BoxRec

I would have been murdered because I would have made
countless spam posts about the greatness of Frank Bruno
pissing everyone off or I would have tracked down posters
who slagged Big Frank off to smash their windows. I would have
got caught and pasted to an inch of my life by racist bigots, adults with big sideburns and tattooed forearms who didn't agree with me about the greatness of Frank Bruno.

The positive side would have been I would had least left school
with at least one O level (computers) becaue I would have always been
on it. talking about Frank Bruno and how with his underrated power and jab he's gonna batter fat american no hoper Tim Witherspoon to be the first englishman this century to win the world heavyweight title. :(

How would your teenage persona would have dealt with the internet?
What would you have written about?

I'm not sure if the internet's arrival has resulted in the lack of US shows being on Terrestial TV.

In the "good old days" only a few selected regions of ITV would showcase the US fight live... most would showcase it on delay (often 9.30 Sunday morning) or for a Super Fight prime time. I don't think HTV Wales covered any Tyson fight live... Indeed in Wales, Leonard vs Hagler was shown after Coronotion Street on a Week day (and that was the first showing in Wales). The reason why I remember this so well was cause my brother was told by a school mate the result, and although he never told me it was obvious by his body language that Hagler lost.

Some regions, showcased the bill live AND would show it on delay for the main stream.

In those days those, TV with Teletext were rare and it would seem that even the papers appreciated that the country wanted to see the fight first before reading about it.

Now though with TV the way it is run, it will be very hard to ever see ITV showcase a US fight live.... Why, when the likes of Make your play is much cheaper to show and makes them money. Will they showcase the fight on delay with the vast majority knowing everything about the fight.... probably not.

If it had been around in the early 90's i'd have gone blind, and Razzle would have lost a very valued customer

stujones wrote:I'm not sure if the internet's arrival has resulted in the lack of US shows being on Terrestial TV.

In the "good old days" only a few selected regions of ITV would showcase the US fight live... most would showcase it on delay (often 9.30 Sunday morning) or for a Super Fight prime time. I don't think HTV Wales covered any Tyson fight live... Indeed in Wales, Leonard vs Hagler was shown after Coronotion Street on a Week day (and that was the first showing in Wales). The reason why I remember this so well was cause my brother was told by a school mate the result, and although he never told me it was obvious by his body language that Hagler lost.

Some regions, showcased the bill live AND would show it on delay for the main stream.

In those days those, TV with Teletext were rare and it would seem that even the papers appreciated that the country wanted to see the fight first before reading about it.

Now though with TV the way it is run, it will be very hard to ever see ITV showcase a US fight live.... Why, when the likes of Make your play is much cheaper to show and makes them money. Will they showcase the fight on delay with the vast majority knowing everything about the fight.... probably not.

I didn't know that? I thought the Tyson fights were live all over the country I lived in the Granada ITV region so we had the luxury of having the marvellous 'fight night' which showcased the talents of Najib Daho for instance but we also got to see live shows like Sugar Ray Leonard vs Donny LaLonde and Dennis Andries vs Tommy Hearns live but I thought that was national.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zC30Zq0oDbM

One of my favorite shows as a kid. What annoyed me though is that they would advertise the boxing 'we have action from Brentwood tonight as
Mo Hussein defends his commonwealth title against Bright Spider, but first we go to the UEFA cup prelimary round as St Mirren have to fight a 5 goal away deficit to Lokomotiv Lodz' and I would be like NOOOOOOOOOOOO
I think thats around the time I started to detest football and then after having to watch the whole game plus highlights and interviews of other footballers you would get to the boxing and show a clip of Hussein sprawling out Bright Spider 5 minutes before the end of the show.

I'm sure others will remember this, I stayed in to watch the advertised fight between Tom Collins and Alex Blanchard for the European light havyweight title in Usk, so I sat down to watch the fight and Jim Rosenthal goes 'first we shall go th Sheffield Crucible where Steve Davis is playing Martin Parrot' and I'd be like 'BASTARDS' however I flicked through the other 3 channels waitng for the boxing and when the Collins vs Blanchard was shown an hour later they said they had 'technical difficultues' and just showed two photos. One of Collins hitting Blachard on the chin and the other of Blachard on the canvas out like a light. Rosenthal then goes 'Collins is the european champion... right onto darts'

Apparentley, Blanchard had Dutch advertising on his shorts and the powers that be wouldn't show the fight because of it!

I final point Stu, remember when Calazghe beat Lacy and ITV showed a replay the morning after the fight apart from HTV who showed football league highlights of Cardiff City, Swansea and wrexham?

Yeah, we in Wales did have Midweek Sports Special. I remember Holyfield vs Dokes being shown on it. Sports Night on the BBC was also a good one for the boxing (Hide vs Bowe, Foreman vs Moreer, Lewis vs Butler) were 3 of the final(ish) fights shown on Sports Night.

Sport on Friday was another that sometimes showed domestic action.

I've been lucky in recent weeks as I have got hold of a couple of classic action from Red Dragon. ITV definately showed alot on delayed and it did conform my memory that some regions (e.g. Wales) didn't show many bills live. Cause one of the fights I had advertised a Tyson fight which was on the following Saturday and it had "check your local listings for time and availablility".... oh those were the days instead of the generic rubbish we have now.

On another one of the tapes I had of Red Dragon. Dickie Davies said that the undercard to a Tyson fight (Biggs vs Bey) was going to be shown on World of Sport the following Saturday. Again though, I would doubt many of the main stream fans would know the result.

stujones wrote:Indeed in Wales, Leonard vs Hagler was shown after Coronotion Street on a Week day (and that was the first showing in Wales).

Have you seen this before?

Midweek Sports Special was a great program, and better for boxing than its rival Sportsnight. Those were the days!
Although there is more boxing now on the Sky channels, and now Setanta, its obviously become a minority sport in the UK after it was taken off ITV. Since its gone back, most of the shows have been crap especially the last one in Cardiff, which will have done nothing to attract new fans to the sport and left even hardcore fans cold.