Just been thinking about how the Cleverley v Bellew fight lacked the real hype that you'd associate with such a big fight for Britain. This is obviously caused by the fact that the fight was being shown on boxnation and not Sky Sports or Sky Box Office. Just imagine if it was a Sky Box Office event it would of been all over Sky Sports News and would have had count down shows on Sky Sports to add to the hype. The weigh in would also of probably been live on Sky Sports News. I'm not saying for one minute that i'd rather pay £15 on Box office to watch a fight when we have had it free to view on boxnation but isn't part of a big fight Sky hyping it up???? I just feel that in the future big fights involving FW fighters may lack the hype and the excitement that the media and Sky provide!!!!
Hype doesn't make a fight good, infact it has more damage on the Sport when a hyped up Sky fight flops, look at Hayes last few fights for evidence. I don't watch Sky Sports News or care if some brain dead Football fan takes a interest in a fight cause Sky have 200 adverts about it. I care about whether i enjoyed the fight, frankly i don't care if 200 or 2 million watch it along as im entertained. Sky do my nut in, they ruin most fights with fake bull**** build ups & "50/50 fights" which are 99/1 fights in reality.
I do care how many people watch boxing because without viewers boxing wouldn't be on tv at all. If it wasn't for these so called "brain dead"football fans packing out the echo arena then the card that was put on wouldn't be feasible. You make it sound like these people don't deserve to watch boxing, boxing is for anyone who chooses to watch it and I support them to watch more boxing.
Sky are not a good thing for the sport. They were responsible for it getting marginalised in the first place when they took it away from ITV. Gary's point is actually true largely. Hype is often more damaging - Sky put all their energy into three dreadful Haye fights rather than other, better fights on their normal channel. If you keep making good fights and making them available, you will get genuine hype that's deserved.
But Sky are not interested in growing or protecting the Sport, it's a business. This why i don't get the Sky love in, Boxnation is a channel that will fund Boxing on so many levels. All Sky ever did was plough money in Boxing on a weekly basis at the hope of grabbing the next PPV star, I.E Hatton & Haye the two big ones. Once they have that star they will hype and try and deluded the average viewer till cows come how. Whilst forgetting all the great domestic fights & fights abroad going on. You have seen it now, they have stopped Box Office for now, whats happened Boxing coverage dropped by 50% & the big fights from America being snapped up by two small channels.
I like Boxing Nation. I'm glad they are showing more boxing in general, not just a bunch of shitty domestic fights and the odd international. £10 a month, as you say Gary, puts money into the koffers to get more fights. Frank has always funded his bills using gate money and used TV money to bump up purses or bring over big names. Maybe this means less stupid guarantees like for that waste-of-space DeGale. Sky are over-priced, their studio team is awful, and the production is out-of-date. Really, £50 a month for a handful of fights? Great if you like football, but I don't. Yeah, Matchroom is on Sky, but how many great fights has it really put on recently? Eddie Hearn's bizarre dig at Box Nation about him growing the sport was hilariously dishonest. He's putting boxing on an exclusive, paid platform. How the **** does that grow anything?
