UK boxing news round up.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

I'm liking the rolling updates, really helpful, think I'll bookmark the thread. Johnny Fisher will be on the Birmingham undercard too.

I’ve not watched much (if any) of Fisher tbh. Is he one to keep an eye on? Or just more of a ticket seller?

[BigZ44]

I’ve not watched much (if any) of Fisher tbh. Is he one to keep an eye on? Or just more of a ticket seller?

Big, strong ox, young and has potential. Lots of development to go, but I think he's got a chance to go pretty far. Definitely a ticket seller first right now though, he'll be a huge draw once he gets around British level

[adotd]

I’ve not watched much (if any) of Fisher tbh. Is he one to keep an eye on? Or just more of a ticket seller?

He's exciting but I dont see anything special yet. Just a big ticket seller.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

-Looking likely that Olympic Silver Medalist Ben Whittaker will make his debut on July 2nd on the Fury-Hunter undercard.

-Liam Smith has been made an offer to fight Chris Eubank Jr. Fight would likely be on Sky.

-Dennis Hobson is working on making an EBU title fight between British Champion Tommy Frank current EBU champion Jairo Noriega.

[Dakuwaqa]

Question for my fellow Brits. What platform were matchroom using before Sky?

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Question for my fellow Brits. What platform were matchroom using before Sky?

They weren’t really players in boxing until Eubank came along. Barry was really struggling at the beginning, he had a working relationship with ITV who showed Bruno-Bugner on tape delay but Barry Hearn was never consistently putting on shows. Eubank was his only big star and was regularly televised by ITV and then signed a ?0m deal with Sky after Benn II. Barry always had a good relationship with Sky but he was never the lead promoter on the platform. Frank Warren signed sign Sky in 95 if I remember correctly and he was the main man on the platform up until Sky decided to scale back on boxing in 2011. (I’ll go into more detail on that in a minute as it’s a key part of the Matchroom story.) Throughout the 90’s and 2000’s Matchroom were like a third rate promoter over here. Warren had the majority of stars from Hamed to Calzaghe to Hatton to Khan etc and Frank Maloney was the clear #2 largely because he had Lennox Lewis which gave him a lot of leverage with broadcaster.

Anyway we get to 2011, Haye-Harrison (Eddie’s first involvement in a big promotion ironically enough.) was a complete disaster for Sky and Haye-Klitschko was equally as bad, so as al result Sky decided to completely scale back on boxing and essentially cut it from their product portfolio. Sky essentially only wanted to do the big fights (PPV’s) and weren’t prepared to regularly televise boxing. Frank who had a massive stable of fighters with the likes of DeGale, Groves, Burns, Brook, Bellew, Cleverly, Chisora etc had to find a way to get his fighters dates so he launched Boxnation. This cost Frank millions of his own money. With Boxnation now launched, Sky suddenly had a competitor so decided they needed to reinvest in boxing. With Frank gone they needed a new lead promoter, the original plan was Ricky Hatton but if you remember he was caught snorting ******* in late 2010, Frank Maloney was also going through his or should I say her own personal problems which are well documented. This ostensibly only left Matchroom who’s boxing dept was now being fronted by Eddie. With Sky’s backing they quickly became the #1 promotional outfit in the UK.

It’s crazy how history repeats itself cause Eddie is now in the same position Frank was in 2011 whilst Shalom is the new kid on the block with the might of Sky behind him just like Eddie was a decade ago.

[Dakuwaqa]

They weren’t really players in boxing until Eubank came along. Barry was really struggling at the beginning, he had a working relationship with ITV who showed Bruno-Bugner on tape delay but Barry Hearn was never consistently putting on shows. Eubank was his only big star and was regularly televised by ITV and then signed a ?0m deal with Sky after Benn II. Barry always had a good relationship with Sky but he was never the lead promoter on the platform. Frank Warren signed sign Sky in 95 if I remember correctly and he was the main man on the platform up until Sky decided to scale back on boxing in 2011. (I’ll go into more detail on that in a minute as it’s a key part of the Matchroom story.) Throughout the 90’s and 2000’s Matchroom were like a third rate promoter over here. Warren had the majority of stars from Hamed to Calzaghe to Hatton to Khan etc and Frank Maloney was the clear #2 largely because he had Lennox Lewis which gave him a lot of leverage with broadcaster.

Anyway we get to 2011, Haye-Harrison (Eddie’s first involvement in a big promotion ironically enough.) was a complete disaster for Sky and Haye-Klitschko was equally as bad, so as al result Sky decided to completely scale back on boxing and essentially cut it from their product portfolio. Sky essentially only wanted to do the big fights (PPV’s) and weren’t prepared to regularly televise boxing. Frank who had a massive stable of fighters with the likes of DeGale, Groves, Burns, Brook, Bellew, Cleverly, Chisora etc had to find a way to get his fighters dates so he launched Boxnation. This cost Frank millions of his own money. With Boxnation now launched, Sky suddenly had a competitor so decided they needed to reinvest in boxing. With Frank gone they needed a new lead promoter, the original plan was Ricky Hatton but if you remember he was caught snorting ******* in late 2010, Frank Maloney was also going through his or should I say her own personal problems which are well documented. This ostensibly only left Matchroom who’s boxing dept was now being fronted by Eddie. With Sky’s backing they quickly became the #1 promotional outfit in the UK.

It’s crazy how history repeats itself cause Eddie is now in the same position Frank was in 2011 whilst Shalom is the new kid on the block with the might of Sky behind him just like Eddie was a decade ago.

Really appreciate your post.

Funny thing is I got into boxing in 2009 and was completely oblivious to all this.

I watched all the big fights either streams or video trading block the following day.

Now you have more options. I have DAZN, Sky Sports through Now TV on my phone (? for like 6 months) and BT Sport on my phone too (part of my contract)

I had no idea how big Franks stable was back in 2011. It feels like Matchroom have been the number 1 promotion forever.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Really appreciate your post.

Funny thing is I got into boxing in 2009 and was completely oblivious to all this.

I watched all the big fights either streams or video trading block the following day.

Now you have more options. I have DAZN, Sky Sports through Now TV on my phone (? for like 6 months) and BT Sport on my phone too (part of my contract)

I had no idea how big Franks stable was back in 2011. It feels like Matchroom have been the number 1 promotion forever.

When you’re a newer fan you miss a lot, happens to us all mate.

I remember when I first started following the sport in the 90’s and I didn’t have a clue what was going on really. I remember genuinely thinking Roy Jones, James Toney were scared to come over to the UK and fight Benn or Eubank. It probably took me like 5 years just to understand how the boxing business works tbh. Most confusing sport in the world IMO.

Yeah Matchroom have had a near decade long run now, I always associate Froch-Kessler as the moment they began properly taking over in the UK. Froch-Groves 2 was MASSIVE for them too, that was the fight that finally gave them mainstream appeal.

Yeah Frank pretty much had everyone aside from Froch in around 2009-11. It’s crazy because essentially every big name Hearn had apart from AJ all came from Frank. It’s the pull of Sky though in the next few years you’ll see Hearn’s current starts ending up with Shalom. I’d be amazed if anybody ever managed to shift Sky’s stranglehold on sports multimedia in the UK.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Quick update on a potential Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith fight:

-Offer has been made by Shalom/Sky.
-Contracted weight will be 160.
-Fight will be on Sky Sports rather than Box Office.
-London/Liverpool the two likely sites.

[BigZ44]

Quick update on a potential Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith fight:

-Offer has been made by Shalom/Sky.
-Contracted weight will be 160.
-Fight will be on Sky Sports rather than Box Office.
-London/Liverpool the two likely sites.

Would be cool, but not holding my breath