TV3 boxing coverage shows size doesn't have to matter

By GRAHAM REID

FROM THE COUCH

Lately television hasn't had a good run in what it claims to do best: take you to where the big events are and convey a sense of excitement and immediacy.

We had the live Olympic Games opening and coverage which was parochial to the point of being patronising, and this past week American networks made an early call on what we might consider a reasonably important election result.

Then retracted it ... Oops.

The immediacy of television means front-people get a little over-excited and because they do, they sometimes blow it in huffing and puffing. Recently we've endured Ewart "aaahh" Barnsley in Fiji and Mark "I mean" Sainsbury standing outside the White House.

But what does an audience at home want out of television on the scene? My guess is quick interpretation, something more than what we can see from footage, and informed background information.

Of the last, the Lennox Lewis-David Tua fight yesterday was a tough call.

Tua's background, fight plan, family life and religion have already been editorialised and profiled to the point of exhaustion.

So the question is not how well Tua did - he was there, in our book that's doing well - but how well television brought it into our homes on a hot and historic Sunday.

Exceptionally well, was the consensus from fight fans out my way.

First, it was as TV3 promised: uninterrupted so we got to hear the confidence or desperation in the corners. We got a real feel of the fight and what was happening ringside when, in Tua's case, it was slipping away by inches.

Even before that, the TV3 buildup was extremely good - although for a while we were led to assume that only one person was in the ring.

The only problem was a rash of callers to TV3 complaining about when the fight, advertised for 3pm, would finally start.

In the event, it was 5.50 pm, several long hours later.

A spokesperson said coverage was advertised as including the build-up and callers did not understand the start-time depended on how long the under-card fights went on.

TV3's Clint Brown, although an enthusiast and like us willing Tua to win, was cool and comfortable under pressure, admirably so given this must have been for him one of Life's Big Moments.

He also said the right things to American commentator James Smith, who before the fight was calling Tua as the victor. ("But you're just saying that because you're working for us," said Brown ... Good call Clint, good honest answer Smitty: "My reputation's on the line.")

Between rounds, when we weren't eavesdropping on the cornermen, Brown and Smith interpolated intelligent interpretative comments, and fight caller Bob Sheridan acknowledged that he was not only speaking to a partisan audience in the South Pacific but also having to read the fight fairly.

Yes, we wanted Tua to win. No, it wasn't happening.

Like it or not, that was a good, honest call under pressure. Lewis' unruffled scientific approach and Tua's outclassed but honest workmanship were both admirable and given their equal due by the commentators. That's what we need to hear.

Long ago, TV3 staked a claim on boxing, a sport closer to the hearts of more people in this country and Samoa than many sometimes believe.

Okay, what we learned was a cliché: the good little man can't beat a good big man.

But maybe from TV3's keen but measured delivery we also learned that a good little channel can sometimes beat a good big channel.

Herald Online feature: the Tua fight