Prize Fighter - Idea to improve

[jamesmcdonnell]

I am sure I'm not alone in thinking this edition of prizefighter failed to live up to the exceptional levels of excitement of the first, and I wondered what people thought of these ideas to improve the format.

Basically I think that there should be additional prizes on top of first prize.

Each fighter gets £1000 for every knockdown they score.
Each fighter gets £2000 for a knockout
The winner of the most exciting fight of the night gets £5000 for the winner.


There was far too much caution last night, and it wasn't until the final it really came alive.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Thats an excellent idea James. I never thought about that but that would be an extra incentive to
get them swinging!

[03mcgs0]

Yes I got to say it didn't quite live up to the last one, but there wasn't any interesting characters such as Martin Rogan in it, Rogan really made the last prizefighter.

But it just didn't have the same spark as the last one had, I'll be waiting in interest for the lighter weights categories

[DG.]

I am sure I'm not alone in thinking this edition of prizefighter failed to live up to the exceptional levels of excitement of the first, and I wondered what people thought of these ideas to improve the format.

Basically I think that there should be additional prizes on top of first prize.

Each fighter gets £1000 for every knockdown they score.
Each fighter gets £2000 for a knockout
The winner of the most exciting fight of the night gets £5000 for the winner.


There was far too much caution last night, and it wasn't until the final it really came alive.

Great ideas...but whose paying for it?

Very 'UFC' style and will make for much better fights!

[TerribleTerry]

Its an intrinsic problem with the single night 8 man tournament format that, unfortunately, fighters will temper their output with an eye on the next round fight.

It is a problem that both K1 competition and early MMA promotions have had to look to overcome. In the most part the best way to avoid stale early matches is to have each round of the tournament take place on consecutive fight cards, not all in the same night.

Fight of the night, KO and Knockdown bonuses are a good idea to try and off set the caution otherwise displayed in early rounds but it is difficult to overcome in truth.

I think the first tournament benefitted from its originality - the lads just went in there and let it all hang out for 3 rounds. Last night's and future tournaments could be let down by tactical boxing where fighter look to avoid defeat rather then go out all gun's blazing to win..

[stujones]

The York Hall certainly adds to the atmopshere, and that gets the fighters going. Might be though a touch of the "big Brother" about it.... never replicate the original. I do think each weight should be an annual thing.

[charlieb]

The first one was shite to be honest, this one was even worse.

I love the idea of a tournament, great that it's condensed into an evening, real shame it's let down by it's lack of talent.

[DG.]

I have to agree about the lack of talent.

Dave Sexton basically won because he made sure to win the forst 2 rounds and was happy no matter how he did it.

The 1st PF lacked finesse but was way more exciting as a spectacle.

Good ideas JM - something needs to be done before the next tournament because if it is like last nights then it will not gain momentum.

[1southpaw]

why dont they do this but with the top 16 in the world at least it would get the top boy's fighting each other but have the final over 8 rounds on a different night say 2 weeks later on the next show in that area

[metropol]

why dont they do this but with the top 16 in the world at least it would get the top boy's fighting each other but have the final over 8 rounds on a different night say 2 weeks later on the next show in that area

I dont think that will ever happen.

[Loftgroov]

I thought the first Prizefighter was shite, and so was this.

Pele Reid was absolutely dreadful, and none of them competing look in particularly good nick. I'm not suggesting they all need to be high calibre, super conditioned fighters - but frankly some of them are in woeful conditon e.g. Billy Bessey in the fight Prizefighter.

Its just a bit too much of a circus really, and if I want to see fat blokes swinging a few punches at each other, I'll head into the city centre on a Saturday night and sit on a bench.

Good "council estate" entertainment I suppose - and gives the Darts crowd something different to watch - but as per the Big Brother comparison above, I think it'll all fizzle out. It probably won't work with lower weight catagories anyway as they'll be less chance of knockouts etc over a mere 3 round contest with everything going to decision.

[Asterix]

Good "council estate" entertainment I suppose - and gives the Darts crowd something different to watch - but as per the Big Brother comparison above, I think it'll all fizzle out. It probably won't work with lower weight catagories anyway as they'll be less chance of knockouts etc over a mere 3 round contest with everything going to decision.

I'm not sure whether to be offended or not. Are you insulting me for liking Prizefighter?

[rhino222]

hey..lets cut the cynacism a bit. its not about the quality of the fighters, if 2 fighters are evenly matched it makes for a good duel, even if they are both shite...

i think last nights competition was not as exciting as the first because:

the fighters knew the format of the competition, and how 2 pace themselves, the first prizefighter everyone was knackered, but i liked swabys words......'you go in there with a plan but just cant help loading up' ....

there was no real crap on show last night, the likes of ibbs in the first PF was crap and definately gonna get KO'd. ingleby was prob the worst last night but he showed a big heart.

all in all i think the purses should be dropped just a little, and this would free up a few 'k' for KD and KO bonuses. then the boys would swing !!!

[whicker]

As already mentioned, they need better fighters- keen, up and coming prospects for example- and not heavyweights, either.

The drawback of this was that some of the fighters- with no disrespect to them- were at the tail ends of their career, and had rather weak records.

[tonyevs]

I don`t really think they need better skilled fighters ... that would just make for an amateur style 3rnd fight picking points up.
The 1st Prizefighter had more action because it had a group of good basic old fashioned brawlers .. nothing too fancy. I think some of the guys in it lastnight saw what was needed to win in the 1st series and employed more tactics in this series.

I think an xtra something for those in `fight of the night` could work, but overall I like the format .. maybe it just needs the right fighters that would suit the format.

Yet again the winner has a former tough lt-welter in their corner .. and the loser has ... :(

I can`t wait for the next one.

[stujones]

James.... your idea's a good, but I think essentially a no-goer cause of possible corruption.

Whats stopping the boxers discussing before hand.... go down loads of times and we'll split the purse. Easy to make a fight exiting as my old man once did in the fair with his mate. Got declared fight of the night and got a standing ovation - but they were basically punching each other like the pro wrestlers do.

[glahn]

The fighters weren't as good or as entertaining style-wise this time. I think you could predict it wouldn't be as good as the first just looking at the competitors. You need some more fighters who have something on the line (like an unbeaten record) than blown up cruisers and gatekeepers.

[DG.]

all in all i think the purses should be dropped just a little, and this would free up a few 'k' for KD and KO bonuses. then the boys would swing !!!

plus on top of that you dont have to pay £14.99 for less then a minutes action [/quote]


When was this £14.99 less than a minute fight?

[whicker]

why should the purses be dropped? id say for say a british/euro title fight and the chief support(thats without the supprting bouts) the purses for that would be around the same about £60,000 prize money what is up for grabs in the prizefighter tournament the publicity prizefighter gets the chat it gets on the anoraks forums and i bet the viewing figures exceed a normal title fight

I think the suggestion was that the prize money itself was reduced a little, but cash bonuses were made available to those fighters who managed to score knockdowns, knockouts, stoppages etc.

IE the ammount of money up for grabs is the same, but the way it is distributed is slightly different.

That said, any fight in which fighters are encouraged a little TOO much to go for knockouts could be a bit dangerous. After all, defence is part of professional boxing. If you have two guys going hell for leather trying just to get knockdowns and KOs it might be a bit too risky.


OK- my suggestion would be to have the tournemnt on a "rolling" system over several weeks.

Then the final at one weight could have the the semis of the another weight, and the first round of a different weight as the undercard.

IE, once it was up and rolling, the show could be-

Main event- Final of the Heavys (decide maybe on previous undercards)
Cheif Support- The two Welters semis. ( likewise)
undercard- the first round of featherweights.

Then two weeks later

Main Event- Final of the Welters
Cheif Support - Semis for the Feathers
undercard- First round of a new heavyweight tournament.

Two weeks later-

Main Event- Final of the Feathers
Support - Heavyweight semis
Undercard- new tournemnet with Middleweights

[rhino222]

whicker, that is an excellent idea, with at least 28 days between the dates so that anyone cut has time to heal..

[steve689]

I've only skimmed over the previous offerings so forgive me if i replicate anything.

I am in favour of a "tournament" maybe spanning a few weeks, similar to the IBO one that Showtime ran a while back.

Maybe they could get 8 fighters involved and have them all fight on the same night over say 8/10 rounds. The four winners then box off say 4 to 6 weeks later over 10 rounds again and then 4 to 6 weeks later the final over 12 rounds.

Okay so cuts etc would be a problem or injured fighters but even if one fighter gets injured then his opponent could contest a six rounder -on the card they are meant to facing each other on- while waiting for the opponent to recover.

It would need tweaking but maybe the longer distances could get a fairer reflection of the boxer's abilities, whilst admittedly failing to recreate the one punch excitement of the 3x3's in one night.

[Asterix]

I've only skimmed over the previous offerings so forgive me if i replicate anything.

I am in favour of a "tournament" maybe spanning a few weeks, similar to the IBO one that Showtime ran a while back.

Maybe they could get 8 fighters involved and have them all fight on the same night over say 8/10 rounds. The four winners then box off say 4 to 6 weeks later over 10 rounds again and then 4 to 6 weeks later the final over 12 rounds.

Okay so cuts etc would be a problem or injured fighters but even if one fighter gets injured then his opponent could contest a six rounder -on the card they are meant to facing each other on- while waiting for the opponent to recover.

It would need tweaking but maybe the longer distances could get a fairer reflection of the boxer's abilities, whilst admittedly failing to recreate the one punch excitement of the 3x3's in one night.

I think you're turning the idea into The Contender.

[steve689]

I've never watched an episode of the contender so my intentions are honourable 8)

[stujones]

Part of its appeal is that there is a "winner" on the night.... but, whether it is via the name prize fighter or via another thing - I would love to see the idea of a "british cup" ala the French cup... with the winner being mandatory for the British title.

So the final would be a 10 round affair.

[WildWaylon]

I picked the two who fought in the final before it started and I am sure others did. My wife said afterwards why did they bother with all the other guys if it was that easy to pick the finalists? She then asked why journeymen were in the contest when they stood no chance of winning. Yep the last one was far better.