Shanon Courtney vs Ebanie Bridge

His father transformed darts with that. The vast majority of the people who go to the darts just want to go and get wasted. The big change happened with both Premier League Darts and when the World Championship moved from the Circus Tavern to the Alexandra Palace. More drunk people equates to more money for all, including the players, but somewhat to the detriment of true darts fans who believe that the attendees are just louts. People say that it is a great atmosphere, but they obviously don't remember how it used to be when only real darts fans would go to the events.

Alcohol is a huge part of Barry and Eddie's marketing.

It might get to the stage soon where they will introduce areas similar to mosh pits for people who want to let loose.

 

They moan about young Eddie's cards,
But this key point they've missed,
They wouldn't care whose fighting who,
If they got properly pissed,

 

When I hear Sweet Caroline I look around for a glass to smash to use as a weapon, that's what Matchroom have done to me, I can't be held responsible for my actions when Sweet Caroline comes on.

 

Darts - Planet Funk - Chase The Sun

Boxing - Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline

Waaaaaaay

 

But you still get pissed all the same right? Maybe that's just me then.

 

I f*cking hate that song. Comes on the radio at work all the time and it just reminds me of the blazer crew fist pumping 'OH OH OHHHH'.

 

It's just so vapid isn't it. Insulting to the audience they're after really.

They have no interest in educating the audience about the sport I don't think, otherwise they may cotton on that lots of fights on MR cards are mismatches. Other promoters do this too of course, but relevant to the discussion to focus on MR.

You read Matchroom FC types also using the cliches that you hear in boxing but unable to back them up, for example

"X is 'all wrong' for Y" - what does that mean? In a way it's quite a clever one, because the implication is that fighter X's style is impossible for fighter Y to beat thus doesn't require much breakdown or justification.

"Chisora/Whyte/Price are always in entertaining fights" - This one is a bit more understandable, and to an extent there's some truth here. It can be fun to watch two limited yet powerful fighters swinging at eachother. What MR use it for is to justify adding limited fighters (such as the aforementioned) to a PPV card or make them the main event.

There's loads more as well. All usually said by Hearn.

It is a shame that their audience is basically people whereby boxing is their 3rd or 4th favourite sport. I appreciate there probably isn't enough boxing super fans to generate the PPV buys so I can see why they do it, but I believe overall it dumbs down the quality of the product on Sky.

Conversely I actually quite like Hearn as an entertainer. I don't believe he takes himself too seriously, his interviews are usually fairly enjoyable (albeit outrageously biased) and he's quite a fun personality. I just feel he and Matchroom dumb down the sport a great deal.

 

I have a drink yeah but I'm there to watch boxing.

The last Matchroom event I went to was Taylor v Prograis at the O2 and half the crowd was just stood in the concourse drinking and singing songs that had no relevance to boxing while the undercard was on. A group of lads in front of us actually got up and left after Chisora had fought and didn't even stay for the main event.

 

Can you imagine if Bridges wins???

 

I agree with all that. I don't mind Hearn himself, he's just a salesman and probably knows himself he's full of sh*t, it's the absolute idiots who hang off his every work. Both pundits and casuals. It's like boxing doesn't exist outside of Matchroom.

 

Agreed. You get a bizarre number of people who seem to 'support' Matchroom like a football team.. (hence Matchroom FC). I can't get my head around that. Granted, people have favourite fighters - but to support a promotional outfit?

That's clearly Matchroom's intention and it's a clever idea from their point of view.

 

Its a great business model

WWF/E used the same model in the 80s and destroyed all other competitors

 

That's true, from their point of view I totally get it. Just a bit of a shame as it dumbs down the spectacle.