Froch’s bout against Kessler won’t be shown on Sky TV
February 20th, 2010
By Sean McDaniel: World Boxing Council super middleweight Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s) has been left out in the cold by Sky TV, as his April 24th Super Six bout against Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) won’t be shown by Sky TV despite it being a tournament fight and involving a fight against the former WBA super middleweight champion Kessler. Froch had this to say according to the Dailystar, “I think Sky TV is the forefront of boxing and at the minute it is the best channel to be on in terms of getting across to your target market. I consider myself to be a Sky Box Office fighter. They have had Khan-Salita and Haye-Valuev. I feel Froch-Kessler is up there with it and could justifiably be on Sky Box Office. My promoter Mick Hennessy has spoke to all the networks, but budgeting, scheduling whatever the reason I don’t think they’re good enough reasons. When I became world champion it was a difficult time for TV.”
To be sure, Haye and Khan are flashy fighters, both with their talking and fighting ability. Haye has blinding speed, incredible power and self promotional skills that few other fighters come even come close to. Khan has amazing hand speed, an ability to throw beautiful combinations and a certain physical presence that boxing fans find appealing.
Besides that, Khan has a Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympics and one of the best trainers in boxing. Froch has none of those things going for him. He’s more of a blue collar type fighter, who has average hand speed and sometimes poor defense. Froch doesn’t have the looks of Haye, Joe Calzaghe or Khan, and looks more like the common man.
Froch does have a dry sense of humor when he’s given a chance to have a say. However, Froch sometimes shoots himself in the foot by making boosts that some boxing fans feel are off putting. It seems like Froch needs an identity to make himself more appealing. Whether it is loud clothes or persona that he can show to the media that will attract fans, Froch might need to look for ways to make himself more appealing to the television networks.
Froch says “Setanta collapsing didn’t help because it minimized the competition. If Kessler won his last fight this would be box office for Sky but him losing his world title took the edge off the fight. But I am not going to cry about it. Primetime is a building channel.
Tags: 17 Responses to “Froch’s bout against Kessler won’t be shown on Sky TV”
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Calzaghe wasn’t Sky’s favorite son either and terrestrial tv and Setanta were his main outlet. Why should Froch not have a go at Joe??? Joe dodged him and picked what he thought was an over the hill Hopkins, when that was proved otherwise he ran a million miles from a rematch while claiming nobody was interested in another dull fight….he then goes and signs up the most washed up fighter in history to cap off his career!!! I was the biggest Calzaghe fan but he went out with a whimper instead of the bang he promised and I think he’s open to abuse for it. Froch was a legitimate challenger who fights with his heart on his sleeve yet the only way any of can see him do so is if we watch online while frauds like Khan gets thrown in our faces everytime we watch Sky Sports News. Froch is fighting anyone and everyone and he deserves all the credit in the world for it. Khan is the biggest joke in boxing, being peddled by the greateest handpickers of easy opponents ever, while Joe does leave question marks over his ‘legacy’. I’m not anti Joe…I was looking forward to everyone of his fights as much as anyone else but bias shouldn’t cloud the obvious. Froch deserves a big audience or at least the chance to give the general public the option to watch him. Sky ignored Joe for along time too.
serves him right, shame on you, dissing fellow british boxers. hes average at best, wait till he meets kessler/ Abraham.
i hope kessler puts on the right boots this time and finishes this jealous scum once and for all if not Arthur can
O well it looks like its radio 5 live again. Boxing seems to be going backwards.
Meant Haye or ‘Khan’ sorry
Disgraceful by SKY, if you compare Froch to either Haye or Froch he has come out better, I know he isnt the greatest boxer results dont lie. He is undefeated and when you compare his road to the gold you can see why he is better; Example. Khan somehow jumped the domestic route avoiding dangerous rivals like Jon Thaxton and John Murray whreas Carl Froch fought the dangerous and still class Brian Magee for the British title to determine who was the best in the country.
Haye fought a former world champ in 40 year old Carl Thompson and was stopped in five, though in Hayes favour alot of fights would’ve been stopped after the barrage of punishment Haye had inflicted, Froch faced his form of former world champ in Robin Reid and beat him in five one sided rounds.
Like Froch or loathe up until the Pascal and Taylor fights he was having every fight his own way (against tough foes, take note Khan), and when finding that that it wouldnt always go his way against Pascal and Taylor, his iron will got him through.
wow what the hell happened to espn uk we forget they were meant to be setanta and so much more what a joke, i cant think of 1 fight i watched i got virgin and there is no way in hell i would watch on the internet . sort it out mick
I know i bang on about this any time i comment but i will say for the thosandth time , boxing should be on terrestrial tv and the greedy executives at itv and bbc should sort this out. Boxing has some really good fighters now as it has always but they simply arent getting the maximum exposure because the likes of itv keeps toing and froing with its coverage. A fighter like Froch with the right promotion could pull in 10 million viewers plus, no problem for itv, surely this would score them optimum advertising revenue. The problem is they arent consistant and when they did have boxing on they didnt advertise it very well to the average joe . The only people finding it on itv4 were the people like me who actively seek out big fights (or any for that matter). So my answer is simple , forget sky and get itv to invest in boxing a bit more , give us more background on the fighters etc , where they live, how they train then jazz it up a bit , more flashy music maybe a once a week magazine show giving us up to date news on the fighters. Rant over
will it still be shown on the internet?
Froch deserves better for the way he fights. Very poor by Sky.
lets face it your no joe calzaghe thats why oh and cause your st and going to get found out by kessler i dont like saying this as i am english and should support you but i dont like your style of boxing your good to watch if you like a pub fight but i like boxers to have good movementuse the ring hit and not be hit dirrel should of got the decision over you but ha ho you still world champ but you got to admit joe would still beat you in 10 years time ha ha
daves jules – Watch on your computer and hook it up to your TV. Thats what I did for the Dirrell fight. Primetv do a HD Stream from their website.
froch fights are on primetime wel lall supersix are pretty gutted realy because its only on skyboxes
Froch is a mediocre boxer though. He’s shown little ability in his recent fights, certainly nothing to get excited about.
And he so clearly lost that fight to Dirrell, how anyone can score him ahead when all he did was swing and miss for the entire fight (along with getting hit by a few nice hooks/straights by Dirrell) beats me. Utterly biased home decision which left even the commentators bemused. I feel sorry for Dirrell, his speed and reflexes are comparable to Floyd Mayweather, but without the reputation and fighting a C-class boxer in his home country, he was never going to get the decision that he’d have gotten had he fought anywhere else.
So that is simply why Sky haven’t shown much of an interest in him. He’s crap with a tiny fanbase.
Guvnor has it spot on – Froch is the most entertaining fighter of the 3 British world champs because he has that suspect defense and unpredictability, yet you know he has ko power and will to win. I’ll be paying to watch it on Primetime but it’s a shame that Sky’s ignorance means that the fight won’t reach the wider audience it deserves.
Hey won’t it be on primetime all the other super 6 matches have.
It’s being shown on Primetime Tv which is a channel on sky 480 I think, and you can also purchase a live HD internet stream from Primetimes website so it is being shown on Sky and on the internet (legit), just not through Sky Sports/Box Office.
Shocking desicion by sky tv, froch and haye are the most exciting British fighters around plus they are world champions, the fact froch holds a world title belt should guarantee him a ppv slot onsky. I think sky are missing a trick here, they could be missing out on some serious cash with what could well be one of the if not the most exciting fight of the year!