By Andrew Wake: British boxing fans can be accused of many things but one thing that cannot be said of them is that they lack devotion.
Recent years has seen the UK’s fight loving hordes traverse the globe to follow their heroes, whether it be in the sun drenched climate of Las Vegas or still heading to Germany in their thousands after the late withdrawal of a hard punching heavyweight, the boys and girls from Blighty are envied the world over for their dedication.
However, this week or so has seen them showing their support for a man that does his work in the seats around the ring rather than in it.
Boxing Monthly columnist and freelance newspaper journo Steve Bunce, along with sidekick Andy Kerr, hosted the popular Steve Bunce’s boxing hour on sports channel Setanta every Thursday afternoon but last Tuesday (June 23) the Irish owned broadcaster called in the administrators and went off air.
Unless you live in a cave or have been holidaying on Venus, you’ll probably be well aware of Setanta’s woes.
The television network was a breath of fresh air when it coupled top class international boxing with football from the greatest league in the world in 2007, but they have paid dearly for their ambition. Setanta need to have 1.9 million subscribers to break even but struggled along with around 1.2 million and after defaulting on a £3million payment to the SPL and managing to only make a partial instalment to The Premier League, the plug had to be pulled.
While not reaching anywhere near the viewing figures offered by Manchester United and the like, boxing fans could rightly argue that the Steve Bunce’s boxing hour was the jewel in the troubled broadcasters crown and have begun a campaign to get another channel to take the show on.
A group on social networking site Facebook has upwards of 2500 members while an online petition currently (Monday 29 June) has attracted almost 900 signatures.
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Like him or loath him, it is impossible to deny that Mr Bunce brought important boxing news to the masses. It was on his excellent show that we found out who David Haye would be making his first major foray into the land of the giants against and also where Chris Eubank showed his lack of belief in James Degale.
Put short, we need the show back.
At present members of the ever growing Bunce brigade are working tirelessly to convince networks to commission a new series of the programme and you can do your bit by signing the petition and joining the campaign.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Boxing99/petition.html
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=93634979290&ref=ts
www.bringbackbunce.net
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