Adam Smith commentary

He’s far better than John “The Southpaw Wilder” Rawling.

 

Sky need to re-think their commentary teams. I don't want to hear Bellew or the like cheerleading his mates on commentary. Ridiculous. As one sided as it appeared, Bellew made me turn the main event off.

 

tony bellew is about as unbiased as Hitler. What makes me laugh is when you can see a script has been prepared but the fight is not fitting that script, yet they will still try making it fit unless there is a KO and they simply have no choice.

 

Probably too distracted looking for any potential bulges in their shorts. Dirty get!

 

At the arena it looked like Fowler couldn’t miss with the jab in the early rounds, he was jabbing his head off.

 

That came across on tv as well in fairness, then it seemed to change dynamic almost 180 from the 4th.

FWIW, I think Smith's a decent commentator when he's not shilling too much. Same with Bellew when one of his "bessies" isn't fighting and in fact to give Bellew his dues, he was spot on about the biting incident which for some odd ball reason Nelson tried to play down as nothing more than heat of the moment high jinx.

 

That’s exactly how it was. Like @305th said, from the 4th it changed and Fitz came right into it. Imo Fowler neglected the game plan due to his success (from the first 3 rounds) and ego. From how Coldwell was talking to him, it was clear Fowler wasn’t listening. Coldwell was highlighting the fundamental mistakes he was making but Fowler didn’t seem to take it on board imo.

 

Yeah I said on the RBR that Fowler couldn't miss with the jab, he was snapping his head to the side with it throughout the first 3. I thought that was indicative of a dominant performance coming which didn't materialise. Then all of a sudden, he started looking tense as opposed to Fitzgerald, and looping shots and caught with neat counters.

 

Totally agree. Got greedy and thought he didn’t have to work behind the jab. Disrespected his opponent too much. Credit to Fitzgerald who did adapt.

 

It looked to me that after 5/6 Fowler had gassed! Which was surprising considering he’s the “machine”. He slowed right down.

 

@Scissors

I take it you were there, what was the real time reaction to Ali's dirty tactics? Were they clearly visible?

 

Nobody knew. There was uproar it had been stopped then the bruising went up on the big screen and Ali got dogs abuse. Pints, etc launched at him, getting called all sorts and then he had to bail from the ring as quickly as possible. I’m sure the daft twat left the wrong side too so made it even worse for him as longer to navigate through!

 

Fowler was throwing more jabs in the first 2 rounds and probably the 3rd also but he wasn't landing tremendously more, he did land more but he wasn't having it all his own way far from it.

It was for me easy to see Fitzgerald was landing back with jabs, just not with as many but he was the sharper jabber of the two.

He was just a lot more economical, if you look from the 4th round onwards, probably about round 5 he started to turn the screw. He was very Usyk like, a lot of pressure, just mental pressure also, cutting the ring down and making Fowler fight on the back foot.

Fowler looked in all sorts of bother pace wise in the 7th and 8th. If he hadn't landed that uppercut in the 9th I think Fitzgerald would of swept all of the last 4 rounds with ease.

I liked how Fitzgerald weathered that storm in the 9th and he stayed composed after it, back to his boxing again and it was him who was finishing the round once again the stronger.