THERE’S been a lot of speculation, a lot of nerves and a lot of fears in the boxing business over the last few months, everyone in the game worrying about what Sky TV had planned for the new season.

In the end, SKY have made a major decision in moving from the Friday night slot to go back to Saturday nights. For me, this is a massive decision and signals Sky’s commitment to our sport.

I don’t know about some of you reading this, but most of the people I know in the game – the boxers, trainers and promoters who work on the Friday night shows – were not big fans of the slot. Boxers struggled to sell tickets for a Friday evening. People are in the main at work until 5pm, have to get home, grab a shower, have some food and then set off on a journey to support their boxer.

If the show was a fair distance away, some would have to leave work early, maybe have the day off or the day after off (as they would get back late) in order to go to watch.

In the climate we’re in, it’s hard to get the boss to agree to that. If he does it could mean a drop in wages. So it was very hard for the lads to sell tickets, and if they don’t do the tickets then the promoter isn’t happy and the fighter may not get out again for a while.

The trainers, some of whom also have day jobs, would have to leave very early in the day if they were travelling to the other end of the country and as most shows would start at around 6.30-7pm, they would hit the Friday afternoon traffic no matter where you were coming from or going to.

As a promoter, it is so much harder in my opinion selling a Friday night show than it is Saturdays. So I know this is a great move by Sky to bring us back to Saturdays. I feel we’ll get a much better, bigger crowd in at the shows now. The atmosphere on some of these Friday night bills haven’t been great. I feel we’ll get more women and more kids in the venues.

As for the television side of things, Saturday nights, 9-11pm is a great slot compared to the previous slot of Fridays 10pm-midnight. It’s hard work for people who go to work all day, do the family thing and then stay up until midnight to catch the rest of the undercard. I would guess a lot of young prospects have probably missed out on some people seeing them on the TV because the viewers went straight to bed after the main event.

I think Sky know the shows will get a much bigger audience on TV with this time-slot. That’s what they want and they know that boxing CAN deliver good ratings. Anytime we’ve had the good fights on in a good time-slot, the sport has delivered and I just feel that boxing was hidden away a little on Friday nights.

The written press will be able to get to more shows on a Saturday and hopefully this will give us better print coverage in the Sunday papers, leading onto Mondays for the big fights.

Now we’ve got the time we want, it’s time to make a splash and get the sport talked about again. So now the pressure is on the TV promoters to deliver the fights the public will enjoy, will want to tune into and want to buy tickets for. Frank Warren has set the ball rolling with his mega show in September. I know he is the only one really that can deliver such a large amount of headliners all on one card, but there is no excuse for any promoter not to be able to put together competitive undercard fights and decent top-of-the-bills that the fans are going to enjoy.

It’s got to trickle the whole way down the chain. Promoters have got to be willing to test fighters, I’m not taling life and death for youngsters, I mean learning fights. Opponents who punch back. But the managers have got to be willing to take the risk and the trainers have got to understand their kid doesn’t learn anything by padding a record against guys that don’t test their prospects. If everyone plays their part and we all pull together, now Sky have given us the best slot we could have hoped for, we have a great chance to get this sport back on top again.

When two fit boxers are throwing punches at each other and both are going for the win, it doesn’t matter what level it’s at, you just can’t beat boxing for entertainment and excitement. It’s a new chapter for British boxing. It’s Showtime!