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Bad press for Danny?

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 17:50
by neil r
From reading many newspaprer reports etc about Saturday mornings fight, all are unequiviocal in praise for Williams beating Tyson. However, what all the papers appear to be doing is paying Danny lip service only, whilst concentrating on the demise of Tsyon.

Now those that know anything about boxing could reasonably argure tysons demise started after the Douglas fight or even the lead up to it. perhaps after the Holyfied defeats or if you really want to stretch credulity, the lewis defeat.

However all the papers are now concentrating on the loser of the fight and what his loss means, how he fell from Grace. There is very little on the winner and what his win could mean for him other than the usual name rank and serial number reporting.

its a shame really. i get the impression that half the country are still unaware that Danny beat Tyson and those few who are aware of the result , thanks to the press, are now more aware of what went wrong for tyson and how his career is over (?) as opposed to where this could take the profile of our boxing.

This is a great opportunity after all the recent bad publicity, defeats, cancelled bouts and the bbcs withdrawal from the game to spark at least a modicom of interest in an active british fighter who for the next few months, perhaps the next couple of years is going to have a very interesting career. But the fleet street boys seem to be too caught up in the end of their beloved mike

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 17:55
by bennie
Yeah, some of the papers barely showed Danny in the photos. Just Tyson on the floor. It also made me sneer when the the BBC avoided announcing the Williams-Tyson story in their news headlines yesterday - but mentioned the cricket. Then when the sports section actually started, they showed a clip of the fight before the cricket!
I detest the BBC as much as they detest boxing.

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 19:03
by Matchfixer
From the journalists point of view I guess they would have to talk about Tyson more than Danny Williams as he is well known to the general public. Not saying it's what they should be doing but it is understandable.

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 19:05
by steve689
It's a sad state of affairs but the thing is Tyson still sells, the man on the street doesn't even know who Williams is but Tyson still draws acclaim and controversy in equal measures. Since the retirement of Lewis and the disappearance of Hamed guys like Tyson are unfortunately the only characters that keep Boxing in touch with the "Real world". When he's gone then your average joe in the street would be hard pressed to name a current fighter, it's a big problem that needs to be addressed.

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 19:09
by neil r
steve689 wrote:It's a sad state of affairs but the thing is Tyson still sells, the man on the street doesn't even know who Williams is but Tyson still draws acclaim and controversy in equal measures. Since the retirement of Lewis and the disappearance of Hamed guys like Tyson are unfortunately the only characters that keep Boxing in touch with the "Real world". When he's gone then your average joe in the street would be hard pressed to name a current fighter, it's a big problem that needs to be addressed.
my point exactly steve. heres a guy who just beat, arguably, still the biggest name in world boxing. and hes british. they should be focussing more on williams and using this to raise the profile of boxing amongst the avergae joe and just accept the fact that tyson is now out to pasture

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 19:17
by steve689
Yes amongst my rant i failed to acknowledge that i agree with you mate. :wink:

Posted: 01 Aug 2004, 19:44
by Neri
these tabloids annoy me, the boxing coverage is awful nowadays. One tabloid printed an article after De La Hoya beat Vargas about De La Hoya's claim to greatness but didnt do any article's leading up to the fight.
No big fight countdown or nothing on his previous fights
Most british people dont know Oscar De La Hoya and straight away they are being told De La Hoya is a legend!

Posted: 02 Aug 2004, 10:58
by Boxingmad
The coverage for boxing in the nationals is pretty awful. Pat Sheehan of the Sun, for example, very rarely covers a fight unless it's a big one. I suppose the other papers are identical as well.

The BBC has shames themselves as well, and the fact that they have dropped boxing is pretty fornicating sad. It's a shame that Sky have got Danny bcuz the BBC could now get Danny on there and show his rise to the undisputed world heavyweight title. It's a realistic possibility now, and I just hope we aren't denied the chance to watch it.

Posted: 02 Aug 2004, 11:02
by jamesmcdonnell
BBC wouldn't have the budget for an undisputed heavyweight title fight.

Posted: 02 Aug 2004, 11:08
by adamiw
shame this Sven thing has taken over the front and back pages. I noticed a big pic of Tyson was on the front of The Sunday Telgraph...didn't seem any other frontpage coverage. For most papers it was just a banner at the top of the back page. dissapointing.