Why won't we support our non-Dublin heroes?

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I have written before on this blog about a rare trip I made to Dublin, and to put a long story in brief terms- I found little attractive about the place.

I fully understand why people like city life, and Dublin is a vibrant, busy and booming place at the moment. I simply prefer the option of living elsewhere in Ireland, where you are always little more than a 10 minute drive from green fields and fresh air.

For that reason I am becoming more and more worried about the future of the Ireland beyond the M50. Five years ago, to say the immediate future of our country looked bleak would have been the idealistic point of view. In an effort to rectify this, the new Fine Gael- Labour Government has had to work quickly to create jobs and prosperity for the country's population. After years of stagnation, it does finally seem as though there are jobs out there- but most of them are in the Capital.

But beyond the economy, a prejudice against other parts of the country seems prevalent. In sport, this also seems to be the case.

Professional boxing and MMA are unique sports in that the best athletes don't often get the best accolades. You often need a good promoter to drive you to the top. Amir Khan, for example, would not be calling out Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao now for world championship bouts if it wasn't for the backing of Sky Sports through his early years. They could have picked any number of boxers to get behind 7-8 years ago, but Khan was young and marketable.

In the same way, professional boxing in Ireland shows the same trends. Since the turn of the Millennium, RTE has only gotten behind one pro boxer in a truly supportive way- Bernard Dunne. Everybody in the country could follow the Dubliner's rise to the top of World boxing because every one of his bouts was carried live by the national broadcaster. It was a tremendous success, despite his short lived stint at the peak of global boxing.

Ireland now has two world champion boxers, but most people would struggle to name them. Carl Frampton, from Belfast, won the IBF super bantamweight title in his home city last year. Then Andy Lee, from Limerick, won the WBO middleweight crown in Las Vegas in December. These men are Irish World Champions, and the coverage given to their success was generally pitiful.

It could even be forgiven if the media jumped on the bandwagon now as they prepare for the defence of their titles later in the year. But still there is little or no coverage of their exploits. It is not as if neither boxer has a good narrative. Frampton's promoter is Barry McGuigan, Ireland's most famed boxer, and is being trained by McGuigan's son. Lee is a well spoken and charming sportsman who shocked most of the boxing world with his world title success last year.

These guys deserve our attention, but the nation is being forced into an infatuation with another Dubliner, Conor McGregor. I'm not a fan of UFC. I do not judge anybody who likes the sport. The physical strength and athleticism of the fighters is clear to any viewer. It simply isn't something that sustains my attention.

That said, I refuse to believe that there is such an appetite for the sport in Ireland that would vindicate the amount of media coverage that man is getting. He is yet even a World Champion, and he has received more media attention in Ireland than Carl Frampton and Andy Lee will receive in their entire careers.

Boxing documentaries are fascinating viewing. Anybody who has seen the '24/7' programmes by HBO in the build up to their pay-per-view bouts can vouch for that. Why won't a national broadcaster visit Limerick or Belfast to meet the families and friends of Andy Lee and Carl Frampton? The citizens of these cities would be delighted to see the cameras come into town to film their heroes.

But maybe there is no appetite for sportsmen who show respect for their opponents.