I just finished reading Four Kings by George Kimball and was surprised to learn that several of the key bouts between the fab four were on week nights like Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Now a days a mega fight on PPV or a major network would never ever be on a weekday. Recently ESPN was staging fights on Tuesday and Wednesday which was kind of nice since it freed up the weekend so I could have boxing and a fun weekend When did Saturday become the universal fight night? What led to that? Do you guys miss week day boxing or think scheduling more weekday or Saturday day time fights might lead to more people watching the sport?
Traditionally Boxing was held on a week night. Exceptions in the UK were daytime stadium shows immediately either side of the Second World War. The reason for this was to avoid clashing with other, more mainstream sports, Football in the UK, American Football or Baseball in the States. Shows were much more reliant on live gates back then. This started to change in the mid 80's. Mike Tyson's big fights were on a Saturday night and in the UK, Barry McGuigan and then Benn, Eubank and Watson fought on Saturdays or sometimes even Sundays. The reason for this was that, by then, TV money was Boxing's main income and fights were big ratings pullers. People would stay in and watch the Boxing rather than go out or would go to each other's houses for fight night parties.
His biggest prime fight against Michael Spinks was on a Monday night. Most his other prime world title fights were on Friday or Saturday nights. I think the two in Tokyo were on week nights.
Tyson-Douglas was on a Saturday in the states, Sunday in Tokyo. I remember watching it before going to a midnight movie. We didn't have HBO, but for some reason it was unscrambled that night. How cool was that? But, yeah, the practice of major fights happening on Saturdays seemed to kick in during the early 90s. Holyfield-Douglas was on a Thursday. Ruddock-Dokes, part of a PPV card, was on a Wednesday. Foreman-Cooney was on a Monday. But, like you say, after that the big fights went to Saturdays. During the late-70's early-80's championship fights on free tv heyday, many, but not all, major cards happened on Friday nights. Holmes-Norton, Holmes-Shavers, Ali-Spinks II, and Leonard-Benetiz were all on free network tv, and all on Friday nights.
Yes, the majority I have ever been to, were midweek. In the UK in the 80s and 90s, you had Seconds Out, Sportsnight and Midweek Sport Special which all had boxing from Tuesday/Wednesday evening. Also for a period in the 1990's and early 2000's Friday night was a big night for boxing in the UK. And to answer the OP post, yes it was nice to watch boxing midweek. I remember ITV even moved its most popular programme (Coronation Street) to show the delay of Hagler/Leonard.
The Barrett / Duff shows were always on a Tuesday and shown on Sportsnight on a Wednesday with the exception of the very odd live fight. It was Frank Warren who started doing live broadcasts on Midweek Sports Special on ITV on Wednesday nights. In some regions, including the Midlands, Fight Night would go out an hour after the card had finished. We used to rush home from the fights to watch it.
I think it really started to be a bigger thing when PPV shows started ending at or past midnight to accommodate the West Coast audience. That’s tough on working people on a weeknight. And West Coast buys surely increased with the rise of Oscar de la Hoya and a lot of other Mexican and Mexican-American fighters as big gate attractions.
