Boxing will return from the coronavirus pandemic in good shape, believes Adam Smith, head of boxing development at Sky Sports, although he fears it may be some time before we see packed stadium fights again.
Smith, who is also Sky’s lead commentator, has already spoken to Eddie Hearn, Sky’s exclusive promoter, about staging fights behind closed doors as well as taking the fights overseas if other countries get through the pandemic quicker than the UK.
“It is unchartered territory even for a sport as bizarre as boxing, but I think and said to Eddie, that I think we will come out of this in OK shape,” Smith said. “There will be a big call for big fights to take place, because we don’t know if there will be a reoccurrence of this and boxers will have missed a chunk of their careers and need to get on with it. So it might benefit boxing fans in the long run.
“The feeling at the moment is that it will be a matter of weeks, if not months, before there will be any live sport. First of all the lockdown has to ease for anything to happen. For shows to happen, you need people to be able to get together. With boxing you need doctors. Eddie and I are looking at studio shows, obviously there is the possibility of going to other countries if the virus is calmed –
“China are the first vaguely out of lockdown and we are looking to other parts of the world too.”
Talks had taken place about staging the MTK Golden Contract light-heavyweight semi-finals behind closed doors, just before the lockdown started, only for the British Boxing Board of Control to pull the plug because they could not guarantee that enough doctors would be available.
“It was not just our show, there were six or seven around the country that were due to go ahead that weekend,” Smtih said. “We went down for the press conference on the Tuesday, I walked in with Hosea Burton, who was very excited about the night. That is when I got the call from Robert Smith [BBBoC general secretary] saying they were going to pull all the shows. Ultimately the right decision was made because doctors were needed elsewhere.”
The questions remain about what state sport will be in when it gets the go-ahead again. The biggest fight of the summer is due to be Anthony Joshua against Kubrat Pulev, a fight expected to take place at the 60,000-Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But while such fights might do well to a sport-starved television audience, can they possibly draw such a huge crowd with many people facing financial worries? Meanwhile, others are unsure about how social distancing measures will impact live events.
“I’ve got a friend in the theatre world and they were talking about when that restarts, will people want to sit near each other,” Smith said. “How are we going to go forward when we move to some sort of social gathering again? Will they sell one ticket out of every three maybe? Will theatres or cinemas be a third or half full? Those things are ahead of us, we don’t know.
“Everyone is getting used to this new way of life. Businesses are affected, it is a very difficult time for a lot of people and we have to take that into account as the weeks and months go on.
“It might be very difficult to sell out big stadiums. On the one side I think there will be a real yearning for sport, it’s a big void. If people are at home, they will want to watch sport and it’s a big relief when sport is back, so I think they will play to our advantage, but the stadiums and big arenas could be hit, either because people don’t want the social gathering, or just the money won’t be there.
“I’m sure if you are going to go straight into an AJ-Fury fight, or AJ-Pulev and Fury-Wilder, there will be enough people who want to be there, it is just to case of if Fury-Wilder is in Las Vegas again, are 5,000 or 10,000 Brits going to fly out? Will they be allowed, will they have the finances to do it and will they want to?”
Telecommunications giant Comcast recently bought out Sky, giving the Sky Sports business a bit more security at a time when it is showing virtually no live sport. BT Sport is likewise part of a large telecommunications empire, although DAZN, which has seemingly suspended plans to launch into the UK as part of DAZN Global next month could be feeling the pinch.
It is likely to mean that there is not as much money around for rights fees in the future.
“Sports is a slight luxury, certainly the big sport that you need subscriptions for, so it will be interesting to see who is willing to pay what when this is over,” Smith said.
“BT Sport have a huge amount of boxing to offer, DAZN too. It’s a vibrant competitive market.
“I’m convinced big fights will happen. Sport will be wanted after this is over. Sport will be back with a bang, but business-wise it is going to be a very interesting landscape.
“We have a great relationship in boxing with Matchroom and we will stand side by side. Eddie is chomping at the bit, I am speaking to him daily.
“He said ‘when we get back we are going to be ruthless, we are going to get every single fight together we can’ and he said ‘watch out to the competition’.”