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The Big Fight Live

British boxing television programme

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ7717631 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Big Fight Live is a British boxing television programme, broadcast by ITV Sport regularly from 1984 to 1995 and again from 2005 to 2010. In 2017, ITV announced that 'The Big Fight Live' would return after it was announced Chris Eubank Jr. would fight for the world title on ITV Box Office. ITV has not covered boxing since the closure of ITV Box Office at the start of 2020.

History

ITV's boxing coverage had largely been confined to big fights from the US in the 1970s and early 80s, which were covered as part of World of Sport and as separate programmes. Until 1984, they were largely shut out of British domestic boxing due to a cartel operated by promoters such as Jarvis Astaire, Harry Levene and Mickey Duff, who had contracts with the BBC.

ITV obtained the rights to show fights promoted by then-rebel promoter Frank Warren's Sports Network in 1984. Several years later, a contract with Barry Hearn followed as a result of his friendship with Greg Dyke, while the network also worked closely with other promoters including Don King. Until the early 1990s, the programmes were titled Boxing, World Championship Boxing, "The Big Fight Live" (a name occasionally used in the 1980s) or shown as part of Midweek Sport Special. Until 1985, boxing continued to be shown on World of Sport, before the programme was axed.

In the early 1990s, most boxing on ITV was branded The Big Fight Live.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Big Fight Live” as british boxing television programme. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1984, 1995, 2005, 2010—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1984. The account is most persuasive where Fight, Live and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as british boxing television programme. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7717631. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1984, 1995, 2005 and 2010.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Big Fight Live”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Big Fight Live primary sources, The Big Fight Live archive and Fight research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Big Fight Live”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Big Fight Live” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.