We need a Naz or Eubank to get boxing buzzing again

[Boxing Addict]

These two brought non-boxing fans into it nevermind us hardcore fans

there are no characters anymore, nothing out of the ordinary

[dazzer]

I agree, but really we need 50/50 fights. fed up of watching the beat downs

[Quixall]

Erm, we do have another Eubank.

We do sir, but i tell you this, he is an imposter, for whilst he does share ones genes, there is only one Eubank........

I bid you goodnight

Yours

Chris Eubank Snr

[milpool]

What boxing needs is a Naz or Eubank AND regular terrestrial TV coverage...although the reasons for why terrestrial channels aren't interested has been discussed at length.
Channel 5 do a sterling job but it's the BBC or ITV that would get the boxing juices flowing again for the casual fan.

[tonyevs]

We do not need another Naz or Eubank.
They were the two guys that started us on the slippery slope of Sky.

They took their boxing off our ordinary TV station. They fought a majority of their defences against 2nd or 3rd rate opposition.
What boxing needs is another Benn.
Even against poor opposition you expected fireworks & excitement. Whilst with A Naz or Eubank you would all too often be questioning yourself after a round or so why you were bothering to watch.

Another young Nigel Benn. I'm so glad he came around before Sky could steal his best years.

[Mimmy]

We do not need another Naz, and we do have a Eubank. This will be a good year for Jr im sure just hope hes good as his dad but he has a lot to stand up to.

[milpool]

We do not need another Naz or Eubank.
They were the two guys that started us on the slippery slope of Sky.

They took their boxing off our ordinary TV station. They fought a majority of their defences against 2nd or 3rd rate opposition.
What boxing needs is another Benn.
Even against poor opposition you expected fireworks & excitement. Whilst with A Naz or Eubank you would all too often be questioning yourself after a round or so why you were bothering to watch.

Another young Nigel Benn. I'm so glad he came around before Sky could steal his best years.

Some good points, although my comment was based on the fact that both Naz and Eubank were household names that got people talking about boxing again.
You're spot on about having another Nigel Benn, he was a crowd pleaser and a people's champion.

I think what we all agree is that what boxing needs is to sort itself out in general.

[Wrists]

We do not need another Naz or Eubank.
They were the two guys that started us on the slippery slope of Sky.

They took their boxing off our ordinary TV station. They fought a majority of their defences against 2nd or 3rd rate opposition.
What boxing needs is another Benn.
Even against poor opposition you expected fireworks & excitement. Whilst with A Naz or Eubank you would all too often be questioning yourself after a round or so why you were bothering to watch.

Another young Nigel Benn. I'm so glad he came around before Sky could steal his best years.

Ingle, Kelley, McCullogh, Vasquez, Barrera, Sanchez, Bungu - hardly second rate

Chuck in Badillo as well and you have a decent dance card

One of the biggest myths thats been allowed to develop about Naz is that he fought poor opposition. The fact is he didnt and its a shame that people continue to say that he did.

I for one believe the OP is correct, Boxing, British Boxing especially needs a fighter with skill and charisma to come through right now IMO

[Captain Hook]

We need the great young fighters we have in this country to get the exposure they so richly deserve.....Brook, Burns, Groves, Quigg etc

Should all be household names. They're not.

[Captain Hook]

We do not need another Naz or Eubank.
They were the two guys that started us on the slippery slope of Sky.

They took their boxing off our ordinary TV station. They fought a majority of their defences against 2nd or 3rd rate opposition.
What boxing needs is another Benn.
Even against poor opposition you expected fireworks & excitement. Whilst with A Naz or Eubank you would all too often be questioning yourself after a round or so why you were bothering to watch.

Another young Nigel Benn. I'm so glad he came around before Sky could steal his best years.

Ingle, Kelley, McCullogh, Vasquez, Barrera, Sanchez, Bungu - hardly second rate

Chuck in Badillo as well and you have a decent dance card

One of the biggest myths thats been allowed to develop about Naz is that he fought poor opposition. The fact is he didnt and its a shame that people continue to say that he did.

I for one believe the OP is correct, Boxing, British Boxing especially needs a fighter with skill and charisma to come through right now IMO

Let's not forget Johnson and Robinson were both world champs when Naz fought and beat them, and Belcastro was made to look like a three-fight amateur

[stujones]

Boxing CLEARLY needs investment. 2011 was a very poor year domestically as far as I am concerned. The sport has been futher isolated with the mainstream. Sky pulled the plug on a promised PPV (okay, good for the fans about PPV - but all the same worrying that they told a "star" fighter to get stuffed 1 week before the fight -potentially jepordising a relationship with one of only 3 promoters who work regularly with the channel and the arguably the biggest promoter in the world with GBP).

Worrying that boxing schedule is getting more and more sporadic on Sky, with the only thing getting regular, consistent, air time is prizefighter.

All these are worrying, but they are walks in the park compared to rumoured non-payment to boxers and British (supposedly the cheap options) world title fights being rejected for not being enough money. If Burns vs Rees cannot be made, how the hell is Burns vs Marquez - and it aint just with that one promoter.

Might sound controvesial, but what I think boxing needs is for Carl King (or somebody) to really re-ignite DKP. I don't think its co-incidental that the less impact DKP has on world boxing, the less interest seen in the sport in the media.

[stujones]

We need the great young fighters we have in this country to get the exposure they so richly deserve.....Brook, Burns, Groves, Quigg etc

Should all be household names. They're not.

Yes they should be, but I think we would be kidding ourselves a little if we thought most of those names (infact, probably all of them) would be household names in practically any "golden" era.

Where the likes of Pat Clinton, Eamonn Loughran, Michael Carruth, Spencer Oliver, Billy Hardy, Crisanto Espania etc truly household names of the "golden era" of the mid 90's.

We've only had 10 tops truly household names of active fighters in the pre Sky era. Benn, Eubank, Bruno, Naz, Robinson and a few others. Ask anyone in the street mid 30's and upwards name me one British Middleweight champion of the mid 90's and I'm sure you'll get a blank response.

[Captain Hook]

I don't dispute that Stu, they wouldn't be, but decent fighters in the 1980s (people like Jim McDonnell and Duke McKenzie) were well known because they were on TV

And then Eubank and Naz were regularly on Sky in the 90s and given a big marketing push

The lads I've mentioned are of a top standard, or at least have the potential to be world champs, or contenders. Unless there is the investment you mention they'll be virtually unknown. Burns was already a champ, and he's not a 'name' ... he should be.

If not for the Olympics, would Khan be presenting Pride of Britain Awards? Or would he be at the same celebrity level as Froch, who has never been on prime time terrestrial TV receiving plaudits and mixing with the great and the good?

Ask 50% of the people on the street who Carl Froch is and they'll look at you with a blank expression. Then again, ask them who David Cameron is and you'll get the same bemused response.

[Captain Hook]

...then again, The Cobra started out on the Beeb and that went tats-up... shame he never got to capitalise on that early good start.

[mrbassie]

You could have 10 Naz/Eubank's and it wouldn't be the same because nobody would ever get to know who they are. I doubt SSN and a brief mention in some shitty tabloid every now and then will make up for no exposure on terrestrial.

[Captain Hook]

...then again, The Cobra started out on the Beeb and that went tats-up... shame he never got to capitalise on that early good start.

Then again, he got the big fights, couldn't have fought better, especially if he faces Bute this year as planned.... just not received the acclaim he deserves for being one of the best UK world champs of his generation

[stujones]

I don't dispute that Stu, they wouldn't be, but decent fighters in the 1980s (people like Jim McDonnell and Duke McKenzie) were well known because they were on TV

And then Eubank and Naz were regularly on Sky in the 90s and given a big marketing push

The lads I've mentioned are of a top standard, or at least have the potential to be world champs, or contenders. Unless there is the investment you mention they'll be virtually unknown. Burns was already a champ, and he's not a 'name' ... he should be.

If not for the Olympics, would Khan be presenting Pride of Britain Awards? Or would he be at the same celebrity level as Froch, who has never been on prime time terrestrial TV receiving plaudits and mixing with the great and the good?

Ask 50% of the people on the street who Carl Froch is and they'll look at you with a blank expression. Then again, ask them who David Cameron is and you'll get the same bemused response.

True, although the pedantic aspect of my personality is screaming Froch was on terrestial TV for years - ITV and BBC - still didn't help him. But I know exactly what you mean.

What I meant though is I do think 80's / 90's boxing and TV viewed back with a touch of rose tinted spectacles. Beyond the "star" names there was very little boxing coverage, and what coverage was shown there was nothing on the undercard etc.

Actually your example of Jim McDonnell (an excellent fighter) is perfect. Now, yes I had not even got into double figures of life when he was at his fighting prime - but I was still quite a boxing geek and my old man whilst he couldn't afford boxing news he would still watch as much boxing possible and we would certainly know all of the #1 champions in each devision (world) in the mid/late 80's. However, both of us were shocked when we heard this fella scheduled to be a warm up for McGuigan vs Nelson had fought Bryan Mitchell and given him a good contest. Not heard of McDonnell himself before that fight. We'd heard of Mitchell, Lopez and Nelson - but the former two only really through their names being associated with a fight with McGuigan. Nelson was a different matter. How many of McDonnell's fights were shown on TV before McGuigan?

Duke McKenzie had a bit of a story - with his unusual training regime with his Alsaitians (spelling) - he was regularly featured on "sports night" and so were his dogs. So yes, he was at least heard off by the general public.

All those I mentioned in my first post world either world champions, world class, potential superstars or Olympic gold medalists - only Oliver was a "sky fighter". The rest were around when boxing was largely on terrestial TV - but hardly got any attention in the media.

I would say the British and especially area level champions are more well known now than they were back in the "good old days" - but the world champions are far far less known - but still, if you didn't have the xfactor being world class didn't always mean being a household name in the 80's.

[Captain Hook]

Good post mate...

[Captain Hook]

PS True about Oliver being a 'Sky fighter'...

Remember his tear-up with Patrick Mullings? Real stormer, plenty of exposure too, and was only an area title if I remember right (or was it for British?)

Same went for early Brodie, quite few of his were on Sky, and they were tough, competitive bouts that caught the attention (Brodie v Swain, for example)

[stujones]

Might sound selfish - but would I swap the current system of boxing on TV with the old one, with say only the top 10 best British fighters getting shown, but always shown live and with loads of press coverage in TV times etc - combined with a few atlantic world title fights with the likes of Mayweather, Pacquiao, Marquez (maybe the whole top 10 P4P) being shown live (or on delay) but with loads of advertising.

Yes, unfortunately the likes of Chris Edwards, Brian Rose, Prince Arron etc wouldn't get any coverage - let alone guys like the Walsh brothers.

However, I would swap it in a second - it would actually get the sport talked about in the playgrounds etc.

[stujones]

Perfect scenario - although a snowball's chance in hell it happening is that Sky/allegedly was like a feeder channel to the terrestial big boys. Well I guess it sort of happens in international football - where Sky show the world cup qualifiers, but the terrestial channels show the actual tournament. It would be great to see Quigg's early career on Sky, and then world title fights on ITV.

I think originally, GBP had this system planned for their talent. Emerging stars would firstly fight on Telefutura, then possibly ESPN 2 Friday Night Fights, then working towards HBO and HBO PPV. It hasn't quite worked out like that though.

Actually Warren had something similar planned when he had his final ITV deal. He had some fights on Setanta, and bigger cards (usually involving Khan) on ITV.

[Captain Hook]

They all need their heads knocking together..... your suggestion could work but everyone is more concerned with preserving their own slice of the pie, rather than the sport as a whole.

Too insular in their thinking, but then the world is in a dire economic position and nobody has the time, cash or resources to make bold moves.

Those that do, the few, don't give a damn about the sport, they give a damn about the money... that's their prerogative

Fair play to Hearn and co, they've made inroads in 2011, got a good stable and are starting to shout from the rooftops. Hatton is coming along nicely too.

Fingers crossed there is a breakthrough...

[ttornado]

Fury is bringing boxing to a wider audience on 5 which helps.
Shame it's not someone in shape and with real skills

[stujones]

Fury is bringing boxing to a wider audience on 5 which helps.
Shame it's not someone in shape and with real skills

Yep, might be short term gain for long term pain for the terrestial TV viewer. Audley brought boxing to a wider audience also.

[dookus]

Fury is at least a lot more exciting than Harrison, can you see Fury in a fight like Harrison's against Julius Francis? That may be the single dullest fight I've ever seen.