does commentary influence your take on a fight?

I think on some level it does have an influence, if you are not a hundred percent immersed in the fight. you should still be subjective but even then, being in real time, punches flying, little nuances; the very nature of boxing. makes it hard to see everything, so i think if the commentary is biased it can have some effect. same can be said of crowd reaction. obviously the closer the fight the more blurred reality and commentary/crowd influence become.

 

Exactly. When I was just an average fan, and first getting into the sport, I figured they knew better than I did (which was true). But somewhere along the line, when the casual watcher turns into a hardcore fan, you have to start questioning some of the decisions and OBVIOUSLY the commentary. Sometimes these guys are so blatently bought-off for the fight I have no choice but to turn down the volume, or even mute it.

 

Ha! Can never bring myself to hit mute though! Particularly if the fight is dull as fcuk and the commentators are all 'this is a war of attrition' 'this is really a boxers fight isnt it?' 'these type of fights show how tactical this sport is'. Shut up and just say its garbage!

On the point of bias commentators though, I'm intrigued whether they get told by a sports network - 'this is our man - big him up' or whether the commentators just pick their own. Also, I suppose a commentator could in turn be swayed by the crowd. Particularly if there's a strong home support?

 

Personally, I think it depends on the commentators. In Australia we have a mixture of general sports commentators and experts/former boxers. While I don't necessarily always agree with guys Jeff Fenech, Kostya Tszyu (or in his case understand) etc, I generally take their opinion over the sportscasters that tend to overlook clean punches and exaggerate others.

 

I rarely mute...but it has happened
I used to wonder if some of the announcers were just so bad/dumb that they were actually serious "in their own mind". But then they would commentate and score a fight absolutely perfect the next weekend.....so thats what makes me wonder. Its just annoying when novices are watching a fight and they are going with what the announcers say when its "one of those nights" where they are doing a horse**** job and riding a fighters nuts for some reason. Sometimes I get sooo angry...:fire ...I need a breather im getting worked up

 

One guy that never sways me is Lederman. I disagree with him often. Sometimes I wonder if we are watching the same fight.

 

yes it can. i advise anybody to turn it to mute while trying to score a fight. the crowd can also influence scoring so bring your ipod all the time when you want to score fights

 

Ledermann is an idiot.

 

dp

Who nex?

 

no doubt about it, commentary is a huge factor in perception. crowd response as well. judging is no easy task

ive seen the wlad-peter fight on hbo and the british version on sky? :think hbo had me convinced peter should have been dq'ed. the british version seemed like a klitschko hater convention

 

Peter should have lost points for illegal blows, but Peter will always use illegal blows because he can always get away with it. Double standard for Peter.

 

i think so, especially if the commentators are giving too much credit on one fighter, and not paying too much attention to the other. even if the other fighter landed more telling blows, especially in close fights, if the commentators were being biased, then you might feel as if that fighter lost due to their influence.

 

i think it can but i try to ignore them when im scoring a fight

 

I mean I dont think "real" boxing fans are influenced by some of these commentators. Everyone knows they have their own favorites and are biased towards certain fighters.. Like Jim "The Cheerleader" Lampley and Emmanuel "It went exactly how I thought it would go" Steward. Maybe if you occasionally watch boxing you might be fooled into believing those buffoons. But diehard boxing fans know better point blank!

 

Yeah I agree.. I don't know how Lederman still has a job judging fights for HBO.. His scorecards are horrible.. I think he actually leaves his seat to go **** or something and misses most of the round. I just listen to his scores to get a good laugh.. That's how much of a joke he's turned into lately.