Craig`s last fight v James Parison is now up on youtube. He hates it! Because of the quick finishes in other undercard bouts he was thrown in at ten minutes notice without any warm-up, to suit the TV schedules. He described the fight experience as "as if I was watching myself from outside the ring." No amount of reminding him that he beat a good, unbeaten fighter without ever looking troubled would appease him. My opinion on his situation over the last year is that he has suffered from the rise of Pacquiao and Khan, the internal politics in the Wildcard gym and his particular circumstances in the States. With the best will in the world Freddy Roach can`t give full attention to all his boxers now that Manny and Amir have gone stellar. The other coaches at the gym basically coach for cash, but Craig`s trainer is Freddy and, until recently,matching Craig with other trainers has been problematic. I`ve noticed that many of the other developing fighters come with a small entourage; fathers,brothers, friends who can all step in and work with them. Craig has had nobody like that to work with and as a result his training has lacked some direction and intensity at times. I noticed this when I visited him about 3 weeks before the Vera fight early in 2009. The sparring sessions which had been arranged for him had fallen through and we were left trying, in vain mostly, to organise alternatives. As a result Craig went into his first 10 round fight against the guy who had just stopped Andy Lee, having only sparred about 10 rounds TOTAL in preparation. I admit that I feared the worst though Craig had no fears at all. Though Craig came through the Vera fight quite comfortably its clear to me that he should have been much better than he was. This pattern has been repeated in his subsequent bouts culminating in the Parison fight late in 09. I was back in the Wildcard with Craig over Christmas and New Year and I`m delighted to report that things seem to be improving. Freddy now has one of the Wildcard coaches( I forget Jessie`s second name) working with Craig and they have identified the areas to be worked on and have developed programmes to move Craig forward. I watched Craig and Vanes Martirosyan sparring two sets of four rounds in preparation for Vanes`upcoming fight with Kassim Ouma. Craig was outstanding leaving Vanes shaking his head in frustration at the end of the second session. The gym was crowded and everyone stopped working to watch as the lads went for it. Fantastic stuff it was and you could see Freddy was pleased with both lads afterwards. Craig is my son in law so I admit to heavy bias! However I honestly believe we have not yet seen Craig even close to his best yet. I think that some (but only some) of the criticism of Craig`s style on this site is valid. For example I don`t accept that he is easier to hit when he switches nor that he has a weak chin (watch the Vera fight). However Craig is his own biggest critic and has definite opinions on where he needs to improve and tighten up and is working on it. Look out for fireworks in 2010! I know that he has a lot of supporters on this site and also many critics (always constructive of course!). I hope the above was of some interest. Happy New Year to you all!
Grendal ask mcewan did andy lee beat him everytime they fought in the amateurs and duddy beat him too.
