The Tragedy of Televised Boxing in The UK

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

In recent months, boxing fans from the UK have had to endure a serious reduction in the amount of boxing shown on their television sets. The principal reason is the demise of the widely regarded 'Setanta Sports' channel, which attempted to give boxing as much coverage as possible. [details]

[Sαntα]

I miss the days of ITV4 boxing.

[HeartAttack]

it was the great grassroots televised fights that makes such big stars of British/Irish/Scottish (Commonwealth, whatever the fuck you all call it these days) fighters. Televising the amateur fights and making them notable guys once they turn pro is HUGE in developing them as stars early on so you can just focus on developing them as fighters and not having to protect them too much, actually being willing to take a chance however small it may be. In America we do the same thing to a much bigger level with amateurs of other sports.
We televise College Football almost every day, we do televise college basketball every day though it lacks the cult status and blind worship (Sadly I am one who watches it religiously) of college football. We see college baseball all the time and the world series is a big deal come spring time. Hell when the amateurs get drafted we televise days worth of those and throw parties (yes once again I'm guilty of such) and follow every move the young professionals make. Boxing on a global level lacks this. It didn't, back in the 60's and 70's and early 80's the amateurs were on network TV knocking the shit out of each other.
However, boxing on the amatuer level sucks and isn't anything like the pro style. Some amateur fights are exciting, but you see the score and wonder what the fuck these judges are seeing and how if one guy lands the other shot, how does the other guy get credit for it, by blocking the punch with his face? Amateur boxing is a total joke (This isn't American bias, my favorite amateur fighters come out of Africa usually because some of those kids just destroy the midsection of their opponents and beat the piss out of them and then lose a decision to a totally beat French bastard). We've totally lost the grassroots exposure of the sport. And now Britain has as well.
I feel for you all, while your commentators are quite possibly the worst I've ever heard with limited to no knowledge and a shit-ton of bias. But that's why God gave me a mute button. Your fighters give it their all and the fans are the most passionate. Good luck recovering, I sincerely hope one of your networks realize just how valuable the fights can be to their programming and their bottom line. I've been wishing a big network here would come to that realization as well.

[Sroey]

Great article and this further highlights the BBCs monopoly on TV. We HAVE to pay a licence fee to watch TV. Yet this only applies to BBC channels - teh amount of channels out there dwarfs the BBC channels yet we have to pay just for those few. Its a disgrace. BBC shows some crap on TV.

The amount of crappy period dramas we get fed that all seem the same and we could have had some quality British boxing. Alot of the good young amateurs who have now turned pro could have big appeal if we had followed there careers properly.

I think the BBC were burned by the Audley Harrison farce - they paid him millions (approx) in a mega TV deal and look what happened with him! he fought tomato cans.

Setanta were not perfect but there boxing coverage was quality and was the best out there (for the UK anyway).

[Davros?]

I understand why the BBC picked up F1 as the last few years have been excellent and its popularity in the UK has grown F1 is just more popular than boxing in the uk now, but this year has been rubbish. BBC used to show loads of boxing I believe every Saturday evening they used to shown an event including the big American fights but that has now gone. It’s a shame as the BBC show a lot of really bad sports but wont put boxing on, I heard that the BBC offered 100,000k for the Froch fight but were turned down, I don’t know how true that is. The Froch PPV will do terrible numbers. Without mainstream coverage boxing will have a hard time attracting new fans a bit like in America.

[Joe2608]

Setanta was brilliant, Cotto - Margarito was epic on Setanta. They used to show championship boxing nearly every week.

I think the problem is so many British fighters fight crap fighters most of their career, get hyped and then get owned when they step up in class and i think they have lost faith in them as it would probably lose them money. There is no real star in British boxing anymore who is exciting and the complete package. Lennox Lewis was the last great boxer we had. Ricky Hatton looked like he could do it for a bit but after the Mayweather fight it was game over.