Setanta Coverage - rate it

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 10 Jun 2007, 06:55

Have to say I was very pleased with the quality of the Setanta program. At first it did seem like a Ricky Hatton commercial and obviously they had to keep telling you how to subscribe, etc with lot of commercial breaks. At 1 point I thought they were going to miss off some undercard bouts. But they did a thorough job - Thompson-Foreman, Soto-B Pac, Chavez Jr and Cotto-Judah.

Wasn't impressed with the 1/2 hour preview - some US press kit type of docu, with writers trying to look cool and talking about "Zab's power" and "Cotto's power." But that went quickly and at least it filled in the dunces.

Good to see Dempsey again - his absense from Sky sort of makes you appreciate him, despite the eternally bad haircut. I felt Duke was a lot better in the role of studio pundit than ringside commentator. With him not obliged to talk up a shit show (i.e ITV), I felt he was insightful although he always looks a tad awkward. Buncey was entertaining in a Sun-reporter kind of way & I felt he summed up the action pretty well.

Now, I feel that Setanta should commit to at least a fortnightly boxing programme. What's to stop them bidding for other good British fights? International fights (Canada, Japan, German in particular)? Hopefully they keep up with the American stuff as well. It was cool of them to secure Cotto-Judah and the card lived up (Foreman-Thompson aside).

Thoughts on the coverage / what you want from them next, please...

hitman_hatton1 · Post by **hitman_hatton1** » 10 Jun 2007, 06:59

yeah it was good i thought.

dempsey is a class presenter.

buncey always livens up proceedings and duke's duke.

not a great fan of the american commentary.

prefer to see em put some brit commentators in there.

or colonel bob.

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 10 Jun 2007, 07:02

I don't mind the US team. The 3rd guy was annoying. But the Hispanic blow-by-blow guy and Wally Matthews are very acceptable: they've worked Arum cards before, like the Soto-Toldeo fight of recent. Matthews was a good foil to them when they were hard on Zab for crumpling under low blows. saying I'll let the guy who takes the shot be the judge.

Thank fvck Colonel was in Poland!

Scooby Doo · Post by **Scooby Doo** » 10 Jun 2007, 12:19

It was excellently put together, after all the criticisms of ITV, the BBC and Sky, it was refreshing to see a professionally put together package on Setanta.

Manc_Red · Post by **Manc_Red** » 10 Jun 2007, 12:34

Superb Show and chaired very well by Dempsey, hopefully they keep up the american coverage but I'm not a fan of US commentry.

Buncey is very good but Duke is a clown and is like a drip, anyway im delighted to see someone else stuff it up sky!

whiskey · Post by **whiskey** » 10 Jun 2007, 13:10

Duke: "Welterweight champions - like Mayweather, Mosley, MArgarito and Paul SMITH (??)

..i think he meant Williams

Overall pretty good - looked to be a crisp picture and good sound. The studio looked a bit 'low rent' but the content was good.

Dempsey on his own would have possibly been better.

Phenomenal-Nutrition · Post by **Phenomenal-Nutrition** » 10 Jun 2007, 13:41

Who cares about the coverage when you have Cotto-Judah and Hatton-Castillo in the same month - if they pull off fights similar to those once a month I'll keep subscribing

hitman_hatton1 · Post by **hitman_hatton1** » 10 Jun 2007, 15:12

Phenomenal-Nutrition wrote:Who cares about the coverage when you have Cotto-Judah and Hatton-Castillo in the same month - if they pull off fights similar to those once a month I'll keep subscribing

yep.

if setanta can deliver then i'll happily subscribe.

i'm a big football fan, so the premiership games would tempt me anyway.

glittermonkey · Post by **glittermonkey** » 10 Jun 2007, 15:12

Phenomenal-Nutrition wrote:Who cares about the coverage when you have Cotto-Judah and Hatton-Castillo in the same month - if they pull off fights similar to those once a month I'll keep subscribing

Exactly, the coverage is second to the fact that we've got the fights.

For what it's worth though; Dempsey was his usual self. It was like settling back into an old armchair after a long holiday. He's in a whole different league to Clark. With Duke and Bunce you know what you're getting too. For the most part, banality from one, a huge steaming pile of enthusiasm from the other. Not exactly Nelson and Watt, but who is?

For me it was an excellent start. Solid presentation of a decent bill. Hopefully more will follow, with an emphasis on buying up those American fights that Sky seems all too willing to pass up. Even if it's a card every other week, that'll be enough for me.

steve689 · Post by **steve689** » 10 Jun 2007, 15:22

I didn't see the show but glad to hear Paul Dempsey is back on the beat, he has always been a class act.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 10 Jun 2007, 18:41

Bunce when he gets all excited can make some errors. He said the something like "sure Cotto can get hurt, but he keeps coming back, sure he has been put down, but he shows fighting heart and keeps coming back, sure he has LOST, but he keeps coming back"!.

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 10 Jun 2007, 18:54

Bunce is good. I used to hate him when he was on the BBC. But he's grown on me. A lot of ppl are luvving up Arum for the way he's steadily developed Cotto, Soto and Pavlik into outright assassins. But Buncey was spot on re Yuri Foreman and Anthony Thompson, lesser prospects who've been brought along far too slowly and would be fodder for any low rent titlist.

They should definitely keep Bunce. Why was he booted off Sky? Was it some sort of Warren-critical thing he said?

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 10 Jun 2007, 18:57

The constant plugging was annoying me, and so was the fecking advert for Ford that seems to be the only one Setanta show (the one with the man holding the kid). Surely "non subcribers" would get the message that I had before I signed up and therefore wouldn't be able to here Paul Dempsey's message anyway.

Personally, I don't think much of either Duke or Bunce... don't think they added anything and their analysis was pretty basic. It would have been nice to have had a statistian maybe on board (or borrow HBO's stats) and the use of replays in the summing up (which Sky do so well).

I think there are a host of analysers with experience who could have done a better job than these two. I always prefered Claude Abrams to Bunce on the Beeb, Spencer Oliver, Nicky Piper, Richie Woodhall, Steve Collins all I think are better in that role than the two picked - some of them may have been cheaper also.

It was quite cheap and cheerful really, and if it was for Dempsey being such an excellent anchor I think it would have been poor. I personally think the US commentary was a good call, cause no-one apart from Darke (Sky) and maybe Rawling with a decent co-commentator (ITV) would have done a decent job.... Lets not mention messers Neilly, Bremmer and Holdsworth. Dempsey get Bunce and Duke on track nicely with his questions.

It would have been better had they scraped that awful preview show and maybe just had the three of them talking about the WHOLE card.

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 11 Jun 2007, 09:01

stujones wrote:The constant plugging was annoying me, and so was the fecking advert for Ford that seems to be the only one Setanta show (the one with the man holding the kid). Surely "non subcribers" would get the message that I had before I signed up and therefore wouldn't be able to here Paul Dempsey's message anyway.

Personally, I don't think much of either Duke or Bunce... don't think they added anything and their analysis was pretty basic. It would have been nice to have had a statistian maybe on board (or borrow HBO's stats) and the use of replays in the summing up (which Sky do so well).

I think there are a host of analysers with experience who could have done a better job than these two. I always prefered Claude Abrams to Bunce on the Beeb, Spencer Oliver, Nicky Piper, Richie Woodhall, Steve Collins all I think are better in that role than the two picked - some of them may have been cheaper also.

It was quite cheap and cheerful really, and if it was for Dempsey being such an excellent anchor I think it would have been poor. I personally think the US commentary was a good call, cause no-one apart from Darke (Sky) and maybe Rawling with a decent co-commentator (ITV) would have done a decent job.... Lets not mention messers Neilly, Bremmer and Holdsworth. Dempsey get Bunce and Duke on track nicely with his questions.

It would have been better had they scraped that awful preview show and maybe just had the three of them talking about the WHOLE card.

not that keen on spencer - he talks in cliches - and collins never added that much insight. it was good having a pundit and a fighter. bunce should keep that role and a the very least Duke makes a personality contrast like you say the preview show was shit. Cotto doesn't have agood grap of English and Zab talks bullshit - "I see him as a 140-pounder!" but in all i was pleased with it. for me the only thing missing was the setanta boys doing their previews, getting us primed for each of the fights. that seems to be amiss on sky during solid undercards as well (esp the last German show).

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 11 Jun 2007, 09:17

Autobarn wrote:
stujones wrote:The constant plugging was annoying me, and so was the fecking advert for Ford that seems to be the only one Setanta show (the one with the man holding the kid). Surely "non subcribers" would get the message that I had before I signed up and therefore wouldn't be able to here Paul Dempsey's message anyway.

Personally, I don't think much of either Duke or Bunce... don't think they added anything and their analysis was pretty basic. It would have been nice to have had a statistian maybe on board (or borrow HBO's stats) and the use of replays in the summing up (which Sky do so well).

I think there are a host of analysers with experience who could have done a better job than these two. I always prefered Claude Abrams to Bunce on the Beeb, Spencer Oliver, Nicky Piper, Richie Woodhall, Steve Collins all I think are better in that role than the two picked - some of them may have been cheaper also.

It was quite cheap and cheerful really, and if it was for Dempsey being such an excellent anchor I think it would have been poor. I personally think the US commentary was a good call, cause no-one apart from Darke (Sky) and maybe Rawling with a decent co-commentator (ITV) would have done a decent job.... Lets not mention messers Neilly, Bremmer and Holdsworth. Dempsey get Bunce and Duke on track nicely with his questions.

It would have been better had they scraped that awful preview show and maybe just had the three of them talking about the WHOLE card.
not that keen on spencer - he talks in cliches - and collins never added that much insight. it was good having a pundit and a fighter. bunce should keep that role and a the very least Duke makes a personality contrast like you say the preview show was shit. Cotto doesn't have agood grap of English and Zab talks bullshit - "I see him as a 140-pounder!" but in all i was pleased with it. for me the only thing missing was the setanta boys doing their previews, getting us primed for each of the fights. that seems to be amiss on sky during solid undercards as well (esp the last German show).

I'm not saying Oliver, Collins and all I mentioned are the best summerisers in the world, but IMO better than the two used and probably (although not entirely sure) both cheaper and not exclusive to an organisation.

Sure, I would love to have a team of McGuigan and Woodhall as summerisers and Darke/Watt in the commentary booths with Bob Mee offering the stats maybe saying a bit ala Harold Ledderman - but its not going to happen.

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 11 Jun 2007, 09:48

Would hate to see Barry getting in there. He comes across as very annoying on camera.

stujones · Post by **stujones** » 11 Jun 2007, 10:16

Autobarn wrote:Would hate to see Barry getting in there. He comes across as very annoying on camera.

McGuigan is a close friend of allegedly (something Barry has said), he is much better in the latter days of Sky (when he was doing fights involving more than just Warren) and also the two spells I have seen him on US TV recently (ESPN and for John Duddy) he was excellent.

Think the fact the he knows he is only going to discuss a selected number of fighters does hinder him.... especially fighters who are promoted by a friend.

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 11 Jun 2007, 10:54

stujones wrote:
Autobarn wrote:Would hate to see Barry getting in there. He comes across as very annoying on camera.
McGuigan is a close friend of allegedly allegedly (something Barry has said), he is much better in the latter days of Sky (when he was doing fights involving more than just Warren) and also the two spells I have seen him on US TV recently (ESPN and for John Duddy) he was excellent.

Think the fact the he knows he is only going to discuss a selected number of fighters does hinder him.... especially fighters who are promoted by a friend.

think Nicky Piper is a good pal of Frank's as well. He was the only guy who stuck with Frank after the shooting, apparently.

I don't know, something about Barry just annoys me. He knows his stuff but he has an irritating way about him. also, this is a guy who stuck up for WBU titles in the sky days...