boxing on ITV

Old bones Ian · Post by **Old bones Ian** » 29 Jun 2005, 04:51

ITV is hopeful of signing a long-term deal with allegedly's stable of boxers this week, as part of an ambitious attempt to re-establish the sport among a mass audience after a long absence from its schedules.
The broadcaster's controller of sport Mark Sharman has been negotiating for weeks with Warren, whose hand was strengthened by the positive public and media reaction to Ricky Hatton's epic win over Kostya Tszyu.

though ITV insiders cautioned that the agreement was yet to be signed and that there was still room for negotiation over a number of last-minute details that could prove to be "deal-breakers", it is understood that the two sides are close to an agreement. One insider said that negotiations had reached a "critical stage".
The deal with Warren is believed to be for about 20 fights a year. The biggest of these clashes will be shown on the main ITV1 network, with some of the less high-profile fights broadcast on ITV2 or used to help launch the new channel ITV4 later this year.

Warren also looks after Joe Calzaghe and the fledgling professional career of the Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan. His existing deal with BSkyB finishes at the end of this month.

The boxing promoter said yesterday that he would sit down with Hatton this week to discuss an opponent for the first defence of his IBF light-welterweight crown, won in Manchester this month.

He confirmed that there were no contractual obstacles to a clash with the WBC champion Floyd Mayweather further down the line. But it is conceivable that the ITV deal would see any such clash pushed back in order to protect Hatton's record and build up expectation.

ITV pulled out of boxing after the clash between Nigel Benn and Gerald McClellan in February 1995 which left McClellan blind and brain-damaged. But last month 6.3m viewers tuned in when the network showed Khan's final outing as an amateur, and it is expected to screen his first fight as a professional next month.

article from the guardian

nickd · Post by **nickd** » 29 Jun 2005, 04:54

Hatton's record has had enough protecting before the Tszyu fight, lets see the big fights now FFS.

pasty_spud · Post by **pasty_spud** » 29 Jun 2005, 05:31

warren said on 5live yesterday morning that hatton will NOT be fighting mayweather this year and that hatton isn't contracted to showtime in the states,which suprised me

as for protecting his record....a strange one that,i'm guessing ITV will want it's 2 biggest stars (hatton/calzaghe) to fight 4 times ayear between them, so if hatton was to go in with mayweather first and loses then he might not fight again for a while...... or something like that

nickd · Post by **nickd** » 29 Jun 2005, 05:39

pasty_spud wrote:warren said on 5live yesterday morning that hatton will NOT be fighting mayweather this year and that hatton isn't contracted to showtime in the states,which suprised me

as for protecting his record....a strange one that,i'm guessing ITV will want it's 2 biggest stars (hatton/calzaghe) to fight 4 times ayear between them, so if hatton was to go in with mayweather first and loses then he might not fight again for a while...... or something like that

Calzaghe fight 4 times a year? Come on!! ;)

Allegedly is not keen on the Hatton v Mayweather fight it seems.

dondada · Post by **dondada** » 29 Jun 2005, 06:42

I read something recently which said the target demographic of ITV4 is going to be men. Apparently ITV2 is slanted to women and ITV3 towards the more mature viewer.

So the fight game would sit well with the new channel.

Coconut · Post by **Coconut** » 29 Jun 2005, 06:51

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:I read something recently which said the target demographic of ITV4 is going to be men. Apparently ITV2 is slanted to women and ITV3 towards the more mature viewer.

As a 75-year-old transsexual, I'm in something of a quandry here

dookus · Post by **dookus** » 29 Jun 2005, 08:29

Coconut wrote:
Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:I read something recently which said the target demographic of ITV4 is going to be men. Apparently ITV2 is slanted to women and ITV3 towards the more mature viewer.

As a 75-year-old transsexual, I'm in something of a quandry here

hahahahahaahahah

nickd · Post by **nickd** » 29 Jun 2005, 08:31

Coconut wrote:
Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:I read something recently which said the target demographic of ITV4 is going to be men. Apparently ITV2 is slanted to women and ITV3 towards the more mature viewer.

As a 75-year-old transsexual, I'm in something of a quandry here

Me too, how about dinner friday night?

Old bones Ian · Post by **Old bones Ian** » 29 Jun 2005, 09:51

nickd wrote:
Coconut wrote:
Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:I read something recently which said the target demographic of ITV4 is going to be men. Apparently ITV2 is slanted to women and ITV3 towards the more mature viewer.

As a 75-year-old transsexual, I'm in something of a quandry here
Me too, how about dinner friday night?

well if you both are , that should make the next Boxrec pub meet entertaining!!

J · Post by J » 29 Jun 2005, 09:55

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote: Apparently ITV2 is slanted to women and ITV3 towards the more mature viewer.

wondered why you kept flicking the channel to ITV 3 all the friggin time, its those repeated episodes of "the high road" that did werent it

nickd · Post by **nickd** » 29 Jun 2005, 10:58

topper123 wrote:
nickd wrote:
Coconut wrote:
As a 75-year-old transsexual, I'm in something of a quandry here
Me too, how about dinner friday night?
well if you both are , that should make the next Boxrec pub meet entertaining!!

I'm not a tranny, I'm in a quandry too!! ;)

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 29 Jun 2005, 11:23

Great news for UK boxing fans this.

You can already see Sky are franticly looking elsewhere to keep their boxing subscribers happy - even more so with the upcoming price rise.

They've got world title fight from Japan scheduled this Friday, plus Lacy/Reid live.

split_decision · Post by **split_decision** » 29 Jun 2005, 19:12

So how do Froch / Witter figure in all of this seeing as theyre on ITV next week?

steve689 · Post by **steve689** » 30 Jun 2005, 04:50

Has anyone got a schedule of what Boxing is on ITV, SKY, Eurosport etc within the next few weeks...i don't want to miss anything but i am too lazy to go looking for the schedules myself

kevin · Post by **kevin** » 30 Jun 2005, 05:38

Ask Real_Deal he spends 24 hours of his time checking..

His webpage is myboxingpage.com, not sure if he has updated

Kev[/i]

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 30 Jun 2005, 13:51

steve689 wrote:Has anyone got a schedule of what Boxing is on ITV, SKY, Eurosport etc within the next few weeks...i don't want to miss anything but i am too lazy to go looking for the schedules myself

SKY

July 1 WBA Super-Flyweight title
Martin Castillo v Hideyasu Ishihara SS1 18.00 Nagoya, Japan

July 8 British Light-Middleweight title
Michael Jones v Jamie Moore SS1 22.00 Altrincham LC, Altrincham

July 17 World Middleweight title
Bernard Hopkins v Jermain Taylor
WBC Super-Bantamweight title
Oscar Larios v Wayne McCullough SS1
02.00 MGM Grand, Las Vegas

Jul 22 British/C-Wealth Cruiserweight title
Mark Hobson v David Haye SS1 22.00 Huddersfield LC, Huddersfield

Aug 7 IBF Super-Middleweight title
Jeff Lacy v Robin Reid SS1 02.00

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 30 Jun 2005, 14:10

Rob Reid vs Jeff Lacy Live, well done sky. Might not be pretty but an interesting fight - undercard is a little bear at the moment though.

Max Molyneux · Post by **Max Molyneux** » 01 Jul 2005, 09:29

Itv's signed the deal according to bbc sport. Ok article but they should of had Hatton with his IBF belt instead of the WBU one!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/4641585.stm

Wonder if any other non SN shows will be on ITV like Woods defence against Gonzalez.

leforge · Post by **leforge** » 01 Jul 2005, 10:09

I think sky might show as fight academy next show is on sky.

Hopefully williams v Skelton on one and Jennings v vincent on itv 2.

This is good for boxing sky will now show other promoters and more world boxing like they did in the past.

split_decision · Post by **split_decision** » 01 Jul 2005, 11:04

Max Molyneux wrote:Itv's signed the deal according to bbc sport. Ok article but they should of had Hatton with his IBF belt instead of the WBU one!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/4641585.stm

Wonder if any other non SN shows will be on ITV like Woods defence against Gonzalez.

Yeah I would say judging by Clinton's appearance on Fight Night last week he's on board with Sky.

After the lean few years we've had for boxing on TV over here, the next few months look set to be better than ever. I just hope viewing figures are good enough that the TV companies continue with it.

Syntax Error · Post by **Syntax Error** » 01 Jul 2005, 15:32

At last!!!!!

Brings back memories of when I used to get up a 4am to watch Tyson destroying some hapless 80's heavyweight & also the big fights with Eubank, Benn & Watson in the early 90's!!!! 8)

Bushman · Post by **Bushman** » 01 Jul 2005, 16:32

About time too. As Syntax_error said lets hope we can get to the big fights of the early nineties, which is what got me into boxing in the first place.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 01 Jul 2005, 18:02

I'll do it again.

Du Du Du Dee Dummm Du Du du .

witherspoon · Post by **witherspoon** » 02 Jul 2005, 03:18

pasty_spud wrote:warren said on 5live yesterday morning that hatton will NOT be fighting mayweather this year and that hatton isn't contracted to showtime in the states,which suprised me

as for protecting his record....a strange one that,i'm guessing ITV will want it's 2 biggest stars (hatton/calzaghe) to fight 4 times ayear between them, so if hatton was to go in with mayweather first and loses then he might not fight again for a while...... or something like that

Sounds about right, itv/warren will milk hatton for every penny at minimal risk. What price a series of the contender featuring the best 16 welters/light-welters? Can you imagine? Stuff of dreams. (how else to get the most talented bunch of fighters around to face off?)

steve689 · Post by **steve689** » 02 Jul 2005, 04:17

Cheers for the schedule

Isn't Froch-Barney and Witter-Kotelnik being shown on anything?