Joseph Obey Joyce vs. Filip Hrgović & David Adeleye vs. Jeamie Tshikeva RBR.

Put this elsewhere but I think it was a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder with Smith. We battered him first time around but then when he left and we had to put up with Costello we probably thought ‘well he’s not that bad actually’.

Last night he was back to his biased, slightly-strange self.

 

Yes, 100% correct

 

Pining for Jim Watt and Glen McCrory as well as your three above.

 

Late here but just caught the Adeleye TK-titties highlights, Adeleye and that ref are a fkn disgrace.

 

Adam Smith has always been a terrible commentator. I noticed opinions towards him softened significantly when his illness was disclosed which is understandable, but it doesn’t change the facts.

 

Well said, great post.

I remember Peter Crouch once being asked what he'd be if he weren't a premier league football player, and he simply replied, "A virgin."

The same applies to many of these social media guys, who are simply telemarketing engagement farmers who use promoters to gain clout and status.

Whatever Parson and others go on to achieve, I cannot foresee the day when he finally passes that they will give him or Kugan a bell-count tribute as they did with Colin Hart.

Even Buncey, someone who used to write for the Boxing News, told me years ago that Bunce started out as the tea boy and was sent on all the jobs no one else wanted, whereas the social media guys are instant gratification junkies, and it shows in their content. Even the current presenters on DAZN – all of them now have YouTube channels with the same regurgitated formula of interviews and podcasts, with the same people who have been on the podcast circuit since 2018, when Tris originally started boxing life stories.

Hearn knows precisely what he's doing, though. Throwing them a bone and boosting their egos is a licence for free positive publicity for both him and Matchroom and prevents any counter-narratives from growing, especially on social media. Which, in reality, is all he really cares about, along with AJ and Skye, and his end goal will be to offload Matchroom for as much as he can and then let someone else pick up the pieces.

Sky Sports lost £200 million plus on its last reported accounts and is essentially subsidised by Comcast's more profitable areas, whereas DAZN is losing over a billion annually and will inevitably go bust unless the Saudis subsidise it.

I don't actually think Parson is a bad presenter, but he does have that Brooklyn Beckham look about him: dumb, entitled and riding high on intermittent reinforcement.

 

Missed the fight last night, just caught up on the highlights .... Only found out the other day that Joe's mum is 93% blind. Not having your mother see the abuse you take is probably not a great idea in this sport. Unfortunately, she can't give an honest close heart felt opinion on what matters.. His health!

 

He’s an idiot with verbal diarrhoea that’s why mate. Thank god my DAZN subscription has finally come to an end.

 

Yep agreed. Always seems to call the ‘event’ rather than the fight as well. Mad to think Hearn wanted control of production at DAZN, when he had the likes of Smith, Woolhouse and Scott cheerleading back on Sky like they were on a Matchroom jolly up rather than there for a supposedly independent broadcaster.

I’m glad he’s healthy, and a bit like Costello a few years back, people obviously feel he adds gravitas to the commentary but to me it’s all ‘narrative’ rather than calling the fight as it is. Every GBM fight for example is all ‘this is the future of boxing’, ‘Izzy is really putting on a great show’ etc.

I get that times have changed, and the broadcasters are now literally on the payroll of the promoter, but it’s a shame to lose that objectivity.

 

Great post

 

Very fair. Intrinsically it's the disadvantage of having channels aligned exclusively to a promotional company - especially in his Sky days when Smith was the head of boxing at the channel whose events he was calling. I hope he calms down a bit with that stuff now he's working with multiple promotions.

Smith imho remains a big upgrade on Todd Grisham who called a lot of the Riyadh Season events for them - Grisham is very WWE and (to my very English ears at least) is not serious enough.

For me the gold standard TV boxing commentator in the UK remains John Rawling. Not afraid to call a spade a spade and as straight as a die, he clearly takes the split between commentary and punditry very seriously. It was a shame BT pushed him out in favour of Darren Fletcher.

 

I don’t feel enough has been said about that rascal of a paper mâché helmet that Joyce was wearing Saturday night…

 

I think Darren Fletcher is pretty decent tbh.

 

How can a referee shout break twice, then let a fighter knock down their opponent and not disqualify them or atleast give the fighter knocked down 5-10 minutes to recover?

Truly awful refereeing. Looked corrupt.

 

Yeah I do agree, Fletcher is good. Just think that Rawling was better, I’d love to know what prompted the change at BT.