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Haye-Maccarinelli E-mail to ITV
Hello y'all.
I'm an old member of the board from many many years ago, through various reasons I had to stop posting, but like George Foreman I have confounded the world by announcing my return to the glorious shores of Saddoboxing.com, still P4P the best boxing forum on the net. I won't tell you who I was/am but I had about 1,200 posts and most of them where about how Audley Harrison was going to win the world title within 8 fights, unify within 11 and retire 50-0 undefeated aged 43No I'm not Meunouk.
So why now? Firstly because I've been at a new uni for the last few months, and so I've had a good internet connection. Sedondly, and more importantly, because of Haye - Maccarinelli. Quite frankly this fight needs to happen. And unless we, the internet boxing fans who keep this sport alive and who keep Frank Warren in Jaguar's and Italian suits, start a minor outcry this fight will not happen.
In this spirit I sent an e-mail to the people at ITV sport. Here is what I said, and what they said in return.
From: GrimReefer666@hotmail.com [mailto:GrimReefer666@hotmail.com]
Sent: 16 January 2007 16:49
To: Duty Office
Subject: ITV Boxing Feedback
User: Rob Taylor
Comment:
Dear ITV sports people. I would like to add my voice to the growing number of british sportsfans who are desperate to see David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli fight. In my opinion these two fighters are amongst the most talented british prospects of the last 20 years, and fate has led to the place where they both are in a position to challenge for the Undisputed Cruiserweight Championship. This is a golden opportunity to showcase the very best boxing has to offer and I am disappointed to hear that there are rumours that ITV is responsible for this fight not taking place by placing unreasonable demands on David Haye's future fights. According to what I have read ITV have asked for options on David Haye, who as you know is contracted to Sky Sports, and his next 5 fights. This demand is utterly ridiculous for a fighter in Haye's position. Mr Haye is one of the most exciting and talented fighters in the boxing world. He is the WBC no.1 contender and has aims of becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. His next 5 fights are likely to make or break him as a world-class champion. There is absolutely no way that Haye is going to give up his television deal at this stage in his career with this much on the line. Shame on ITV for getting involved in the negotiating process and scuppering this fight!
Remember that the biggest PPV earner in boxing history, Lewis - Tyson, was a one-off deal between HBO Boxing and Showtime, who had the broadcast rights over Lewis and Tyson respectively. Despite all the political problems that this faced, both company's were aware of the potential of Lewis - Tyson and co-operated to make a one-fight deal, making millions of boxing fans very happy. The similarilty between this situation and the situation ITV and Sky Sports find themselves in is striking and worth noting.
Boxing is not like other sports. With Football you can guarentee 90 minutes of action with breaks for advertising. You can alway guarentee good ratings from the supporters of whichever clubs are playing. Boxing is not as reliable as that. If a boxing match is made between two boring fighters with no profile, the ratings will be dire. If two exciting and reasonably high-profile british prospects are faced against one another then the viewing figures will be better. Haye - Maccarinelli is definitely a case of the latter. Matchmaking is a science, boxing fans will only tune in if the fight offers excitement, and as a boxing fan I can assure you there will be no better match up than Haye - Maccarinelli in 2007. It has "fight of the year" written all over it. I urge you to take this opportunity whilst it is here and try to get this fight going, for the good of british boxing. The liklihood is that the winner of this fight will challenge for the Cruiserweight title, owned by O'Neill Bell of the USA who recently told the South Wales Argus that he will fight the winner of Haye Maccarinelli and urged both parties to agree to fight, and afterwards go on to challenge for the heavyweight world title. If ITV gets on board now, you will have invested in a potential heavyweight champion of the world. This is a good investment for ITV and the sport, and hopefully you will not pass up the opportunity.
Regards, Rob Taylor.
Grammatically poor, especially for someone at uni studying the english language, but gets the point accross. They sent me this in reply.
Dear Mr Taylor
Thank you for your email. In common with boxing fans around the country, ITV Sport would like to see a fight between Enzo Maccarinelli and David Haye on ITV. However, ITV has a contract with a promoter - Frank Warren and Sports Network. We do not get involved in the negotiations over opponents and have not on this occasion. ITV is committed to bringing the best boxing action to our viewers and we look forward to another exciting year of top fights in 2007.
Regards
DUTY OFFICER.ae
The only bit of that I find interesting is the underlined bit. I had assumed, along with many of you, that the reason this fight wasn't going to happen is coz ITV wanted to have the next 5 fights of whoever won between Haye - Maccarinelli. Now this is just some bored clerk giving me the party line, I know that, but it says that ITV have not made any of those demands on David Haye. Is this ITV stuff just a game of distraction being used by Frank Warren to cover his shady tracks?
I would encourage you to get in touch with ITV over this as they are in a position to Frank Warren under pressure and make this fight happen. Oh yeah and watch out for ripping Frank Warren too much, he's very litigous and as this is a british-based website you have no constitutional guarentee of freedom of speech and what you type on here is potentially libelous
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