Was anyone actually inpressed with Flintoff?

[Mimmy]

Having watched the 3 episodes from start to finish and the fight was anyone impressed with the whole saga?

My impressions.

Anyone who gets into the ring deserves some credit. Freddie went from cricketer to boxer in 8 months. His whole attitude was positive and you have to give him credit for that and the whole exercise and training routine was done 100%. He fought better in the mock 4 rounder in Belfast and had possibly a better opponent there too. He had good skills in the mock fight and showed he could make combos and had good balance and skill for a guy who has not had any amateur experience what so ever.

The fight, well Freddie went in gung ho, all his training went out of the window but that was just adrenaline that went into overdrive and he experienced the 'fight or flight' that all us humans have. Yes the American was just a novice too and didn't show any interest in following up on the knock down, unlike most boxers.

My judgement was before I saw the mock fight that Freddie was purely out of class and could not box for toffee, but seeing the mock fight changed my mind. I thought Freddie was a good novice and if he could fight like that in his fight he would not have got any critism that he got from the likes of Maloney etc etc.

Freddie will not make it in the pro ranks im sure we all agree on that, but he properly knows that too, and im sure a guy like Barry mcGuigan knows that too and would not press Freddie to have another bout. I'm sure we will not see him have another fight but at the end of the day he's done what most of us boxings fans will not get the chanc eto do is lace up and stand toe to toe.

I nearly had the chance in 1987 with john Rushton but didn't have the commitment, I will always regret that. Freddie lived his dream and you have to applaud him for that.

Incidentally, where does that fight put him in the British heavyweight rankings?

[Adamj1987]

27th out of 35 according to boxrec

[jameswilson]

I think it would be quite intriguing to see how much he could improve with another 12 weeks of training. He wouldn't need to concentrate as much on getting the weight off of him, and thus could concentrate on his tequnique, and possibly instead of having a 4x2 have a proper 4x3 fight. It's odd that despite looking attrocious I am still intrigued to see how much a rank novice can improve in a period of time.

[Final round]

It terms of his boxing, no not at all.
I was impressed with his willingness to have a go though.

[keithmoonhangover]

27th out of 35 according to boxrec

Surely he deserves a ranking as much as anyone else Adam?

[Adamj1987]

27th out of 35 according to boxrec

Surely he deserves a ranking as much as anyone else Adam?

I didn't say he didn't deserve one

[hurlock]

Impressed with his commitment,determination & the shape he was in.

Pretty remarkable for a novice to have his first fight ever as a professional & on such a big show!!
He has to far to go & he would be waiting his time I hope he bows out undefeated.

I take my hat off to him

[keithmoonhangover]

27th out of 35 according to boxrec

Surely he deserves a ranking as much as anyone else Adam?

I didn't say he didn't deserve one

Where would you put him?

[Wales]

I was a massive skeptic pre-fight, not seen the fight, only snippets and he looked like a novice amateur, as expected. Impressed with his determination, heart, will to win. Interested to see his next move. Pre foght mcguigan saying "hes a serious fighter, this isnt a gimmick" post fight mcguigan says "i hope thats it for freddy"

[King Tubby]

Do many boxers go through that many tests to have a gumshield fitted? I thought it was a pretty straightforward thing, bite on a mould and the Dentist makes it, that's if they don't just buy off the shelf.

[Goz]

Goz thought the main "raw" thing with Freddie was how he continually smothered his own work. As soon as he landed a shot of any kind he was straight on the guy's chest giving himself no opportunity to follow up any good work he may have done. His jab was decent enough, footwork/stance/balance poor.

He will get brutally knocked out at anything above that level.

[chad]

Impressed with his commitment,determination & the shape he was in.

Pretty remarkable for a novice to have his first fight ever as a professional & on such a big show!!
He has to far to go & he would be waiting his time I hope he bows out undefeated.

I take my hat off to him

My feelings too. His technique wasn't great but the heart and dedication was there.

There won't be too many fighters who make their professional debut in front of 6000 fans. Especially 6000 fans who have specifically bought tickets to watch their debut, and not some other big fight on the card.

[Wales]

Impressed with his commitment,determination & the shape he was in.

Pretty remarkable for a novice to have his first fight ever as a professional & on such a big show!!
He has to far to go & he would be waiting his time I hope he bows out undefeated.

I take my hat off to him

My feelings too. His technique wasn't great but the heart and dedication was there.

There won't be too many fighters who make their professional debut in front of 6000 fans. Especially 6000 fans who have specifically bought tickets to watch their debut, and not some other big fight on the card.

Cant think of one chad. Not khan or audley even, they didnt headline.

[banjo]

As already said, fair play to him getting in there.

Too slappy with his punches though.

[danconnollyeire]

I was impressed with his attitude

But after two months of boxing I knew when sparring to throw a jab, very straight right and step inside and hook the body. Not windmill uncontrollably

[The 1bangkid]

I was impressed with his attitude

But after two months of boxing I knew when sparring to throw a jab, very straight right and step inside and hook the body. Not windmill uncontrollably

[jessi]

No

[Jeff Thomas]

I don't get the thought behind the training. I'm not saying it was wrong - I just don't get what they were doing...

So he did allegedly only had seven weeks training...

This video is from 2009 and says Week 4, which obviously indicates he's done three prior weeks three years ago. He looks practically identical stylistically.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWp2CUka5w

I don't understand why he had such a protein rich diet- avoiding carbs? Why was it nessacarily to lose the weight? He's a heavyweight. He'd have being better served having a good balanced diet and gaining functional mass not just shrinking himself like he did. He almost certainly didn't stick to the diet to only lose that weight.

He's done three years boxing but wasn't throwing the left hook properly? Why didn't they allow him longer then seven weeks? What was the time issue? Why not get him to nail the basics which I promise you are learnable by ANYONE.

Why the emphasis on weight loss? Why weigh at the end of sessions when the fighter is dehydrated?

On one of the shows he gets hammered in sparring. So they give him some time off to do some weights. Why not conditioned sparring? Why not do tech work in the morning and fitness in the afternoon?

I know how meticulous Barry Mcguigan is about everything so I'm a bit confused as to why things seemed so hashed - perhaps there was a lot more going on behind the scenes.

[JLP]

People thought he looked better in the painstakingly edited documentary footage build from the fragments of hundreds of hours of tape than he did in the unedited eight minute fight. Funny that.

He's grafting to earn a living. That doesn't impress me any more than it does when anyone else grafts to make a living, whatever they do.

[maley1984]

27th out of 35 according to boxrec

Surely he deserves a ranking as much as anyone else Adam?

I didn't say he didn't deserve one

some of their rankings r a joke how can a fighter 1(1)-0 be ranked above 11(2)-1 fighter

[Adamj1987]

Where would you put him?

About there but id rate a few cruiser above him, if they moved up or the ones that float between 14-15 stone

[Superheavy]

I was impressed with his attitude

But after two months of boxing I knew when sparring to throw a jab, very straight right and step inside and hook the body. Not windmill uncontrollably

In front of 6000 people? I don't think so.

[Jeff Thomas]

Where would you put him?

About there but id rate a few cruiser above him, if they moved up or the ones that float between 14-15 stone

I wouldn't - he is without doubt the worst heavyweight in the country and that was either a carry job or his opponent was mentally ill.

[keithmoonhangover]

I was impressed with his attitude

But after two months of boxing I knew when sparring to throw a jab, very straight right and step inside and hook the body. Not windmill uncontrollably

In front of 6000 people? I don't think so.

Training and tactics can go out of the window when the bell rings or whistle blows.

[chad]

I was impressed with his attitude

But after two months of boxing I knew when sparring to throw a jab, very straight right and step inside and hook the body. Not windmill uncontrollably

In front of 6000 people? I don't think so.

http://news.boxrec.com/news/2012/celebr ... e-flintoff

"He rose, rallied in the next two scrappy rounds, raised his hands to huge applause from approximately 6,000 fans."

http://boxingnewsonline.net/view-Articl ... cleID=2197

"The crowd of approximately 6000 erupted as they witnessed a former England cricket captain march purposefully to the ring."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/de ... ard-dawson

"It was pretty much the only punch thrown all night by the American, who looked bemused by a raucous and beer-sodden 6,000 Manchester crowd."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing ... dings.html

"Flintoff recovered from a second-round knockdown to win a points verdict over Dawson in front of 6,000 fans in Manchester last week."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/fr ... ng-1466433

"The 6,000-strong crowd, including Freddie’s comedian pals John Bishop and Jack Whitehall and former cricketer Darren Gough, erupted with delight at the decision."

Unless anyone can provide proof, from a more reliable source than the above that it wasn't 6000 in attendance, I'm happy to believe Freddie drew 6000.