The excuses rolled out for not getting fights shown on Sky is always put down to the budget. Cost. Cost. Cost. Adam Smith is the head of boxing and is flying himself out to Miami "where the beautiful people hang out" to sit around with David Haye. He is flying himself around to have interviews with Oscar De La Hoya. A lot of money is going into this Ringside show and I feel that it is money that could be spent on getting fights such as Hatton vs Alvarez and Vitali vs Solis. Who would rather see Smith licking Hayes arse for an hour over Hatton vs Alvarez?
It would be interesting to find out what the actual budget is spent on, across the board. Having about a hundred pundits on every show won't come cheap either. They're probably paying over the odds for some fights/fighters and not enough is being spent on getting fights that people want to see - like Hatton vs Alvarez, Williams vs Martinez II and the like. I don't see why they need a studio.... they could always do what ITV do and just have a couple of pundits at ringside, ideally one of them being a potential opponent. They'll do it for nothing, plus they can critique the performances and have a bit of needle.
I get the feeling at the moment all the aesthetics are being tuned up but the actual product ie the boxing has got no better. If they are going to show less boxing they need to make the 2 fights that they do show big competitive fights
I don't think its always down to cost. sometime it down to the schedule. pretty sure were not seeing Hatton vs Alvarez because England are playing at the same time. Sky don't like to put big live events up against each other.
the fact we have Burns vs Lareya, Murrays next fight, Walsh vs Kays as main events in the next month shows Smith has made no impact what so ever.
Bunceys show was done on such a lower budget and his show was unmissable whereas ive missed a couple of Ringsides and dont care at all. They talk about the budget yet how much money did they make off the Haye/Harrison farce? Flying out to the States for interviews is just ridiculous when they can just get Haye/Oscar on the damned phone but its just an excuse for a jolly for posh boy and his arse licking puppet Nelson.
When Smith and Nelson went to Miami, Buncey said 'trust me, this makes sense'. Few days later news broke of Wlad - Haye and the latest round of negotiations. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for that one, they may have tagged the hour on the back of the negotiations.
Bunce may just have been referring to Haye's status as a PPV star. Haye = TV ratings. Hype on Haye = greater future PPV revenue.
Id rather see solid fights than Haye talking about himself again. Since Smith has started i dont think the boxing has got any better on sky, id happily drop ringside for a better quality of boxing if it is due to cost. Sky really need to step up with there boxing, id rather have one night of top quality well matched boxing a month than four weeks of mis-matched up and comers.
Yeah I agree with the article, when Adam Smith became the new face for SKY and boxing, things were going to change.. Yeah ringside may be better but the fights arent happening and this probably isnt money well spent, but at least him and Johnny will be having a nice time.
Also, the Miami show was made on the same trip as the Oscar show tomorrow and an upcoming Hopkins show.
Also get rid of all the talking on Saturday Night Fights apart from a brief intro and post mai event and just show the boxing...undercard and the lot.