Adam Smith Commentary

[Jimmy2020]

Class ? Smith ? God preserve us..Maybe he’d make a good table waiter in a high-class restaurant ?
he’s obviously got the brain the size of a peanut, he’s thick as a plank, just look at his broadcasting decisions and the people he gets on board .. The overall boxing program quality of Sky has been driven into the ground.

A nothing man, a completely empty suit

If you want class, get Ian Darke back. But that’s not gonna happen with the dullard Smith in charge, as he’s given the f*cking job to himself.
And you can tell all those matchroom yes boys have zero respect for him and think he’s an absolute pillock. Although to be fair I think company Johnny likes him, unsurprisingly.
SUCH a GREAT guy !!!

Strong words, largely ill-informed. Smudger is popular in the bubble, highly intelligent and far from being an empty suit as you put it. Boxing obsessives are difficult to please.

[Jimmy2020]

...An absolute gift of a job for a man who entertained absolutely nobody and gives no insight whatsoever into a fight....

Nelson is always well turned out. Some of the ex-pros look like they have been dressed in the dark but Nelson is as smart as a carrot. He fills his seat well.

[Counter-puncher]

He’s fackin awful. The other day I was watching a fight on YouTube... can’t remember I think it had Richard Williams and Smith is commentating. I’m not saying he was good. But he was bearable. You could see a little theatre but not like today. No growls. No exaggerated words. It’s was bearable. Now!?

this is absolutely correct, if you watch a Sky fight from the earlier days and compare to now, Smith's 'mannerisms' have increased exponentially, and not to the benefit of the product (in my view). I actually kind of surprised myself thinking 'this is Adam Smith, and it isn't really annoying me, how things have changed'

the obvious root of it would seem to be exactly what Mickey pointed to, that he's wheeled out for the big fight/big occasions, and seems to think that his ever-widening range of 'mannerisms' is appropriate to those occasions, in fact somehow enhances them (I strongly suspect he thinks that is the case)

I kind of take Jimmy's point, which you're all (I think) missing, which is that Adam Smith's commentary, and style, are not intended for us lot.

my problem with Smith is that the 'casual' audience the Sky product is very clearly aimed at, would not in my opinion be any better-served or more 'hyped', by the current Smith 'mannerisms'. Which is to say he could fulfill every thing that Jimmy/Sky/the casual fans expect from him, without running off at the mouth uncontrollably all the time.

The mutation of his delivery and style over the years has added nothing for the casual, and quite possibly ill serves them (by distracting them with false/irrelevant/preconceived narratives when he'd do fine just, shocking concept here, describing what he sees in front of him).

[orbtastic]

Isn't that just symtomatic of doing anything for too long, you almost go into auto pilot and phone it in. He's almost become self parody, where he's doing an overhyped impression of someone doing an impression of Adam Smith commentating. In another 20 years it'll be infinite regression, an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture.

So 2040, the year when our commentator has regressed to the point of infinity.


Mr Bonds, l think time
can only be fully understood

by an observer with a godlike
gift of infinite regression.

Could you explain
''infinite regression'' for us?

- Roll the film.
- l came prepared to dojust that.

Now, here's a painting of a landscape.

Now, the artist who painted that picture
says ''Something is missing. What is it?''

''lt is l myselfwho was
part ofthe landscape l painted.''

So he mentally takes a step backward,

or regresses, and paints a picture ofthe
artist painting a picture ofthe landscape.

But still something is missing. That is
still his real self painting the second picture.

So he regresses further, and paints a third.

A picture ofthe artist painting a picture of
the artist painting a picture ofthe landscape.

And because something is still missing,
he paints a fourth and a fifth

until he paints a picture ofthe artist painting
a picture ofthe artist painting a picture

of the artist painting a picture
of the artist painting a landscape.

So infinite regression, then, is...

The moment when our artist has
regressed to the point of infinity

and is part ofthe landscape he painted,
and is both the observer and the observed.

ln that peculiar condition,
what would he be observing

[Jimmy2020]

Mannerisms

[Jimmy2020]

Isn't that just symtomatic of doing anything for too long, you almost go into auto pilot and phone it in. He's almost become self parody, where he's doing an overhyped impression of someone doing an impression of Adam Smith commentating. In another 20 years it'll be infinite regression, an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture of an artist painting a picture.

So 2040, the year when our commentator has regressed to the point of infinity.


Mr Bonds, l think time
can only be fully understood

by an observer with a godlike
gift of infinite regression.

Could you explain
''infinite regression'' for us?

- Roll the film.
- l came prepared to dojust that.

Now, here's a painting of a landscape.

Now, the artist who painted that picture
says ''Something is missing. What is it?''

''lt is l myselfwho was
part ofthe landscape l painted.''

So he mentally takes a step backward,

or regresses, and paints a picture ofthe
artist painting a picture ofthe landscape.

But still something is missing. That is
still his real self painting the second picture.

So he regresses further, and paints a third.

A picture ofthe artist painting a picture of
the artist painting a picture ofthe landscape.

And because something is still missing,
he paints a fourth and a fifth

until he paints a picture ofthe artist painting
a picture ofthe artist painting a picture

of the artist painting a picture
of the artist painting a landscape.

So infinite regression, then, is...

The moment when our artist has
regressed to the point of infinity

and is part ofthe landscape he painted,
and is both the observer and the observed.

ln that peculiar condition,
what would he be observing

That is deep, old boy.

[Counter-puncher]

Isn't that just symtomatic of doing anything for too long, you almost go into auto pilot and phone it in. He's almost become self parody, where he's doing an overhyped impression of someone doing an impression of Adam Smith commentating.

definitely true on the first bit, but there's also an element of buying-into-and-exacerbating-his-imagination's-most-fevered-conceptions-of-itself, type thing that goes on. you're dead right though, loads of them do it, media types with long tenure become self-parodies, that's just standard init. At work I doubtless do it myself when i launch into one or another recurring theme, dealt with by way of one or another bit of standard spiel.

[Counter-puncher]

Mannerisms

you know what I mean though? the addition of these 'mannerism' compared to his work 15 years ago is stark.

[Bard of Boxrec]

He’s not great but better than folks like Rawling and Big Ron.

[Fray Bentos]

I think Smith annoys people because it shows that the old glass ceiling is evident in boxing as it is in all corners of British society - Smith has got on with his plummy accent, connections, red brick schooling and everything else whereas more knowledgeable people who live and breathe boxing have those doors firmly shut in their faces because of how they sound or dress and they way they speak.

Smith obviously grew up not knowing a thing about boxing but all that can be learned and in a few years too. He probably now knows as much as any of us because you can read up and watch most of the fights on YouTube - it isn't a secretive, sacred covenant where he needs to prove himself to be 'real' he doesn't - it must grind if you want to do what he is doing but
when I read where he burst into tears at the back of some limo because Naz was bullying him - does anyone envy his position? fornicate that - fornicate hanging around Naz - I would rather bite my own testicles off than subject myself to that.

Still, he won't be the first nor will he be the last, by all accounts Paul Dempsey knew nothing and didn't even like boxing by all accounts and Gary Newbon screamed at a mate of mine to 'GET OUT OF THE fornicating WAY' when my mate was doing his skipping in front of the ITV cameras at a famous gym in Yorkshire when they were trying to film a segment... not many of these people are nice or 'real' boxing people.

[Counter-puncher]

Good points mate

[ShadrachSimmo]

I think Smith annoys people because it shows that the old glass ceiling is evident in boxing as it is in all corners of British society - Smith has got on with his plummy accent, connections, red brick schooling and everything else whereas more knowledgeable people who live and breathe boxing have those doors firmly shut in their faces because of how they sound or dress and they way they speak.

Smith obviously grew up not knowing a thing about boxing but all that can be learned and in a few years too. He probably now knows as much as any of us because you can read up and watch most of the fights on YouTube - it isn't a secretive, sacred covenant where he needs to prove himself to be 'real' he doesn't - it must grind if you want to do what he is doing but
when I read where he burst into tears at the back of some limo because Naz was bullying him - does anyone envy his position? fornicate that - fornicate hanging around Naz - I would rather bite my own testicles off than subject myself to that.

Still, he won't be the first nor will he be the last, by all accounts Paul Dempsey knew nothing and didn't even like boxing by all accounts and Gary Newbon screamed at a mate of mine to 'GET OUT OF THE fornicating WAY' when my mate was doing his skipping in front of the ITV cameras at a famous gym in Yorkshire when they were trying to film a segment... not many of these people are nice or 'real' boxing people.

Been said a few times, Alex Arthur is very good at calling fights and called them as he saw them and they weren’t long getting shot of him.

Its a dictatorship run by an absolute arseclown. It’s sad really. Would be so refreshing if he got to fck and they started afresh. They got shot of Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thompson etc...

[coneye]

Smith is in a great position , he has boxing people licking his ass , he has ex world champs and top trainers licking his ass , and because of them licking his ass he's in a position to listen to the ones he considers great , he does'nt have any practical knoledge , but he listens to what the guys who do, have to say , and over the years now considers himself an expert ,, now because he's an expert, but an expert without ant practical knoledge he talks shite , sometimes he'll sprout good stuff , but he's only repeating what he's heard .

Mostly he's just pushing for the next big thing to sell tickets or ppv

[Fray Bentos]

Smith is in a great position , he has boxing people licking his ass , he has ex world champs and top trainers licking his ass , and because of them licking his ass he's in a position to listen to the ones he considers great , he does'nt have any practical knoledge , but he listens to what the guys who do, have to say , and over the years now considers himself an expert ,, now because he's an expert, but an expert without ant practical knoledge he talks shite , sometimes he'll sprout good stuff , but he's only repeating what he's heard .

Mostly he's just pushing for the next big thing to sell tickets or ppv

Exactly.

To follow on from my mate being bawled out by Gary Newbon in this famous gym in Yorkshire. My mate was angry and he didn't take kindly to some fat, loud mouthed buffoon bawling him out like that in his gym and he was going to give it to him, until his manager and trainer who owned the gym talked him out of it because Newbon and the media clout he held was important to the gym and the profiles of his top fighters - and my mate had to let that one go because whatever we think of the likes of Adam Smith and Gary Newbon - they're important! There was nothing my mate could do about taking him to task.

Adam Smith - I have no doubt at all - has that same gravitas and profile amongst the movers and shakers of British boxing, they might all laugh behind his back but I bet none of them do it to his face. I bet he has even learned to box so he knows how to hook off the jab! Why wouldn't he learn what there is to learn, it is his job!

[Fray Bentos]

I think Smith annoys people because it shows that the old glass ceiling is evident in boxing as it is in all corners of British society - Smith has got on with his plummy accent, connections, red brick schooling and everything else whereas more knowledgeable people who live and breathe boxing have those doors firmly shut in their faces because of how they sound or dress and they way they speak.

Smith obviously grew up not knowing a thing about boxing but all that can be learned and in a few years too. He probably now knows as much as any of us because you can read up and watch most of the fights on YouTube - it isn't a secretive, sacred covenant where he needs to prove himself to be 'real' he doesn't - it must grind if you want to do what he is doing but
when I read where he burst into tears at the back of some limo because Naz was bullying him - does anyone envy his position? fornicate that - fornicate hanging around Naz - I would rather bite my own testicles off than subject myself to that.

Still, he won't be the first nor will he be the last, by all accounts Paul Dempsey knew nothing and didn't even like boxing by all accounts and Gary Newbon screamed at a mate of mine to 'GET OUT OF THE fornicating WAY' when my mate was doing his skipping in front of the ITV cameras at a famous gym in Yorkshire when they were trying to film a segment... not many of these people are nice or 'real' boxing people.

Been said a few times, Alex Arthur is very good at calling fights and called them as he saw them and they weren’t long getting shot of him.

Its a dictatorship run by an absolute arseclown. It’s sad really. Would be so refreshing if he got to fck and they started afresh. They got shot of Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thompson etc...

I don't think it is a Sky or even a British boxing or media problem - it is a problem with the culture and society in the UK where some halfwit who can blag with a posh accent can get far because of where (and who he was born to...) where he went to school and who he knows - just look who is leading the country...

Adam Smith (and Boris Johnson...) are just symptoms of a wider and bigger problem which is deep rooted in history.

[danconnollyeire]

Smith is in a great position , he has boxing people licking his ass , he has ex world champs and top trainers licking his ass , and because of them licking his ass he's in a position to listen to the ones he considers great , he does'nt have any practical knoledge , but he listens to what the guys who do, have to say , and over the years now considers himself an expert ,, now because he's an expert, but an expert without ant practical knoledge he talks shite , sometimes he'll sprout good stuff , but he's only repeating what he's heard .

Mostly he's just pushing for the next big thing to sell tickets or ppv

He shouldn't be spouting anything. He's Head of Boxing. He should be behind the scenes putting on fights. Leave the talking to professional sports casters and ex-fighters. It's really weird he's made himself a commentator

[margaret thatcher]

probably just an attention whore, wants to be famous

could just really enjoy it too i suppose? like a guy who grew up wanting to be a sports commentator or something

[margaret thatcher]

but he needs to start each broadcast by clarifying that in no way is his name a reference to any famous economic thinkers , who may or may not have been concerned with the wealth of nations

[mickey1975]

Wether we like it or not, he’s had a far greater insight into boxing right up to the top level than virtually anyone.

[margaret thatcher]

he has, to what happens outside of the ring for sure

[Coco]

Wether we like it or not, he’s had a far greater insight into boxing right up to the top level than virtually anyone.

But he still never gives us any indication that he jas any understanding of the sport.

[dookus]

Wether we like it or not, he’s had a far greater insight into boxing right up to the top level than virtually anyone.

And it seems to have been entirely wasted on him as a commentator!

[ScottDetonator]

As we look forward to a good night of boxing on Sky Sports, how many of the fights will Adam Smith ruin tonight??

On a plus note, Barry Jones and Alex Steedman were brilliant on the MTK show last night

[PredatorHayds]

Steedo is very very good.

Boxing, Horse Racing and podcasts he is unflappable and knowledgeable.

Also a very nice and likeable guy.

[Rezzer1967]

As we look forward to a good night of boxing on Sky Sports, how many of the fights will Adam Smith ruin tonight??

On a plus note, Barry Jones and Alex Steedman were brilliant on the MTK show last night

‘ His nickname is Pretty Boy but this doesn’t mean he endorses organised crime, extortion, prostitution and murder in 1930’s America. ‘