The Standard of Sky's Saturday Fight Nights
Posted: 12 Aug 2018, 21:09
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.
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.
lol