Bunce super annoying

[MightyWarrior]

The trouble with Lillis is that he'll never contradict big boss Bunce - as it's obvious Bunce has got him the job, and he must feel he'll be out on his ear if he does. They 100% need someone to reign in the Bunce ego.
Bunce is good as a colour man, but not as sole presenter.

[milpool]

Just been catching up on my Bunce Boxing Hour podcasts from BBC London. He seems quite happy to put in a few digs at Sky's Ringside programme.
Listening to the one from Thursday 12th April and his intro includes the line..."After that other thing that goes on TV, mass produced and filmed over about 7 hours..."
Is there any need for this...really? He seems quite bitter about Sky and comments like this just make him sound like a disgruntled, menopausal women slating her ex husband.

Maybe Adam, Jonny and Ed can start wearing garish shirts, introduce ridiculous clapping and cheering sounds and interview Dominic Negus and convince people that he could have been the world champ...yeah, that would be much better.

It's a shame he takes this attitude as the boxing hour on BBC London is usually pretty good.

[Craig14]

I think it's clear to see that Steve Bunce loves boxing, I don't see the problem with him. Boxers ego's seem alot bigger than his. His fiction book however....... Yeah that was rubbish. Him presenting a boxing show or commentating? He know's his stuff - I like it.

[DavidPayne]

BBC London hour is like Sunday Morning Relaxing Trance in Ibiza for Steve. I think if you listen to the two you recognise when Buncey is putting on his TV persona.

Remember, the Boxing Hour is LIVE. Except from the odd phone interview. LIVE. Scary shit, with a camera, no script and just you staring at it.

[DMMA]

My missus can happily watch Bunce and finds him pretty entertaining, on the other hand she finds Adam Smith creepy as hell. Can't disagree really.........

There is something sinister about him isn't there? The way he juts his jaw forward and stares, as he looks so serious.

Weird looking fella but, tbf, loves his boxing and has helped get more of it on tv for us lot.

Personally, I can see why people dislike/get fed up with Bunce and he can be a bit grating at times but I like his enthusiasm and knowledge/memory for fights/fighters. Really enjoy the Boxing Hour (even when it's not!)

[JC]

I like the Radio London show and always listen when its on.

The TV show works less well for me because it's basically the a live TV version of the radio show, with a lot of phone interviews and guests swapping in and out. It would benefit from a bit of a change in format IMO.

I know the kind of on-location features they have on Ringside are probably too expensive. But it would be nice if they could have a couple of guests there for the whole time and make it a bit more of a studio discussion like they do on Ringside.

Overall though I like Steve Bunce and I respect the way he he is willing to help people at all levels of the sport with a bit of publicity rather than just the big names.

[Bricks]

...

[Bricks]

My missus can happily watch Bunce and finds him pretty entertaining, on the other hand she finds Adam Smith creepy as hell. Can't disagree really.........

Leave Smith alone hes a decent warm hearted bloke.Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality Back in 2000-2004 on ITV2's boxing first and the BBC before he adopted this fat man act he was actually a great pundit.

Id love to see what Holdsworth could do given some quality boxing to comment on, dont think there is a better colour commentator/play by play man, able to carry a broadcast for 3 hours and think outside the box. But i suspect he is far too much of an oddball on the airwaves, with the quiet eccentric way he gets preoccupied with things like why steve smoger dyes his hair and joe cortez's senility to be taken up a yes man type org like SKY.

[Bricks]

(Apologies advance for taking this into the gutter)

If you compare US pornography to British pornography you get two very different means that both result in the same end. Max Kellerman is US porn to Steve Bunce's British porn. Slick, high-budget, well-edited, clean and decontaminated versus Coarse, low-budget, improvised grot. I'll crack one out to either depending on my mood.

Its uncanny Kellerman looks just like Jules Jordan and Bunce looks like Ben Dovers fat brother.

[Bricks]

That's the crux. you have to balance delivering to a knowledgable audience and still appeal to the die hards. I can only speak for myself, but I could not do what Bunce does in a million years.

I've been helping a friend with video interviews, it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination.

Maybe he'd get respect if he was a little more humble

And people are placing far too much on his enthusiasm. He is getting paid after all, he's not doing this for free. He has confidence and there is a place for him on TV delivering programmes on boxing, but not at the forefront. He should be alongside someone slick with boxing knowledge and a firm hand.

There must be someone out there?

Humble people, generally, do not get in to a position to be noticed in the media. It is the more flamboyant and argumentative types that get on, (or if they're pretty or have family connections).

Bunce was pretty enthusaistic when he didn't get paid. For years. That's why he got into a position where he does get paid.

These days that seems to be the norm but 10 years ago and before it wasnt. Paul dempsey was bland as white rice, harry Carpenter, etc, Bunce is just an extreme of anything we have seen in sports coverage and he disgraces what was once the sport of kings which always had a literary touch to the journalists who followed it, you name them, Mailer, Hemingway, they all covered boxing. Guys like Cosell, Carpenter and Lynam and Inverdale are trained journalists. Only Robinson is of that ilk.

[DMMA]

Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality.

That's quite a damning claim to make - do you have any direct (personal?) evidence or is it just supposition and rumour?

[JimJim2009]

One of us?

Didn't seem like it when he came on here and started talking down to us.

The guys a total twat.[/quote]

He came on here and spoke his mind, which is what the rest of us do. A lot of vocal support for him went down the toilet after that, I think his mistake was thinking he could exchange views on equal terms with boxing fans on this forum, or east side, without resentment building. Clearly he couldn't.

I don't understand the haters, for me he's informative, entertaining, lively, unpredictable and spontaneous

[palooka]

One of us?

Didn't seem like it when he came on here and started talking down to us.

The guys a total twat.

He came on here and spoke his mind, which is what the rest of us do. A lot of vocal support for him went down the toilet after that, I think his mistake was thinking he could exchange views on equal terms with boxing fans on this forum, or east side, without resentment building. Clearly he couldn't.

I don't understand the haters, for me he's informative, entertaining, lively, unpredictable and spontaneous [/quote]

That seems about it. There are many on here who know stacks about boxing and are on the inside track/work in the sport. Some of those; including Bunce sometimes; give the impression of arrogance and aloofness. Some are very rude and insulting and some of those tend to have the thinnest skins.

[Giancarlo]

He came on here and spoke his mind, which is what the rest of us do. A lot of vocal support for him went down the toilet after that, I think his mistake was thinking he could exchange views on equal terms with boxing fans on this forum, or east side, without resentment building. Clearly he couldn't.

I don't understand the haters, for me he's informative, entertaining, lively, unpredictable and spontaneous

Each to his own Jim.

He did more than speak his mind on here and in the end he got so worked up cos we were asking him to justify some of his more bizarre statements that he took his ball and went home.

Informative? Sometimes he talks sense other times he talks shite like that nonsense about Negus should have been a world champ.
Entertaining? I am not a fan of fat middle-aged men gurning.
Lively? Well, he waves his arms around a lot and plays silly noises.
Unpredictable? I'd say his act is totally predictable now.
Spontaneous? Never spontaneous enough to back up his claim of "telling it like it is".

On Setanta when he was kept in check by Kerr he was watchable; now he's just a buffoon.

[fizzjambo]

My missus can happily watch Bunce and finds him pretty entertaining, on the other hand she finds Adam Smith creepy as hell. Can't disagree really.........

Leave Smith alone hes a decent warm hearted bloke.Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality Back in 2000-2004 on ITV2's boxing first and the BBC before he adopted this fat man act he was actually a great pundit.

Id love to see what Holdsworth could do given some quality boxing to comment on, dont think there is a better colour commentator/play by play man, able to carry a broadcast for 3 hours and think outside the box. But i suspect he is far too much of an oddball on the airwaves, with the quiet eccentric way he gets preoccupied with things like why steve smoger dyes his hair and joe cortez's senility to be taken up a yes man type org like SKY.

Utter pash! Smith seems to have this reputation of having turned Sky's boxing coverage around - can't quite see this somehow myself. What's he overseen? He has to take part of the blame for the dire quality of the Haye Wlad fight as he hyped the backside off it through Ringside, SSNews, etc when in reality he had two very cautious heavyweights facing off and signed off on it being topped off with a threadbare undercard. The revised history is that Haye has signed the recent death warrent for PPV boxing, Smith, in many peoples view, had just as big a part to play. And no he didn't pull PPV because he's the peoples champion, he did it as he'd dropped the ball with it.

Then we had the Khan / McCloskey farce. McCloskey is a stylistic nightmare and is hardly thrilling too watch, not to mention he had beaten NO ONE OF ANY NOTE to get a world title shot. Sky (through Smith) then made a complete James Hunt of preparing the undercard and they were left with egg on their face when Khan promotions told them to get stuffed. Again Smith was somehow cast as a hero. For what? Going back on Sky's original PPV offer to the Khan's cause they'd accepted a sub-par opponent and made a mess of the undercard (a Smith trait for PPV's)?

Then we have Sky's shocking committment to overseas fights, losing Pacman/Marquez III and Khan/Judah to Primetime and Cotto/Margarito II and Mayweather/Cotto to allegedly - what the hell is he playing at!!!! This is compounded by the thrill of having every K2 fight stuffed down our craws featuring fat, ancient French cruisers, blown up Polish Light-heavies, and general waifs and strays - someone need's to tell it how it is and describe their opponents for what they are.......oh wait a minute......

Plus under Captain Ad allegedly have popped along and Sky now have gone from a domestic fight every week to a couple a month. But that's fine as Smith just makes every second fight a 'mouth watering domestic dust up'!!!!!!! Matty Hatton was made to look like a sparring partner, Frampton's opponent was a discrace and Hope saved the show by producing a career best performance as Proska gave a near career worst - which at least turned a miss-match in 99% of our eyes into a good fight (and let's be honest, when it was made we were not licking our lips!). Bellew has struggled to beat Ovil MacKenzie, looked dreadful against Bob Ajisaf (who didn't think he could win until he actually realised Bellew wasn't that good) and now has Danny MacIntosh who bar his win in France looked dreadful vs Guteknecht and Cleverly. Don't get me wrong, it's a good domestic fight, but when Smith talks about it you'd think it was Hagler/Hearns stuff.

To top it off he sits on Ringside every week (main televised boxing magazine show in the UK, which bar the fights themselves is the main advert for our sport and introduction to potential new viewers), perched on his stool, rubbing his paws together, wearing the kind of shirts the weakest link contestants were forced to wear and drooling over a selection of uncomfortable looking guests while snuggling up to big Johnny. It's like he's done his training on some US teleshopping channel! If mincing is your choice of production then your sorted, otherwise watching him licking the Klit's boots is somewhat uncomfortable.

Finally when given the chance to call fights he tries to lower his voice and growl during what he feels are dramatic moments, which sounds beyond creepy, and then feels at liberty to refer to hard working professionals as 'a lost little lamb' when they are trying to stem the flow of some ruddy Welsh lunatic whose knocking the living daylights out of them. Can't remember Buncey saying something quite so shocking myself.......

In fact that's not finally. What the hell is he doing with Ed Robinson, a serious talent, who Sky badly underuse. What the hell is Piper still doing on TV? Why the hell is Nelson their big investment? Why is Prizefighter (home of the novice and small hall pro) getting the arse burned out of it to the extent that the likes of Young Mutley (example off the top of my head) can perform dreadfully and then get invited back? Why can't Coldwell promote his own shows? Why is Sky's boxing budget being cut under his management? CAN HE NOT STOP SIMPERING!!!!!!!!!

And now for the defence............

[fizzjambo]

Plus when was the last time Smith popped up on a forum, openly, and started chatting away to us plebs? Bunce does so, bites when prodded and some people on here talk as if he's offended the Queen over a pathetic tit tat between two journalists ( oh and making a throw away, daft comment about 'real fans'. There are people on here that still bring this up as if it's an offence deserving of capital punishment - poor wee things) As far as I can see Smith hardly enters the on line debate at all. What would you rather have?

[fizzjambo]

One of us?

Didn't seem like it when he came on here and started talking down to us.

The guys a total twat.

He came on here and spoke his mind, which is what the rest of us do. A lot of vocal support for him went down the toilet after that, I think his mistake was thinking he could exchange views on equal terms with boxing fans on this forum, or east side, without resentment building. Clearly he couldn't.

I don't understand the haters, for me he's informative, entertaining, lively, unpredictable and spontaneous

That seems about it. There are many on here who know stacks about boxing and are on the inside track/work in the sport. Some of those; including Bunce sometimes; give the impression of arrogance and aloofness. Some are very rude and insulting and some of those tend to have the thinnest skins.[/quote]

Couldn't agree more. Despite the low number of posts and general use I find boxrec highly informative. However it is unquestionably the home of the petted ego....

[fizzjambo]

Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality.

That's quite a damning claim to make - do you have any direct (personal?) evidence or is it just supposition and rumour?

No Mugabi has first hand knowledge of Bunce's RUTHLESS use of Thai straw-weights who he imports to work 21 hour days on the production line of his low quality Hawian shirt factory which is in Auld Fish Eye's garden shed in Hertfordshire. He is in no way just another spouter of grudges who owns a highly polished, overinflated, on'line boxing ego......

[DavidPayne]

One of us?

Didn't seem like it when he came on here and started talking down to us.

The guys a total twat.

He came on here and spoke his mind, which is what the rest of us do. A lot of vocal support for him went down the toilet after that, I think his mistake was thinking he could exchange views on equal terms with boxing fans on this forum, or east side, without resentment building. Clearly he couldn't.

I don't understand the haters, for me he's informative, entertaining, lively, unpredictable and spontaneous :TU:[/quote]
Agree with this. If you want predictable, boring, conforming. He isn't for you.

[DavidPayne]

My missus can happily watch Bunce and finds him pretty entertaining, on the other hand she finds Adam Smith creepy as hell. Can't disagree really.........

Leave Smith alone hes a decent warm hearted bloke.Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality Back in 2000-2004 on ITV2's boxing first and the BBC before he adopted this fat man act he was actually a great pundit.

Id love to see what Holdsworth could do given some quality boxing to comment on, dont think there is a better colour commentator/play by play man, able to carry a broadcast for 3 hours and think outside the box. But i suspect he is far too much of an oddball on the airwaves, with the quiet eccentric way he gets preoccupied with things like why steve smoger dyes his hair and joe cortez's senility to be taken up a yes man type org like SKY.

Utter pash! Smith seems to have this reputation of having turned Sky's boxing coverage around - can't quite see this somehow myself. What's he overseen? He has to take part of the blame for the dire quality of the Haye Wlad fight as he hyped the backside off it through Ringside, SSNews, etc when in reality he had two very cautious heavyweights facing off and signed off on it being topped off with a threadbare undercard. The revised history is that Haye has signed the recent death warrent for PPV boxing, Smith, in many peoples view, had just as big a part to play. And no he didn't pull PPV because he's the peoples champion, he did it as he'd dropped the ball with it.

Then we had the Khan / McCloskey farce. McCloskey is a stylistic nightmare and is hardly thrilling too watch, not to mention he had beaten NO ONE OF ANY NOTE to get a world title shot. Sky (through Smith) then made a complete James Hunt of preparing the undercard and they were left with egg on their face when Khan promotions told them to get stuffed. Again Smith was somehow cast as a hero. For what? Going back on Sky's original PPV offer to the Khan's cause they'd accepted a sub-par opponent and made a mess of the undercard (a Smith trait for PPV's)?

Then we have Sky's shocking committment to overseas fights, losing Pacman/Marquez III and Khan/Judah to Primetime and Cotto/Margarito II and Mayweather/Cotto to Allegedly channel - what the hell is he playing at!!!! This is compounded by the thrill of having every K2 fight stuffed down our craws featuring fat, ancient French cruisers, blown up Polish Light-heavies, and general waifs and strays - someone need's to tell it how it is and describe their opponents for what they are.......oh wait a minute......

Plus under Captain Ad Allegedly channel have popped along and Sky now have gone from a domestic fight every week to a couple a month. But that's fine as Smith just makes every second fight a 'mouth watering domestic dust up'!!!!!!! Matty Hatton was made to look like a sparring partner, Frampton's opponent was a discrace and Hope saved the show by producing a career best performance as Proska gave a near career worst - which at least turned a miss-match in 99% of our eyes into a good fight (and let's be honest, when it was made we were not licking our lips!). Bellew has struggled to beat Ovil MacKenzie, looked dreadful against Bob Ajisaf (who didn't think he could win until he actually realised Bellew wasn't that good) and now has Danny MacIntosh who bar his win in France looked dreadful vs Guteknecht and Cleverly. Don't get me wrong, it's a good domestic fight, but when Smith talks about it you'd think it was Hagler/Hearns stuff.

To top it off he sits on Ringside every week (main televised boxing magazine show in the UK, which bar the fights themselves is the main advert for our sport and introduction to potential new viewers), perched on his stool, rubbing his paws together, wearing the kind of shirts the weakest link contestants were forced to wear and drooling over a selection of uncomfortable looking guests while snuggling up to big Johnny. It's like he's done his training on some US teleshopping channel! If mincing is your choice of production then your sorted, otherwise watching him licking the Klit's boots is somewhat uncomfortable.

Finally when given the chance to call fights he tries to lower his voice and growl during what he feels are dramatic moments, which sounds beyond creepy, and then feels at liberty to refer to hard working professionals as 'a lost little lamb' when they are trying to stem the flow of some ruddy Welsh lunatic whose knocking the living daylights out of them. Can't remember Buncey saying something quite so shocking myself.......

In fact that's not finally. What the hell is he doing with Ed Robinson, a serious talent, who Sky badly underuse. What the hell is Piper still doing on TV? Why the hell is Nelson their big investment? Why is Prizefighter (home of the novice and small hall pro) getting the arse burned out of it to the extent that the likes of Young Mutley (example off the top of my head) can perform dreadfully and then get invited back? Why can't Coldwell promote his own shows? Why is Sky's boxing budget being cut under his management? CAN HE NOT STOP SIMPERING!!!!!!!!!

And now for the defence............

There are some truths in here.

Notably, that Ed is under-used.

[gasman]

My missus can happily watch Bunce and finds him pretty entertaining, on the other hand she finds Adam Smith creepy as hell. Can't disagree really.........

Leave Smith alone hes a decent warm hearted bloke.Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality Back in 2000-2004 on ITV2's boxing first and the BBC before he adopted this fat man act he was actually a great pundit.

Id love to see what Holdsworth could do given some quality boxing to comment on, dont think there is a better colour commentator/play by play man, able to carry a broadcast for 3 hours and think outside the box. But i suspect he is far too much of an oddball on the airwaves, with the quiet eccentric way he gets preoccupied with things like why steve smoger dyes his hair and joe cortez's senility to be taken up a yes man type org like SKY.

Utter pash! Smith seems to have this reputation of having turned Sky's boxing coverage around - can't quite see this somehow myself. What's he overseen? He has to take part of the blame for the dire quality of the Haye Wlad fight as he hyped the backside off it through Ringside, SSNews, etc when in reality he had two very cautious heavyweights facing off and signed off on it being topped off with a threadbare undercard. The revised history is that Haye has signed the recent death warrent for PPV boxing, Smith, in many peoples view, had just as big a part to play. And no he didn't pull PPV because he's the peoples champion, he did it as he'd dropped the ball with it.

Then we had the Khan / McCloskey farce. McCloskey is a stylistic nightmare and is hardly thrilling too watch, not to mention he had beaten NO ONE OF ANY NOTE to get a world title shot. Sky (through Smith) then made a complete James Hunt of preparing the undercard and they were left with egg on their face when Khan promotions told them to get stuffed. Again Smith was somehow cast as a hero. For what? Going back on Sky's original PPV offer to the Khan's cause they'd accepted a sub-par opponent and made a mess of the undercard (a Smith trait for PPV's)?

Then we have Sky's shocking committment to overseas fights, losing Pacman/Marquez III and Khan/Judah to Primetime and Cotto/Margarito II and Mayweather/Cotto to Allegedly channel - what the hell is he playing at!!!! This is compounded by the thrill of having every K2 fight stuffed down our craws featuring fat, ancient French cruisers, blown up Polish Light-heavies, and general waifs and strays - someone need's to tell it how it is and describe their opponents for what they are.......oh wait a minute......

Plus under Captain Ad Allegedly channel have popped along and Sky now have gone from a domestic fight every week to a couple a month. But that's fine as Smith just makes every second fight a 'mouth watering domestic dust up'!!!!!!! Matty Hatton was made to look like a sparring partner, Frampton's opponent was a discrace and Hope saved the show by producing a career best performance as Proska gave a near career worst - which at least turned a miss-match in 99% of our eyes into a good fight (and let's be honest, when it was made we were not licking our lips!). Bellew has struggled to beat Ovil MacKenzie, looked dreadful against Bob Ajisaf (who didn't think he could win until he actually realised Bellew wasn't that good) and now has Danny MacIntosh who bar his win in France looked dreadful vs Guteknecht and Cleverly. Don't get me wrong, it's a good domestic fight, but when Smith talks about it you'd think it was Hagler/Hearns stuff.

To top it off he sits on Ringside every week (main televised boxing magazine show in the UK, which bar the fights themselves is the main advert for our sport and introduction to potential new viewers), perched on his stool, rubbing his paws together, wearing the kind of shirts the weakest link contestants were forced to wear and drooling over a selection of uncomfortable looking guests while snuggling up to big Johnny. It's like he's done his training on some US teleshopping channel! If mincing is your choice of production then your sorted, otherwise watching him licking the Klit's boots is somewhat uncomfortable.

Finally when given the chance to call fights he tries to lower his voice and growl during what he feels are dramatic moments, which sounds beyond creepy, and then feels at liberty to refer to hard working professionals as 'a lost little lamb' when they are trying to stem the flow of some ruddy Welsh lunatic whose knocking the living daylights out of them. Can't remember Buncey saying something quite so shocking myself.......

In fact that's not finally. What the hell is he doing with Ed Robinson, a serious talent, who Sky badly underuse. What the hell is Piper still doing on TV? Why the hell is Nelson their big investment? Why is Prizefighter (home of the novice and small hall pro) getting the arse burned out of it to the extent that the likes of Young Mutley (example off the top of my head) can perform dreadfully and then get invited back? Why can't Coldwell promote his own shows? Why is Sky's boxing budget being cut under his management? CAN HE NOT STOP SIMPERING!!!!!!!!!

And now for the defence............

That was a rant and a half!
I hope Adam Smith doesnt read this forum

[fizzjambo]

Leave Smith alone hes a decent warm hearted bloke.Bunce is a ruthless user of people and has a screw you if im not being paid type mentality Back in 2000-2004 on ITV2's boxing first and the BBC before he adopted this fat man act he was actually a great pundit.

Id love to see what Holdsworth could do given some quality boxing to comment on, dont think there is a better colour commentator/play by play man, able to carry a broadcast for 3 hours and think outside the box. But i suspect he is far too much of an oddball on the airwaves, with the quiet eccentric way he gets preoccupied with things like why steve smoger dyes his hair and joe cortez's senility to be taken up a yes man type org like SKY.

Utter pash! Smith seems to have this reputation of having turned Sky's boxing coverage around - can't quite see this somehow myself. What's he overseen? He has to take part of the blame for the dire quality of the Haye Wlad fight as he hyped the backside off it through Ringside, SSNews, etc when in reality he had two very cautious heavyweights facing off and signed off on it being topped off with a threadbare undercard. The revised history is that Haye has signed the recent death warrent for PPV boxing, Smith, in many peoples view, had just as big a part to play. And no he didn't pull PPV because he's the peoples champion, he did it as he'd dropped the ball with it.

Then we had the Khan / McCloskey farce. McCloskey is a stylistic nightmare and is hardly thrilling too watch, not to mention he had beaten NO ONE OF ANY NOTE to get a world title shot. Sky (through Smith) then made a complete James Hunt of preparing the undercard and they were left with egg on their face when Khan promotions told them to get stuffed. Again Smith was somehow cast as a hero. For what? Going back on Sky's original PPV offer to the Khan's cause they'd accepted a sub-par opponent and made a mess of the undercard (a Smith trait for PPV's)?

Then we have Sky's shocking committment to overseas fights, losing Pacman/Marquez III and Khan/Judah to Primetime and Cotto/Margarito II and Mayweather/Cotto to Allegedly channel - what the hell is he playing at!!!! This is compounded by the thrill of having every K2 fight stuffed down our craws featuring fat, ancient French cruisers, blown up Polish Light-heavies, and general waifs and strays - someone need's to tell it how it is and describe their opponents for what they are.......oh wait a minute......

Plus under Captain Ad Allegedly channel have popped along and Sky now have gone from a domestic fight every week to a couple a month. But that's fine as Smith just makes every second fight a 'mouth watering domestic dust up'!!!!!!! Matty Hatton was made to look like a sparring partner, Frampton's opponent was a discrace and Hope saved the show by producing a career best performance as Proska gave a near career worst - which at least turned a miss-match in 99% of our eyes into a good fight (and let's be honest, when it was made we were not licking our lips!). Bellew has struggled to beat Ovil MacKenzie, looked dreadful against Bob Ajisaf (who didn't think he could win until he actually realised Bellew wasn't that good) and now has Danny MacIntosh who bar his win in France looked dreadful vs Guteknecht and Cleverly. Don't get me wrong, it's a good domestic fight, but when Smith talks about it you'd think it was Hagler/Hearns stuff.

To top it off he sits on Ringside every week (main televised boxing magazine show in the UK, which bar the fights themselves is the main advert for our sport and introduction to potential new viewers), perched on his stool, rubbing his paws together, wearing the kind of shirts the weakest link contestants were forced to wear and drooling over a selection of uncomfortable looking guests while snuggling up to big Johnny. It's like he's done his training on some US teleshopping channel! If mincing is your choice of production then your sorted, otherwise watching him licking the Klit's boots is somewhat uncomfortable.

Finally when given the chance to call fights he tries to lower his voice and growl during what he feels are dramatic moments, which sounds beyond creepy, and then feels at liberty to refer to hard working professionals as 'a lost little lamb' when they are trying to stem the flow of some ruddy Welsh lunatic whose knocking the living daylights out of them. Can't remember Buncey saying something quite so shocking myself.......

In fact that's not finally. What the hell is he doing with Ed Robinson, a serious talent, who Sky badly underuse. What the hell is Piper still doing on TV? Why the hell is Nelson their big investment? Why is Prizefighter (home of the novice and small hall pro) getting the arse burned out of it to the extent that the likes of Young Mutley (example off the top of my head) can perform dreadfully and then get invited back? Why can't Coldwell promote his own shows? Why is Sky's boxing budget being cut under his management? CAN HE NOT STOP SIMPERING!!!!!!!!!

And now for the defence............

That was a rant and a half!
I hope Adam Smith doesnt read this forum

I know!! I've maybe been a bit OTT with some things and by no means do I think Bunce is perfect. I just think there should be a little more evenhandness when discussing him on here and one or two of the quotes on here are bang out of order and I'd be very surprised if some of the posters whould say the exact same things to his face, however much they'd like to think they would.

Adam Smith has done many good things (production of Brook/Hatton, bringing back Bob Mee, taking a back step from commentary, etc) but he, like the rest of us, is far from perfect

[JamesH]

Utter pash! Smith seems to have this reputation of having turned Sky's boxing coverage around - can't quite see this somehow myself. What's he overseen? He has to take part of the blame for the dire quality of the Haye Wlad fight as he hyped the backside off it through Ringside, SSNews, etc when in reality he had two very cautious heavyweights facing off and signed off on it being topped off with a threadbare undercard. The revised history is that Haye has signed the recent death warrent for PPV boxing, Smith, in many peoples view, had just as big a part to play. And no he didn't pull PPV because he's the peoples champion, he did it as he'd dropped the ball with it.

Then we had the Khan / McCloskey farce. McCloskey is a stylistic nightmare and is hardly thrilling too watch, not to mention he had beaten NO ONE OF ANY NOTE to get a world title shot. Sky (through Smith) then made a complete James Hunt of preparing the undercard and they were left with egg on their face when Khan promotions told them to get stuffed. Again Smith was somehow cast as a hero. For what? Going back on Sky's original PPV offer to the Khan's cause they'd accepted a sub-par opponent and made a mess of the undercard (a Smith trait for PPV's)?

Then we have Sky's shocking committment to overseas fights, losing Pacman/Marquez III and Khan/Judah to Primetime and Cotto/Margarito II and Mayweather/Cotto to Allegedly channel - what the hell is he playing at!!!! This is compounded by the thrill of having every K2 fight stuffed down our craws featuring fat, ancient French cruisers, blown up Polish Light-heavies, and general waifs and strays - someone need's to tell it how it is and describe their opponents for what they are.......oh wait a minute......

Plus under Captain Ad Allegedly channel have popped along and Sky now have gone from a domestic fight every week to a couple a month. But that's fine as Smith just makes every second fight a 'mouth watering domestic dust up'!!!!!!! Matty Hatton was made to look like a sparring partner, Frampton's opponent was a discrace and Hope saved the show by producing a career best performance as Proska gave a near career worst - which at least turned a miss-match in 99% of our eyes into a good fight (and let's be honest, when it was made we were not licking our lips!). Bellew has struggled to beat Ovil MacKenzie, looked dreadful against Bob Ajisaf (who didn't think he could win until he actually realised Bellew wasn't that good) and now has Danny MacIntosh who bar his win in France looked dreadful vs Guteknecht and Cleverly. Don't get me wrong, it's a good domestic fight, but when Smith talks about it you'd think it was Hagler/Hearns stuff.

To top it off he sits on Ringside every week (main televised boxing magazine show in the UK, which bar the fights themselves is the main advert for our sport and introduction to potential new viewers), perched on his stool, rubbing his paws together, wearing the kind of shirts the weakest link contestants were forced to wear and drooling over a selection of uncomfortable looking guests while snuggling up to big Johnny. It's like he's done his training on some US teleshopping channel! If mincing is your choice of production then your sorted, otherwise watching him licking the Klit's boots is somewhat uncomfortable.

Finally when given the chance to call fights he tries to lower his voice and growl during what he feels are dramatic moments, which sounds beyond creepy, and then feels at liberty to refer to hard working professionals as 'a lost little lamb' when they are trying to stem the flow of some ruddy Welsh lunatic whose knocking the living daylights out of them. Can't remember Buncey saying something quite so shocking myself.......

In fact that's not finally. What the hell is he doing with Ed Robinson, a serious talent, who Sky badly underuse. What the hell is Piper still doing on TV? Why the hell is Nelson their big investment? Why is Prizefighter (home of the novice and small hall pro) getting the arse burned out of it to the extent that the likes of Young Mutley (example off the top of my head) can perform dreadfully and then get invited back? Why can't Coldwell promote his own shows? Why is Sky's boxing budget being cut under his management? CAN HE NOT STOP SIMPERING!!!!!!!!!

And now for the defence............

That was a rant and a half!
I hope Adam Smith doesnt read this forum

I know!! I've maybe been a bit OTT with some things and by no means do I think Bunce is perfect. I just think there should be a little more evenhandness when discussing him on here and one or two of the quotes on here are bang out of order and I'd be very surprised if some of the posters whould say the exact same things to his face, however much they'd like to think they would.

Adam Smith has done many good things (production of Brook/Hatton, bringing back Bob Mee, taking a back step from commentary, etc) but he, like the rest of us, is far from perfect

You make some very good and interesting points.

However, I think there is some balance in Bunce discussions as you will see in this thread, where a number of posters have risen to his defence. That's great. I find Bunce annoying, irritating, and arrogant but it would become rather dull if we all thought that. I think the forums overall averaged-out view of Bunce would be one that finds him interesting, generally good for the sport, but short of the journalistic integrity he proclaims. Those who like him would largely understand why many don't, and vice-versa.

On the contrary, Adam Smith gets hammered frequently on here to the extent that I can find myself defending him. Much like you with Bunce, I don't think Smith is flawless by any means and I'm not a particular fan of his commentary. Its not actually because of any affinity with Smith why I defend him, its seeking the even-handed approach you refer to. Perhaps I'm more harsh judging Bunce because what seemed like a majority were so pro-Bunce... I now prefer Smiths Ringside to Bunces TV show - trust me big boy - and I wouldn't have believed that possible if you'd have told me that two years ago.

PS. Bunce changing the direction of the cap he was wearing the other night every time the camera changed was seriously bad. If Smith dons a baseball cap, sidewards, backwards, or any other direction, I promise to not defend him again.

[gasman]

Yeah, Fuzzjambo you make some good points though. Bringing back Bob Mee was actually a really good move by Smith, he has been very interesting to listen to when they have had him on Ringside and I have been reading some of the old back issues of Boxing News and the Bob Mee articles and reports - which has been really good reads.

It would be good if they got some of those other guys that used to write a lot for Boxing News i.e. Zeleny, Mark Butcher (in particular, he used to do some savage book reviews and really knows his stuff).

One of the things I will criticise Smith for is getting that obnoxious slob Dan Raphael on - I cant stand him. They should have got someone like Mike Marley or Kevin Iole, anyone but Dan.

[JamesH]

Yeah, Fuzzjambo you make some good points though. Bringing back Bob Mee was actually a really good move by Smith, he has been very interesting to listen to when they have had him on Ringside and I have been reading some of the old back issues of Boxing News and the Bob Mee articles and reports - which has been really good reads.

It would be good if they got some of those other guys that used to write a lot for Boxing News i.e. Zeleny, Mark Butcher (in particular, he used to do some savage book reviews and really knows his stuff).

One of the things I will criticise Smith for is getting that obnoxious slob Dan Raphael on - I cant stand him. They should have got someone like Mike Marley or Kevin Iole, anyone but Dan.

Bunce had Simon Day on a few weeks back. Nice bloke, I'm sure. By way of introduction, Bunce said he doesn't like to say hes just a boxing fan because it wouldn't come close to describing his interest/links to the sport. Five minutes later Day confirmed that he has never actually been to a boxing show.