Claude Abrams

[jamesmcdonnell]

Is it just me, or does he look really ill?

[steve689]

Exactly what i said in the other thread mate, he looks skeletal. I noticed it in the new colour photos they do in BN now. Joe Rein looks like an old Paul O'Grady in his as well

[DG.]

Is it just me, or does he look really ill?

He does, lets hope nothing to worry about.

[gkt999]

Claude has looked like this on the TV for a while now has he not?

I recently saw him in some other photos (action shot things not possed photos) and he looked much better, but I wondered at the time is it just the TV and possibly the way other photos are taken that make him look slimmer than he is?

[n1ebf]

Claude has looked like this on the TV for a while now has he not?

I recently saw him in some other photos (action shot things not possed photos) and he looked much better, but I wondered at the time is it just the TV and possibly the way other photos are taken that make him look slimmer than he is?

I nearly started a funny thread saying he looked like Skeletor of He-man fame so it's obviously not just me but then my manners and all round gentlemanly conduct kicked in.
He might just be super fit and look a bit gaunt with no body fat but I doubt it as he's got a very young nipper......lets hope it's nothing more than a few late nights. Good guy Claude

[jamesmcdonnell]

I've met claude in the flesh, and no way did he look that skinny when I saw him. He's definetly looking a LOT thinner.

Hope he's ok.

[KO Artist]

I've met claude in the flesh, and no way did he look that skinny when I saw him. He's definetly looking a LOT thinner.

Hope he's ok.

I have met claude and even had a curry with him and he wasnt that thin.

Claude was always slim and very fit. But he looks to ahve lost a lot of weight. In his face and body. But he always looked well with it

I hope you are OK Claude God bless you. The worlds greatest boxing writer.

[charlieb]

Maybe he saw himself on the telly for the first time and thought ... you fat bastard!

Comes across well though, you get the impression that with a bit of time he'll become the level head to Bunce's maniacal enthusiast.

[STP]

Are we sure it wasn't just a relative thing being next to big Bunce?

[DG.]

Are we sure it wasn't just a relative thing being next to big Bunce?

I thought that but even CA shirt collar looked too big for his neck.

Maybe he has just overdone it on the training.

[punchers chance]

I hadn't seem him on TV for a while & I couldn't believe it.

He doesn't look at all well and has aged 15 years since he was on the BBC in the 'Audley Harrison years'.

[DavidPayne]

Maybe he's trying to get down to Featherweight for a rematch with Hamed.

Bit pointless given Hamed is now struggling to make Cruiser.

It was terrific to see Setanta employing quality on the show, Buncey and Abrams offer a real good balance, Dempsey is a pro and Woodhall and Rawling are terrific too.

[n1ebf]

I've always been a big fan of Woodhall. Dempsey does a good job too. Has a bit more gravitas than his successor at sky, looks like he could sell you a rolex any moment.

[Eraserhead]

Maybe he's trying to get down to Featherweight for a rematch with Hamed.

Bit pointless given Hamed is now struggling to make Cruiser.

It was terrific to see Setanta employing quality on the show, Buncey and Abrams offer a real good balance, Dempsey is a pro and Woodhall and Rawling are terrific too.

I like Woodhall, Rawling can be a bit rambling depending on the fight. It was funny to see them spin the fact Macca was taking flush huge right hands "He's taking them well isn't he?". Yes, but he probably should not be taking them at all if he hopes to win.

I'm convinced all those Setanta boys - save for Demspey and Abrams - were pulling for a Maccarinelli win. You could sense it all week. After all, a lot of those guys helped 'create' the Maccarinelli product on ITV.

[DavidPayne]

I'm impressed by Warren's willingness to congratulate Haye, yes he may have an agenda, but he did it in the middle of the ring and equally, his willingness to concede they got it wrong in believing Macca was ready or Haye was vulnerable.

I hope Macca can regroup meaningfully. He was thrown to the lions here. My instinct was always that Haye owuld win comprehensively but perhaps it reflects a subtle bias of the Setanta coverage that I began to doubt what appeared obvious.

Haye was bigger, faster, more gifted, hit harder, more fluid ad had the better record and yet Setanta and others convinced me to doubt the obvious.

Even BN ran 50/50 as their headline.

Would 80/20 have been more honest?

[n1ebf]

I like Woodhall, Rawling can be a bit rambling depending on the fight. It was funny to see them spin the fact Macca was taking flush huge right hands "He's taking them well isn't he?". Yes, but he probably should not be taking them at all if he hopes to win.

at the end of the day Haye was training in secret so there's that to consider.

what i found ridiculous was the pro-Kevin Mitchell stance - it was appallingly biased (especially after his previous farce of a fight).....fair do's had he been boxing a foreigner

I'm convinced all those Setanta boys - save for Demspey and Abrams - were pulling for a Maccarinelli win. You could sense it all week. After all, a lot of those guys helped 'create' the Maccarinelli product on ITV.

Yeah, the preview shows were telling in that respect. Although on the weigh-in show Bunce did fight the Haye corner well, the Setanta crew were looking at him as if to say "You're saying all the wrong shit, but fook it, you're more fun than a million footballers. Make us laugh Buncie!"

at the end of the day Haye was training in secret so there's that to consider.

what i found ridiculous was the pro-Kevin Mitchell stance - it was appallingly biased (especially after his previous farce of a fight).....fair do's had he been boxing a foreigner you'd expect it but he was boxing our own British Champ in Johanneson.
Johanneson would pagger him for various rounds including almost stopping Mitchell and then as soon as Mitchell put 2 shots together it was...oh that's lovely by Mitchell.
Unashamed biasness I thought and a bit out of order.

[whiskey]

I cant say anyone threw enzo to the lions. I saw a guy pick up a big payday for 10% of the effort of anyone else on the entire card.

Let's rewind 12 months and Enzo was fighting on bills with 20-30,000 in attendance and on prime time TV, knocking out jokers.

Meanwhile Haye was in front of jst 2,000 at York hall on Friday fight night fighting #1 WBC ranked unbeaten Frogmeni.

Enzo has a belt around his waist and calls himself champion.

All i witnessed Saturday was a pedigree champion against a paper champion - a TV star against a Boxing star.

You cannot feast on bums, binmen and semi-retired opponents for years and then suddenly make the jump up in class to someone of Haye's standing.

Basically Enzo has gathered the fame & fortune without actually achieving anything.... Wheras Haye has been doing the correct thing making achievements and now the fame and fortune will follow suit.

This is a sport, not the WWE.

All said and done, some of Enzo's stable mates have the ability to stand on their own two feet against other genuine boxing talents and do not required hand-picked feather-fisted unknown Ukranians with a padded record to fool the public into thinking they are a true talent.

This is why Joe gets so much stick, for every prime opponent there are 3 or 4 over the hill's, for every genuine threat he's faced there are 3 or 4 guys from 2 divisions below.

Im not a hater. I just seen the 'Entertainment Business' colliding with 'Sport of Boxing' last Saturday night.

[DavidPayne]

Some truth in that Gomez.

Did we see similar in Hatton v Mayweather even though RH had left the SN stable?

There was an element of it I believe. More complex perhaps.

[Big Pussy]

You cannot feast on bums, binmen and semi-retired opponents for years and then suddenly make the jump up in class to someone of Haye's standing.

Basically Enzo has gathered the fame & fortune without actually achieving anything.... Wheras Haye has been doing the correct thing making achievements and now the fame and fortune will follow suit.

You don't talk a lot of sense but you hit the nail on the head there.

This was the first time Enzo faced someone who wasn't there to lose and it showed.

Enzo is a chump- happy to collect the money and the fake plaudits when it suited him against fighters like Gunn so he can collect the insults now!

[jamesmcdonnell]

I'm impressed by Warren's willingness to congratulate Haye, yes he may have an agenda, but he did it in the middle of the ring and equally, his willingness to concede they got it wrong in believing Macca was ready or Haye was vulnerable.

I hope Macca can regroup meaningfully. He was thrown to the lions here. My instinct was always that Haye owuld win comprehensively but perhaps it reflects a subtle bias of the Setanta coverage that I began to doubt what appeared obvious.

Haye was bigger, faster, more gifted, hit harder, more fluid ad had the better record and yet Setanta and others convinced me to doubt the obvious.

Even BN ran 50/50 as their headline.

Would 80/20 have been more honest?

Hindsight is 20/20 Dave.

I still say this was an evenly pitched fight. The major difference was in the confidence of the protaganists. Haye felt like it was his night, having beaten Mormeck, whilst Enzo appeared very nervous once he was in between those ropes. You could feel him shrinking in front of you.

[Spud]

Is it just me, or does he look really ill?

Either that or he is getting fit and feeding himself on the right food - not seen Mr Abrams look that gaunt - I genuinally hope everything is okay.

Got a lot of time for Claude.

[Eraserhead]

I cant say anyone threw enzo to the lions. I saw a guy pick up a big payday for 10% of the effort of anyone else on the entire card.

Let's rewind 12 months and Enzo was fighting on bills with 20-30,000 in attendance and on prime time TV, knocking out jokers.

Meanwhile Haye was in front of jst 2,000 at York hall on Friday fight night fighting #1 WBC ranked unbeaten Frogmeni.

Enzo has a belt around his waist and calls himself champion.

All i witnessed Saturday was a pedigree champion against a paper champion - a TV star against a Boxing star.

You cannot feast on bums, binmen and semi-retired opponents for years and then suddenly make the jump up in class to someone of Haye's standing.

Basically Enzo has gathered the fame & fortune without actually achieving anything.... Wheras Haye has been doing the correct thing making achievements and now the fame and fortune will follow suit.

This is a sport, not the WWE.

All said and done, some of Enzo's stable mates have the ability to stand on their own two feet against other genuine boxing talents and do not required hand-picked feather-fisted unknown Ukranians with a padded record to fool the public into thinking they are a true talent.

This is why Joe gets so much stick, for every prime opponent there are 3 or 4 over the hill's, for every genuine threat he's faced there are 3 or 4 guys from 2 divisions below.

Im not a hater. I just seen the 'Entertainment Business' colliding with 'Sport of Boxing' last Saturday night.

Agreed. The most alarming thing on the night was Maccarinelli's look of utter confusion and apprehension when someone stuck a meaty jab in his face and looked to back HIM up. He'd never experienced that before and was clueless about how to react/adjust to it. While Warren took the piss out of Haye's fights at the York Hall in the lead up, it was those kind of fights that rounded him out as a pro and banished all the bad habits he used to have.

It's a shame he had to learn the lesson like that because he comes across as a decent guy. Enzo C and Warren can maintain this crazy idea that Enzo M lost because of a 'mistake' but the mistake was the same mistake (read bad habit) that Enzo M makes in every single fight. Chin up, pulls back, leaves his left low after a jab.

Why else do you think Haye was so confident he'd knock him out?

[whiskey]

You cannot feast on bums, binmen and semi-retired opponents for years and then suddenly make the jump up in class to someone of Haye's standing.

Basically Enzo has gathered the fame & fortune without actually achieving anything.... Wheras Haye has been doing the correct thing making achievements and now the fame and fortune will follow suit.

You don't talk a lot of sense but you hit the nail on the head there.

This was the first time Enzo faced someone who wasn't there to lose and it showed.

Enzo is a chump- happy to collect the money and the fake plaudits when it suited him against fighters like Gunn so he can collect the insults now!

It's all about the packaging in this case.

Enzo has been showcased on prime time knocking out cabbie's and a big chunk of the public bought it.

Once you strip away all that make-believe and padded record your left with what you saw Saturday night.

Let's reverse the psychology here for a moment... Lets pretend for a moment that it was David Haye taking on the unbeaten bull strong No1 contender Frogomeni and prime-time ITV in front of 20-30,000 and then following on with a prime ITV fight against Mormeck with all the belts on the line in front of 20-30,000.. all on a huge Calzaghe undercard broadcast across the states and in all the media.

..meanwhile little known Enzo fights in front of 1500 at York Hall against Bobby Gunn. Then his next opponent Ezra Sellers is rejected... then he eeked out a decision against previously beaten Braithwaite who'd come off a 2 year layoff.... all in front of 800 people at Altricham leisure centre...

Would you really and truly say this was a 50/50 fight still?

Somehow i dont think anyone would.

And thats Showbizz

[steve689]

I thought Abrams spoke a lot of sense on Saturday night and helped tip the scales back to a more balanced outlook of the bill. It was in danger of tipping over towards Maccarinelli and Mitchell at one point but Abrams pulled it back.

[Coco]

I was really pleased to see they have started using Claude, nice to see them bringing in a fella with serious knowledge and without an agenda to please his paymasters