steve bunce a joke

[stujones]

I just wish Johnny would sort out the physical tick, that makes him swing his microphone lead over his knee as though he's about to belt out "It started with a kiss, never though it would come to this"

Yeah, thats funny - and he doesn't seem quite to know what to do when Dave Clarke has a segment to say - so he looks into the camera as if he is about to sing "The first, the last, my everything".

[Autobarn]

I don't want to deride Bunce. He gets on the TV, he gets articles published in mags and papers. Usually his work in both is good and energetic.

But it's clear a lot of ppl are upset with the Setanta preview/post fight. It wasn't Bunce's fault that Enzo Macca-Nannied was put on the show, a bad idea from the first.

However...

Looking at some of the economics is useful. I don't want to question Buce's integirty. Don't want ppl to take this the wrong way, especially Bunce who can be the most entertaining guy on the box. But it's possible David Haye lost him a fair amount of work, because with Haye losing to Thompson & with Aud's lack of progress, the BBC gave up on boxing. Whereas Warren getting a multi-fight contract with Setanta has got Bunce some fairly regular pundit/presenting work...and now he's very kind to the "house" fighters.

[stujones]

I rated Claud Abrams when he was on BBC. He was a stoic and informed counterpoint to Bunce's 'shouting tomato' persona.

Yep, I liked Abrams also.

[n1ebf]

The "joke" is that Robin Reid has just retired (so would say he did that a couple yr ago , just kidding honest) and he has amassed TEN posts on his thread.
Carl Froch currently has THIRTY posts on his "world class ?" thread.............I believe Mr Mailer has somewhere similar.....and yet BDB has a whopping SIXTY posts on his! Now that IS funny.

I didn't check how many were complimentary tho

I'll add mine when I can summon the correct words (if they exist) to describe Buncey's style, but for now I'm just enjoying reading the thread

[n1ebf]

I've always rated Woodhall personally, from the off. Just think he gives good analysis and doesn't flail his arms wildly about.
Also like Watt who seems to really tic some people off - the thread from a few weeks ago on worst pundits had some hilarious comments about him.
don't suppose there are all that many to choose from recently........what does that say about some of the rest of them??

[oliverfennell]

I suppose if Bunce is a joke the punchline is that he gets paid for his contributions whereas we moan about him for nada.

As Ben Carey said, Bunce has put in the legwork to get where he is today, and he's here on merit.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Bunce has many fine qualities, but part of the problem is that he has a large persona, and is very loquacious, so he tends to drown out everyone else in the studio.

They need another strong personality with a different tone. Someone like McGuigan or Watt for instance, who are not exactly shy, and both of whom would not be adverse to arguing with bunce.

Someone needs to give me a ring, I'll give old Buncey a run for his money in the volume and verbosity stakes.

[chesh]

Right, here we go lads. See if you can do your top five/ten/whatever of UK boxing pundits. By this, I don't mean lead commentators - I mean colour/analysis men. I will have forgotten some so please feel free to include your own.

Runners and riders:

Steve Bunce
Jim Watt
Johnny Nelson
Nicky Piper
Duke McKenzie
Barry McGuigan
Bob Mee
Glenn McCrory

Include no more than a few brief words for each explaining your choice.

Steve Bunce - knows his stuff, thinks on his feet, no "dead air" (e.g. he filled the void when Setanta lost the Barrera-Pac 2 feed)

Jim Watt - the best - articulate, concise, no bull

Johnny Nelson - good, getting better, slight tendency to sulk when anyone disagrees with him

Nicky Piper - nice guy, but a little dull and only regular ex-boxer pundit not to have won a world title. Must be his Mensa credentials that got him the job!

Duke McKenzie - can't help but like him, but some of the cr*p he spouts would make you think he'd never set foot inside a boxing ring, let alone been a world champ. Perhaps we should produce a book between us - or at least a thread - along the lines of the "Coleman's Balls" series. We could call it "Duke's Bollocks".

Barry McGuigan - great on Sky, can't stand listening to him on ITV

Bob Mee - in-depth knowledge and great understanding. Must be invaluable asset to any TV company or publication he works for

Glenn McCrory - often just parrots Darke's comments, but sometimes very insightful. Only one of the Sky team to pick Barrera to beat Hamed.

[dondada]

Someone needs to give me a ring, I'll give old Buncey a run for his money in the volume and verbosity stakes.

What a fecking thought. I'd have to go and watch Last of the Summer Wine for a couple of hours to bring myself back down if you and Buncey got together. Jesus.

Told you I'd forget one - and Richie Woodhall is a top man; really classy. Didn't take him very long at all to point out that Enzo's last opponent was particularly susceptible to a right hand to the body - before a meaningful one was thrown, I seem to remember.

[rhino222]

i prefer the ex fighters to do the summarising and the commontating, they have been there and done that etc.

much rather have mccrory, watt, mcguigan and mckenzie than some of the other muppets they have.

programmes like 'match of the day' only have ex players as studio summarisers, i think there is a place for 'non ex boxers' in the commentating department (ian darke etc) but leave the summarising to the ex fighters !!!

[dondada]

i prefer the ex fighters to do the summarising and the commontating, they have been there and done that etc.

much rather have mccrory, watt, mcguigan and mckenzie than some of the other muppets they have.

programmes like 'match of the day' only have ex players as studio summarisers, i think there is a place for 'non ex boxers' in the commentating department (ian darke etc) but leave the summarising to the ex fighters !!!

Take your point, Rhino as regards boxing but one of my pet hates is the complete lack of balance on Match of the Day. Three of the arseholes sit there and come up with three different interpretations after a ten-minute analysis of a decision a ref had an instant to make.

Real wankers - always slagging non-players off and looking for excuses for the most spoiled bastards in sport.

Rant over!

[SticknMove]

Bunce irritates the hell out of me.

He shouldn’t be allowed near live ringside commentary IMO. Far too unpredictable with what he might say. He has a place in the studio giving colour and background info but that is all. So many, non boxing fan, pals of mine can not stand the bloke and think he’s a complete dickhead. Obviously he is far from that but comes across that way and that’s why I am intolerant of him in representing this great sport. As someone else posted he is a caricature and exaggerates too much – and if he knows as much about the sport as some people on here claim then he shouldn’t have to draw attention to himself in this negative way.

I disagree with rhino in that I prefer an experienced professional commentator (who obviously has an interest in the sport) that can give clear articulate objective description of what he sees teamed up with a reasonably articulate ex-fighter giving analysis and clarification.

A studio with 3 guys - 2 ex fighters (or ex fighter and active fighter) and a journo or an ex fighter and 2 journos. As the head of Boxing News Claude Abrams should be brought into the studio IMO.

[Autobarn]

Evans is clearly acting like a mardy little git, increasingly so.

Sky Sports has become a bit of a budget program, have let some great Euro and Afro talents slip away and lose marks for not bringing us Haye-Mormeck. The latter is sad in particular because Sky showed us all haye's EBU title fights and the fights that got him WBC rankings at cruiser & heavy.

But they have kept British boxing going at the grassroots level, including some great domestic scraps (Johanesson-Gome anyone?), have brought us coverage of many guys who look like the future of British boxing (Truscott, Appleby,. Murray, Barker...whom they're televising tomorrow). And we have had some big US fights, though not lots of them.

Despite being a bit low rent, they are in thrall to no promoter. They haven't got Frank W pulling their puppet strings and the quality of their commentary/studio work is peerless.

You seem to have a right problem with me, knobhead.

Sky has been the standard of boxing in the UK since the early 1990s, so are there to be shot down. Setanta are buying good fights, but they have a ways to go (and losing the Barrera v Pac-Man signal was poor, to say the least). At least we are seeing the big fights across ITV, Setanta and Sky.

And I quit SecondsOut six months ago, FYI. If and when they have another good PPV I'll buy it, although the technology is hit and miss and isn't at the standard it was supposed to be even 3 years ago.

Lord help me, I have to see it live, youtube the next day don't work for me.

no problem, i saw your POV in the last free-for-all (the writing thing), but I think you're being a bit negative about Sky.

Sky's presentation is very good, but their choice/range of fights lacking. Whereas Setanta are often outdoing them, but almost putting me off before the fight has started because of their blatant plugging of the contract fighter.

[E]

i prefer the ex fighters to do the summarising and the commontating, they have been there and done that etc.

much rather have mccrory, watt, mcguigan and mckenzie than some of the other muppets they have.

programmes like 'match of the day' only have ex players as studio summarisers, i think there is a place for 'non ex boxers' in the commentating department (ian darke etc) but leave the summarising to the ex fighters !!!

STeve Bunce had a career as an amateur at least. I don't think McGuigan does much excpt give his employers what they want, McCrory and Nelson I like. Watt is excellent.


On a different level (from a geographical perspective) TEddy Atlas is possibly the worst in the ENglish-speaking world. I can't stand his self-obssessed melodramatic, simplistic crp.....

[Coco]

How on earth is Adam Smith a proper, puka boxing man?????????

[SticknMove]

Sky's Adam Smith, Ed Robsinon and Adam Chenery (producer) are proper, puka boxing men. They make it look easy both on camera and off and believe me it isn't easy. I just wish they still had the awesome Ringside programne and more top line fights.

Personally, I can't stand the recent obsession with having ex-pros as talking heads. They are not trained as journalists, often don't do research off their own backs and shrill like banshee's. The BBC started this obsession, I don't think you can get a job on Blue Peter unless you used to at least play midfield for Crewe Alex FC, and Sky have continued it.

But, then again, in an age when Colin Hart was fired from Eurosport for daring to say Roman Greenberg is average, what is the point in having knowledgeable and informed journos when they are too scared to say jack shit anyway...?

What sort of shite is that. You do not want ex fighters talking about their own sport that they participated in because it doesn't have journalistic appeal. What sort of research (apart from having been through the experience of fighting) does an ex fighter need to be able to analyse the action. Journos can give all the background research in the studio (who fought who, what the result was and all inferences that come from that as well as any rumours or whispers surrounding both camps).

Don't ever think that journos should completely eliminate ex-fighters in the commentary team or in the studio because that would be sad state of affairs. You'll hear so much more shite between them jockeying for position and trying to outdo each other on who knows more about the game.

As for shrilling like banshees - does anyone do it better than Bunce? I think not.

[Goz]

To add my tuppence worth I don't mind Bunce so much, he makes me laugh mostly. He isn't going anywhere, the broadcasters appear to like him too. He's funny on 'fighting talk' on 5 live on a Saturday morning too.

He did do a bit of arse kissing on Saturday though...

[dondada]

Sky's Adam Smith, Ed Robsinon and Adam Chenery (producer) are proper, puka boxing men. They make it look easy both on camera and off and believe me it isn't easy. I just wish they still had the awesome Ringside programne and more top line fights.

Personally, I can't stand the recent obsession with having ex-pros as talking heads. They are not trained as journalists, often don't do research off their own backs and shrill like banshee's. The BBC started this obsession, I don't think you can get a job on Blue Peter unless you used to at least play midfield for Crewe Alex FC, and Sky have continued it.

But, then again, in an age when Colin Hart was fired from Eurosport for daring to say Roman Greenberg is average, what is the point in having knowledgeable and informed journos when they are too scared to say jack shit anyway...?

What sort of shite is that. You do not want ex fighters talking about their own sport that they participated in because it doesn't have journalistic appeal. What sort of research (apart from having been through the experience of fighting) does an ex fighter need to be able to analyse the action. Journos can give all the background research in the studio (who fought who, what the result was and all inferences that come from that as well as any rumours or whispers surrounding both camps).

Don't ever think that journos should completely eliminate ex-fighters in the commentary team or in the studio because that would be sad state of affairs. You'll hear so much more shite between them jockeying for position and trying to outdo each other on who knows more about the game.

As for shrilling like banshees - does anyone do it better than Bunce? I think not.

Ant is right. And he didn't even say some of the things you are referring to. If you are going to have ex-sportsmen as talking heads, at least have decent ones. Boxing has decent ones, thankfully.

If you want to know why ex-pros don't necessarily make good talking heads, watch Soccer Saturday. Two words for you. Paul Merson.

[Lenny]

He's like a fish up a tree

[Crew2]

BUNCE IS A LEDGE. HE'S A POSITIVE MAN IN A NEGATIVE SPORTING COUNTRY, SO HE WONT BE TO EVERYONES CUP OF TEA (I IMAGINE JIN WATT HATES HIS GUTS)

[E]

How on earth is Adam Smith a proper, puka boxing man?????????

Adam Smith gets a load of undeserved criticism just because he is a hooray....it's largely unfair.

I think his delivery is good if sometimes melodramatic.

[oliverfennell]

How on earth is Adam Smith a proper, puka boxing man?????????

Adam Smith gets a load of undeserved criticism just because he is a hooray....it's largely unfair.

I think his delivery is good if sometimes melodramatic.

His delivery is terribe. I usually find myself finishing his own sentences in my head. He stretches his sentences aaaalllllmost as much as Larry Merchant.

[E]

How on earth is Adam Smith a proper, puka boxing man?????????

Adam Smith gets a load of undeserved criticism just because he is a hooray....it's largely unfair.

I think his delivery is good if sometimes melodramatic.

His delivery is terribe. I usually find myself finishing his own sentences in my head. He stretches his sentences aaaalllllmost as much as Larry Merchant.

Well I agree to some extent. But he has been to drama school as I understand so his delivery is a little dramatic.

BUt no way is he comparable to that senile drunk Merchant....

As in the PAvlik fight as I remember:

'Did you think' (3 second pause) 'THat' (3 second pause) 'the difference was' (3 second pause) 'that YOU got up from the knockdown' (5 secong pause) 'and he didn't?'


Genius.....

[Autobarn]

Adam's Smith's fine. He puts various emphases on words to bring the broadcast to life. He doesn't growl as much as he used to. Now that the fights have been better - i.e. non SN showcases - it feels less out of place because you are actually watching a fight, not a bullying contest.

When you hear a guy like Lampley, "Jermain Taylor leads with a left hook, something only the greatest in history can do" or "sensational fight, Tarver-Johnson 2 is the Gatti-Ward of the light 175-pounders" you get to appreciate the Brits.

Ian Darke is the best, but it seems that a lot of assignments are beneath him these days. Watt is excellent, McCrory may sound like he's agreeing with the commentator but he often comes out with this or that subtle point,

Bunce is great, but since he's spent time with Enzo Calzaghe he's been acting like the Welsh SN fighters are Gods. In the lead up to the 2 big fights, it kind of put a bitter taste in my mouth. It just seems like blatant spin and the anchor guy doesn't have a strong enough personality to reign him in (does anyone?).

Strangely, we all seem to like Dempsey, but did anyone see how distracted he looked last time out? He looked like he wanted to be elsewhere during the Calzaghe-Kessler (I believe) night.

[DavidPayne]

I just wish all commentators could understand the power of silence. Sometimes, the fight doesn't need hyperbole or emphasis. Sometimes, like the coverage of Hatton, the energy of Rawling matched the event.

Other times, like the entry og Hopkins to a big fight doesn't need to be explained over the top of the entry song My Way.

At 5am on a Sunday morning, ONLY hardcore boxing fans are watching Hopkins v Eastman or Hopkins v DLH in the UK.

The commentators would be well served udnerstanding their audience more.

On ITV, I expect it to be lowest common denominator commentary because of the audience.