Given the marketing problems his success is remarkable: as well as drawing the highest

Given the marketing problems, his success is remarkable: as well as drawing the highest audience rating on HBO last year for his effortless three-round win over the No 1 contender, Patrick Charpentier of France, he also attracted a live crowd of 45,368 to the El Paso Sun Bowl open-air arena in Texas.Last weekend in Las Vegas, De La Hoya came out with his ego bruised but his unbeaten record and World Boxing Council title intact after a strange, flawed display against a dangerous Ghanaian, Ike Quartey. Inevitably, as with other sports, audiences have been reduced and stars are not so easy to package as they were a generation ago.
Today, the American “Golden Boy”, Oscar De La Hoya, is the closest thing boxing has to a superstar. Those times will never return, principally because the American national television giants turned their backs on boxing, leaving powerful cable stations Home Box Office and ShowTime to scrap over the spoils. A strike threat brought about an extra pounds 3 for night work..

IN THE 1980s the 147lb welterweight division gave us the classic confrontations between Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran. The players were less sentimental, asking for a pay rise for working unsocial hours. In the background of the night the dark, surrounding crowd, half shadow yet flesh and blood, can produce the effect of a thousand fire-flies as cigarette lights spurt forth.”As an aside, he mentioned that it was a rousing match. The pace of the game seems accentuated, flowering patterns of approach play take on sharper, more colourful outlines. In 20, even 10 years’ time will all football be played under the stars and moon? There is much to recommend it There is a dramatic, theatrical quality about it. In spite of the conditions for players, shivering cold for the crowd and a 30-minute delay when the lights failed during the first half, the evening proved a huge success.The Times correspondent was even more than usually lyrical: “There arose a vision of the future. The fixture had been planned for a Saturday but the whole country was under snow.

For the next match he arranged for the lights to be on only half-power until Arsenal and Hapoel, of Tel Aviv, came out before an enthralled crowd of 44,000.Wembley installed lights in 1955 and used them in the second half of an England match against Spain, but it was the game at Fratton Park (won 2-0 by Newcastle) that marked the start of a new era and a rapid expansion of the midweek game on a European scale.That evening in Portsmouth was raw Much of the pitch was frozen. However the Arsenal manager, Tom Whittaker, had been to South America, where floodlighting was commonplace, and was captivated by the added theatrical drama of night games which could be stage managed. The first game beneath 84 lamps of 1,500 watts each, was the annual one between boxers and jockeys and attracted 40,000. The crowd of 13,000 was three times greater than would have been expected in daylight.The Spurs manager of the time, Arthur Rowe, later said it reminded him of playing under street lights in his childhood Others, including Matt Busby, were sceptical. Indeed Old Trafford was without lights until 1957, and Manchester United played their early European Cup ties at Maine Road.Although Wolves were among the pioneers, memorably playing Honved in a floodlit friendly in 1954 that opened British eyes to the potential drama of regular European matches, it was not until September 1955 that a competitive night match was sanctioned, and then only an FA Cup preliminary round replay between Kidderminster Harriers and Brierley Hill Alliance.More than 20 years earlier Arsenal’s innovative manager Herbert Chapman had tried to encourage the authorities to allow floodlighting but he was blocked and Highbury was not fully equipped with match quality ones until 1951.