That was very probably the worst commentary I have ever heard for any event I have seen in my life. Jim Watt should be taken off air immediately. He consistently blamed Pacquiao for the lack of action, disregarding the fact that Mosley was throwing no meaningful punches and was just trying to see the final bell. Ian Darke needs to stop bumming Watt and think for himself, or **** off and commentate on football. What's more they were giving Mosley credit for his tactics! This is intolerable. Mosley should be ashamed of his performance. He took no risks and threw **** all. They kept saying something must be going on in Pacquiao's private life, that he looked tired, etc etc etc. ****ing bull****. It was the negative tactics of Shane that ruined the fight and made them both look below below par. AND the analysis in the studio was **** poor as well. I'm going to stream future fights so I don't have to listen to their consistently wank commentary. Am I going over the top? What say you?
Who was the guy doing commentary on the Barker Spada fight? Thought he was excellent. Hope he gets moved on to the top fights
Ian Darke wasn't commentating, it was John Rawling. It was Nick Halling doing the Barker fight I think.
Exactly! I wanted to throw the chair into the TV. How the hell was Mosley fighting a good fight when he was running Running RUNNING.. Mosley was an absolute disgrace. I don't blame Pacquiao at all for that performance. Mosley kept feinting as if he was about to pop that right hand so Manny was weary of it, which he rightly should have been, but that made it hard for Pacquiao to engage and get in there. Fans will always remember Mosley for his dreadful last performance.
Thought Watt was fine, seems to be a scapegoat on here. I would say if there was any complaint towards the commentary/punditry it should be directed at Nelson, i cringe watching him at times. When he forgot Sykes' name, and his pathetic banter with McGuigan. Nice bloke but rarely has anything insightful or interesting to say.
Mosley wasn't really running to be fair. He was just standing off and fainting having shown Manny his right was powerful, and Manny didn't seem to have the neccessary will in this fight to throw in combinations if the first few miss. When Manny stepped it up Shane was out of his element completely, I thought Jim read the fight fairly well but yeah he was a little too criticial of Manny and not enough mention of the fact Mosley didn't really gun sling enough.
I agree with everything except the last part. I still think he'll be remembered well for the ODLH fights and will probably be forgiven, ultimately, for the Mayweather, Mora and Pac performances. But you are completely correct in saying that he was disgraceful. His negative tactics ruined the fight. Mosley made Clottey look like Aaron Pryor. I see it the same way as you, Manny being cautious of Mosley's power which caused him to refrain from throwing 4/5 punch combos. IMO this changes nothing with regard to the outcome of a potential Mayweather fight
I didn't see the in studio but, as TFFP says, Watt read the fight pretty well aside from that 10-8 Mosely round.
It seems to me that once Watt points something out which he believes to be true he has to keep mentioning it and keep finding ways to support it regardless of what is actually happening. He didn't say a bad word about Mosley all night, he was consistently critical of Pac, the only one who was taking any kind of risk (admittedly not as many risks as he normally takes, due to Mosley's power). Apart from being a little cautious, Manny didn't really do anything wrong, but he managed to get all the blame
I think that as Manny was the favourite, the aggressor and given that Mosely was clearly just content to back off and last the distance, Watt was just pointing out what Pac needed to do to make more of a fight of it. Its worth noting that Pac was getting similar advice off Roach...
I agree with Gaz I dont think Watts commentary was bad at all. It was clear it was always going to be Manny that needed to press the fight. No doubt Shane probably should have tried to pull the trigger more but Pac should have stopped him its a simple as that. When Pac did up the output it looked like Shane would get stopped and Mosley never really threw anything to discourage Pac from doing that so I think it was fair to criticise Pac's workrate or lack of it.
I think Watt was commentating according to the expectation as well. Manny has set such a standard, Mosley has been lacking for quite a while now, commentating in the proper context is always a good idea and Watt tried to do that. I do think he should have been a little more critical of Mosley though.