We have long said that more quality boxing needs to be shown on terrestrial TV in order to create more boxing fans and make boxing the popular sport that it once was.
Although ITV are doing a bit to help this cause, there are only going half way. ITV showed the Junior Witter fight, which is great, seeing boxing on free TV is a good thing. However the fight wasn’t good at all and so any non-boxing fan who watched the fight would have walked away thinking that boxing is rubbish and the fights aren’t that exciting.
I guess it was a combination of the fight they choose and what actually happened in the ring. Sometime you can choose the two most exciting fighters but they do not produce an entertaining fight. However when you pick someone like Witter who is known for his cautious “not getting hit” style of boxing, you can hardly expect fireworks. Even Ricky Hatton said that if Witter was fighting in his [Hatton’s] back garden then he’d close the curtains!
In order to bring more fans, and therefore more money, into boxing, QUALITY boxing needs to be shown on TV, not dull and unexciting ones. This will also get more young people involved in boxing and produce more, and hopefully better boxers in the future.
And the fights don’t HAVE to be live. If there is an exciting fight, then buy the fight and play it on TV, the average sports fans will not know the result and even if he does, if its an interesting fight then its worth a watch.
What do you think about boxing on TV?
