TONIGHT, the BBC will screen Clinton Woods’s attempt to win the vacant IBF light-heavyweight title against Rico Hoye. It will mark the end of the BBC’s coverage of the sport in its present form. There are no plans to screen any more professional boxing. Instead, on the back of the eight million viewers that watched Amir Khan in the Olympic final against Mario Kindelán, the BBC will cover just amateur boxing.

Ironically, just as the BBC is nailing its support to the amateur sport, Khan, whom they had expected to cover all the way to the Beijing Olympics, is on his way to the professional ranks and likely never to box on the BBC again. Some would say that is bad luck, some would say bad planning. Most believe that leading figures at the BBC, who knew little about boxing, made poor decisions after being badly advised.

At least the BBC’s coverage is going out on a high — the Woods-Hoye contest is for a “real” world title — as not all the BBC’s output has been near that standard. What many believe the BBC has lacked is a big-name attraction such as Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe or Naseem Hamed. However, The Times can reveal that the corporation had an agreement to screen the biggest name in the sport, Lennox Lewis, but it backed out of the deal.

After re-entering the sport by signing Audley Harrison after he had won the super-heavyweight gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, the BBC was never able to shake off accusations that it was serving up second-rate action but paying top dollar. The deal that the corporation had agreed with Harrison — believed to be £1 million for his first ten bouts — was soon castigated as a waste of licence-payers’ money, especially as the contract came with no veto on the level of opposition.

But there were clear problems throughout with the corporation’s boxing policy. Scheduling difficulties meant that boxing was often shown past midnight on BBC Two, while insiders say that internal rivalries at BBC Sport were so bad that producers covering other sports would refuse to show trailers for boxing.

A deal to screen Lewis’s long-awaited bout against Mike Tyson in 2002 was agreed as part of a two-year deal with Lion, Lewis’s promotional company, only for the BBC to back out of the agreement having shaken hands on it. One insider said that the BBC never sent a full team to contract negotiations.

“There were several meetings, but one person was always missing, so they could go off and change their minds later,” he said.

Harrison put the blame on the BBC when it came to the poor standard of opponent. Better matches, he said, had been made but the BBC refused to pay the going rate. “We have to balance the availability of slots, costs and our value-for- money promise to the licence fee-payer,” Mike Lewis, the BBC’s head of boxing strategy, said. “Despite our efforts, boxing doesn’t seem to have regained its popularity among the general viewer. ”

It seems bad timing. Having followed boxers such as David Haye, a former world amateur finalist, Carl Froch and Harrison through their novice careers, the BBC is to hand them over to Sky at the time they are breaking into world class.

Woods ready for more

MOST boxers hope for one shot at their dream, but Clinton Woods will be hoping it is a case of fourth time lucky tonight. Woods faces Rico Hoye, of the United States, for the vacant IBF light-heavyweight title in Rotherham, his fourth attempt at becoming a world champion in 2½ years.

With so many fringe titles, he can at least say he has boxed at the highest level. He lost in six rounds to the great Roy Jones Jr, for the undisputed title in 2002, drew with Glen Johnson for the vacant IBF title in 2003 and was outpointed in a rematch last year.

Hoye, 30, is unbeaten in 18 contests after a late start to his career, having spent ten years in prison after being convicted of the murder of a rival gang member at the age of 16. He credits prison with saving him from the streets of Detroit.