Future of Friday Fight Night?

[whicker]

How popular is Friday fight night? As a boxing fan I am glad- very glad- that there is still some regular live action on TV. The days are gone when Eurosport showed midweek bills, BBC seems to have given the sport up all together, and ITV is shows some good fights, but on an irregular basis.

However, there are a couple of flaws with Friday fightnight.

The first is the lack of undercard. A good undercard should get you warmed up, build a bit of excitment for the upcoming fight, and entertain. Sky does show undercard bouts, but these are pre-recorded and shown AFTER the main event. Pre-recorded bouts take a bit of the edge off (especially if they miss out rounds) plus they tend to seem a bit of an anti-climax after the main event. Add that they are often of limited competativeness. I can't really see why any viewer, except the hardcore fan, would sit through these. I wish they would start earlier and show the undercard live, although to do that they would probably need some more exiting bouts on the undercard, which leads to the other issue...

Hit-and-Miss main events. Friday fight night needs a little more consistency . Some of the recent main events have been poor- mostly due to being mismatched.

However, there is also the Prizefighter, which solves both these problems!

[winkveron]

I think they should have it on maybe once a month, but make sure that show is packed with 3 or 4 decent competitive fights, preferably for British or European titles. That would mean there was something to look forward to rather than weekly fights of questionable quality. Another problem that I have mentioned before is the lack of repeats on a Saturday. Usually one at 8am!!! So I work on Friday nights and have no chance to watch the fight unless I set my alarm, whereas on Setanta they show loads of repeats for a week or so after the fight.

[leforge]

It should be every Friday some weeks will be better than others. I rather have boxing on tv than not on.

[demolitiondaley]

If you tune in tonight I'll put a good show on for you when I fight. I'm fighting Ben Harding who I drew against last time I fought him so its a competitive match up. I'm sure I can beat him this time. I'm fitter than him and have improved a lot since I last fought him.

[winkveron]

I think they should have it on maybe once a month, but make sure that show is packed with 3 or 4 decent competitive fights, preferably for British or European titles. That would mean there was something to look forward to rather than weekly fights of questionable quality. Another problem that I have mentioned before is the lack of repeats on a Saturday. Usually one at 8am!!! So I work on Friday nights and have no chance to watch the fight unless I set my alarm, whereas on Setanta they show loads of repeats for a week or so after the fight.

F*ck that! It should be on each week, and it should be good, Sky are not a registered charity, we are paying for this.

Friday's Shite Fights, much better.

So you'd rather watch mediocrity every week than have something to look forward to once a month? If the main UK channels that show boxing (Sky, ITV, Setanta) had a top bill on at least once a month that'd mean there was something decent to look forward every week on one channel or another.

[winkveron]

Why would I pay £42 per month for a single UK boxing show?

You pay £42 a month just for Friday fight night? Wow. You are dedicated. I'd rather get quality over quantity but that's just me.

[whicker]

If you tune in tonight I'll put a good show on for you when I fight. I'm fighting Ben Harding who I drew against last time I fought him so its a competitive match up. I'm sure I can beat him this time. I'm fitter than him and have improved a lot since I last fought him.

Cool- I hope that they show that one on Sky. Boxrec have it down that Ben Harding is fighting Prince George Akrong!

[TheCobra]

Yep Friday Fight Night should defo be on every week, I love it, just needs to be a bit better quality. As was mentioned previously they are letting Fwank Warren put his bills on now and his cards are always mediocre. Warren's top bills can sometimes be good, but in general follow the same pattern of protected fighter vs lesser risk name.

[Autobarn]

I think FFN will be ok - when this promoter/broadcaster fling is well over and the next game of broadcaster/promoter tonsil hockey comes along. Until then, dark days I reckon.

Promoters can't live without the TV dates. So the TV companies should be dictating, with some sense, some economy, some purpose. Commonwealth mismatch week by week and then Khan PPV is pathetic.

[whicker]

I used to enjoy the Eurosport midweek stuff too in the mid 90s. Never massive quality, but never the less it was support for UK small hall bills, and often was an entertaining evenings viewing during the week.

Very rare there are midweek bills in the UK now, unless they are dinner shows. Shame really.

[teddy007]

Can someone please email me a link closer to the time cheers in advance.

[WestEndRiot]

Sky really need to put their foot down over this, preferably have something written in the contracts to ensure we don't get the shite we'll be watching tonight, every week.

And i agree about the undercard, i'm sure their viewing figures would improve too if they aired the show from about 8pm till 11pm, had a couple of decent warm ups, then a competitive, exciting main event to finish.

[chrisfinch]

Sky really need to put their foot down over this, preferably have something written in the contracts to ensure we don't get the shite we'll be watching tonight, every week.

And i agree about the undercard, i'm sure their viewing figures would improve too if they aired the show from about 8pm till 11pm, had a couple of decent warm ups, then a competitive, exciting main event to finish.

Exactly, prime example is me, like I'm sure many others do, watch the main event on Friday Fight Night then switch off or change the channel.

But when itv4 do their Boxing shows, building up to the main event I'll tend to watch the show from the start, watch the undercard then the main event. Arguably the undercards tend to be slightly better on Hennessy's cards, but still.

itv do it similar to what Sky did when it used to be Saturday Fight Night. A couple of undecard fights in preparation for the main event, then earlier undercard highlights if it finishes early.

I'd love to see the ratings hour by hour for FFN, to see how much it drops for the second hour.

[hitman09]

Friday Fight Night is generally pathetic. Even the main events are uncompetitive sometimes (e.g. whenever Kell Brook fights). I'd prefer if sky competed with setanta for world class fights, even ones that don't involve brits, like Margarito v Mosely, Berto v Collazo or Darchinyan v Arce which are far more entertaining

[whiteboy]

definately gone downhill. in september 06 they refused eastman v. elcock??.....that was 10x better than some of the recent stuff....

[chinny]

definately gone downhill. in september 06 they refused eastman v. elcock??.....that was 10x better than some of the recent stuff....

Excellent point, they did didn't they? Has there been a change of management at Sky Sports?

[WildWaylon]

FFN is a joke. Mismatches, journeymen, substandard African fighters as opponents for Commonwealth titles, and main events that should be support events. Then you have the Sky team bigging up the bill trying to make it sound as if we are in for a real treat. Take last night, Cleverley fought an African who had obviously been fighting in a different league and stopped him in a round. After that we had serial losers, one of them was on a losing streak of 21 losses in a row. Pissed off we put a DVD on and watched a film. I can see many boxing fans who take Sky Sports mainly for the boxing saying enough is enough and canceling. Prizefighter isnt much of an event either, but I suppose its better than the crap we have seen recently. In the past FFN was something to look forward to but those days have gone, and most people with something better to do are not bothering with it.

[whicker]

I think the reality is that this is the quality of the average boxing show now- often a very limited main event, with support cards consisting of prospects v journeymen opponents.

Also, notice how the concept of a main support bout has been phased out.

[housesecond]

I cancelled sky the other week. I've had it for years but only ever watched boxing. When they asked me why I was cancelling I said allegedly. I hope they get the message soon and at least try and improve things.
Trouble is, its prizefighter next week, the only FFN worth watching these days, i'll miss it.

[Coco]

I cancelled sky the other week. I've had it for years but only ever watched boxing. When they asked me why I was cancelling I said allegedly allegedly. I hope they get the message soon and at least try and improve things.
Trouble is, its prizefighter next week, the only FFN worth watching these days, i'll miss it.

Watch it on an internet stream!

[whicker]

To be fair, there is a decent run of action coming up-

Prizefighter, then two European titles, then another Barry Hearn one, then Ian Napa in Euro action again, then Burns Gomez (which should be entertaining), and later Marsh V Moran (and english champion challenging for the British title- as it should be.)


I wish they would show a bit of live undercard, too.

[Ketchel_2008]

To be honest I pay Skysports and setanta for boxing and Rugby only. But this Fridays fight night was hard to watch, young kids being hyped up like there the 2nd coming fighting blokes who havent come to win or look good. These fights are definately needed for up and coming novice pro's and if im at a show ill watch them, but beinfg forcefed this shite every week with the sky team telling me how there going to be the next big thing when you can see there not even area level is complete wank. For a flagship programme for boxing it aint going to pickup many new viewers. At least the prizefighter tournament involves 2 men in a ring wanting to win.

[thorpe364]

Maybe sky should invest more in boxing and less into crap like nfl and nascar etc

[Wales]

I wonder what the viewing figures are like tho, I'll wager NFL attracts more viewers than friday fight night