Opinions of DAZN coverage

I watched the four main fights plus Hatton Jnr windmilling at fresh air.

Had it on my phone, with no sound so quite hard to comment. It was a fairly entertaining card. But by far the best of the 3 weeks.

The reaming cards look weak as pish

 

Maya Jama is clearly not a boxing fan and doesn't have the first clue about the sport. But instead of doing her research and learning about her new job, she instead tries to make up for this by acting like a glorified cheerleader. During the Xu /Wood fight I'm sure it was her you could hear her screeching "Come on Leigh", like she had even heard of the bloke until the other day. Which was especially obvious as she spent all evening calling him Leigh Woods.

 

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I found that Maya Jama quie annoying. In all liklihood, she's never been into boxing, and that came across as well Ithink. She's good looking though.

 

It was Sky without the professionalism. Sky tries to present a semi-credible sports show for an audience which might well have been watching rugby half an hour earlier and have to tread the line between boxing fans and casuals. In hindsight they did it well, it was Matchroom's fixation with showcasing certain fighters against bums that ruined it.

I like Chris Lloyd but it's like listening to your mate rather than a serious TV commentator, Costello will fix that later; Bellew was just himself but you couldn't get a break from him as there weren't really other guests chipping in; Jama hasn't got a clue about boxing and clearly wasn't able to wing her way through links and intros. It was hard to tell if she was reading it badly off a prompter and trying to put it in her own words, or she just wasn't interested. It needs other guests and a presenter who doesn't rely on "I'll say ten bland words, you need to fill the next minute Tony". Someone like Frampton would have been a good balance.

Laura Woods is great and always has been at everything she's done; I'd be surprised if she wasn't presenting the whole thing before long and Ali Drew doing the roving stuff she was doing on YouTube earlier on. Wasted last night by standing outside dressing room doors.

I fear that Matchroom controlling their own media just means it's a big numbers game hitting the bored casuals who put X amount a year into Sky PPV, and hoping enough of them will part with a chunk of that cash on DAZN spread over a year. Most of them won't care a jot who Jama is, as long as she shows a bit of leg. If it was 20 years ago they'd be clamouring for her Loaded photo shoot.

 

Very amateruish compared to sky sports. Made you realise what a polished product sky is. Maybe it'll be better to judge when they're in an arena?

It looked like a local fun fair with the stands in the background.

Maya jama was terrible, and Laura Woods was here there and everywhere.

Hell of a lot to improve on. They certainly missed Sky sports news advertisement and promotion. Fight camp has gone under the radar.

 

Much of a muchness. I miss the days when the analysis was just straight to the point and down to business, but there are too many commercial interests for such a broadcast to be feasible for stakeholders to entertain in 2021.

Presenters like Jama, Woods etc. are all useless and just there to tick a box. They accentuate the plastic nature of sports broadcasting in 2021.

The only thing that is as it should be, is the boxing coverage. If there's any novel or worthy insight from the punditry then I see that as a bonus, these days.

 

I don't get the last bit, twitter had it trending all night, but I honestly don't know other than myself a single person who watched it. Normally a good few of my mates would mention a sky boxing card, none did last night. Can't work out if the trending stuff means anything

 

It was on my dodgy box, so pleased with that.

****ed if I'd pay for it though, it's basically ifltv, only with maya jama instead of Kugs.

Bellew is a flute and I don't know why Hearn has to be interviewed after every fight as well.

I know I was young back in the 80's, and 90's, but I don't remember utv interviewing Benns' or eubanks promoters after every fight... Or am I wrong?

Not a bad card though, so pleased enough

 

It was good not to have Adam Smith for a change. Jama and Woods need to swap roles as last night we had Jama in a suit trying to anchor a sport she knows nothing about and Woods in a crop top playing the ringside bunny boiler. These roles need to be reversed as they do no play to the presenters strengths. Andy Lee was awful and I'm not sure he is sharp enough for the live commentary role, he would fair better giving analysis from ringside. Bellew looked ridiculous in that black Givenchy shirt with red collar, he only needed a red tail and pitchfork to finish of the look.

 

Jama and woods good bit of eye candy but thats quickly forgotten when u see Tony Bellend’s mug

 

A challenging wank if the camera pans too quick

 

Often it doesn't. Matchroom have got all their fighters tweeting throughout their cards using all the right hashtags, these will get responses, retweets etc. Looks natural but imho Matchroom/DAZN have engineered it, nothing underhand, just a byproduct of having a lot of popular people posting their stuff.

Firstly, the event itself did feel a bit cheaper than last year. Last year it really felt exclusive with the beautiful house, big garden, with only a handful of officials in view. This time out with the crowd and the "street food" vendors, it looked a lot more like a car boot sale.

The coverage was in some ways good, other ways not.

Positives

• Picture and stream quality were A1.
• No adverts between rounds - F off Voltarol, you aren't missed.
• Laura Woods is imho excellent, felt underused.
• Hatton's mismatch excepted, I enjoyed every bout.
• Sweet Caroline wasn't honoured like a national anthem - no crowd close-ups, no fireworks, the commentators just kept talking about the upcoming fight. Excellent.

Negatives

• Jama's role will need tweaking. The intro with her coming out of the Rolls, then putting her sat down with Bellew made little sense to me. If she's there to add bling, maybe put her as the roving reporter speaking to all the celebs in attendance.
• All Drew only being used pre-show was criminal. She knows boxing and would be ideal in the role Woods had last night.
• I didn't like the commentary. The levels of voice/crowd made it sound like behind closed doors again, and there was zero chemistry between Barker and Lee. This is temporary - I think Costello and Lee will prove to be an excellent combo.

 

The last 2 fights were brilliant and I enjoyed the card on a whole.

Thought the production was garbage tbh. The way the sound of the commentators got switched up whenever a decent punch landed was strange and Maya Jama was awful. She literally knows nothing about boxing.

Think someone else said it but it just reminded me of an FA Cup game at a non-league side with people getting interviewed in the stands and mid fight.

Hopefully it changes once they’re back in the arenas.

 

That’s exactly it. I think we’ll miss Sky in hindsight. It was only the Matchroom exclusivity that sent them downhill with Adam Smith pandering too much to Hearn’s demands.

Hopefully now Sky have got a new head of boxing they can strike a deal with Warren and along with the Top Rank shows we’ll have some proper boxing back on Sky without all the crap.