The British General Public & Boxing

By the way...I wouldn't say I'm the authority on the public in the UK. I just know from my times that I go back to the UK and I get chatting to people, they will know Khan and Hatton at best. Then you are looking at Eubank, Benn, Bruno and Tyson.

I think Carl does need to recognise that the economics of boxing are determined by your marketability and not what you have done to deserve it from a boxing viewpoint. He probably feels as WBC champ going to America to fight a big name he should get big money from TV. Unfortunately it won't work like that.

 

The only person i know that knows froch is my cousin and thats because he was watching the fight with me. Even at that he calls him "the guy with the nose"

 

The average guy in my experience knows **** all about the sport. Considers Mike Tyson unbeatable and the greatest fighter ever. Whats to know why Joe C and Wicky never had a big money showdown.

Generally knows sod all about the sport. I usually eng up getting pissed off talking to them.

At work I'm known as "the boxing guy" so people will come ask me questions, those looking to learn and get into the sport I love talking to but theres alway some **** who remembers his glory day watching tyson and bruno who'll try to give me a boxing education but couldn't name half a dozen world champs.

 

I don't even bother talking to my mates about boxing because they know **** all about it and it gets extremely frustrating. Hence posting on here. Plus none of them seem to have even a vague interest. A lot of them seem to like the American sports like NFL, NBA etc.

 

:good I tried explaining why Hatton was going to get beat by mayweather but all i got was "But he beat Tszyu" atsch

 

Yeh the general Public really just know Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan, Audley Harrison and maybe James DeGale. I think if you asked them to name another active figther they might say Danny Williams??? The sports fans were talking about

The general Sports fan in London will know who David Haye and Kevin Mitchell are as the Metro and Lite (the free papers you get on the tube) are making them out to be the saviour of Boxing. 2 of my mates have asked me "Is this David Haye guy any good because he keeps bigging himself up"

I would imagine its the same in Manchester for Jennings and Moore and in Sheffield for Rhodes and Brook etc etc


Its a shame that the likes of Pacquiao, Marquez and Mayweather our not known to the public like Woods in Golf and Nadal and Federer in tennis.

But what do we expect, they cannot see them. They fight at 3am, you have to pay extra for it, and not even true boxing fans can tell you who the number 1 in each weighr class is.

The one thing we as boxing fans can do to stop this is campaign to to have boxing involved on the "protected sports list". This is what means Sky and Setanta cannot gain rights to show the World Cup, Wimbledon, The Open Golf Championship, Olympics, FA Cup Final and so on. It also states that any england football or cricket match be avalble to terrestrial TV.

If i started an online petition would you guys sign? I think at the very least we could get "A World Title fight involving a british fighter recieves same week delayed Terrestrial TV Broadcast"

Heres is the existing list;

[url]http://www.culture.gov.uk/PDF/listed%20_events.PDF[/url]

 

To be honest mate I'd say that or a highlights package are the best you could hope and even that's probably optimistic. I'd sign though no problem.

 

I think your right, theres only a few people i know that i can talk to about boxing, others talk rubbish one told me very seriously that prescott was the champion at lightweight and khan tried tackling him too soon lol

 

What you mean he wasn't?

But how could anyone other than seasoned killing machine of a champ beat the mighty amir (he won an olympic medal and I watched him on TV knocking guys out)

 

stop it! your reminding me of that lonely feeling i get at home and at work as i can't talk boxing with anyone i know

no one should be surprised though, you can't know what your not told and boxing is just not available enough even we die hards have to go to great lengths (ppv, subscriptions) to get our fix

 

People did not know who Barrera was before the Khan fight atsch

I heard a few people say 'isn't he the guy that beat Naz?' but most had no ****ing idea who he was.

Cotto, Pac etc. are unknown.
Khan, Hatton, DeGale and Audley are the only fighters most of the general public know of.

 

what makes hattons popularity even more sensational, the guys never been on terestrial TV but he's a one off and buit his base in his hometown

only way to get boxing back into the mainstream is to get back on regular TV its the same in the states

why is the sport doing great business in Germany because people are able to see heavyweight title fights on regular tv, vitali vs gomez for example got huge numbers (12mill) 55% share this will build the new generation of fans