By James Slater: Frank Warren’s new boxing channel BoxNation is only a couple of weeks old, yet the channel (free for the moment, soon to be £10 per monthly subscription) has already bagged a number of big, even massive fights.
This Saturday, the channel will show the U.K light-heavyweight grudge-match that is Nathan Cleverly Vs. Tony Bellew, as well as the big U.S show topped by Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson. The station has also signed up future biggies: Marco Huck-Rogelio Omar Rossi from Germany, Nonito Donaire-Omar Andres Narvaev from New York and also the massive Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito II card from New York (which will feature that loaded under-card of Rios-Murray, Wolak-Rodriguez II and more).
This is great news for fans who have access to BoxNation, but not so good for fans who have not. Fans who have SKY can get the channel, but others, who have SKY via Virgin for example, so far cannot get to watch what is on offer. It is to be hoped networks such as Virgin get to work and allow their subscribers access to Warren’s superb channel.
SKY, by the way, face being left well and truly behind at the moment. Some big fights remain set to to be televised by the former “home of boxing” – the “Super-Six” final between Carl Froch and Andre Ward for example. But the really big fights are being snapped up by BoxNation and also Prime Time.
It was announced this week that the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III card from Las Vegas will be available live and exclusive on the Prime Time Pay-Per-View channel.
The good news for plain old regular terrestrial viewers in the U.K is the fact that the Tyson Fury-Neven Pajkic Commonwealth heavyweight rumble will go out live on Channel 5. Never before have boxing fans been given so many choice T.V channels showing live boxing – those fans that can afford the Pay-Per-View events and the subscription channels, anyway.
The smart move to make if you reside in the U.K is to get access to BoxNation as soon as you can (if you can! – again, I myself have SKY via the Virgin network, and as such so far have no way of getting BoxNation apart from online.)
How regular SKY Sports will compete with all their new rivals remains to be seen. Another question is, will Warren, once his channel is well and truly established, opt to bump up the monthly fee?
Times sure have changed for armchair fight fans!