Australian boxing is out to land an uppercut with its return to free-to-air television this Sunday, to be used as test case of the sport’s popularity.
This weekend the Vic Darchinyan-Anselmo Moreno bantamweight fight will be shown on 7mate. The ‘Raging Bull’ will take on the WBA super champion Moreno in the US and, depending on how it rates, boxing may get more coverage in the future on free-to-air.
There’s no doubt this a major coup for boxing in Australia.
Though Vic has never received the media profile or support enjoyed by another naturalised Aussie, Kostya Tszyu, he is an awesome fighter with a fearsome reputation.
Darchinyan’s trainer Angelo Hyder describe’s Seven screening of the fight as “definitely a bloody bonus for the sport”. Hyder, also the trainer of Danny Green, is hoping that the free TV bout works out and that boxing, long the domain of Fox Sports and Main Event, can make a return to the free arena.
While boxing in this country has taken its fair share of blows in the past few years – from the growing threat of UFC, to controversies like the Green-Paul Briggs fight and dodgy overseas incidents such as the Pacquiao-Marquez decision and the Mayweather-Ortiz fight – Hyder believes the state of the sport in Australia is good.
“It’s a credit to this country,” he says. “There’s only 200 or under registered professional fighters in Australia. The percentage of world champions we produce here is phenomenal. There’s more competition [from other sports] now.”
At the moment Australia boasts several current world champions – Billy Dib, Anthony Mundine, Daniel Geale – as well as past title holders like Green and Michael Katsidis. Hyder says Australian boxing needs champions and he annointed Will Tomlinson and Brad Pitt as future stars.
“Will Tomlinson – he’s the future of boxing. We need champions [like Pitt]. We need to nuture them. That’s the way we’re going to see boxing grow. The media needs to get behind boxing more. People don’t know when fights are on. It comes down to the media [support].”
Tomlinson is a Sydney-based 25-year old super featherweight with an undefeated record of 16 professional wins and one draw.
Pitt – the boxer, not the actor – is a Victorian born cruiserweight who is 30 years old and has won all 11 of his pro fights.
On the advance of UFC into Australia, Hyder is philosophical. UFC may have made huge inroads down under in the past few roads but Hyder is not too concerned. He describes UFC as a “great” sport but one that is not comparable to the sweet science.
“UFC has a bonus, it can draw [fans and athletes] from wrestling, martial arts and boxing. It’s a great sport, but it’s there for another level. Everything peaks. It’ll [the interest in UFC] probably level out. It’s a completely different sport to boxing. Too many people try and compare them.
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