Give the Olympians a mark out of ten for their pro debuts (I'll include Gavin as well, even though he didn't actually fight in the Olympics) Here's my take: Saunders - 8/10: Really impressed with the boy; he put his punches together really well; good speed and good power; kept his distance against a much shorter fighter and used some nice feints; had the quickest finish of all three. Gavin - 6/10: Again, put his punches together really well; Seems to be lacking in a bit of power; Got the bad cut and seemed to go a bit wild after that; defence might be a bit leaky; but he got the stoppage. Degale - 2/10: Controlled his bout from distance for the most part; too much back of the glove and front of the glove for my liking, and what the **** was that patting on the head **** about? too many arm punches (pitty-pat ****); relies too much on reflex and leaves his chin hanging high and dry a lot; but at least he did get the decision. Whats your view?
Can't fault the OP really. Gavin was better than I thought he'd be, Saunders and Jeffries did well as I thought they would and DeGale still looks very amatuerish as I thought he might.
Jeffries already has a nice jab and he uses it very well. Missed the Saunders performance so from the ones I saw I give Jeffries an 8/9, Gavin a 7 and DeGale a 3.
I really liked Gavin. Gavins stamina, skill, technique and grit were good. I don't think he got wild. I think he was doing what a fighter in his position should do - force the stoppage. The others are sloppy. Jeffries drops both his hands to punch. Saunders is confused and sloppy. DeGale is a mess and has alot of amateur traits that he'll need to iron out. Sutherland would definitely beat him in the pros. It was Gavin for me. He's taken to the pro style beautifully. Footwork was good, ripped the body, hands high, good combos etc He is lacking in fire power but is a bit of a Calzaghe in that he lets his hands go.
I sincerely thought they ALL looked potentially world class. I thought Saunders looked the best but his opponent was the most inept. Gavins punch picking looked very good, his defence looked bad- but his opponent was intelligent and picked his shots well. He was suprisingly- a little one dimensional. I musy admit I expected more but, hype aside, he was very good. Degale started impressively. He landed a quality counter in the first, but after that seemed happy to coast to a UD. A trait with many amateurs. Taking the cockiness and bravado outof the equation I thought he looked good... not sensational by any means but as he said he will be better when his opponent comes to fight. A point worth noting is that these amateurs will excel mostly when their opponents are aggresive and fires at them. The thing that made them 'wrld' class amateurs is the ability to have the first and last say in trade offs. They need opponents who come to fight, not eastern european punch bags with arms.... like I said when the opp were announced. One things for sure. There was noone with Amir Khans talent in action last night.