I miss Setanta

[Grant1]

I miss Setanta and the 'boxing community' it was building, massively.

Firstly, we had the death of young Darren Sutherland last week. Even though I never had the fortune to meet Darren and had never heard of him until the Olympics, the regular appearances and updates on the Boxing Hour made me feel as though I knew him personally and I was gutted to hear the news.

Setanta, and the boxing hour in particular, was brilliant at bringing the fans, promoters, trainers and fighters together.

Fight nights were great, and I looked forward to the banter and interaction as much as the fight itself. Look at what we've got in it's place.

Three prats with an autocue along with Jim Watt and his scoring out of a hat.

Boxing is not the same without Setanta :-(

[Leighton T]

Preach my brother!!!!

[slip&counter]

you're not the only one

[safc1990]

I discovered some old Setanta nights on tape recently and have been feeling very nostalgic ever since.

[kosaros]

Setanta was the best thing that happened to boxing in years and, sadly, we may never see anything like it again...

[JIM KELLY]

we lost something significant. Damn British Boxing lost big time with setanta signing off.

[theboy_racer]

Looks like many of us feel the same.

[PrideOfWales]

The Sutherland thing brought it home for me too. Bunce was given a bit of a free reign to do what he wanted with that show and although sometimes chaotic, he covered mostly everything that was relevant to us as fans at the time. Doing pieces on journeymen, prospects, amateurs as well as the top names in the business meant we knew more about Sutherland, David Price, Jeffries etc than we ever would have before.

Even if ESPN put as much effort into their boxing coverage, it would still be more Sky Sports than Setanta.

Unfortunately, that ship has sailed.

[dan-b]

Sadly, it would appear, their business plan was as chaotic as some of Steve Bunce's shirts. I think us Brits will always look back on it as a halcyon era, albeit a brief one.

[robpalmer135]

Setanta came in and overbid for all the fights. as soon as they started having money issues they stopped buying fights that were not part of there contract with promoters but the US promoters still wanted the over inflated fees setanta were offering from Sky.

Setanta are a big part of the problem for why were not gonna see allot of US and german boxing.

[Mazallan]

I want it back for good.

[Losfer_Words]

Yeah I really miss it as well. Something that has not been mentioned is Setanta's willingness to plug fights on other channels as well for the benefit of boxing fans rather than thinking about themselves as well. The fights, combination of Bunce and Kerr, interaction with fans during broadcast and genuine love of boxing is something that probably won't be captured elsewhere. As Dan-B says, Setanta's reign will probably be something we all look back on and will never enjoy the likes of again.

Boxing was fun on Setanta. At Sky, like Stork jested yesterday, it just seems like they are reading from a script. They always seem to have some sort of goal (most probably a PPV) in sight for the future and their coverage is both condescending and boring. ITV have fantastic coverage- if Sky fail to pick up anyone from the ITV team then it is a sorry state of affairs indeed.

[theuppercut]

One of the many things that fucks me off about Sky's coverage is anchorman Dave Darts. Man, he knows fuck all and the questions he asks are the questions I get asked off my 9-year old nephew. And when the three stooges reply we're meant to be amazed by their insight and knowledge -fuck right off.

Bring back Dempsey.

[doug.ie]

ok...my tuppence worth.

at least setanta had the respect for the views of the boxing fans that is definetly not there with sky...let me elaborate..

1. sky did not care about the boxing fans enough to even bother to discuss properly, or debate, the whole weight / weigh-in issue at the time it happened...it was almost like sky didnt have a clue there was any 144 pound issue at all.

2. after the whole kellerman fuck-up, cameras cut quickly back to the studio, where the 'panel' acted like it didnt happen...all just sat there with cheesey smiles...going along with the 'sky- best for big time boxing' bollocks.

3. after sticking up for jim watt when he got stick about fury v mcdermott, he was terrible and that idiot smith too...smith kept saying marquez looked bad...even in the 4th where marquez did alright he got no credit from them..

4. emails from viewers.....sky would never entertain such an idea...its like their attitude is that they are showing the boxing and that is enough..that will do us...
no need for debate or viewers opinions.

5. whats the point of mccrory, nelson and piper...they have nothing remotely interesting to say...they know their place, sit with stupid smiles and never speak out of turn...god forbit saying anything controversial or at least debatable or interesting.

6. skys football fans seem to be treated ok...like, andy gray seems to analyse football matches well, seems to go over anything thats debateable....boxing is not covered like this...its a product, its presented like grandstand back in the 60's/70's...stick to the script at all times...


i am grateful to see any boxing on tv..but i do pay a subscription fee, so i have my limit on how grateful i am...but at least it wasnt ppv like in u.s.


.

[Grant1]

1. sky did not care about the boxing fans enough to even bother to discuss properly, or debate, the whole weight / weigh-in issue at the time it happened...it was almost like sky didnt have a clue there was any 144 pound issue at all.





Too true, FFN put the weights up as Marquez 146 and PBF 142.

It's pathetic.

[nickythekid]

i miss setanta big time, sky dont do enough international coverage. and like someone else here said, when they do show it they always have an angle for a future ppv or whatever, their commentary is really bias and naive also. there were some fantastic fights on setanta probably my favourite being cotto v margarito, sky would never show a fight like that because there is nothing in it for them.

[Lee Mc]

i miss setanta big time, sky dont do enough international coverage. and like someone else here said, when they do show it they always have an angle for a future ppv or whatever, their commentary is really bias and naive also. there were some fantastic fights on setanta probably my favourite being cotto v margarito, sky would never show a fight like that because there is nothing in it for them.

The same Sky who showed Cotto vs Alfonso Gomez and, on the same night as Tarver vs Hopkins, Cotto vs Mallignaggi?

If you're going to be a revisionist at least make it a history that no-one can prove wrong :patsch

[saturday_kid]

I miss Setanta too, reasons already been covered.

[Mr Blair]

It just isn't fair that shit like Cricket and Horse Racing can take up as much time as they want, while a sport like boxing has to go paddling in puddles. (Keep horseracing to just inside the bookies, please)

I'd take a 60min boxing review show on ITV4 each week, even if its a lil more low rent than the BBH, just to see a staple of boxing on regularly.

And I still refuse to subscribe to SKY and ESPN, even though I'm missing out on my beloved Celtic and boxing.

[SteelTownCobra]

Me too

[griff]

Setanta gave the sport the coverage it deserves. Even their news channel had live interviews with up & coming fighters like Tony Jeffries and Bradley Saunders. Every breaking story got covered by Setanta, sadly SSN are only interested in Soccer and Cricket.

[BIGMARK]

it seems Sky have tired a bit with their new season lineup but i really miss the human element of the setanta stuff esp the inter active stuff, those German boxing nights were the stuff of legends and the studio stuff sometimes better than the boxing. Sky are very pro with their package but they could learn a bit from the customer friendly approch Setanta had

[Grant1]

it seems Sky have tired a bit with their new season lineup but i really miss the human element of the setanta stuff esp the inter active stuff, those German boxing nights were the stuff of legends and the studio stuff sometimes better than the boxing. Sky are very pro with their package but they could learn a bit from the customer friendly approch Setanta had

That's it, with Setanta it was a whole night of boxing you could look forward to, get involved in and be guaranteed entertainment even if the fights were shit.

Now, I just set my alarm for 3am and get back up for the fight, it's not nearly as enjoyable.

[eubank84]

say what u like about sky but at least they continue to show boxing because i dont beleive that they get great viewing figures on friday nights and especially when they show the american fights! and next year sky will be the only channel showing boxing over here as itv are giving up on it and bbc refuse to even consider it (amazing considering some of the viewing figures they,ve had with boxing over the years). so all im saying is dont bite the hands thats feeding us at the moment because if sky gave up we`d all be screwed!!!

[almsn]

It was really bad there for a while but it's a bit better now with the new Friday fight night season on skysports started up.Hopefully it comes back one day we just need more world class fighters and other channels will show interest

[BIGMARK]

I dont think that Sky do much wrong with their boxing coverage seeing they show 5 times as much as anyone else. Yes we all get driven mad by their studio team and by those calling the fight however its no worse than anything else they show. Last night i watched Real Madrid who struggled like Fuk against a team the same level as Derby county yet the communtry team just kept going on about how great their players were. This happens across the board on Sky be it Phil Taylor playing darts or one of the big four playing football as it seems they like to hype the best (maybe justified in the case of Taylor) to get the casual viewer caught up in the hype.