why boxing is still popular in britain

[El Gamo]

Boxing in UK is popular for one reason only and that's Ricky Hatton. Most(about 99%) of UK boxing fans know barely anything about boxing(the 1% are on this forum). I have had many conversations where peeps tell me they like boxing, I ask who are your faves and I get the same answer EVERY time:Tyson,Hamed,MAB etc(fighters from 10 years ago!).

The most you'll see in a newspaper about boxing is 2 pages and that's for a Hatton fight. Other than that, 1 small column is usually used.

[HattonTheHammer]

Boxing in UK is popular for one reason only and that's Ricky Hatton. Most(about 99%) of UK boxing fans know barely anything about boxing(the 1% are on this forum). I have had many conversations where peeps tell me they like boxing, I ask who are your faves and I get the same answer EVERY time:Tyson,Hamed,MAB etc(fighters from 10 years ago!).

The most you'll see in a newspaper about boxing is 2 pages and that's for a Hatton fight. Other than that, 1 small column is usually used.

But thats pretty much the same as our second and third sports cricket and rugby which apart from the regular fan get virtually no attention whatsoever.

Football is like a religion over here, its a multi billion pound empire that makes 20 times more money than the next sport, not liking football in the UK is virtually not an option.

Boxing has always had to compete within a sideshow status in the UK and but for the weekend of hatton-mayweather when it took centre stage its been that way since i can remember.

Your average fan will probably have no idea who the likes of bernard hopkins/floyd mayweather/ roy jones jr etc are yet will all know the names of prince naseem hamed, chris eubank, frank bruno, ricky hatton etc.

Hattons status has re-risen the popularity in the sport and put it back into the headlines then, when you consider all the millionaires football has made with 150,000 pound a week contracts its extrodinary to see ricky hatton was the 2nd highest sporting earner of 2007 only behind david beckham.

Boxings got a long way to go over here until we can get back to the glory days of benn/eubank/bruno/hamed etc, but hattons career has done it the power of good and hopefully with young stars like amir khan, frankie gavin and kevin mitchell the sport can continue to flourish here and although it`ll never ever compete with footie its quite feasible to believe it can regain its status as prime time family viewing on a more regular basis.