BBC and BOXXER Bring Boxing Back to Free TV – Let’s Hope They Don’t Ruin It

The BBC’s determined boxing deserves a seat again on the Saturday night time desk, teaming up with BOXXER to stream fights on BBC iPlayer and air them on good outdated free-to-air TV. That’s proper – you received’t must pay £20 on PPV to observe a prospect batter some overmatched Latvian. For now.

It’s not simply the principle fights, both. They’ll chuck in a couple of undercard bouts, behind-the-scenes bits, and a few filler options throughout the BBC Sport web site and app. Sounds good, however most of us simply need first rate fights with out three hours of preamble and half-time montages that appear to be they have been made for the Six Nations.

BBC Says Boxing’s Again – However Will Anybody Care?

Alex Kay-Jelski from BBC Sport is already patting himself on the again, speaking about bringing boxing to “youthful audiences” and giving them “the subsequent technology” of fighters. The “subsequent technology” is nice and all, but when the matchmaking’s rubbish, nobody’s going to stay round previous spherical three. This sport wants blood, drama, and actual competitors – not only a shiny set and a pre-fight panel.

Shalom Guarantees the “Greatest Potential Viewers” – Yeah, We’ve Heard That Earlier than

BOXXER boss Ben Shalom calls it “historic” and says they’ll convey essentially the most “entertaining” fighters to the largest viewers. Translation: they’ll attempt to make stars with out risking them too quickly. Hopefully which means actual 50/50 fights as an alternative of one other unbeaten child towards a cab driver with six losses in a row.

This could possibly be a win for followers… in the event that they don’t fill it with protected matchmaking and padded data. BBC’s bought the platform, BOXXER’s bought the fighters – now let’s see in the event that they’ve bought the center to placed on fights value watching. Or will or not it’s one other overproduced Saturday night time snoozefest?