The Non-Matchroom Contingent Need to Come Together

I have been thinking about this Warren, Hearn, Hennesey et al situation. What is clear is that it is Hearn's time to shine. Boxing promotion can be cyclical in terms of power structure, much like trainers go through stages of being "the man" to work with. At the moment it is Matchroom and SKY, so what do the others do?

The only answer I can see is that Fatty Mick, Frog Eyes, Gollum (Maloney) and the rest work together to put on the best cards they can and expose their fighters as much as possible. Mick has Channel 5 and a tiny stable. If he wants that contract to count for anything, then get Warren and the rest on board so it can mean something. Personally, I think Warren should fold up Boxnation and try and get on the Channel 5 bandwagon. Not sure if that is feasible, but it sounds like SKY have no interest in Warren any more.

What do you guys think? What can the also ran promoters do now to maintain?

Hennesy is doing better than hes ever done before. why would he suddenly feel the need to merge?

how about sticking all the eddie hearn threads together like we used to with pacamn? then everybody knows where to go...

nice idea, but i dont see it working. can you imagine those 3 trying to agree on anything, let alone TV deals, fees, opponents, schedules etc. way to much ego involved, let alone legal detail to prevent it been reality.

Hi Sean,

I was thinking about this yesterday when talking to one of the boxers from St Joeys. The more I thought about it, the more I understood what is likely to happen...

Sky Sports have cut their funding of televised boxing - they show Matchroom only. This is suicide given the great exposure the sport has had since the olympics and the increased funding it will subsequently receive in the future.

Hearn has made it quite clear about his stance on Sky Sports, but with Golden Boy Promotions lurking around the corner, his market share may weaken slightly.

Now, with the likes of Hatton Promotions floating around Promotion-no-mans-land, it would make sense to jump straight to BoxNation - Sky Sports Boxing is dry, there's no getting away from that - one promoter on one channel is disgusting (especially considering the cost of the channels if you only watch boxing). Hatton would likely lose a number of casual viewers by joining BoxNation, however his fighters have the exposure.

The next issue is the potential of BoxNation "going under": Earlier this year I heard that BT was looking to acquire the assets and content into for it's own "Sports Network".

Simon Green, the head of BT Sport was a short time ago the Chief Executive at BoxNation and remains a non-executive director there...

Going back to the Golden Boy Promotion UK venture, is it possible that BoxNation folds, is relaunched by BT and a larger stable of promoters use the channel?

It's all of course pure speculation, but can you imagine the success of having regular UK line ups (supporting a number of prospects and current champions), ALONG with US fights on one channel? If the likes of GBPUK, Hatton and to a lesser extent Warren and Maloney used the station, it would leave Eddie Hearn out in the dark...

There would be ONE Universal TV deal (which would allow a number of cross-networked and dual promoted shows). In a perfect world it would make sense. Eddie Hearn is then left with George Groves fighting for Euro straps, Carl Froch for another year or so, Kell Brook and his WBA/WBC/NBA/WWF Interim and #1 ranking fights and a steady drip feed of Prizefighters: The Bums.