By Ben Carey
If I was a betting man, I’d put my money on Carl Froch’s vacant WBC super-middleweight title clash with Jean Pascal being screened by Setanta Sports as part of a new television deal with Froch’s promoter, Mick Hennessy. There has still been no official word from Hennessy as to when Froch-Pascal will take place but the promoter is hoping to stage the contest in England in November.
Hennessy Sports’ contract with SKY Sports expired in July and the promoter is believed to be close to sealing a new mystery TV deal to televise his stable of fighters, which in addition to Froch, include Junior Witter, John Murray and Darren Barker.
While ITV screened Froch’s last pro outing against Pole Albert Rybicki along with Junior Witter’s WBC title loss to Tim Bradley in May, the terrestrial channel is believed to have blown the majority of its sporting budget on football.
Setanta Sports is keen to increase its boxing coverage after seeing Hennessy’s fierce promotional rival, Frank Warren, transfer his stable of fighters to SKY Sports. Setanta has since issued a High Court writ claiming that Warren’s Sports Network has “wrongfully repudiated” their contract with them.
Hennessy is set to confirm at a press conference tomorrow that he will promote Jon Thaxton’s European lightweight title challenge to Juan Carlos Melero at the Norwich showground on Saturday October 4. The fact that Setanta regularly reserves Saturday night slots to televise live boxing will only add to the speculation that an agreement has been reached with Hennessy.
We will see.
