Jim Watt...a Liar or Incompetent?

[thepocketrocket]

I was watching the fight last night on a Polish channel and had Groves handily up due to the quality of work (although always a sense Froch had the ability to wipe him out)

Sky scorecard comes on and Watt has been stroking Froch off apparently, with gushing commentary. Today Jim Watt's commentary was seemingly so bad that he is trending on Twitter.

So was Jim sticking to the Matchroom script, or can't he call a fight?

BTW, I'm not denigrating what he did as a fighter...brilliant boxer!

[n1ebf]

I was watching the fight last night on a Polish channel and had Groves handily up due to the quality of work (although always a sense Froch had the ability to wipe him out)

Sky scorecard comes on and Watt has been stroking Froch off apparently, with gushing commentary. Today Jim Watt's commentary was seemingly so bad that he is trending on Twitter.

So was Jim sticking to the Matchroom script, or can't he call a fight?

BTW, I'm not denigrating what he did as a fighter...brilliant boxer!

nice disclaimer..I like Watt but if he really had Froch 5 or 6-1 up then that's bullsh*t. What can you do tho?? Froch had the ring centre - does that even mean much? But not much was happening. Froch was wary of getting walloped and Groves - who I thought looked confident - looked wary of running out of gas. Although Froch was always in the centre and Groves tended to be on the outside, I was expecting/ hoping that Groves was gonna step it up and start getting to him in the later rounds. It was a nice punch btw that finished it, but Groves' lack of top level experience counted against him I though. His left hand needed to be higher imo.

[thepocketrocket]

I was watching the fight last night on a Polish channel and had Groves handily up due to the quality of work (although always a sense Froch had the ability to wipe him out)

Sky scorecard comes on and Watt has been stroking Froch off apparently, with gushing commentary. Today Jim Watt's commentary was seemingly so bad that he is trending on Twitter.

So was Jim sticking to the Matchroom script, or can't he call a fight?

BTW, I'm not denigrating what he did as a fighter...brilliant boxer!

nice disclaimer..I like Watt but if he really had Froch 5 or 6-1 up then that's bullsh*t. What can you do tho?? Froch had the ring centre - does that even mean much? But not much was happening. Froch was wary of getting walloped and Groves - who I thought looked confident - looked wary of running out of gas. Although Froch was always in the centre and Groves tended to be on the outside, I was expecting/ hoping that Groves was gonna step it up and start getting to him in the later rounds. It was a nice punch btw that finished it, but Groves' lack of top level experience counted against him I though. His left hand needed to be higher imo.

LOL. I always find it hard to say a world champ is talking out of his ass....just think fighting and reading a fight are two diffferent things.

The fight itself was a bt anti climactic bar the KO. Groves was wary of gassing, but in 1,2,3,4 and 7 landed nice right hands that trumped anything Carl did. Though conversly, you always felt the end was inevitable as Carl worried him every time he attacked (in five and six)

Concentration is the key, and you can never switch off against Carl.

It is time for Groves to take some time off, get back with Booth, have a tune up and tale AA's title off him! Maybe it was too early. But he comes back stronger, and that defeat wasn't damaging

[n1ebf]

I agree about fighting and scoring a fight being different things. That was tough to score. I didn't think Froch had that kind of shot in his locker. Barring the uppercut against Brian Magee and a fight I saw years ago against Damon Hague, who looked finished, I didn't think Froch had that, he more fluid than he looks at times! I noticed when he was sparring on tele the other day too that he was a bit quicker than I'd realised.
Groves can surely come back. He's made a packet there as well hopefully!
Will James Degale now try to get a shot at Froch, or will Froch retire? (I can't see that happening btw but I reckon he should go out on that win!)

[thepocketrocket]

I agree about fighting and scoring a fight being different things. That was tough to score. I didn't think Froch had that kind of shot in his locker. Barring the uppercut against Brian Magee and a fight I saw years ago against Damon Hague, who looked finished, I didn't think Froch had that, he more fluid than he looks at times! I noticed when he was sparring on tele the other day too that he was a bit quicker than I'd realised.
Groves can surely come back. He's made a packet there as well hopefully!
Will James Degale now try to get a shot at Froch, or will Froch retire? (I can't see that happening btw but I reckon he should go out on that win!)

I think there is more chance of me fighting Froch that him facing Degale in 120 days! That title is becoming vacant.

It will be Chavez jnr...Big money, probable win. Wouldn't want to see him in with GGG as he would get hurt, and Ward just outboxes him

[davie]

5 and 6 were froch rounds, 7 was groves and i had him agead in 8 as well before he collapsed.

Its the first 4 where we differ. Watt had froch 3-1 up, where as i had groves 3-1 up.
But they were very close rounds with very little happening.

I'm not knocking watt too much for this scoring

[gazza8]

Past it

Stuck in a time warp and actually embarrassing now, great broadcast and production by sky with the exception of the commentary team

i was glad when Amir Khan showed them up by contradicting

[Monte Fisto]

Just watched it back on tele. Matchroon script definately. Quite the opposite of the first fight mind

[roy]

I usually think that Jim Watt reads a fight pretty well but,last night, he was appalling. He seemed to make up his mind how the fight was going after the first few seconds and stuck to it, regardless of what was actually happening in the ring. Let's face it, the fight didn't start until round 5. Everything before then was just a feeling out process and you could hardly separate them.

[liamlion]

I usually think that Jim Watt reads a fight pretty well but,last night, he was appalling. He seemed to make up his mind how the fight was going after the first few seconds and stuck to it, regardless of what was actually happening in the ring. Let's face it, the fight didn't start until round 5. Everything before then was just a feeling out process and you could hardly separate them.

Unfortunately, what you have described is quite a common trait of Watt's commentary for quite a few years now. It is very, very frustrating.

[davie]

I usually think that Jim Watt reads a fight pretty well but,last night, he was appalling. He seemed to make up his mind how the fight was going after the first few seconds and stuck to it, regardless of what was actually happening in the ring. Let's face it, the fight didn't start until round 5. Everything before then was just a feeling out process and you could hardly separate them.

Unfortunately, what you have described is quite a common trait of Watt's commentary for quite a few years now. It is very, very frustrating.

Exactly what i thought when i read that

[lefty]

Im guessing everyone was forgetting how biased Watt's commentary was towards Groves's in the first fight. Groves was bossing Carl for the majority in the first fight but Watt still ignored every little bit of success Carl had.

[liamlion]

Im guessing everyone was forgetting how biased Watt's commentary was towards Groves's in the first fight. Groves was bossing Carl for the majority in the first fight but Watt still ignored every little bit of success Carl had.

What success did Carl exactly have in the first fight?

[lefty]

So im guessing George had to black eyes and a swollen face from phantom punches.

[liamlion]

So im guessing George had to black eyes and a swollen face from phantom punches.

Do you mean two?

[lefty]

So im guessing George had to black eyes and a swollen face from phantom punches.

Do you mean two?

Yes I did. Just like you meant Andre Ward and not Andrew Ward

[liamlion]

So im guessing George had to black eyes and a swollen face from phantom punches.

Do you mean two?

Yes I did. Just like you meant Andre Ward and not Andrew Ward

ive hooked a big one....

[stujones]

PocketRocket.... I think this fight was open to interpretation. I think I scored it a bit like you. I have Groves two up at the time of stoppage (and moving on to being 3 up). However, when Ed Robinson spoke to Khan (who had Groves well up) he had to double check that Khan didn't have the names mixed up - so obviously Ed Robinson was scoring it similar to Watt.

Either that or both Watt and Robinson were sticking to the script and Ed was shocked when Khan didn't follow.

[thepocketrocket]

PocketRocket.... I think this fight was open to interpretation. I think I scored it a bit like you. I have Groves two up at the time of stoppage (and moving on to being 3 up). However, when Ed Robinson spoke to Khan (who had Groves well up) he had to double check that Khan didn't have the names mixed up - so obviously Ed Robinson was scoring it similar to Watt.

Either that or both Watt and Robinson were sticking to the script and Ed was shocked when Khan didn't follow.

Does anyone know the official scores yet Stu?

[stujones]

Now I completely disagreed with Watt this time (one of the few times I have) but agreed with his commentary for fight 1. However, what I hope people can see looking at this fight was how important Froch's jab with authority was to how to beat Groves and why it was such an important point to Froch's showing (and Groves' showing) in fight 1.... and how Watt was right to repeat this issue during fight 1.

Froch's jab was key to Groves kind of fighting between two styles.

[ttornado]

Didn't hear the scores but 2 for Froch, 1 for Groves

[Yes We Can]

PocketRocket.... I think this fight was open to interpretation. I think I scored it a bit like you. I have Groves two up at the time of stoppage (and moving on to being 3 up). However, when Ed Robinson spoke to Khan (who had Groves well up) he had to double check that Khan didn't have the names mixed up - so obviously Ed Robinson was scoring it similar to Watt.

Either that or both Watt and Robinson were sticking to the script and Ed was shocked when Khan didn't follow.

I was more shocked at Khans ability to read what was happening. He strikes me as an excellent talent with very little ring IQ.

Watt was garbage, and utterly derailed Paulie's insight countless times.

On a side note, Although i had Groves winning, It did appear that Froch was in control of the situation at hand most of the time.

[stujones]

up until the main even I liked the combination of the Hawling, Malignaggi and Watt.... I thought adding Malignaggi to the mix shut up Hawling more.

Normally love Watt, thought he had it wrong in the main event (as did Malignaggi).... the one gripe I had in the Undercard was Hawling kept referring to the Gonzales KD as a justification for Gray to stop the fight. Yes, bad KD - but Gonzalez had recovered and it needed Watt to state to Hawling - yes, but this isn't when he stopped the fight.

I know most thought it was a better stoppage than Groves vs Froch 1, I am in the minority and disagree.... at the time of the stoppage Gonzales's head and legs were okay. Yes he went down and yes he was hurt for a more sustained period, but at the time he was even slipping and getting out of the way of Degales shots.

The Mitchell stoppage was boderline, but accetpable. Degale stoppage was piss poor.

[Monte Fisto]

I usually think that Jim Watt reads a fight pretty well but,last night, he was appalling. He seemed to make up his mind how the fight was going after the first few seconds and stuck to it, regardless of what was actually happening in the ring. Let's face it, the fight didn't start until round 5. Everything before then was just a feeling out process and you could hardly separate them.

So true i didnt guve a round to anyone till 5

[liamlion]

So im guessing George had to black eyes and a swollen face from phantom punches.

But on a serious note, I genuinely don't remember any real success for Froch in the first fight apart from the last 10 seconds of the fight, when nothing of particular signifance landed. Groves did have bruising to his eyes but I don't remember any swelling. In fact, it was Froch who looked like the elephant man after the first fight as a result of swelling to the face.

See 3mins 10sec into this video for an explanation from Carl Froch as to how easy it is to get marked up in a fight. This may answer your question for you.
http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/9 ... d-by-vegas