Could Sky Take Over Uk Boxing mini UFC style?

[SAPFO]

I read a while ago that Dana was looking to be putting 50 odd shows a year on, hence the need for more talent. Now, I immediately think of over exposure, but then will the majority of these be free shows to hook in a wider audience similar to the WWF/E did/do? With the title fights being the massive unmissable international PPV events?

Dana had a hard-on for the UK at one point and was dieing to make a UK UFC champ so he could stuff us with PPV. He now has a boner for Canada due to GPS Mania !!!


On topic:

Sign with Sky Boxing and get your face on TV!! I am sure all the best boxers would be punching each other for the chance. The promoters could then do the 'prmoting' job and supply this talent. Still take their fee's, just let Sky Boxing matchmake.

Off topic, that does sound like over exposure, doesn't it. And there's something not quite right about all four proposed UK shows in 2011 being scrapped due to lack of available venues. All four?
On topic, I'm all for a meritocracy, the best and most popular fighters earning TV time rather than the current system where a promoter with a deal just sticks his stable on against any old bods. I'm sure the new Sky deals won't allow that. Kathy Duva made a good point in last month's BM: If a fighter isn't attractive at the box office, why expect them to be attractive on TV? It should be an honour, not a right IMO.

Nail on the Head with the it "should be an honour..." quote. Why do Sky ration off the fight nights when they can pick the best fights from the whole stables of UK promoters and force them to work together to make the show. We get better boxing, the promoters get to share the cost, Sky get great figures due to the better show.

[Emmseegee]

I think sky could do a domestic style super six style tournament and throw decent money at it.

Assure the promoters that if theyre boxer wins the tournament they secure 5 televised cards etc
Runner up secures 2 televised cards etc

Surely then the promoters would want to throw in theyre best fighters to secure better tv deals?

[SAPFO]

The problem with that is the richest will buy the best boxers, and then the other boxers will join him when he has a big tv deal leaving the rest behind.

Sky quality control is the answer.

[subsy]

But I do believe that company for company, by which I mean the business end, they are not dissimilar in that both, in their different eras, managed to capture the target audience that has always eluded boxing — and I should point out that I'm not doing a 'boxing vs UFC' thing here, as I'm sure you appreciate. It's not about that at all.

Can certainly agree with that :)

Again, though, you talk in terms of the present. Of course, all mixed martial artists want to get into the UFC today, but as I'm trying to explain I'm looking down the line, maybe five years time or something similar.

Its an interesting thought, whether or not in the future the upper echelon of fighters will still be in the UFC, and others will be aspiring to get there. Thats the situation today, but you are poising the question will it be so in the future?
It could well be that the UFCs success also - through the process that you describe - contributes to the success and growth of rival promotions. I think this is a given - it's already happening now. I just don't think thats a bad thing for the UFC.

Again, using the WWF/E and the Roman Empire as reference points for too much success turning round and biting you in the arse, the problem comes when a monopolistic enterprise takes on so many more mouths that it can't possibly hope to feed them all — in sporting/sports entertainment terms, too many performers for the available TV dates, titles, paydays etc. Those who don't feel they are getting a fair slice of the pie, or even those who just want more, always 'revolt', and quite naturally so. Their lives depend on it. And there will be people, in this case TV companies etc, willing to satisfy the unhappy performers. It's inevitable.

I dont dispute that - we've seen it in many different sports and contexts, but its also already happening to a certain extent in the UFC and MMA generally, and has been for a long while, in various ways. Fighters don't perform consistently and they get cut, and new talent takes their place, thus the quality of fighters in the organization is constantly improving - reflecting the general evolution of the sport. Fighters have left the UFC because theyve not been happy with terms, compensation or whatever (Hendo). Fighters have not joined the UFC for similar reasons (whilst its never been admitted I really cant imagine the UFC never having approached Overeem - someone who has always stipulated he needs to continue to have the ability to fight in different promotions, Dream, K1 etc - and we know the UFC dont play that game)

Please understand, I am not in any way suggesting that the UFC is now in decline. That would be ridiculous given the record crowd it drew in Quebec. What I am saying is that I think the seeds of a decline are there now, for the first time I can see where the cracks might appear in the UFC and why. By absorbing rival promotions, as the WWF/E did, it will in years to come create a rival promotion. And I'm not talking about veteran stars literally, but known ones, fighters with public recognition value (although TNA's roster has both, obviously). I don't mean the likes of Randy, Hendo and spacehopper head Ortiz, these will be fighters we might not even have heard of today (you know how quick Jon Jones's rise to the top has been). And I'm not saying that the rival promotion will wipe the UFC off the face of the earth, TNA hasn't done that to the WWE. But it will make a sizeable impact (excuse the pun) and create an audience that prefers its product to the UFC's, to a level that WEC and Strikeforce never did, although obviously those now-absorbed promotions had their own fans, smaller in number as the case may be.

In a nutshell, the point I've been trying to put across is that monopoly, complete control, is the peak of a promotion's power and from there the only way is down. It's a careful what you wish for thing. Give it five to 10 years, because I've never said this is going to happen overnight, and then we'll see if I'm right or wrong in my reading of the situation.

I think that the type of events you're predicting are indeed likely, but that the impact will not be as catastrophic to the UFC as you may think. I certainly believe the rate of growth of the organization would be impacted, but it would still be huge.
The main reason for me taking this position is what I said previously about sport vs entertainment.
Sure, some fighters will be money oriented, but when it gets to a certain level, money is a given wherever you go, and what drives you is a desire to be the best, by fighting the best. This will always remain constant, so I expect the UFC to remain at the forefront of the sport in order to maintain that position. The latest move is fighter insurance. Next might be pensions, and so on and so on.

[Glyn Leach]

Eff me, reading back on all that I haven't half been prattling on, apologies chaps!

[leforge]

Eff me, reading back on all that I haven't half been prattling on, apologies chaps!

More to the point why were people talking about Wrestling as a sport!

[keithmoonhangover]

Eff me, reading back on all that I haven't half been prattling on, apologies chaps!

More to the point why were people talking about Wrestling as a sport!

This is my kind of wrestling... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLAcBL9_p4 (4:40 is where the fun starts)

Although I was a bit of a Hart Foundation fan back in my late teens!!

[keithmoonhangover]

I think that if Sky were to do something, they should sign 8 or so amatuers and have them all fight in a tourny.

[Glyn Leach]

Eff me, reading back on all that I haven't half been prattling on, apologies chaps!

More to the point why were people talking about Wrestling as a sport!

This is my kind of wrestling... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLAcBL9_p4 (4:40 is where the fun starts)

Although I was a bit of a Hart Foundation fan back in my late teens!!

I was a Degeneration X fan in my 30s, don't feel bad about it Moony

[keithmoonhangover]

More to the point why were people talking about Wrestling as a sport!

This is my kind of wrestling... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeLAcBL9_p4 (4:40 is where the fun starts)

Although I was a bit of a Hart Foundation fan back in my late teens!!

I was a Degeneration X fan in my 30s, don't feel bad about it Moony

nWo all the way me mate.

[SAPFO]

I think that if Sky were to do something, they should sign 8 or so amatuers and have them all fight in a tourny.

Yeah, just like you have to on fight night on the consoles. Earn the right to be a pro!

[keithmoonhangover]

I think that if Sky were to do something, they should sign 8 or so amatuers and have them all fight in a tourny.

Yeah, just like you have to on fight night on the consoles. Earn the right to be a pro!

I suggest a show made to look like an underground fight club. Where fighters are ‘plucked’ from the crowd and compete in a dark dusky gym, with minimal hype and razzmatazz. record it and and coz it’s not live, we can edit the action for maximum effect.