German Boxing and Marco Huck

mikethemouth

Wanna bring up two things - any views welcome

Marco Huck - This guy is a real character. One of the dirtiest fighters out there but a real crowd pleaser. Always looking for the KO and has a lot of heart. A former kickboxer world champion and brings a big crowd where he fights. Just watching him here on setanta versus an undefeated ukranian and hes immensely entertaining to watch . while i dont think hes up in true world class level just yet i fancy him for a world title in next 12 months - what do ppl think of him ??

German Boxing - German boxing has seen a huge revival over the last 5 years. I really think there a few things we can learn in Britain and ireland from the German way of promoting boxing . In Germany, free television carries top title fights the way it once did in the United States, in the golden days of the 1970s and 1980s. Germany’s two biggest promoters each have exclusive deals to provide fight nights to public television stations, providing steady income and, more important, the platform to build interest, and stars. This i think is crucial - if the likes of Warren, Maloney etc had to sign to terrestial tv it would be huge for boxing here. The absence of boxing on network television is the main reason for the decline in mainstream interest in the United States. Now dont get me wrong Boxing is very healthy in Britain and Ireland - I just feel this is worth looking at. Lets look at Brian Peters - lets say Peters was nt signed to Hunky Dorys and RTE, Setanta would have got that fight which would mean all the passive boxing fans would have missed that great fight . Now with the huge viewership figures for the Dunne fight on RTE it means Boxing attracts more fans meaning greater revenue for the future boxing stars in our country. The Klitschos are a great example - while these guys are not big US stars they regularly attract 10 m viewership figures in Geramny and represent companies like Hugo Boss and Mercedes. Why would these guys wanna move to the US. Germany has become the centre of european boxing with regard to promoting and there is alot we can learn from this. Thats my rant for the night. thanks for reading. how do ppl think we can continue to promote boxing and increase the sports popularity???

Undertow

I agree with you about Huck. I backed him tonight to floor that Ukranian in the 3rd or 4th. My luck, he got him in the 5th. :rolleyes: But the man can certainly hit, he's destined for great things.

mikethemouth

good call dude. the kid can definetly bang. i love the way he always comes out looking for the KO. hes real good to watch. i still think he has loads to learn. hes quite slow and boxes alot in lateral lines. he can improve his head and foot movement. but your right hes deffo one to watch allrite, hes already a major star in germany so the world is his oyster. i d love to see him fight soon . be interesting to see will he move out of germany in search of the bigger fights ......i dont think he will....i think zauerland will insist opponents will have to come to germany.

joepenguin

I agree, I bet most people would be hard pressed to name more than 5 active boxres at the moment and its all because they are on sky/setanta/ppv.

In fairness the Irish channels have most of the top Irish boxing and itv have a load of cards throughout the year but imo its not enough. We need a friday fight night type of thing on one of the terrestrial channels. Plus I really think the smaller cards in Ireland should sort out a t na g deal or one of the small channels on free to air.

EDIT: Huck is brilliant to have in boxing, certainly is brilliant to watch.

duagre

joepenguin wrote: »

Plus I really think the smaller cards in Ireland should sort out a t na g deal or one of the small channels on free to air.

.

an excellent idea. I think its something people would get behind once they started to get to know the fighters

joepenguin

What did ye make of alex abraham? They were talking on him and Jamie Moore but he will be moving on to bigger and better things. Pity they werent in a posiiton to fight him a year ago, it would have made for a good few rounds of action.

mikethemouth

joepenguin wrote: »

"We need a friday fight night type of thing on one of the terrestrial channels. Plus I really think the smaller cards in Ireland should sort out a t na g deal or one of the small channels on free to air "

thats a cracking idea...surely its something that would work also. get a sponsor in there to sponsor friday night boxing and maybe take it round the country. i definetly think there is a huge passive audience for boxing in ireland who would actually tune in if boxing was made available for free view. t na g would be happy as advertising revenues would be high if it took off . would be great exposure for our young fighters as duagre mentioned.

i see setanta are now showing the aba's now .....even if all our all ireland ameteur finals were shown ...i think it would attract an interest.

mikethemouth

joepenguin wrote: »

What did ye make of alex abraham? They were talking on him and Jamie Moore but he will be moving on to bigger and better things. Pity they werent in a posiiton to fight him a year ago, it would have made for a good few rounds of action.

agreed joe....would have been a cracking fight allrite. doubt it will happen now though as abrahams promoters are looking at bigger fights from the US. maybe if moore was willing to travel to germany there might be a possibilty...personally i cant see moore winning that fight though....it would be good action though :-)

Rob113

joepenguin wrote: »

I agree, I bet most people would be hard pressed to name more than 5 active boxres at the moment and its all because they are on sky/setanta/ppv.

In fairness the Irish channels have most of the top Irish boxing and itv have a load of cards throughout the year but imo its not enough. We need a friday fight night type of thing on one of the terrestrial channels. Plus I really think the smaller cards in Ireland should sort out a t na g deal or one of the small channels on free to air.]

Its something id love to see happen - a bit more boxing becoming available to the average viewer. I know very little about the Irish boxing scene - because we rarely get to see any of them fight. Id watch Friday Fight Night on Sky most weeks and know a fair bit about the rivalries and the stories behind most of the uk fighters from seeing it week in and week out. Tir na Nog would be the ideal station for it.

mikethemouth

Rob113 wrote: »

Its something id love to see happen - a bit more boxing becoming available to the average viewer. I know very little about the Irish boxing scene - because we rarely get to see any of them fight. Id watch Friday Fight Night on Sky most weeks and know a fair bit about the rivalries and the stories behind most of the uk fighters from seeing it week in and week out. Tir na Nog would be the ideal station for it.

I agree dude. i watch fri night fight night live alot also and its amazing how you start to build up affinitity for certain fighters and rivalries etc. even last week when setanta did the ameteurs i was like i must look out for that kid.....there is definetly a space in the tv schedules in ireland for this where it would well imo.

boxing on terrestial tv is the one of the reasons why the klitscho v haye fight has already sold 55k tickets (and they say boxing is dead lol). all your passive armchair fans identify the kitschcos etc in germany and have known them over time. hence why you see the likes of hugo boss and mercedes wanting their names on their shorts and why 30k tickets were sold on the first day of tickets goin on sale. they will get 10m people watching this fight in germany and this has a snowball effect where it increases boxing popularity, brings more money and resources into the sport and most importantly inspires young kids to take up the sport.

i suppose the big question is do you think a programme like this would take off in ireland? i mean you look at bunces boxing hr...hes had great viewership figures since its aired and has definetly filled a gap their in the market. even when i cant watch the show i just get the podcast on my iphone. its quality like if you wanna find out what fights are on at weekend etc.