What I do - and don't - miss about British boxing by Oliver Fennell Jun 26th 2008

Erstwhile BBN writer Oliver Fennell sends us a letter from his Bangkok paradise... Two months ago, I left “sunny” Britain and moved to Thailand. I've swapped my expensive, small basement flat in London for a luxury Bangkok condo with a pool (half the price), I've exchanged grey skies and drizzle for tropical sun, beer costs a quarter of what it does back home, and a taxi home in the early hours sets me back all of £1.50.  But I've also swapped my beloved British boxing for the Thai scene, something which, as a pugilistic anorak, I have tried to follow over the years, but have largely been confined to reading about in the concise reports in Boxing News. So I'm getting used to a whole new way of life and a whole new boxing landscape. The former has mostly been for the better, but the jury is still out on the latter. Therefore, this is what I do – and don't – miss about British boxing. I miss… Setanta Sports When Setanta came on the scene, I thought they were bad for the sport. Having another subscription channel would only dilute the audience, I thought. Well, I'll be damned if they didn't turn out to be God's gift to Britain's boxing fans. Screening regular domestic action and rarely missing a big Stateside fight, they quickly dethroned Sky Sports as the premier boxing broadcaster. Here in Thailand, there is precisely zero British – or even European – boxing on TV, and only a couple of American bills per month tucked away on cable, if not on pay-per-view. I want Setanta Sports. But I don't miss… The continued struggle to keep British terrestrial TV interested in boxing While I am starved of televised western boxing, the same cannot be said of domestic shows here. Every Thai fight worth mentioning is screened live on terrestrial television, which means boxing on the telly at least once or twice a week. Compare that to back home, where Joe Public could be forgiven for thinking domestic boxing begins and ends with Amir Khan. I miss… Competitive mismatches But before you start to think I'm living in a boxing paradise, I should point out that a lot of televised fights here aren't actually worth watching. Not even main events can be guaranteed to be competitive, while undercards tend to be stacked with shocking mismatches. Many British bouts are mismatches in the ‘career-building' sense, but at least there is a chance of some drama – Billy Smith grinding out a draw, Silence Saheed springing a knockdown on a complacent youngster, that sort of thing – but in Thailand, no chance. Unless it's a title fight – and sometimes even then – more often than not it's a Thai star effortlessly blasting out an overwhelmingly inferior novice or import. But I don't miss… Undercards full of 40-36 scorecards If you have to watch mismatches, then at least it's better to get them out of the way as soon as possible. I took no pleasure in watching our young prospects take on the grizzled survivors of the British circuit, who simply try to last the course rather than attempt to win. These fights are every bit as predictable as the Thai mismatches, only without the possibility of a knockout. I miss… Boxing News No offence to this fine website, but I'm old-fashioned when it comes to reading. The internet is great, but I'm very much a newspapers and magazines man. Until moving to Thailand, I had bought Boxing News every week since 1991, and poring over it on my Friday lunch break was a time-honoured routine. Out here, the only English-language boxing mag available is The Ring, which I have mixed feelings about at best, and it costs over £6. But I don't miss… Tabloid boxing coverage Britain's quality newspapers typically have erudite boxing pundits, but not so the tabloids, who employ their sports writers on the basis of how much they know about football. They then send these people to cover boxing instead of writers who actually know the fight game, and these people file copy which papers over the yawning gaps in their knowledge base with histrionic criticisms and comically sensational talk of “juggernauts” and “blitzkriegs”. I miss… Big fight theatrics Even the biggest matches here get straight to the point. The boxers enter the ring, and then they fight. There are no fireworks, laser shows, flag-carrying Page 3 girls, or custom-made hip hop entrance themes. None of these things have any bearing on the quality of a contest, of course, but still, I miss the pageantry of Britain's big fights. But I don't miss… “Cheap” seats that cost £40 And beer that costs £4, hot dogs that set you back a fiver, and car parking charges that require a small bank loan. I miss… Danny Williams The most erratic British heavyweight of my generation has provided me with some of my most thrilling nights of entertainment since I started watching this sport. OK, he's also provided some of the least thrilling, but even then he's provided fascinating talking points. The last time I watched him live, he seemed to have reached as natural an end to a career as you could imagine, having been splattered in three ignominious rounds by former victim Audley Harrison. But somehow he's a champion again and his fading powers have only led to even more dramatic slugfests and storied outcomes – and I'm not able to watch! But I don't miss… British heavyweights generally As much as I like him, Audley Harrison rarely excites. Ditto Matt Skelton. And if Michael Sprott was going to make it, he would have done so by now. And yet these three guys – plus the fragile Williams – are as good as it gets in Britain's glamour division. I'm not exactly pining for British heavyweights right now. I miss… Boxers who weigh more than 10st Thais are small people, and therefore so are Thai boxers. They almost exclusively inhabit the ranks of featherweight and below, and almost never weigh in at more than 10st. Now, I can appreciate the lower weight classes as much as any other serious fan, but I miss the spread of weights you get on a typical British card, and therefore the variety. But I don't miss… Overweight boxers I could probably count on no more than two hands the amount of fat Thai people I've seen in these two months. So, when the average Joe is in good shape, you can be sure Thai pugs are in phenomenal condition. There may be mismatches here, but you can never criticise a boxer's fitness level. If even the lowest-regarded human punching bags from the most rural provinces here still have enough pride to enter the ring with a six-pack, is it too much to ask the same of certain title-calibre British boxers, given the facilities and funding at their disposal?

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