want to show boxing unless they're guaranteed 350,000 viewers, and don't have to pay that much(in relation to the viewing figures) for it.