Sky's Boxing Promoters: A review

BB whats your thoughts on my tv schedule ideas?

 

I like the idea of midweek boxing, though I'm not sure I'd stretch to 40 shows per year, I'd say 10, perhaps 15 at a push.

I guess where we differ is that I'm not fussed for these lower quality title fights that allows us weekly coverage. I'd rather have a good fight every two weeks backed up by a decent undercard - on Saturday at 8pm after the rugby finishes..... and that I don't mind paying £15 for an exceptional card like the Mag 7.

The other difference is the titles, we'll just have to disagree on that one. You'll never agree with me that we need less, and I'll never agree with you on quality control - it would be said that my point gives you that anyway :hey but you've got your own view on that.

 

Everything that i would say has been mentioned in one form or other

I like your tiered structure of fights Rob I do think one fee for every SFN is too restricitng in terms of what matchups can be put on and what promoters will be prepared to stage to gain more profit.

What i would suggest is what we want is quality not quantity. we dont want a SFN just for the sake of showing some boxing every week. If we want to make

Fury Chisora
McDonnell Hall
Macklin Barker

and other top domestic fights why not miss a weekend of boxing where its a Hall Donnelly type headliner and then the budget will be doubled for the next SFN that would encourage promoters to make these matches. It will also give the extra week of build up which will allow for more awareness of the top fights.

If people wanted to see boxing they can show a replay of last weeks fights from the States

 

I don't think theres enough quality fights to be made to justify saturday night boxing

If you tune into Thursday nights expecting to see prospects taking steps up and lower level fights its not an issue. When the big fights come there given a bigger platform and the promoters and fighters are rewarded accordingly.

My point also give you what you want which is quality fights lol.

I get why you don't want to see James DeGale blowing out a lativan in a 6 rounder but if its done properly, not taking away opportunity from other fighters its not an issue.

 

yep this is why my idea would work. you save saturdays for the big fights but your still giving exposure to the smaller shows and prospects designed for a lower, more hardcore audience.

 

Hmmm.... I think there are if you go to once a fortnight rather than weekly Saturday shows - you could always have a Wednesday/Thursday in between with the odd Prizefighter now and again.

If you delve a little deeper there are enough quality fights that can be made if you remove the obstacle of promoters not working together - force it or tell them to go to the BBC :yep

Subject to quality control there are some good European matches that can be made, Munroe vs Maludrottu was an excellent fight between two excellent fighters - what we don't want is someone getting more money because it's a Euro title fight contested between a good British fighter and some area level turd from wherever

As for the Latvians, I don't want anyone beating up on those..... there's more than enough good British journeymen to go around. Unless these guys are fighting for nothing the cost of getting them over and accomodating them, getting them licenced etc outweighs the premium you get for a reliable Carl Allen or Daniel Thorpe..... surely?

Basically get rid of the Commonwealth title and Mismatch Maloney..... once the fighters find new promoters half our problems will be wiped out at a stroke :deal

 

:rofl About right, but his shows do offer good value for money for their longevity!

 

It seems logical thing to do if we want the bigger fights that cost more we might have to sacrifice a night of average domestic boxing but I think it would be worth it and its the quality that we want and this would be at no extra cost than what Sky have budgeted for.

The only problem is there are less dates for promoters but that makes it it more competitive in terms of what matchups they will be prepared to put on to gain the big dates.

 

I have not watch a live boxing card this year. always delayed as I go out saturdays. thats not why i want to change it though.

genuinley think boxing can be improved if its given a weeknight show and I think promoters should be made to work for the big saturday night slots.

 

Warren has not had a Saturday Fight Night card come off as origonally planned since Burns vs Martinez.

 

An example of a good month would be.

Saturday July 2nd
Sky Box Office PPV - Hayemaker & Maloney

Germany
David Haye vs Wladamir Klitscko (World Heavyweight Title)
UK Leg
Jamie McDonnell vs Stuart Hall (European, British & Commonwealth Bantamweight)
Gary Skykes vs Emiliano Fegatilli (European Super Featherweight)
Tony Jeffries vs Darren Stubbs (English Light Heavyweight)


Thursday 7th
Sky Sports
Ringside + Haye vs Klitscko Full Fight Replay


Friday 8th
Sky Sports - Matchroom
Darren Barker vs Mahir Oral (European Middleweight)
Paul McCloskey vs Lenny Daws (10x3 Light Welterweight)


Thursday 14th
Sky Sports - Hattons
Ringside
Lee Purdey vs Craig Watson 2 (British Welterweight)
Joe Murray vs Chris Male (English Featherweight)


Saturday 16th
Sky Sports - Hennesey

Derek Chisora vs Tyson Fury (British & Commonwealth Heavyweight)
Ashley Theophane vs Jason Cook (British Light Welterweight)


Thursday 21st
Sky Sports - McGuigan

Ringside Live with
Carl Frampton vs Kris Hughes (Celtic Super Bantamweight)


Friday 22nd
Sky Sports - Matchroom

Prizefighter


Sunday 23rd
Sky Sports 2AM

Amir Khan vs Timothy Bradley (World Light Welterweight)


Thursday 28th
Sky Sports - Hattons

Ringside with
Martin Murray vs Patrick Mendy (British & Commonwealth Middleweight)
Scott Quigg vs Mark Moran (10x3 Super Bantamweight)


Saturday 30th
Sky Sports - Warren
John Murray vs Kevin Mitchell (WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight)
Tony Bellew vs Ovil McEnzie (British & Commonwealth Light Heavyweight)

From the US
Zab Judah vs Juan Manuel Marquez (IBF Light Welterweight)

 

The problem with weekday events is that you run up against a lot of televised sport at night plus its very difficult for promoters to draw big crowds to the events because fans from outside the local area can't get to the show.

I also disagree with this idea we should be looking to have live boxing cards in the UK every week. It is a classic example of overkill; it burns out casual fans, it overworks the promoter and broadcaster and stretches resources far too thinly. It just encourages (forces?) British boxing to work at very small level - no good can come from constantly asking promoters to provide you with an event that can sell 1000 tickets in the arena and do a 100,000 viewers on televisins. That's the definition of appealing to your hardcore fan only.

So to me what Sky should be looking to do is broadcast one big three hour special on a Saturday night every month. Very much like two Warren TV specials from earlier in the year where there were three or four fights well worth broadcasting on television. Ideally it wouldn't be one promoter's event but just the fights that Sky want to put on that night.

Put it in a big arena in a big city and have it set up so the event feels like a big time event, one that boxing fans should travel from across the country to see. Have pushing that event be the major priority for Ringside et al in the weeks leading up. The target is to get that be an event that's seen by a large number of people both on television and in the arena, all of whom treat the boxers on it as stars.

That's the spine of your coverage. Around that you can add broadcasting fights from abroad, pay per views and the occassional additional British show i.e. Prizefighter.

Now whether such a structure could be implemented without Sky taking direct control of promoting the event is up for debate. I personally think it would be cleaner to just have Sky to (say) buy out a promoter (probably Warren), put them in an enhanced version of the old Lou Dibella HBO role and then deal with the other promoters simply as the managers of individual fighters or the owners of particularly marketable concepts. So while Matchroom would still independently promote the Prizefighters most other events would be run by 'Sky Boxing'.

 

You have the same problem with competition on saturday night.

drawing big crowds should not be an issue. how many go and see arsenal, spurs, united in the champion league, how many go and see darts, how many go and see rhianna at the 02 on a tuesday. you can still draw crowds if u promote properly.

also im not talking about doing major shows on a week night.