COLIN HART ONCE AGAIN

[nobby_nobbins]

12 isnt exactly early age, returning at 22....lews has been based in the uk longer than Canada .........fact.

Yep - Lewis is British. The reason he started boxing in Canada was so he could stand up to bullies who picked on him because of his BRITISH accent.

[gasman]

Colin Hart is an excellent seasoned boxing reporter who is objective and tries to accurately depict what has actually gone on in a fight. As we know, he can be harsh on some British boxers, but he isnt there to be a fanboy - just try to be accurate. I would rather read a write-up that accurately critiques a match than some exaggerated nationalistic love-in.

[oliverfennell]

Hugh McIllvanney also describes the fight as terrible....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 917201.ece

It's a good article but he's got it wrong when he says: Nor did the later peaks of the young Mike Tyson, of Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis strike us as anything but truly exceptional.

Contemporary pundits DID say that the 90s was one of the worst eras in heavyweight boxing. Seems crazy to think it now, but they did.

Although I'm sure nobody's going to later revise current opinion about the 00s!

[lowersmiths]

if you are in germany, you probably think this heavyweight era is one of the best of all time.

[jamesmcdonnell]

"His Eurosport career was short because he called crap crap, and the bosses didn't like it." by 'Carrotcruncher'.
************
Sorry to be late on this one. I've heard this spin bandied about before, of course, but it seems an odd one. As I understand it that wasn't the reason they didn't want to use him. Certainly in 3 1/2 years of being hired by Eurosport, nobody has ever tried to tell me what to say or what not to say, and has never attempted to tell me I shouldn't have been negative or 'call crap crap'.

Christ, Steve Holdsworth would have lost the gig years ago if being negative was forbidded.

Steve reminds me sometimes of Wogan doing the Eurovision, slightly caustic, with an air of jaded resignation that what he is watching is likely to be rubbish.

[rhino222]

Colin Hart is an excellent seasoned boxing reporter who is objective and tries to accurately depict what has actually gone on in a fight. As we know, he can be harsh on some British boxers, but he isnt there to be a fanboy - just try to be accurate. I would rather read a write-up that accurately critiques a match than some exaggerated nationalistic love-in.

do you enjoy all 3 lines of his write ups?

[stujones]

Hugh McIllvanney also describes the fight as terrible....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 917201.ece

It's a good article but he's got it wrong when he says: Nor did the later peaks of the young Mike Tyson, of Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis strike us as anything but truly exceptional.

Contemporary pundits DID say that the 90s was one of the worst eras in heavyweight boxing. Seems crazy to think it now, but they did.

Although I'm sure nobody's going to later revise current opinion about the 00s!

Oliver,

Can see what your saying - but there was a period when 90's heavyweight boxing was terrible. Nobody ever could, or did, criticise the talent of the four guys you mentioned.

However, there was a period when.

1) Holyfield was thought to have a heart condition and was out of the picture.

2) Lewis was frozen out of the picture, including a large time out, after the McCall fight.

3) Tyson was in Jail.

4) Bowe was chucking titles in the rubbish bin, left right and centre.

There was a period when the 3 main champions were Bruce Seldon, Frank Bruno and Frans Botha (okay Botha got DQ'd..... so that title was vacant) - the lineal "man" champion was Grandaddy Foreman. That brief period it was awful! I remember a picture in Boxing Monthyl of Bruno, Seldon and Botha together with the question "is this the worst period in Heavyweight history".

[oliverfennell]

Hugh McIllvanney also describes the fight as terrible....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 917201.ece

It's a good article but he's got it wrong when he says: Nor did the later peaks of the young Mike Tyson, of Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis strike us as anything but truly exceptional.

Contemporary pundits DID say that the 90s was one of the worst eras in heavyweight boxing. Seems crazy to think it now, but they did.

Although I'm sure nobody's going to later revise current opinion about the 00s!

Oliver,

Can see what your saying - but there was a period when 90's heavyweight boxing was terrible. Nobody ever could, or did, criticise the talent of the four guys you mentioned.

However, there was a period when.

1) Holyfield was thought to have a heart condition and was out of the picture.

2) Lewis was frozen out of the picture, including a large time out, after the McCall fight.

3) Tyson was in Jail.

4) Bowe was chucking titles in the rubbish bin, left right and centre.

There was a period when the 3 main champions were Bruce Seldon, Frank Bruno and Frans Botha (okay Botha got DQ'd..... so that title was vacant) - the lineal "man" champion was Grandaddy Foreman. That brief period it was awful! I remember a picture in Boxing Monthyl of Bruno, Seldon and Botha together with the question "is this the worst period in Heavyweight history".

Yes, I remember that too, although most people would agree Bruno would have been a solid champ in this decade, and probably Botha would have been a strong contender, if not a big 4 champ, too. He's certainly no worse than Maskaev or the older Rahman.

Anyway, your assessment is true enough, although Lewis wasn't really appreciated until late on his career, arguably not until the first Holyfield fight, which was near the end of the decade. Holyfield, too, wasn't considered a great until he beat Tyson.

[DavidPayne]

Didn't Hasim Rahman knock out Corrie Sanders in seven rounds 5 years before he was obliterating Wladimir Klitschko?

Or have I invented that. Wouldn't be the first time.

[rhino222]

Didn't Hasim Rahman knock out Corrie Sanders in seven rounds 5 years before he was obliterating Wladimir Klitschko?

Or have I invented that. Wouldn't be the first time.

i seem to remember a double knock down in that one too !!

[hurlock]

Didn't Hasim Rahman knock out Corrie Sanders in seven rounds 5 years before he was obliterating Wladimir Klitschko?

Or have I invented that. Wouldn't be the first time.

why is corrie sanders so underestimated :!: he was giving rahman an absolute hiding b4 getting caught.
people should sit up & start judging haye after his ruiz fight.

[Gray-Fox]

Don't know why anyone listens to Hart anyway.

Who cares what a journo says? Like someone else said, just watch the fights.