SABC's failure to deliver, irks boxing fans

The SABC has been accused by many within the boxing space of treating them unfairly by not delivering on the promise of showing the whole tournament that featured the eagerly awaited clash between unified WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight titlist Saul Canelo Álvarez and Edgar Berlanga on Sunday morning at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, US.

The SABC – through its weekly magazine The TKO – previewed the fight and even encouraged people to tune in to SABC Sport 2 at 2am for the live broadcast.

Many South Africans, including this writer, celebrated the announcement, which was welcomed as probably being the first step towards going back to what the national broadcaster was known for when it came to super boxing matches around the globe.

Religious boxing followers would be up in the wee hours to watch boxing; it did not matter who was fighting. That brought many boxing people together.

South Africans were able to watch their sons of the soil including Gerrie Coetzee, Dingaan Thobela, Jacob Matlala and Mzoke Fana live in action outside these shores.

All undercard fights were shown live on SABC2 from 2am on Sunday. The main supporting bout saw WBA middleweight world champion Erislandy Lara retain his belt with a ninth-round stoppage of Danny García.

The Cuban, the oldest active world champion at 41, dropped Garcia in the ninth round, and the American, who lost all the rounds but one, did not come out of his corner for round 10.

The SABC then showed Canelo and Berlanga coming to the ring, singing both the Mexican and Puerto Rican national anthems and that was it, and it went back to its usual programmes. That killed the excitement.

The generation now in boxing grew up with the SABC helping them with live broadcasts. What irked the fight fraternity most was the failure of the SABC to communicate with viewers. Attempts to get a comment from Auckland Park drew a blank.

A source said that the SABC was given the slot from 2am until 5am with the hope that the main bout would happen in between those hours.

"The channel took its time from 5am and continued with its usual programming," said the source.

Alvarez did the job as expected and even dropped Berlanga in round three. Judges scored the fight 117-110, 118-109, and 118-109.

Alvarez, 34, who was involved in his 22nd world championship fight, improved to 62 wins, two losses and two draws while Berlanga, 27, tasted defeat after 17 straight wins with 16 knockouts all in the first round. 

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