Now I agree whole heartedly with this and I very much doubt this is what ITV expected (especially with the bigger fights) - the pull outs have been rediculous, but for the majority of times - Warren's bill savers haven't been any bum from the street - but yes, of course Harrison vs Guzman, Nelson vs Maccarinelli, Skelton vs Harrison, Calzaghe vs Johnson would have been great additions.Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:"Aside from 2 ITV 2/4 bills, which of the lower hall main events can you say are poor."
Do you mean from your second list?
Stu - it all depends on how they are sold.
When I see Lockett v Rhodes and Foster v Simpson labelled 'World Championship Boxing', I tend to think that the public is being sold a puppy. YOU might know the difference but most won't. What people actually see is a reasonable DOMESTIC match up (and, have a look, not even usually the best two at the weight in the country) and they might just be under the impression they are watching a world title fight. Silly them.
If you just want some half-decent domestic level scraps, then fine.
Other than Woods-Johnson and Calzaghe-Lacy, out of your extensive list, are there any fights there of global importance? Some of the rest are pretty decent UK match ups.
Answer this one...is this what you think ITV expected? We can only guess, of course.
However, unlike in the Sky days Jim Rosenthal especially constantly states "one fight away from a world title" - this was for Hobson vs Enzo 1 (WBU title). Said the same about Graham Earl even though he was fighting for the WBU title. Jim has also mentioned Intercontinental titles as a "platform". Unlike during the Sky days. Jim didn't hype up Amir Khan's first title alot even saying words to the effect of "We hope this will not be the last of the titles".
I think the WBU baubble is now used to for ticket sales and the posters can say "World championship boxing".
Yes, I agree that the use of the WBU/etc are out of order. Although, interestingly there seems to be a fair amount of Commonwealth title fights recently. I do think there is some use with the Intercontinental title fights (major sanctioning bodies).
The same problems could be applied to Sky and domestic boxing. They have a bill every week but only supplied 3 fights involving British fighters of global importance (Hunter vs Molitor, Witter vs Corley, Hatton vs Collazo) in 2006. Yes, Sky show US fights that are great and so should ITV, but that is going away from the arguement point.
I did mean the second list (The ITV2/4 bills) which have been the smaller hall. These more than match up with Sky's output in 2006. A couple of stinkers but the majority have an appetising main event that is tough to call. Despite some having the WBU baubble on them, I don't think they have been presented as World championships by ITV, unlike when this was happening on Sky, and I think Warren has upped his game since the move (and less TV dates to fill).
He can use his fighters more sparingly now, thats why you are getting less and less of these imports.
I can't understand why the original offer that Haye and Booth accepted is not still on offer, what's all this 'the offer is now invalid' bollox :x 