The Standard of Sky's Saturday Fight Nights

[ElJefe]

Despite constantly being told by Eddie himself that Matchroom are "smashing it" I can't help but feel as though I haven't seen a great deal of good boxing for my normal Sky Sports subscription this year (PPV aside, separate debate) - so I've had a look through his shows and I'm going to compile a list, which I might update throughout the year.

For the sake of my sanity and also to judge the quality of 'the product', I'm only listing what I consider to be competitive fights before the event, or at least fights that represent a genuine test in the case of prospects. So I'm not giving credit, for example, for him putting on Benn-Peynaud as it was supposed to be a knockover job.

3rd February - O2 Arena, London
Lawrence Okolie vs Isaac Chamberlain
Ted Cheeseman vs Carson Jones
Reece Belotti vs Ben Jones (Commonwealth Title)

25th February - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester [JD NXTGEN]
Lewis Ritson vs Joe Murray (British Title)
Jordan Gill vs Jason Cunningham

3rd March - Sheffield Arena, Sheffield
Kell Brook vs Sergey Rabchenko
Gavin McDonnell vs Gamal Yafai
Lenroy Thomas vs David Allen (Commonwealth Title)
Atif Shafiq vs Lee Appleyard

24th March - O2 Arena, London
Dillian Whyte vs Lucas Browne
Frank Buglioni vs Callum Johnson (British Title)
Lewis Ritson vs Scott Cardle (British Title)

21st April - Echo Arena, Liverpool
Amir Khan vs Phil Lo Greco
Sean Dodd vs Tommy Coyle (Commonwealth Title)

6th June - York Hall, London [JD NXTGEN]
Lawrence Okolie vs Luke Watkins
Reece Belotti vs Ryan Doyle (Commonwealth Title)
Ted Cheeseman vs Paul Upton

16th June - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Lewis Ritson vs Paul Hyland Jr (British Title)
Josh Kelly vs Kris George (Commonwealth Title)
Gavin McDonnell vs Stuart Hall
Arfan Iqbal vs Simon Vallily
Charlie Edwards vs Anthony Nelson

4th August - Ice Arena, Cardiff [JD NXTGEN]
Joe Cordina vs Sean Dodd (Commonwealth Title)

So with no more shows scheduled for this month, the first 8 months of the year have seen our regular Sky Sports subscription deliver 8 shows. 1 British show every 4 weeks. Also worth noting that 3 of those have been JD NXTGEN shows, which Eddie initially told us were SEPARATE from the regular Saturday fight nights. So in reality we've actually only had 5 SFNs over 8 months.

Furthermore, I vividly remember watching an interview with Eddie a year or so ago in which in defence of the PPV model, he claimed that the money would be reinvested into the SFNs and that he wanted each one to be headlined by a world title fight. Now, if my info is correct, we've had ZERO world title fights on regular Sky Sports in 2018.

Instead we've had several British and Commonwealth title fights. Not necessarily bad in itself, but not what we've been promised. By my calculations, we've seen just 5 fighters that can claim to have won above European level. Kell Brook in a 2 round blowout against Rabchenko, Amir Khan in a 40 second blowout of Phil Lo Greco, Dillian Whyte in a 6 round demolition of an out of shape Lucas Browne and former European champion Gavin McDonnell vs former World Champion Stuart Hall, albeit a faded version who retired after the fight.

I've gone through all this and realised that I could have made my point much more quickly. We're served shite on Saturday nights. Anything remotely world level is usually used to pack out PPV cards. The SFNs and JD NXTGENs, which were supposed to be separate, are almost impossible to differentiate now. But if nothing else, remember this thread when Eddie's going full force in his salesman rants on IFL about how Matchroom are absolutely smashing it and how British boxing is booming, when in reality your average Sky Sports subscription gets you very little in terms of world championship boxing.

[TheGman]

Despite constantly being told by Eddie himself that Matchroom are "smashing it" I can't help but feel as though I haven't seen a great deal of good boxing for my normal Sky Sports subscription this year (PPV aside, separate debate) - so I've had a look through his shows and I'm going to compile a list, which I might update throughout the year.

For the sake of my sanity and also to judge the quality of 'the product', I'm only listing what I consider to be competitive fights before the event, or at least fights that represent a genuine test in the case of prospects. So I'm not giving credit, for example, for him putting on Benn-Peynaud as it was supposed to be a knockover job.

3rd February - O2 Arena, London
Lawrence Okolie vs Isaac Chamberlain
Ted Cheeseman vs Carson Jones
Reece Belotti vs Ben Jones (Commonwealth Title)

25th February - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester [JD NXTGEN]
Lewis Ritson vs Joe Murray (British Title)
Jordan Gill vs Jason Cunningham

3rd March - Sheffield Arena, Sheffield
Kell Brook vs Sergey Rabchenko
Gavin McDonnell vs Gamal Yafai
Lenroy Thomas vs David Allen (Commonwealth Title)
Atif Shafiq vs Lee Appleyard

24th March - O2 Arena, London
Dillian Whyte vs Lucas Browne
Frank Buglioni vs Callum Johnson (British Title)
Lewis Ritson vs Scott Cardle (British Title)

21st April - Echo Arena, Liverpool
Amir Khan vs Phil Lo Greco
Sean Dodd vs Tommy Coyle (Commonwealth Title)

6th June - York Hall, London [JD NXTGEN]
Lawrence Okolie vs Luke Watkins
Reece Belotti vs Ryan Doyle (Commonwealth Title)
Ted Cheeseman vs Paul Upton

16th June - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Lewis Ritson vs Paul Hyland Jr (British Title)
Josh Kelly vs Kris George (Commonwealth Title)
Gavin McDonnell vs Stuart Hall
Arfan Iqbal vs Simon Vallily
Charlie Edwards vs Anthony Nelson

4th August - Ice Arena, Cardiff [JD NXTGEN]
Joe Cordina vs Sean Dodd (Commonwealth Title)

So with no more shows scheduled for this month, the first 8 months of the year have seen our regular Sky Sports subscription deliver 8 shows. 1 British show every 4 weeks. Also worth noting that 3 of those have been JD NXTGEN shows, which Eddie initially told us were SEPARATE from the regular Saturday fight nights. So in reality we've actually only had 5 SFNs over 8 months.

Furthermore, I vividly remember watching an interview with Eddie a year or so ago in which in defence of the PPV model, he claimed that the money would be reinvested into the SFNs and that he wanted each one to be headlined by a world title fight. Now, if my info is correct, we've had ZERO world title fights on regular Sky Sports in 2018.

Instead we've had several British and Commonwealth title fights. Not necessarily bad in itself, but not what we've been promised. By my calculations, we've seen just 5 fighters that can claim to have won above European level. Kell Brook in a 2 round blowout against Rabchenko, Amir Khan in a 40 second blowout of Phil Lo Greco, Dillian Whyte in a 6 round demolition of an out of shape Lucas Browne and former European champion Gavin McDonnell vs former World Champion Stuart Hall, albeit a faded version who retired after the fight.

I've gone through all this and realised that I could have made my point much more quickly. We're served shite on Saturday nights. Anything remotely world level is usually used to pack out PPV cards. The SFNs and JD NXTGENs, which were supposed to be separate, are almost impossible to differentiate now. But if nothing else, remember this thread when Eddie's going full force in his salesman rants on IFL about how Matchroom are absolutely smashing it and how British boxing is booming, when in reality your average Sky Sports subscription gets you very little in terms of world championship boxing.

Waste of time having sky sports if you are just a boxing fan. Iv been saying this for years,i even phoned up sky and complained about it once but they say uts down to the promotor of the boxing show and not down to them(pass the book).

Floyd mayweather vs pacquiao was ppv due to sky having to pay 200mil for the fight but eddie hearn is skys boxing platform so they dont have to pay him 200mil for anthony joshua vs XXXX or kell brook vs XXXX.

Its all bollox mate and its staying like this forever now the only thing that will change is tge price of a ppv will go up and us mugs will pay for it even if we say we wont cause there are the fans of Joshua who only watch the joshua fights who will pay for it

[Boxerbeetle]

Yeah it’s been total poo this year. Anyone who only subscribes for boxing would be better off just getting a Now TV pass for the day whenever there’s a decent card on.

With BN clearly winding down, it’s a very poor situation for British fans.

[TheGman]

Yeah it’s been total poo this year. Anyone who only subscribes for boxing would be better off just getting a Now TV pass for the day whenever there’s a decent card on.

With BN clearly winding down, it’s a very poor situation for British fans.

I hate the way there are good fights getting shown every other week in the states yet we dont have any option of viewing these fights.
Mikey garcia and kovalev the other week done my head in i couldnt get either. Eddie Hearn should be twisting sky tv's arm to get these on normal sky channels,not even Eddie Hearn,Adam Smith is meant to be head of boxing on sky so why isnt he doing his job? Surely he can get his mouth off Eddie's cock for at least half an hour to negotiate a deal to get Showtime or HBO to provide these fights.

[Ruthless-RKO]

So with no more shows scheduled for this month, the first 8 months of the year have seen our regular Sky Sports subscription deliver 8 shows. 1 British show every 4 weeks. Also worth noting that 3 of those have been JD NXTGEN shows, which Eddie initially told us were SEPARATE from the regular Saturday fight nights. So in reality we've actually only had 5 SFNs over 8 months.

Yeh, some of the JD cards were wither Wednesday and/or Friday, so not even Saturday.

Furthermore, I vividly remember watching an interview with Eddie a year or so ago in which in defence of the PPV model, he claimed that the money would be reinvested into the SFNs and that he wanted each one to be headlined by a world title fight. Now, if my info is correct, we've had ZERO world title fights on regular Sky Sports in 2018.

Compared to last year, he hasn't many world champions. But I still agree, with the ones he has, he should have them headline their own show.

Instead we've had several British and Commonwealth title fights. Not necessarily bad in itself, but not what we've been promised. By my calculations, we've seen just 5 fighters that can claim to have won above European level. Kell Brook in a 2 round blowout against Rabchenko, Amir Khan in a 40 second blowout of Phil Lo Greco, Dillian Whyte in a 6 round demolition of an out of shape Lucas Browne and former European champion Gavin McDonnell vs former World Champion Stuart Hall, albeit a faded version who retired after the fight.

Hearn knows that regardless of world titles, Brook can sell on his own, have a few Sheffield locals on the card and it will sell.. Similar to Khan, he doesn't NEED a world title, he can fight anyone and it will sell. Whyte/Browne was basically Hearn building Whyte up and seeing how it goes and ultimately it went well, so now all of a sudden, we won't even get Whyte on normal Sky Sports anymore.

I've gone through all this and realised that I could have made my point much more quickly. We're served shite on Saturday nights. Anything remotely world level is usually used to pack out PPV cards. The SFNs and JD NXTGENs, which were supposed to be separate, are almost impossible to differentiate now. But if nothing else, remember this thread when Eddie's going full force in his salesman rants on IFL about how Matchroom are absolutely smashing it and how British boxing is booming, when in reality your average Sky Sports subscription gets you very little in terms of world championship boxing.

US fans get much more world title fights on regular HBO, Showtime, Etc. TO be fair, I don't think it's all Hearn's fault. Sky must set him a target to have x amount's of cards on Box Office.
----------------------
This is a list of confirmed and potential dates/fights to come to closr the year off..

September 8: Amir Khan v Samuel Vargas (Birmingham)
September 22: Anthony Joshua v Alexander Povetkin (London, live on talkSPORT)
October 13: Lewis Ritson and Josh Kelly to return (Newcastle)
October 27: London show with headliner to be confirmed
November 3: Liverpool show with headliner rumoured to be Rocky Fielding
November 10: Oleksandr Usyk v Tony Bellew (Venue to be confirmed)
November 24: Monaco show with headliner to be confirmed
December 1/8: Amir Khan v Kell Brook (Cardiff)
----------------------

Of the list above, there are 3 ppv's.. Joshua-Povetkin, Usyk-Bellew and Khan-Brook

So really, the rest of the shows excluding any JDNXTGEN's is..

September 8: Amir Khan v Samuel Vargas (Birmingham)
October 13: Lewis Ritson and Josh Kelly to return (Newcastle)
October 27: London show with headliner to be confirmed
November 3: Liverpool show with headliner rumoured to be Rocky Fielding
November 24: Monaco show with headliner to be confirmed

Ritson will likely be in a European title fight, he also fights on Sept 8.

The London show, I have no idea who will be headlining. I'm sure Hearn said he's looking for Whyte to get out again in December. Unless he fights a lesser opponent, then he could appear on the Khan-Brook undercard. However I doubt we'll see Khan-Brook anyway..

Rocky Fielding defending his WBA 'Regular' belt.. We all know Groves is the real world champion..

Monaco shows are usually headlined by the likes of Quigg, maybe Crolla will appear.. Burns even,,

[Ruthless-RKO]

Yeah it’s been total poo this year. Anyone who only subscribes for boxing would be better off just getting a Now TV pass for the day whenever there’s a decent card on.

With BN clearly winding down, it’s a very poor situation for British fans.

Frustrating being a boxing fan in the UK at the moment.

[KiwiRider]

Compared to Golden Tranny on ESPN, they are bloody awesome.

[keithmoonhangover]

I think Sky Sports as a package is fantastic value. If you are watching it. Just for boxing, then it ain't.

[tony1234]

The Whyte fight should have been on regular SKY which is the problem, the more PPV bills you have the less fights you have for the regular Saturday night shows

[Ruthless-RKO]

The Whyte fight should have been on regular SKY which is the problem, the more PPV bills you have the less fights you have for the regular Saturday night shows

I agree. Now, unless Whyte fights a lesser opponent, guaranteed, his next fight will likely be PPV again. Fair enough sometimes you need PPV to pay the fighters a certain purse. But Sky provide I big enough budget to fund these fights, well most of them on regular Sky. Whyte and Parker were paid a minimum £1 million for the fight without ppv revenue. Instead they needs us (the fans) to fund the fights for us.

I don't even believe a Wilder vs. Whyte fight in the UK should be PPV either, but Hearn would put it on PPV and would have a packed undercard. Also it wouldn't now make sense if we've seen Whyte-Parker on PPV and not Whyte-Wilder.

Bar that fight, Whyte's only PPV fights should be Joshua and Fury. Big domestic fights and that's with Joshua and Fury the main attractions for the fight.

[Stuarty]

What are we on now? Lucky if we have one show a month on normal Sky Sports. It's fuckin dreadful. I'd subscribe to a BN style subscription type platform if Sky rolled that out to cover all boxing. Depending on cost of course. They could keep the one off PPVs for the casual element? Don't even know if that's feasible tbh? Just brain farting.

[Crazyboy]

I think Sky Sports as a package is fantastic value. If you are watching it. Just for boxing, then it ain't.

This. I'm not just a boxing fan I love a lot of different sports so for me I love it personally.

Just for the football alone its worth the money for me, its not sky boxing its sky sports and for that I don't mind paying my money.

Not sure why people moan about it in all fairness, its not a boxing only channel and never will be, don't like it, don't subscribe.

[whiteboy]

Aren't we missing:

Fielding - Zeuge
Quigg - Valdez
McDonnell - Inoue
Yafai - Carmona
Jacobs - Suleki

Not SFN maybe, but probably all comes out of the same Sky pot...

[Loftgroov]

I cancelled Sky Sports over a year ago and now just buy a Now TV pass for the day when there happens to be something on I want to watch (which isn't often).

Actual Sky Sports subscribers are being badly fleeced now, especially if you're not a football addict - because its the football rights you're basically paying your daft monthly cost for.

[mullenman]

Great post...

I’m also a golf fan and the uspga was not on sky and they also lost Spanish football. I’ll soon be cancelling for an internet box like most my friends as the value is awful

[tobyh5]

Floyd mayweather vs pacquiao was ppv due to sky having to pay 200mil for the fight but eddie hearn is skys boxing platform so they dont have to pay him 200mil for anthony joshua vs XXXX or kell brook vs XXXX.

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

[Boxerbeetle]

Floyd mayweather vs pacquiao was ppv due to sky having to pay 200mil for the fight but eddie hearn is skys boxing platform so they dont have to pay him 200mil for anthony joshua vs XXXX or kell brook vs XXXX.

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

Maths

[tobyh5]

Floyd mayweather vs pacquiao was ppv due to sky having to pay 200mil for the fight but eddie hearn is skys boxing platform so they dont have to pay him 200mil for anthony joshua vs XXXX or kell brook vs XXXX.

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

Maths

Thanks for the unnecessary and wrong correction

http://grammarist.com/spelling/math-maths/

[Boxerbeetle]

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

Maths

Thanks for the unnecessary and wrong correction

http://grammarist.com/spelling/math-maths/

Maths

[TheGman]

Floyd mayweather vs pacquiao was ppv due to sky having to pay 200mil for the fight but eddie hearn is skys boxing platform so they dont have to pay him 200mil for anthony joshua vs XXXX or kell brook vs XXXX.

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

Ok £200 million sky reportedly paid for pacquiao vs mayweather is sky wrong or are they the ones who cant do the MATHS?

[tobyh5]

Floyd mayweather vs pacquiao was ppv due to sky having to pay 200mil for the fight but eddie hearn is skys boxing platform so they dont have to pay him 200mil for anthony joshua vs XXXX or kell brook vs XXXX.

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

Ok £200 million sky reportedly paid for pacquiao vs mayweather is sky wrong or are they the ones who cant do the MATHS?

Sorry mate, my reply sounded harsher than I intended.

The mathS is simple really - it cost £24.95, they would need to over eight MILLION ppv buys to break even on the purchase price let alone production costs, advertising and promotions, sending teams to Vegas etc. Now does that sound like it can make any sense whatsoever?!

[CaptainSpacerod]

The OP is spot on. Oh for the happy days of Friday fight night ...

BN's demise leaves UK boxing fans scrabbling round for the scraps Eddie feeds us. No point moaning about Adam Smith, he's got fvck all clout anymore, Eddie runs sky boxing

[samwbr]

I can't see them having paid out more than £10million

[Avitar]

The OP is spot on. Oh for the happy days of Friday fight night ...

BN's demise leaves UK boxing fans scrabbling round for the scraps Eddie feeds us. No point moaning about Adam Smith, he's got fvck all clout anymore, Eddie runs sky boxing

What about the bt sport shows this year we have seen warrington vs Selby and Frampton vs donaire next week we have an interesting show with Frampton, paddy barns and fury

[TheGman]

200mil? I assume that is a typo as with respect, you cannot be that unable to use commonsense and carry out some basic math.

Ok £200 million sky reportedly paid for pacquiao vs mayweather is sky wrong or are they the ones who cant do the MATHS?

Sorry mate, my reply sounded harsher than I intended.

The mathS is simple really - it cost £24.95, they would need to over eight MILLION ppv buys to break even on the purchase price let alone production costs, advertising and promotions, sending teams to Vegas etc. Now does that sound like it can make any sense whatsoever?!

My bad,i got it wrong,i thought id seen that sky had paid that amount but after a bit of research sky paid £12million($18million) for pacman vs mayweather. You were right i was wrong lol