By Terence Dooley

Setanta Sports ceased its trading in the UK yesterday, after a disastrous business plan saw them over-bid for UK and Scottish football rights.  Setanta’s channels went off in the UK yesterday afternoon, leaving boxing fans in the dark as to what will become of our sport. 

Setanta proudly billed itself as ‘The Home of Boxing’, but harsh economic reality dictated that it needed the thousands of football subscribers that English Premiership and Scottish Premiership rights bring.  Unfortunately Sky Sports pick up the most appealing football packages, and Setanta’s promise of wall-to-wall Scottish football left many people cold.

Setanta’s downfall was largely self-architected, they bid a huge amount of money for Scottish Premiership games, and the jig was up when they missed a £3,000,000 payment to the SPL, a further £10,000,000 failed to find its way to the Premier league coffers last week, amidst claims that Setanta were nowhere near the subscription figures required to stay afloat.

What does this mean for boxing?  Well, rumour has it that David Haye’s withdrawal from the proposed Wladimir Klitschko fight was down to a lack of faith in Setanta’s ability to pay him his purse.  Haye’s financial recompense from the fight was linked to Setanta, Wlad had hammered Haye in negotiations, no money from Setanta would mean no fight purse for Haye.

Furthermore, Hayemaker Promotions recently cancelled their Liverpool Olympia show, headliner, and British super middleweight champion, Tony Quigley pulled out of his proposed fight with Brian Magee due to a shoulder injury last week, leading Hayemaker to ditch the entire bill this week.  Another sign that Setanta could no longer afford to maintain its boxing commitment.

Rumour, gossip and denial have been followed by the harsh truth, Setanta’s disappearance from our screens, caused by the company going into administration, with nearly a thousand jobs on the line (Setanta Ireland, Setanta UK and associated call centres will lose staff).

Setanta will not care about its ground staff, they are currently flogging the football packages as quickly as possible in order to recoup some cash, British boxing fans, though, do care about two Setanta employees, Steve Bunce and Andy Kerr, who have been at the forefront of Setanta’s boxing coverage.

Bunce and Kerr have fronted the Steve Bunce Boxing Hour for well over a year now, providing British boxing fans with a magazine show, a television forum in which we can air our views, and twice-weekly, at least, the man himself Steve Bunce has provided us with his legendary rants.  The Boxing Hour has also tried to secure the fights that we wanted to see over in the UK, in recent times this has been a forlorn quest, as Setanta cut back its boxing coverage noticeably in recent months, with the loss of the Haye fight a clear sign that you could stick a fork in the company, it was done.

It means that there are dark times ahead for British boxing fans.  Sky TV have a commitment to boxing, but their flagship show, Friday Fight Night, has been hit-and-miss in recent times, however, there is a chance that Sky, who like to be the dominant market force, will pick up Hayemaker Promotions, who had signed an exclusive deal with Setanta.  One hopes that Sky will manage to do this without upsetting house promoter Frank Warren, who was disappointed when Setanta brought Hayemaker into the fold.

We can only hope that Sky try to pick up the boxing subscribers that Setanta has left behind, with this said a monopoly will leave Sky in the position of not having to provide quality products, they can cherry pick what they show, and they do not have to worry about keeping their heads above water by attracting boxing subscriptions.

ITV’s plan to withdraw from boxing coverage thickens the plot, and thins the schedules, they will pull out when their deal with Mick Hennessey expires, sometime around January. 

The BBC, the broadcaster that we pay for with our TV license (a TV tax in reality), treats boxing with complete and utter disdain, opting to litter its schedules with garish reality TV programmes, second hand news coverage, and a smattering of sports, while ignoring boxing. 

The Beeb are supposed to cover the sporting ‘crown jewels’, yet missed most of the heavyweight reign of Lennox Lewis, a British standard-bearer on the world sporting stage, and they made a complete mess of their previous foray into boxing, signing Audley Harrison for a huge sum in 2000, and then failing to exercise any quality control over his contests.

All in all it is a sorry tale, British broadcasters do not care much for boxing, our sole world champion, Carl Froch, fought his blue chip bout against Jermain Taylor on a flickering live stream. 

We are told that streams are the future for British boxing coverage.  Well, our Internet infrastructure, like everything else over here, is slow, in need of constant updates, and expensive.  British fans cannot hold out much hope for streaming live fights, how can a country that shuts down at midnight cater to a few million boxing fans logging onto a site to watch a stream?  It cannot.  Plus, if we do switch to online coverage, then the ISP providers will likely ramp up charges, trust me, they will find a way to rip us off, knowing that we need our boxing fix.

All said, all done, British boxing coverage hit the floor yesterday, and it is reeling from the blows it has taken, a lot of them are self-inflicted blows.  The average British fan does not expect UK boxers to meet one another in crossroad fights, as the promoters cannot work together, they often prefer to guide their men toward meaningless WBWho title fights without any domestic risk taking. 

Our shows are also hamstrung by high prices, poor transport, and a terrible customer service ethos.  We put on a constant stream of televised mismatches, when the fighters actually manage to make it into the ring, promoters advertise upcoming fights despite the fact that people know the fighters in question are off the bill, the top of the bill is often terrible, and things get worse lower down the bill.  The BBBoC, bless ‘em, keep mandating great scraps for the British title, promoters ditch the belt, skip the purse bids, or grab a meaningless Commonwealth or world title, then move their men on.

In conclusion the problem is a holistic one, promoters have served up warmed up dog food for too long, and the fans are set to pay the price.  Setanta folding is a very bad sign, fans may hope that the noble promoters will gather around the sport and guide it through these rough times, in all likelihood the men at the top will now try to cream as much money as they can from the game, before TV turns out its lights altogether on the sport of boxing.

One thing you can do, though, is show your support for Steve Bunce and Andy Kerr, they tried to help us out, so we should do the same.  Follow the link below to join their Facebook group, there will be a petition coming soon as fans bid to find a new home for the Bunce Boxing Hour.

Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk