David Adeleye vs Kamil Sokolowski

Very strange and disappointing performance from David.

Really not sure what on earth he was doing in there? Just needed to get to work, why was he constantly leaning back, going to the ropes and waiting to counter, against a journeyman who has lost 22 times?

In the 6th round when he decided to meet him head on, he landed some good shots, if he had done that from 3rd round onwards he would have stopped Kamil. No body shots thrown either?

At the end of the day, if you can't take a clean shot off a 35 year old journeyman, your not going to achieve anything in boxing anyway, so I didn't understand his overly cautious approach.

 

Requirement to be a heavyweight boxer in 2021 - Be tall and big. Actual skills? Optional.

 

Previous to the fight, I said on here Adeleye in 5.

I missed the fight due to staying up all day after my night shift watching the footy (and having a sup!) and I fell asleep just as the action was about to start.

Just watched the highlights on YouTube and that was a robbery. Disgraceful.

Re-match required and within the next 3 months. No excuses.

 

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"Not a robbery"

"Adeleye is talented. He's got good balance. Very well coordinated, fast."

"He's able to manoeuvre himself around with good coordination, good balance, good handspeed, good technique".

"At no point did Adeleye look disturbed or flustered, as if his confidence was draining away."

"All rounds except one were close, could have given them either way."

"Whenever you're objective and don't go along with the status quo, people will jump on your back for it."

"Watch it with the commentary off in the cold light of day"

"He's not as heavy as a Fury, Joshua or Whyte, but look at how well coordinated he is ,look how athletic he is, look how well he moves around the ring and how sharp his punches are"

Also kept going on about David Adeleye's "high baseline level of confidence" from the psychology expert himself, as usual. Nothing about Adeleye last night showed me that he had a high level of confidence, he looked nervous and petrified. Totally ignores the fact he is actually pumped up to 225lbs.

Some real gems here.

 

Nonsense most of that but it's no surprise given his bias to certain fighters.i haven't watched a batman vid in years but if fury beats Joshua I will be there for the meltdown.

 

I think at best you could have given David 3 rounds, but I couldn’t see 4 clear rounds for him. That said, I wasn’t surprised he got the nod. Easy to rob someone in a 6 rounder, happens regularly. To Kamil as well.

I think Adeleye was in love with his own power, and that’s why for the first 4 rounds he didn’t really do much or go to work thinking he could just lean back and throw single shots and eventually one would knock out Kamil. When he realised that wasn’t happening, and he stepped on the front foot and let his hands go he looked decent and showed his level in comparison. I think the actual takeaway from this fight is either a) David is thick or b) he doesn’t have anywhere near the level of power he thinks his does. Potentially both.

I expect Adeleye to win a rematch convincingly if they have one, which Kamil deserves over 8 rounds or so.

 

I said in the main section RBR thread at the end of round 3, I hope Sokolowski gets a knock down/knock out because I didn't want to see him get robbed. Both Adeleye and his trainer come across as deluded in the post fight interviews.

 

Thick or ignorant, not sure which but one of the two. He may not have Angelo Dundee in his corner but when the camera showed his corner at work they were telling him the right things but he didn't appear to pay them any attention whatsoever. The impression I got was that he thought they were there to hand him a towel or water and the sounds coming out of their mouths was irrelevant. He didn't acknowledge that he'd heard and understood.

At the end he was saying his corner told him that he was ahead. I don't think that was true. It could be something they agreed on to try and make the robbery look better or it could just be that he heard what he wanted to hear. He then started proudly talking about how he was deliberately going on the back foot to 'tee him up'.... Yes David, we saw how that worked out for you. Due to no crowds we get a great insight into what the corners are saying and you could clearly hear them shouting at him to jab at all the time. If he doesn't respect his corner he should change them. If he thinks he can do without advice he's delusional.

The step between the scared man from the local pub and Sokolowski, a decent journeyman too big and resilient to be bullied was clearly too much. The flaws in this project were very clearly exposed. The 'undefeated' record will now be held in the same regard by those who follow boxing as Fury's following the gift decision against McDermott.

 

Adeleye lost that fight, but at the same time it was no robbery or massive controversy. It was close enough. I would have been happy enough with a draw. No way he won though!

If there's a re-match he will 100% win by TKO/KO, as he just never got going, and he has enough to beat Sokolowski he just did nothing in there and only started letting his hands go in the last round.

 

I think it was a robbery Donald in the sense that the referee watched the same fight we all did and he raised the wrong man's arm. You said yourself that no way did Adeleye win.

Adeleye is young, looks the part, has been shown several times to the tv audience who have been following the narrative constructed around him, and crucially, is signed to the house promoter who is investing in him over the longer term. Kamil has no contract, no prospect of building to a big fight and therefore the guy that signs the cheques to the referee, officials etc has no stake whatsoever in him getting a fair shake. Now put those together and we all knew what was likely coming at the end of the fight.

Obviously these fixes make financial sense for all concerned, Kamil is too savvy to kick up a fuss, he will simply be rewarded for his silence with another paycheque or two. Marcus McDonnell will continue to get these fight to referee as he's played the game. The BBoC will continue to keep the blinkers on and count the licensing fees and BT Sport will continue the relationship with Queensberry knowing that the work they've been putting in to building Adeleye's rep hasn't been too badly set back. Everyone's a winner except you, me and any other schmuck who tuned in to see a sporting contest fairly adjudged.

 

David seemed to go into his shell a bit I thought. Bad performance from him.
This is what the small halls are for, learning your craft, he's getting prime time and we should be treated with something better.

 

I agree with nearly all of that, especially the description of the 'system' which you summed up quite eloquently, this has always been the case in boxing as the framework of boxing is highly unusual, it's a solo sport where you essentially can choose your opponent. So of course that format will inevitably lead to suspicious results and controversy.

However (and there is in my opinion a however) the definition of robbery in the content of boxing is down to opinion and interpretation. The wrong fighter winning is not automatically and always a total robbery. Last night was one of those cases.

Sokolowski won by a round! The fight was very scrappy, and hard to score. Kamil was putting pressure on, by a lot of it was just by cutting the ring off, and limiting Adeleye's space not more more. Clean punches landed were few and far between. I think a fight this close and scrappy, going to the wrong man when there is no more than 1 point in it is a poor decision, not a 'robbery'.

I think there is a difference between a robbery and a poor decision.

Lewis Ritson vs Miguel Vazquez is one of the very best recent examples of a robbery. That was shocking. The other is Tyrone McKenna vs Mimoune in the MTK tournament. Just as bad.

The Adeleye vs Sokolowski fight was nothing like that...

 

Bad decision, should have been a clear 4-2 to Kamil. Not as bad as Vasquez-Ritson or Mimoune-McKenna decisions as mentioned above, they were SHOCKING. Could even add the Davies result vs Vasquez, he must hate it here.

 

A robbery does not necessarily solely equate to bouts that are lopsided. A robbery can also be a bout that may not be completely lopsided, but that the officials have deliberately scored the bout a certain way due to other motivations out with the purpose of objectively scoring the bout. For example, a judge may believe that X has won a round, but it is close enough to give to Y and therefore does so. Is that not a robbery?

Why is it that Marcus McDonnell is so often involved in these alleged robberies or alleged poor decisions?

That is the crux.

 

If as you say he definitely did not deserve to win but indeed got his hand raised, does that not count as a robbery?