I can't disagree with some of the criticisms thus far made.. However, I did enjoy some of his work on showtime championship boxing ages ago. He did have a good working knowledge of the sport and took a very realistic view when talking about fighter's who were aging, deconditioned and probably shouldn't have been in there. He was a doctor afterall, and a lot of his philosophy gravitated towards that.. He is a very well educated and intelligent man, depsite some of his biased views.. He is fluent in several languages and believe it or not, even did some commentary work on some of the spanish sports networks... Don't have a problem with him personally.. Just because someone didn't like something he said on ONE documentary, it shouldn't sum up his whole career, which spanned for many years...Sure he has his short cummings but for every boxing personality we post on, somebody isn't going to like them...
He is an arrogant, whinny ***** .. I met him several times and interviewed him and all he did was ***** and moan ... his behavior in the interviews for the Thrill doc was embarrassing for himself ... some real stupid sh-t coming out of his mouth for sure ... he looked like a cranky, miserable, forgotten old man which is what he has become ...
I know what you are talking about? When he said Joe Frazier was dumb. I thought he was out of line to get personal. I never had anything against Ferdie, but that comment was not fair. He really doesn't know Joe.
I have an interesting comment about Ferdie. I used to call Vegas and Atlantic City when a big fight was happening and ask for the people (related to boxing) I thought would be there like the trainers and fighters and announcers and others. I would interview them with a made up newspaper name, and they answered it since I did know what i was talking about.. You have to stay on point and ask What is his weight now and all that stuff and it eventually it gets interesting. I have many of the interviews on tape. With Foreman and Hagler. About Ferdie, I was in California at that time, and it was 7 in the morning. There was a fight in Atlantic City or somewhere east. I didn't think about it the time difference, and called Ferdie's hotel room. He answered groggily and I said this is so and so from this newspaper. he said "do you know what time it is??" And I said. Oh sorry. He said "call later" and he said bye. But he was actually not too upset.. A small comment but I always remember that.
I don't have to like the man personally..i don't really care..i do know that he was an intelligent fight commentator at times.
He was a complete moron in the documentary and disrespectful to Frazier. But he's old and maybe not quite in his right mind. I didn't mind him so much with Marv Albert in the 80's. On a brighter note, the late Butch Lewis was awesome in that documentary.
Jamming a round-peg adjective like "evil" through the square adverb hole takes some seriously slick/slickly serious acuity.