After 30 years, I cannot watch this sport anymore

[banjo]

Sky Sports is dead anyway, it's lost the champions league, a huge chunk of the premier league, there's only so many times you can fill all the gaps in the channels with "Dwight Yorkes Greatest Goals" and Sporting Greats programs. Come to think of it the only thing I watch on Sky Sports are the rare bit of non-PPV boxing, Liverpool(when they're on, which isn't often these days) and Speedway.

21 of your league games have been on Sky Sports this season, i'd say that's more than enough for one channel. How many were you expecting?

A lot more than 21, who gives a shite about Villa vs West Ham or whatever it was the other week.

[Paullow]

Sky Sports is dead anyway, it's lost the champions league, a huge chunk of the premier league, there's only so many times you can fill all the gaps in the channels with "Dwight Yorkes Greatest Goals" and Sporting Greats programs. Come to think of it the only thing I watch on Sky Sports are the rare bit of non-PPV boxing, Liverpool(when they're on, which isn't often these days) and Speedway.

21 of your league games have been on Sky Sports this season, i'd say that's more than enough for one channel. How many were you expecting?

A lot more than 21, who gives a shite about Villa vs West Ham or whatever it was the other week.

Er probably the fans of those clubs, plus Chmapions League chasing rivals and relegation rivals.

You'll be in the minority here. Yes, Liverpool are still a big club, arguably still the 2nd biggest in England, but you've done f all domestically in the league this season. The Europa is your season, yet you still have upcoming league games scheduled for TV. Throw in 9 league games on BT and that's 30 of the 37 announced games will be televised this season. I think Stoke and West Brom had only 7 and 8 games televised on Sky and BT (combined, like 4 on Sky, 3 on BT) last year and you're complaining about 21 Liverpool league games on Sky alone this season.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

A lot more than 21, who gives a shite about Villa vs West Ham or whatever it was the other week.

Er probably the fans of those clubs, plus Chmapions League chasing rivals and relegation rivals.

You'll be in the minority here. Yes, Liverpool are still a big club, arguably still the 2nd biggest in England, but you've done f all domestically in the league this season. The Europa is your season, yet you still have upcoming league games scheduled for TV. Throw in 9 league games on BT and that's 30 of the 37 announced games will be televised this season. I think Stoke and West Brom had only 7 and 8 games televised on Sky and BT (combined, like 4 on Sky, 3 on BT) last year and you're complaining about 21 Liverpool league games on Sky alone this season.

You probably don't realise though that sky are catering to a worldwide audience, so it is your good self who is in the minority when half of Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and other such cities tune in at 9pm (their time) to watch a 12.00 kick off - put back because of 'crowd congestion' and yep, sky shows those games across the globe.

There was a spell of less salubrious premier league clubs signing Korean players which would get their games shown on Korean TV - not that anyone gave a shite because they were all mad for Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. I am not saying that you are wrong to be annoyed about the situation, it is just that the fans of smaller premiership clubs have absolutely no say in the current situation - the schedule is not about them and Sky do not care about them one iota. If everyone in the UK cancelled their Sky subscription to watch football, Sky would still make their billions - the money is not with the domestic market.

Armchair fans in Jakarta, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur - well, there are a lot more of them than you and they bring in more revenue...

[Grilling Machine]

If I had to pay for it, I wouldn't watch any televised boxing. I know that makes me the bad guy as far as the boxers go, but we - as fans - never screwed them over in such a way as to arrive at this point by our own hands. The first and last time I paid for a PPV was Tyson-Lewis, and I've never been tempted again. We did have Sky in the '90s - its own form of PPV, but that was £12 per month for the lot, and I watched all the boxing on that sub until Tyson-Holyfield (the first PPV, IIRC). Previous to that, PPV was exclusive to WWF.

PPV's great evil is that it factors into fight decisions many bouts in advance of proposed moneymakers. It's bad enough that we have to pay live-ent money for a single match that might end in one or two rounds, but worse that almost every boxer has to tiptoe towards their pot of gold for fear of losing it, when they'd all have made decent money for decent fights in the ITV days. We've had affirmation of the sport's danger this fortnight, so I don't blame any boxers for that level of prudence one bit, but they wouldn't have to be so wary of career-ending fights (financially or actual) if they were paid fairly for competitive bouts. It's a trickle-down system that doesn't trickle far beyond promoter-controlled major cards. (A number of British champs earned enough money from one fight to buy a cheap house in the '90s.)

We don't even need promoters these days. Fury promotes himself on Twitter; we know the available venues; we know the TV channels with an interest... Promoters are a bygone from the travelling-circus days of building hype in each new town. This is a pretty random rant!

So the crux of it is that I'd be happy to pay if my money went to the boxers directly, minus the venue and security costs. IPTV streams are the natural future for broadcasting (Netflix and Prime have the right idea with pricing - albeit not yet content - at £6 pm). Hearn should be the last of an ancient breed, but alas, I fear not.

[tobyh5]

I agree the Hearn monopoly and Sky's general attitude to boxing has spoiled a lot of it for me. I used to love it in the 90s and 00s, but the last 5 years it has gone downhill for me.

But maybe just maybe this is also a symptom of my age and experience in watching boxing for a number of years. When I was younger I was fresh, i would watch one-sided undercard bouts with relish, I was just in love with boxing, whereas now I'm more of a cynic, i know when a fight is bullshit or when it's a proper 50/50.

I'm trying to figure out which it is, whether boxing has genuinely gone more crap or whether I just see the nonsense for what it is.

Maybe this is right. Maybe age, maturity and potentially experience and intelligence has just made my radar stronger in really reading the BS that has always existed. But I do think it is the whole monopoly thing that has ruined it for me.

[Stuarty]

Sky is utter bullshit. BNation isn't much better at the moment although they have a decent enough schedule coming up. I love the sport and always will but a lot of the recent shows haven't exactly been inspiring. I share the frustration of the OP.

[Tangerine]

I keep meaning to post a list about the greatest boxing literature I've read but never seem to get around to it. Maybe I'll do it tonight.

Please do.I'm on a mission for boxing books bought a good few recommendations off here and other sites.Always interested to hear of rare boxing books

[Ade L]

I'm thinking of cancelling Sky too, but will be keeping allegedly....at least they don't put adverts in between most of the rounds which really annoys me

[Ade L]

I keep meaning to post a list about the greatest boxing literature I've read but never seem to get around to it. Maybe I'll do it tonight.

Please do.I'm on a mission for boxing books bought a good few recommendations off here and other sites.Always interested to hear of rare boxing books

Sounds like a great idea for a new thread guys! the last boxing book I read was "The Good Son" Ray Mancini's biography. I'll start the thread if you like....

[orbtastic]

There's a huge long boxing books thread with a ton of recommendations and books to avoid in it.

[Tuan_Jim]

The appeal of this boxing books worth reading thread would be that tuan_jim wrote it.

All of the other threads of this nature are built around Dark Trade (zzzzzzzzzzz) and only get worse from there (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).

[dr_devious]

Best boxing book I've read is the Roberto Duran biography by Christian Guidice. Brilliantly written book about a fascinating character

[Tuan_Jim]

Best boxing book I've read is the Roberto Duran biography by Christian Guidice. Brilliantly written book about a fascinating character

That is indeed a great one.

[Boxing Prospect]

The Paul Briggs autobiography is brilliant if you can hunt it down

[veriton]

A lot more than 21, who gives a shite about Villa vs West Ham or whatever it was the other week.

Er probably the fans of those clubs, plus Chmapions League chasing rivals and relegation rivals.

You'll be in the minority here. Yes, Liverpool are still a big club, arguably still the 2nd biggest in England, but you've done f all domestically in the league this season. The Europa is your season, yet you still have upcoming league games scheduled for TV. Throw in 9 league games on BT and that's 30 of the 37 announced games will be televised this season. I think Stoke and West Brom had only 7 and 8 games televised on Sky and BT (combined, like 4 on Sky, 3 on BT) last year and you're complaining about 21 Liverpool league games on Sky alone this season.

You probably don't realise though that sky are catering to a worldwide audience, so it is your good self who is in the minority when half of Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and other such cities tune in at 9pm (their time) to watch a 12.00 kick off - put back because of 'crowd congestion' and yep, sky shows those games across the globe.

There was a spell of less salubrious premier league clubs signing Korean players which would get their games shown on Korean TV - not that anyone gave a shite because they were all mad for Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. I am not saying that you are wrong to be annoyed about the situation, it is just that the fans of smaller premiership clubs have absolutely no say in the current situation - the schedule is not about them and Sky do not care about them one iota. If everyone in the UK cancelled their Sky subscription to watch football, Sky would still make their billions - the money is not with the domestic market.

Armchair fans in Jakarta, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur - well, there are a lot more of them than you and they bring in more revenue...

are you for real? that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. Sky dont broadcast around the world, the EPL sell the rights to television companies in whichever countries wish to broadcast, and they dont take Sky's feed.

[Boxerbeetle]

The appeal of this boxing books worth reading thread would be that tuan_jim wrote it.

All of the other threads of this nature are built around Dark Trade (zzzzzzzzzzz) and only get worse from there (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).

What's wrong with Dark Trade as a boxing book? Or are you just referring to the (admittedly copious) amount of times it gets brought up?

[Counter-puncher]

The appeal of this boxing books worth reading thread would be that tuan_jim wrote it.

All of the other threads of this nature are built around Dark Trade (zzzzzzzzzzz) and only get worse from there (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). Scoff posture preen scoff scoff harumph it was all so much better in the old days you know scoff harumph scoff

What's wrong with Dark Trade as a boxing book? Or are you just referring to the (admittedly copious) amount of times it gets brought up?

*does 'wanker' hand signal*

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

A lot more than 21, who gives a shite about Villa vs West Ham or whatever it was the other week.

Er probably the fans of those clubs, plus Chmapions League chasing rivals and relegation rivals.

You'll be in the minority here. Yes, Liverpool are still a big club, arguably still the 2nd biggest in England, but you've done f all domestically in the league this season. The Europa is your season, yet you still have upcoming league games scheduled for TV. Throw in 9 league games on BT and that's 30 of the 37 announced games will be televised this season. I think Stoke and West Brom had only 7 and 8 games televised on Sky and BT (combined, like 4 on Sky, 3 on BT) last year and you're complaining about 21 Liverpool league games on Sky alone this season.

You probably don't realise though that sky are catering to a worldwide audience, so it is your good self who is in the minority when half of Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and other such cities tune in at 9pm (their time) to watch a 12.00 kick off - put back because of 'crowd congestion' and yep, sky shows those games across the globe.

There was a spell of less salubrious premier league clubs signing Korean players which would get their games shown on Korean TV - not that anyone gave a shite because they were all mad for Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. I am not saying that you are wrong to be annoyed about the situation, it is just that the fans of smaller premiership clubs have absolutely no say in the current situation - the schedule is not about them and Sky do not care about them one iota. If everyone in the UK cancelled their Sky subscription to watch football, Sky would still make their billions - the money is not with the domestic market.

Armchair fans in Jakarta, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur - well, there are a lot more of them than you and they bring in more revenue...

are you for real? that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. Sky dont broadcast around the world, the EPL sell the rights to television companies in whichever countries wish to broadcast, and they dont take Sky's feed.

I live in the Far East - it sounds like you don't, they show live sky games from the 'EPL' - it is sky who broadcast the games directly from the UK and it is actually the 'EPL' that get a massive cut of the revenue, SBS, CCTV-5, Starsports etc don't bring their cameras from Asia to show the games . Once upon a time, English football could not afford the best talent to come and play for the biggest clubs, the best they could do with the revenue they genrated was the odd over the hill Dane or Dutchman, now they are competitive with the Italians and the Spanish - it was not like that in the 1980's - you either don't remember how it used to be or are incredibly naive, probably both.

Have you heard Manchester United, Liverpool etc - explain away a popular fixture on 'crowd congestion' when it is a fact that people in Hanoi can watch their team at 9pm? One day, it would be nice of them to tell the damn truth.

[Tuan_Jim]

The appeal of this boxing books worth reading thread would be that tuan_jim wrote it.

All of the other threads of this nature are built around Dark Trade (zzzzzzzzzzz) and only get worse from there (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).

What's wrong with Dark Trade as a boxing book? Or are you just referring to the (admittedly copious) amount of times it gets brought up?

Donald Mcrae is the least interesting person in the book and yet he builds the narrative around himself. Interesting passages about champion boxers punctuated by tedious autobiography no one would read in insolation. DT's success discharged an unwanted glut of 'journey' boxing books, with author's endlessly blathering on about their crises of conscience as they watch this strange and terrible sport. There's more interesting books out there, in my opinion.

[Tuan_Jim]

The appeal of this boxing books worth reading thread would be that tuan_jim wrote it.

All of the other threads of this nature are built around Dark Trade (zzzzzzzzzzz) and only get worse from there (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). Scoff posture preen scoff scoff harumph it was all so much better in the old days you know scoff harumph scoff

What's wrong with Dark Trade as a boxing book? Or are you just referring to the (admittedly copious) amount of times it gets brought up?

*does 'wanker' hand signal*

*with fascination watches a grown man vie for my attention for the umpteenth time*

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

What's wrong with Dark Trade as a boxing book? Or are you just referring to the (admittedly copious) amount of times it gets brought up?

*does 'wanker' hand signal*

*with fascination watches a grown man vie for my attention for the umpteenth time*

I didn't like 'Dark Trade' either - but I really really liked 'Winter Colours' which was a similar book about rugby that he wrote, based on a lot of personal narrative and his background which worked a lot better with rugby than boxing. I don't know why, it seemed that his friendship with Toney and his 'mom' jarred in the book, like it wasn't real, the swapping of the rap tapes etc - it sounded like he was a daft arselicking fanboy whereas Winter Colours sounded more like he was part of the culture of rugby (as a white South African, that would be right).

A book I really really liked was 'Dancing Shoes is Dead' by Gavin Evans. I loved that book a great deal but the boxing history and South African history are two of my personal interests, roll it into one and you get 'Dancing Shoes...'

[veriton]

You probably don't realise though that sky are catering to a worldwide audience, so it is your good self who is in the minority when half of Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and other such cities tune in at 9pm (their time) to watch a 12.00 kick off - put back because of 'crowd congestion' and yep, sky shows those games across the globe.

There was a spell of less salubrious premier league clubs signing Korean players which would get their games shown on Korean TV - not that anyone gave a shite because they were all mad for Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. I am not saying that you are wrong to be annoyed about the situation, it is just that the fans of smaller premiership clubs have absolutely no say in the current situation - the schedule is not about them and Sky do not care about them one iota. If everyone in the UK cancelled their Sky subscription to watch football, Sky would still make their billions - the money is not with the domestic market.

Armchair fans in Jakarta, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur - well, there are a lot more of them than you and they bring in more revenue...

are you for real? that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. Sky dont broadcast around the world, the EPL sell the rights to television companies in whichever countries wish to broadcast, and they dont take Sky's feed.

I live in the Far East - it sounds like you don't, they show live sky games from the 'EPL' - it is sky who broadcast the games directly from the UK and it is actually the 'EPL' that get a massive cut of the revenue, SBS, CCTV-5, Starsports etc don't bring their cameras from Asia to show the games . Once upon a time, English football could not afford the best talent to come and play for the biggest clubs, the best they could do with the revenue they genrated was the odd over the hill Dane or Dutchman, now they are competitive with the Italians and the Spanish - it was not like that in the 1980's - you either don't remember how it used to be or are incredibly naive, probably both.

Have you heard Manchester United, Liverpool etc - explain away a popular fixture on 'crowd congestion' when it is a fact that people in Hanoi can watch their team at 9pm? One day, it would be nice of them to tell the damn truth.

again, epl games shown overseas are nothing to do with sky. sky buy rights to show in uk, and then all the other countries buy rghts to show in their countries. that is why the coverage that you see overseas is not sky coverage, it's all localised, local presenters etc.

[jamesmcdonnell]

The appeal of this boxing books worth reading thread would be that tuan_jim wrote it.

All of the other threads of this nature are built around Dark Trade (zzzzzzzzzzz) and only get worse from there (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).

What's wrong with Dark Trade as a boxing book? Or are you just referring to the (admittedly copious) amount of times it gets brought up?

Dark Trade is a great book, far better written than most.

This bloody mary is the last thing I own is very good too.

I like the slightly more esoteric books, the best boxing writing is not just directly about the sport itself.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

again, epl games shown overseas are nothing to do with sky. sky buy rights to show in uk, and then all the other countries buy rghts to show in their countries. that is why the coverage that you see overseas is not sky coverage, it's all localised, local presenters etc.

It is a sky feed that show the damn games, it is sky coverage for fucks sakes.

Who is talking about the presenters? Yes, they have local presenters to speak in their own language to commentate on the game on whatever channel they are showing the game, but it is a sky live feed, that they buy from sky of which the EPL gets a large cut.

Are you serious with this bullshite? When was it the last time you saw an 'EPL' game in Asia?

Who do you think films and transmits the games via satellite? Is it the English FA satellite, up there in space, then?

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

blahblahblah etc

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sin ... 43190.html

Just so the clueless bullshite ends here, check the link out...