joshj909 wrote: ↑20 Mar 2026, 16:49
johnmanchester wrote: ↑20 Mar 2026, 16:34
Thing to remember is Hearn poached Whittaker primarily to put a hole in Boxxer below the waterline.
Whittaker doesn't really matter to Hearn's business, but the "potential" of Whittaker was a huge part of Boxxer selling points.
Let's say BBC don't renew - Price is final event of the deal, although Azim technically owes a BBC fight so may do a standalone event, taking it to 5 events.
But if they don't give Boxxer a new deal, where does Boxxer go? Azim will be off and that will be it, they'll be nearly at Top Ten /Neilsen /GBM level. Can't see a broadcaster paying for TKV, Price, Clarke, Simpson as a stable with no "rising viral star" like whittaker to anchor it.
Well put. Boxxer's issue is that they tried going too big too soon. The BBC route is a massive route for growth that they should be trying to utilising better. Trying to compete with the Frank's and Eddie's could be the end of without a lifeline.
Well, it wasn't so much that they "tried" going too big, too soon.
Instead it was a very odd situation where this young unknown promotion had done just three or four shows as a promoter and then suddenly got a 4yr exclusive deal with Sky Sports for £8m+ a year.
I've never yet heard /seen a satisfactory explanation for that highly unusual occurrence.
But then they were in at the deep end and had to deliver, against a backdrop of inexperience. They made a lot of bad decisions and a lot of fumbles. Also far too cautious with the fights booked for their core talent.
They're absolutely finished now as any sort of top level promotion. You're not going to see any sort of rebuild. They were only at that level due to Sky. Once Sky dropped them, the writing was on the wall.
Sky was 8m+ per year. BBC deal was for 4 events in 12 months (not per year. A single twelve month contract, non recurring).
I've seen on here people saying it's worth 250k a show. If that's the case that would be roughly -87.5% of the Sky annual budget. That's like being relegated 4 divisions in one go.
If the bbc gives them any more dates, maybe they can bob along as some kind of British-level thing, if the bbc wants to pay for that and the numbers justify it.
But my expectation is that the remaining names are gone by end of year and Boxxer just fades away.
Announced: Ben Whittaker will make his return to the ring on April 18th on the Callum Smith vs David Morrell undercard in Liverpool.
