What is the biggest fight in boxing history?

Oh come on, Trinidad and De La Hoya was a big fight for the hardcore fan in the UK. The fights in the 80s involving Hagler, Tommy et al were big terrestrial shows. Hagler/Leonard was shown in prime time on a Tuesday evening, on ITV, to an audience that may of been near 10 Million. Trinidad/De La Hoya was shown on SKY to a Million tops (on the Saturday SKY Sports repeat)...

 

WOW

I remember the ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ at the time.

You proberbly got a BUZZ due to the fact that you live in a house plastered floor to ceiling in mirrors thus giving the effect that you had an army of mates with you yelping & squealing support for fishnets:smoke

 

Yeh it's all about terrestrial TV, i remember when Hagler/Duran was shown on ITV at 10pm the following monday after the fight, did 10 million+. Every ****er was home watching it, pubs were empty.

I think Hagler/Mugabi was even put on at 8pm in the evening, i recall my missis setting up the small TV in the kitchin for me to watch it. She had her soaps shyte on in the lounge:twisted:

 

I never disputed they were huge fights. That was a different generation. It has nothing to do with my argument. Hoya/Felix was one of the biggest fights of all time and the records books prove that as a fact. Saying only hardcore fans knew who Hoya was is 100% wrong and amazes me to hear that in the classic forum.

 

If you are using the term 'all-time' in your argument, then you do have to compare with other eras.

The reality is outside of a few Heavyweights, no American boxer has had British mainstream appeal since the 1980s. De La Hoya and Trinidad may of been two of the biggest names in boxing in the 1990's, but as neither was British, that fact did not what register with the mainstream British audience.

The BBC and ITV are ratings driven, and have no doubt if it was felt De La Hoya and Trinidad could get them the ratings, the fight would of been on terrestrial TV. The reality was the fight cost too much for too little ratings for any terrestrial station to show it. So it went to a specialist station, who made up for lack of viewers by charging a premium to watch the fight. If that premium was not paid, the fight would not of even been on in the British market.

That is not the evidence of a huge fight in the UK...

 

Wrong. The biggest fights and sport events went to Sky because they had the money to pay for the syndication. They had the money because they had the most viewers.
Sky wasn't a "specialist station" it was the biggest network in Britan and still is.

 

In Britain the BBC is by far the biggest TV Channel, SKY is not even close, hence the Murdochs constant bitching about the BBC. SKY 'Sports' is a by definition a specialist sports channel. And if SKY gets the highest ratings, then how comes Eastenders, Coronation Street, X Factor et al, are top of the TV ratings? Here is the 'BARB' summary of total viewing to make my point:

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-total-viewing-summary

All four combined SKY Sports channels have 2.1% of TV viewing, BBC One on itself has over 20% and combine that with all BBC output the figure rises to over 30% excluding radio.

 

I read somewhere that benn v eubank 2 had over a BILLION viewers!

is that important enough?

 

Pal you're so wrong on that many counts. The title of the thread is " What is the biggest fight in boxing history" and you're trying to make a case for Oscar v Trinidad being in the top 5. It simply wasn't and the other posters are right De La Hoya wasn't a household name in the UK.
Well known by boxing fans and some other sports fans but not the average guy in the street.
You're wrong on Sky as well,It is the biggest satellite broadcaster but the viewing numbers would be well down on any fight that was on the main terrestrial broadcasters like the BBC and ITV.
Fighters like Ali,Frazier,Benn,Eubank,McGuighan and Hatton and even Khan everybody knows in the UK but I'm afraid Oscar barely registers

 

why haven't you ***gots mentioned Floyd vs. Oscar?

Technically its the biggest fight in terms of PPV numbers ... some how it surpassed Tyson vs. Holyfield II, which was the biggest heavyweight fight of the 90s.

 

Floyd v Oscar was just on regular sky nobody was really bothering with it in britain. Ali v Frazier on tape delay done 20 million viewing figures in 1971. Mind boggling!