Adam Smith

[NazNaci1]

Annoying bloke. He genuinely gives me the creeps, especially when he stares directly into the camera. Weird guy.

He does have a weird, creepy look, I'd, personally, have to agree. Could not stand his 'growling' commentary, either.

Plus side, he is a genuine boxing fan and clearly, a bright guy. Just do not need to hear him droning on or shooting freaky glances at the camera.

[margaret thatcher]

there was a war recently between an irish kid as the home fighter and a mexican kid. real gruelling stuff, irish kid was dropped and given hell, but had enough moments outboxing the mexican to win a deserved 1 point decision . afterward he admitted it was brutal for him in there

pretty much all smith could focus on was how much of a masterclass it was from the irish kid and how he dominated outside a little blip in 1 round, and then expressed shock at how close the score was. hardly anything about it being an awesome fight. you never wouldve expected it was such banger listening to him.

he's a full blown cheerleader, great that he's healthy now and loves boxing, but cant stand commentators like him. only worse one in last decade or so in uk was nick haling

smithy tries too much to take control of the commentary and force a narrative. i know it's a standard thing for commentary to kiss some ass, but he really goes all in with it

[Deserter]

smithy tries too much to take control of the commentary and create a vision of it based on the outcomes he wants to see

Yep, as much as I'd like to see him do well now, that doesn't include getting back behind the mic and you've absolutely nailed it as to why he simply isn't good in that role. The best commentators do 2 things:
1. Resist the natural inclination towards confirmation bias.
2. Recognise the power of silience when appropriate.
Unfortunately he never developed either skill.

[TheLeprechaun]

smithy tries too much to take control of the commentary and create a vision of it based on the outcomes he wants to see

Yep, as much as I'd like to see him do well now, that doesn't include getting back behind the mic and you've absolutely nailed it as to why he simply isn't good in that role. The best commentators do 2 things:
1. Resist the natural inclination towards confirmation bias.
2. Recognise the power of silience when appropriate.
Unfortunately he never developed either skill.

There are rare moments where open bias is ok e.g "Get in there Frank!!"

[JamesPhilips]

smithy tries too much to take control of the commentary and create a vision of it based on the outcomes he wants to see

Yep, as much as I'd like to see him do well now, that doesn't include getting back behind the mic and you've absolutely nailed it as to why he simply isn't good in that role. The best commentators do 2 things:
1. Resist the natural inclination towards confirmation bias.
2. Recognise the power of silience when appropriate.
Unfortunately he never developed either skill.

There are rare moments where open bias is ok e.g "Get in there Frank!!"

Yes. This had soul

[MightyWarrior]

Absolute bonehead - good news he’s on the radio, cause you can turn the bastard off and watch TV instead, without him ruining it, thank God

Great guy though

[Coco]

We are regularly told he is a nice guy who loves boxing

Never accused of doing a good job though

[Fray Bentos]

smithy tries too much to take control of the commentary and create a vision of it based on the outcomes he wants to see

Yep, as much as I'd like to see him do well now, that doesn't include getting back behind the mic and you've absolutely nailed it as to why he simply isn't good in that role. The best commentators do 2 things:
1. Resist the natural inclination towards confirmation bias.
2. Recognise the power of silience when appropriate.
Unfortunately he never developed either skill.

Based on those two qualities, Steve Holdsworth is amazing.

[Fray Bentos]

smithy tries too much to take control of the commentary and create a vision of it based on the outcomes he wants to see

Yep, as much as I'd like to see him do well now, that doesn't include getting back behind the mic and you've absolutely nailed it as to why he simply isn't good in that role. The best commentators do 2 things:
1. Resist the natural inclination towards confirmation bias.
2. Recognise the power of silience when appropriate.
Unfortunately he never developed either skill.

There are rare moments where open bias is ok e.g "Get in there Frank!!"

It was part of a very charming and very public double act - they were friends and in one of the few times in over forty years 'arry swept aside his neutrality because he wanted his friend to win - which melted the nation at the time.

Adam Smith is just a company man - he will support the fighters of the company who pays him and sponsors them.

[Coco]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

[Fray Bentos]

We are regularly told he is a nice guy who loves boxing

Never accused of doing a good job though

As a commentator he is forgettable, not particularly 'bad' but if you have grown up with 'arry, Reg, Jim and one or two others like we have - then Adam Smith will never ever cut it with us

[TheLeprechaun]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

100%.

The bloke had to slave away on Eurosport cards.

[Giancarlo]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

I remember him from way back when he used to film small hall shows and advertise them for sale in the classifieds in Boxing News.

I bought some cracking fights from him.

The very earliest ones were without commentary, just crowd noise but still great and they had plenty of atmosphere in some of those now forgotten venues like the Merton Civic Hall, Croydon, The Baths, Dulwich and many more.

After a while he started to commentate on them and you could tell he was a natural. Good voice and an insiders understanding of what was happening and/or likely to happen. As someone has also mentioned he knew the value of silence and would often let the action speak for itself.

Then he got on Eurosport and he'd pop up almost every week in some 'exotic' spot in continental Europe. He must have had bags of stamina, from his boxing training maybe, as he still got around the UK filming shows too.

Not sure why he was never picked up by the bigger companies. Maybe he was happy doing it his own way.

Is he still around? He'd be a fantastic addition to this forum.

[Coco]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

I remember him from way back when he used to film small hall shows and advertise them for sale in the classifieds in Boxing News.

I bought some cracking fights from him.

The very earliest ones were without commentary, just crowd noise but still great and they had plenty of atmosphere in some of those now forgotten venues like the Merton Civic Hall, Croydon, The Baths, Dulwich and many more.

After a while he started to commentate on them and you could tell he was a natural. Good voice and an insiders understanding of what was happening and/or likely to happen. As someone has also mentioned he knew the value of silence and would often let the action speak for itself.

Then he got on Eurosport and he'd pop up almost every week in some 'exotic' spot in continental Europe. He must have had bags of stamina, from his boxing training maybe, as he still got around the UK filming shows too.

Not sure why he was never picked up by the bigger companies. Maybe he was happy doing it his own way.

Is he still around? He'd be a fantastic addition to this forum.

Too honest to be picked up, I don't think he was there for all of the events, doing a bit of live feed I think.
But yeah a guy who has been there and got the tee shirt which would probably make him unpopular on the forum!

[NazNaci1]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

I think I have mentioned this before, on one particular Eurosport card (in Germany), you could email him, during the broadcast and he would read out and reply, on air.

This was at the height of Hatton's WBU reign and I emailed him and said I thought 'Allegedly' was, as is his want, mugging off the fans, putting poor opponents, often old, worn and coming up in weight, to fight and pad Hatton's WBU legacy......he replied, but rather than read my question out, for obvious reasons, just said, 'Yes, Naz, from London. I couldn't agree more'.

It was a classy touch and felt good, responding and agreeing with me, but of course, the thousands of listeners had no idea what the question was. Still, I didn't care.

Quality commentator and straight up guy.

[margaret thatcher]

[SeanBrennan]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

I think I have mentioned this before, on one particular Eurosport card (in Germany), you could email him, during the broadcast and he would read out and reply, on air.

This was at the height of Hatton's WBU reign and I emailed him and said I thought 'Allegedly' was, as is his want, mugging off the fans, putting poor opponents, often old, worn and coming up in weight, to fight and pad Hatton's WBU legacy......he replied, but rather than read my question out, for obvious reasons, just said, 'Yes, Naz, from London. I couldn't agree more'.

It was a classy touch and felt good, responding and agreeing with me, but of course, the thousands of listeners had no idea what the question was. Still, I didn't care.

Quality commentator and straight up guy.

that's brilliant!

[Deserter]

Steve Holdsworth never got taken on, on the bigger channels because he was too honest

Good bloke is Steve

I think I have mentioned this before, on one particular Eurosport card (in Germany), you could email him, during the broadcast and he would read out and reply, on air.

This was at the height of Hatton's WBU reign and I emailed him and said I thought 'Allegedly' was, as is his want, mugging off the fans, putting poor opponents, often old, worn and coming up in weight, to fight and pad Hatton's WBU legacy......he replied, but rather than read my question out, for obvious reasons, just said, 'Yes, Naz, from London. I couldn't agree more'.

It was a classy touch and felt good, responding and agreeing with me, but of course, the thousands of listeners had no idea what the question was. Still, I didn't care.

Quality commentator and straight up guy.

that's brilliant!

x2

[MightyWarrior]

When boxing monthly launched, Steve Holdsworth was the advertising manager. He got a lot of ads in and I think the power went to his head, I can’t remember the exact details, but it all went tits up and he was fired before issue two.
Like a dumbass I took on the job, went in first day to find Steve had allegedly freaked out and smashed the place up

I was thinking f**k me what have I walked into here?!
It didn’t start well, it didn’t end well …I was fired 6 months later .

[Coco]

When boxing monthly launched, Steve Holdsworth was the advertising manager. He got a lot of ads in and I think the power went to his head, I can’t remember the exact details, but it all went tits up and he was fired before issue two.
Like a dumbass I took on the job, went in first day to find Steve had allegedly freaked out and smashed the place up

I was thinking f**k me what have I walked into here?!
It didn’t start well, it didn’t end well …I was fired 6 months later .

Sounds like boxing monthly was the problem?

[MightyWarrior]

You could say that, though getting advertisers in for boxing was a tough one, the red light district of the sport etc . The editorial team and writers were excellent ( lots of old boxing news faces like Steve and Tony Connolly, I think Barry Hugman was the catalyst behind it ) but the MD was a Notting Hill guy called Ed Crawshaw, who had absolutely no interest in boxing at all, outside of making some dough. One of the interns there at the time was a goofy young kid called Spencer Fearon.

Once Crawshaw bailed, Glynn leach took over and really made it his own, god bless him

[Flump]

I think I have mentioned this before, on one particular Eurosport card (in Germany), you could email him, during the broadcast and he would read out and reply, on air.

This was at the height of Hatton's WBU reign and I emailed him and said I thought 'Allegedly' was, as is his want, mugging off the fans, putting poor opponents, often old, worn and coming up in weight, to fight and pad Hatton's WBU legacy......he replied, but rather than read my question out, for obvious reasons, just said, 'Yes, Naz, from London. I couldn't agree more'.

It was a classy touch and felt good, responding and agreeing with me, but of course, the thousands of listeners had no idea what the question was. Still, I didn't care.

Quality commentator and straight up guy.

that's brilliant!

x2

The one time he was on Sky, and this is from a near 30 year ago memory, he was commentating on Bugner v Welch with Nicky Piper. I think his opening line was something along the lines of "This is for the WBO Penta Continental title, I'm not sure exactly what that is Nicky?" Piper replied with something like "Nothing title, created for television". Never saw them together again, sadly.

[nobleart1978]

Steve Holdsworth was a good commentator. I enjoyed listening to him. On the subject of BM, I liked it when it first came out with Barry Hugman as editor.

Back to the forum though, Adam " The Weirdo" Smith should NEVER, EVER be mentioned in the same breath as Harry Carpenter, Reg Gutteridge or, don't forget, Des Lynam, who used to do the radio commentary on Radio 2 with Our Enery doing the inter-rounds back in the day.

[SeanBrennan]

Steve Holdsworth was a good commentator. I enjoyed listening to him. On the subject of BM, I liked it when it first came out with Barry Hugman as editor.

Back to the forum though, Adam " The Weirdo" Smith should NEVER, EVER be mentioned in the same breath as Harry Carpenter, Reg Gutteridge or, don't forget, Des Lynam, who used to do the radio commentary on Radio 2 with Our Enery doing the inter-rounds back in the day.

I don't thin it's fair to call him a weirdo. That's just an immature slur. He is nice to everyone, loves the sport and has lots of knowledge and has battled cancer with more dignity than someone lobbing insults on a forum on a Friday will ever. Shame on you. The first 3 letters of your forum name are decidedly accurate.

[CaptainSpacerod]

That’s a bit harsh Sean

I’m sure noble wasn’t being malicious and tbf Smith does have a reputation on these pages as being a bit of a nerd a geek a weirdo whatever, they’re just little throwaway remarks that describe his very bookish style of commentary / punditry

Everybody respects Adam for the way he’s bravely battled cancer but that doesn’t mean people can’t critique his work using some pretty blunt terms and I’m sure Adam himself wouldn’t want or need to be treated with kid gloves