veriton wrote:Metal Fingers wrote:veriton wrote:i liked the MPs piece on Johny Owen, thought it was a good read. The Eubank one was decent (still feel bad about going to watch the Jeter garbage), Lockett article was excellent but it had a really strange line in it about him not being passionate when he was a pro, yet he was one of the most exciting boxers around at that time. Etienne was a sad read but informative. rjj and di bella held the attention.
bunce and billy graham were pretty poor...bunce was just a run through of that amazing show in russia, no point reading it if you watched it all on tv as it didnt add ote. the billy graham piece is consistently poor and never says anothing of interest to me.
all in all another good issue, my subs renewal has come through and think im going to do two years this time. dont really want to be without it.
I wrote the Lockett article, Veriton, so thanks for the feedback. It was a reference to Gary’s first full BM piece as a trainer in which we discussed the build-up to Pavlick and the comments he made about the sport, particularly the fact he wasn’t obsessed with boxing and saw it first and foremost as a job. The fact he went into training raised a few eyebrows as these comments were widely publicised at the time, and were mentioned on here, so it was nothing to do with his in-ring exploits and all about his attitude to boxing when he was a pro.
On the other hand, he said he always had the “magic eye” so that it was inevitable he would make the transition to coaching. The purpose of the second piece was to build on the first one, I wrote that one too so was at pains not to be too repetitive.
Sorry you’re not into Preacher’s Corner. It gets a lot of love from fans, and unanimous praise within the trade so it’s here to stay unless Graham says otherwise. It was also praised by the legend known only as ‘Chris the sub’ so that’s good enough for me.
We did discuss the swearing issue again in relation to one poster asking what U.S. readers make of it all. Billy told me that when HBO came to film 24/7 a rather sheepish production person popped into the office at the end of the first day’s filming to ask why there wasn’t any swearing. They were all self-censoring that day only to find out that HBO wanted a natural, relaxed environment, effing and jeffing included.
lockett was one of my favourite fighters when he was boxing, he's a good talker on tv now and i always look forward to hearing what he has to say (though ive never met him in person). that article was superb, really enjoyed it and thought it was the best piece in there this month but that line did jar a bit. if it fitted in with the earlier piece fair enough, because it seemed at odds with his style as a fighter.
sorry, i just cant get into billy graham's column. bunce is excellent most of the time, though not this month, but graham just leaves me cold. why not have sanigar or someone like that doing it? i bet he's got a few stories to tell. still if lots of people love it then i guess its here to stay.
mind you it was offset by the social media piece being decent this month, a pleasant surprise. if you guys are taking orders how about jamie cox, erkan teper, olan duradola and mitchell smith in next month...
It was the link between the two. I have a copy of the first one if you want me to bob it over to you? It covers the end of his career and decision to go into training as well as the pre-Pavlick comments.
Beets, it actually pops up every time we’re going through the process (in the Kafka sense of the word) of putting it together. It usually goes as follows:
[Graham paces around his living room. He pets his dog, placates the cat, checks on the lizards and glances at the ferret encampment to make sure they’re OK before taking a drag on a cig and asking if we’re still talking about why pie and mash shops never quite took off here in Manchester]
Me: “We’ve moved on from the pie and mash stuff, Bill.”
Graham: “Right, Shaggy, I’m going to say ‘F*cking’ before that specific word because I’m proper aerated here and want the readers to know how annoyed I am about this so if the Internet, Twitter or BoxRec ask why it’s in there tell I’m I was proper f*cking annoyed by the whole thing. It’s a load of nonsense. In fact, have we already used ‘bollocks’ in this one? What will the Internet think?”
Whether you like or dislike the column, he really does see it as a chance to reach the fans and interact so hopefully some of that comes across. That and a load of ******* **** swearing. Next month’s column will introduce a new term into the British boxing lexicon.
