British Fighters Hype on Sky?

Hi all,

Is it just me or are British fighters getting completely overhyped these days by Sky Sports and the like? I only follow boxing irregularly but saw the repeat of yet another British fighter - Carl Froch - getting whipped by his American counterpart. It seems like this is almost a weekly occurance now. Are Sky to blame for this? They lead people to believe guys like Haye, Khan and Froch are superstars and the best in the world and when push comes to shove they predictably get beaten.

I remember watching boxing in the 1990s when it was on more regularly and have only recently started watching it again on Sky. I dont pay for pay per view stuff. I have been pretty disappointed. I remember top fighters like Watson, Benn, Eubank, Collins, Calzaghe, Lewis and Barry McGuigan back in the day all involved in great fights. These guys were the real deal and could be counted on to win a fight or two. Nowadays with Sky we have months of ads and builds up with Sky telling us this latest British guy is the next superstar and come fight night he gets beaten from pillar to post! These guys arent as good as the crop from the 1990s are they all just part of Skys hype machine to fool people into believing these guys are world class fighters? Its become a big problem in boxing as far as I can see. Too much hype and not enough substance.

Cheers

Khan losing to Peterson was a big upset. Froch has had 6 tough fights in the last few years and lost 2 and one was very close. Haye I will give you but I don't know if their is that much hype around them.

This has been a good year for British boxing. Guys like Macklin, Murray and Barker all did better than expected against top level opposition. Ricky Burns beat Katsidis and we have some good prospects.

It jut seems to me that that all these latest guys have become hype jobs bigged up by sky in order to get people interested. I switched off from boxing when the pay per view nonsense cropped up to stay but have fond memories of the great fighters that were around in the 1980s and 1990s. It seems boxing has lost its way and Sky are trying to sell a poor product behind alot of hype It began around the time of Audley Harrison who was a clown and a complete hype job and it seems boxing hasnt looked back since. Its no real surprise people are switching over to UFC and MMA as they seem to realise fans dont want to be fooled and are offering a genuine value for money product and entertainment while Sky try to tell us Haye is the next Mike Tyson.

I agree with you on Haye but who are the other hype jobs?

Mate, Haye is not a hype job this guy is an all time great cruiserweight who nified the division how can you say he was a hype job? Yes he lost to Wlad but lots of fighters have lost look at Lewis he lost to Rahman was he a hype job? No he was not he was one of the best boxers of all time.

I agree with you about Khan this guy is overrated many people were saying he could beat Mayweather this was silly and shows how overrated he was but he was robbed in his last fight which was in his opponents home town if this fight was anywhere else he would not have lost trust me.

MAny British boxers have been unlucky this year look at Chisora and Macklin and Murray these guys should be holding titles it is a shame they are not. Yes it has not been a great year for British boxing but we next year will be alot better I reckon alot of these guys could win titles back and we have quality guys like brook coming through who world class.

I agree there were many great boxers back in the 1990s and it was much better when it was on regular telly that is a great point I think you are right that ppv is bad for the sport and many people are starting to prefer UFC where the best fight the best all the time you are not able to duck people in UFC like you can in boxing and there are less robberies.

I think they get hyped up because of the state of the sport. There is no doubt that boxing isn't in the same estate as it was 20+ years ago. With PPV, greedy promoters, extra belts and time between fight, boxing doesn't have the star appeal it once had. Fighters like froch and burns where unheard of sop they hype them up to get people interested again. On SSN, boxing gets less time than any other sport.

Waingro wrote:Mate, Haye is not a hype job this guy is an all time great cruiserweight who nified the division how can you say he was a hype job? Yes he lost to Wlad but lots of fighters have lost look at Lewis he lost to Rahman was he a hype job? No he was not he was one of the best boxers of all time.

I agree with you about Khan this guy is overrated many people were saying he could beat Mayweather this was silly and shows how overrated he was but he was robbed in his last fight which was in his opponents home town if this fight was anywhere else he would not have lost trust me.

MAny British boxers have been unlucky this year look at Chisora and Macklin and Murray these guys should be holding titles it is a shame they are not. Yes it has not been a great year for British boxing but we next year will be alot better I reckon alot of these guys could win titles back and we have quality guys like brook coming through who world class.

I agree there were many great boxers back in the 1990s and it was much better when it was on regular telly that is a great point I think you are right that ppv is bad for the sport and many people are starting to prefer UFC where the best fight the best all the time you are not able to duck people in UFC like you can in boxing and there are less robberies.

Who did he beat at Cruiser? Mormeck who was never anything special and Maccaranelli who was average at best. He's no Johnny Nelson now he is an all time great cruiser.

I bet German fighers are not hyped by German TV, same with every other country.

Oh wait....really?

This is the most stupid post I've read and is clearly from someone who doesn't follow the sport (No offense Gordy)

For starters, overhyped? What have they said exactly? Other than they CAN beat the guy they're facing and promoting the fights like a teleivision company is meant to? Froch had fought 7 genuine world class fighters and beaten 5 of them come close in one and was well beaten in another, NOT a hype job. Name a guy that said Froch was going to cakewalk Ward on Sky... No one said it, Froch was a massive underdog going into the fight and not many really believed he was going to win, point is we wanted to get behind our fellow countryman and see him put in a strong performance, which he did.

Moving over to Amir Khan, that was a massive upset that virtually no one saw coming, he was an Olympic silver medalist at the time was rated by most as the Number 1 LightWelterweight on the planet and had unified 2 belts in the division and was a huge odds on favourite to win easily, that's not overhyping that's telling you facts.

David Haye was also a massive underdog, a lot of the Sky pundits genuinely believed he was going to beat Wladimir, heck so did I. It's not really overhyping, the pundits told you who they thought was going to win and if he won he was going to become the unified Heavyweight champion of the world.

These were guys gunning after the biggest challenges in there divisions that they could get at the time.

Looking at the 90's and whatnot, do you want to know the reason as to why guys like Joe Calzaghe didn't lose? Because he was exceptionally talented but was almost never presented with a challenge. Holding onto a title and faced top drawer Eurobums. More or less the same with most of these guys, if you would prefer boxing to go back to the times when Roy Jones Jr was given a pass everytime he decided to take on another no hoper then so be it. Almost whenever Frank Bruno stepped up he got knocked out was he a hype job? What about Chris Eubanks fights against guys like John Jarvis, not exactly gunning for the best in the division there is he? Try one of my favourite fighters to watch ever Prince Naseem was he overhyped? The moment he stepped up to face a real elite level fighter in Marco Antonio Barrera he was well beaten.


Also the poitn of bxoing isn't just to see your countryman win, it's for them to be tested, oh and alos entertain you, if the Khan fight didn't entertain you then you don't want to be watching any more boxing, leave that to the big boys.

Sky Sports totally overhype the fighters plus most of the panel are really biased as well. On saying that Boxnation look like they wont be any better from what iv seen so far either

Sky do overhype most of their fighters but they are selling a product so this is to be expected, however annoying.

The boxing hype is nothing compared to the football though and all this complete tripe about the Premiership being the most competitive and best league in the world. Tis all rhubarb!

Completely agree with alexhuckerby especially with his comments regarding Froch.

For a boxer who has performed at the highest level for the last 3 years Froch has to be the most underhyped and underpromoted fighter from these shores.

If your judging him on just the Ward fight then you really are showing ignorance to this sport, Sky have only this year just started to promote him, his fight against Ward was the conclusion of a gruelling 5 fight programme where to even get there speaks volumes of the calibre of fighter Froch is. It was only fitting that this final was promoted in the way sky did, Froch was always the underdog, but for a fighter to go 5-2 against the level of opposition he faced, he deserves every accholade he gets, even in defeat.

Hopefully sky start backing all british boxers who fight for world championships in this way, especially if they're underdogs, as they deserve all the support and credit to get this far in a tough tough sport, and Froch exemplifys this.

Froch may not be a superstar or the best p4p, but for sheer entertainment he's up there with the best.