By Lucian Parfitt (Photo by Craig Prentis)

As boxing becomes a increasingly marginalized sport in Britain I am tired of hearing a poor heavyweight division is to blame for Boxing’s recent depression. In the late 80s and early 90s there was not a single noteworthy English heavyweight to speak of bar frank Bruno and yet boxing was bigger than ever. The domestic middleweight wars between Benn, Eubank and co. were garnering 12 million plus viewing figures, now 1.8 million for Clinton Wood’s recent world title tilt is seen as a success!

Boxing in England has always been known as the sport where ‘ a man can come from nothing, to be something’ as good ol ‘enry (cooper) puts it. Is boxing’s decline simply a signature of modern society, could it be that there is simply not as many people with nothing, therefore significantly narrowing boxing’s potential gene pool.

I would point to another factor. For any sport to be popular, it is vital that the public are able to see it, which is a desperate challenge for any British fight fan. If you are not willing to pay out the monthly bill to Sky sports then you are greeted with a barren wasteland of poor late night titles like Channel 4’s dreaded ‘KOTV’. The BBC has decided to stop showing professional boxing all together, as did ITV in the mid nineties. It was ITV that broadcasted almost every fight worth watching in the late eighties and early nineties, and with great success. It was ITV that helped make Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank the household names they are now.

Regrettably, the amount of boxing on terrestrial TV in England is depressing for any enthusiast, especially as when it IS shown it seems to have garner great success. Amir Khan’s road to the Olympic final acquired excellent viewing figures, as did Audley Harrison’s gold medal triumph in 2000. The BBC has answered this success with the most simplistic of strategies. There response has been simply to focus on the amateur side of the sport, but the general sports fan that enjoyed Amir and Audley’s glamorous Olympic triumphs are hardly going be engrossed by a dose of the ABA finals at York Hall. What the BBC has apparently not thought is that maybe this shows an interest for the sport in general; maybe if they gave prospects like David Haye, Carl Froch and Audley Harrison continued exposure it would reap dividends In the long run.

It’s through bad management that the BBC’s commitment to Boxing in 2000 failed, Firstly they signed Audley Harrison as a headline act. This decision was taken despite knowing that he would have to feast on journeymen to get his pro education. To confound this decision, when Harrison got beyond this pro pubescent stage they dropped him! Therefore getting nothing back from their million pound investment (admittedly injury has hindered Harrison since then). To build on the Harrison mistake they also let go what was a strong grip on the interesting domestic heavyweight scene. At one point the BBC had Harrison, Herbie Hide, Michael Sprott, and Danny Williams all signed up. This could have led to some high profile match ups. Sadly all those, bar the now US based Harrison and AWOL Hide, are now signed to frank Warren’s Sports Network.

This strikes me as missed opportunity, not only for the BBC but for Boxing. If the BBC had the aptitude to set up a tournament between those four in 2003 it would have brought some much needed attention back to the sport. The BBC had recently been a shining light in terms of boxing coverage, showing many of the big US fights as well. However, blessed with a silk purse product, such as the De La Hoya-Vargas’ showdown, they ruined it with poor presentation and analysis. For example the De La Hoya-Vargas fight was presented by ‘working Lunch’s’ infinitely annoying Adrian Chiles. Seemingly random rounds of action were cut out, a dramatically overblown HBO trailer was all we got in the way of pre-fight build up, and the whole coverage was undermined by the commentary of Jim Neilly, a solid citizen for domestic coverage but not for top fights stateside.

I still cringe at the way the BBC handled those overseas fights. John Conteh’s stint as BBC analyst was gravely short lived. Listening to him quite obviously reach out and beyond the realms of his knowledge during the Clinton Woods Roy Jones fight analysis was truly painful. However, recently the BBC had shown signs of getting it right. Usually calling on the able John Rawling for foreign excursions and placing the program, not mish mashed between bowls and super bikes on Sunday Grandstand, but in a late night slot on Sunday Evenings.

Sky Sports’ coverage has always been more professional and they now show many of the big overseas fights, but it is not going to get new fans attracted to the sport with the action tucked away on pay TV. With the BBC opting out of professional boxing the sports future looks bleak, but with so many missed opportunities it is certainly a case of what might have been. Imagine if any two of Williams, Harrison, and Hide had fought live on prime time. What if Clinton Woods or Howard Eastman got a crack at Joe Calzaghe’s WBO title live on the BBC, what if the BBC’s projected signing of Ricky Hatton came off. Sadly we can only imagine what might have been, but I can not help thinking there would have a few more household names in England from the world of boxing if some of these mentioned possibilities became reality.