BoxRec

Rawlings did his 'sitting on the fence' routine as per.

Watt was his usual overly critical self.

I swear if Watt was to star in Transformers 4 as a robot, he'd be known as Negatron.

I thought Rawling was poor - getting over-excited whenever Haye threw a big shot and saying what a good fight it had been in the last round? Please.

Crankcase. He's not sitting down on his wheeeeels!

Rawling was watching an exciting fight. I guess he transforms into a DVD player.

ive had a few people on facebook say they loved the fight. Long live klitschko

rawling was awful as usual.

watt gets undeserved stick.

allahsnackbar wrote:rawling was awful as usual.

watt gets undeserved stick.

yeah i agree, watt was spot on, it was hard to give haye a round, the funniest part was when rawling mentioned to watt that american telly had it even.

Thought Watt got it spot on Johnny Nelson was poor again.

As per Jim anti English

Credit to Smith - he didn't shy away from the tough questions when interviewing Haye and Booth post-fight (eg, to Booth: "Did the master tactician backfire?")

Jim Watt is class, he called the tactics required to be Wlad from the off and was bang on during the fight.

'I believed Wladimir, I didn't believe Haye...' some weeks before the fight was genius.

Honestly, he might be dour, negative and all that, but he is best, most unbiased commentator we have ever had.

Sometimes he gets it wrong, but he is, for the majority, bang on

He gets a lot of unwarranted stick on these boards.

He was spot on. He can talk too much for sure but he's usually on the money.

Was disappointed that Ian Darke wasn't there with him, Rawling is okay but not a patch on Darke.

Matt W wrote:I thought Rawling was poor - getting over-excited whenever Haye threw a big shot and saying what a good fight it had been in the last round? Please.

It was a terribly commentary from Rawling. It sounded like a radio commentary - "a big left from Haye, Right hand from Klitchsko" - we could recognise the guys, John.

Your dead right about getting over exited - even thought it could be close on the cards after 9 rounds cause Manny wanted to gee him up and told Klitchsko it could be close.

I know this is my first post on the forum, but I've been looking for a while. I agree with a lot of posts that have said Jim Watt is negative and sometimes in my opinion is just wrong. But last night I thought he had it dead right. I also think he may have given a couple of rounds to haye after being told George Foremans card. In my opinion, for what it's worth, haye didn't get a look in all night. One thing is for sure though, if Haye fights again before retiring, it can't be ppv.

It was a poor performance, no matter what the circumstances. Personally, I think if ur carrying an injury go hell for leather, he was never going to ride out a decision with an injury. I'm still a Haye fan, he's got the tools, but I can't feel but be let down after the fight.

To recap, i think Jim Watt had it spot on.

Just watched the fight with Sky commentary. Watt was right on the money.

G0mez wrote:Rawlings did his 'sitting on the fence' routine as per.

Watt was his usual overly critical self.

I swear if Watt was to star in Transformers 4 as a robot, he'd be known as Negatron.

He wasn't overly critical at all. He was bang on in this case. Should he have pulled a Foreman and acted like it was an even bout in which Haye put forward a great effort? In that case he would just be talking shit.

crusader wrote:

G0mez wrote:Rawlings did his 'sitting on the fence' routine as per.

Watt was his usual overly critical self.

I swear if Watt was to star in Transformers 4 as a robot, he'd be known as Negatron.

He wasn't overly critical at all. He was bang on in this case. Should he have pulled a Foreman and acted like it was an even bout in which Haye put forward a great effort? In that case he would just be talking shit.

John Rawling did that at times - he called it a brave effort at the end of the final bell.

Matt W wrote:I thought Rawling was poor - getting over-excited whenever Haye threw a big shot and saying what a good fight it had been in the last round? Please.

Strangely, i enjoyed the fight....

heh. personally i like Jim Watt.

however it is nice to watch fights in fairly crowded living rooms, so all you end up hearing is the people you're watching the fights with....

sack watt and nelson, both shiittteee

pivot023 wrote:I know this is my first post on the forum, but I've been looking for a while. I agree with a lot of posts that have said Jim Watt is negative and sometimes in my opinion is just wrong. But last night I thought he had it dead right. I also think he may have given a couple of rounds to haye after being told George Foremans card. In my opinion, for what it's worth, haye didn't get a look in all night. One thing is for sure though, if Haye fights again before retiring, it can't be ppv.

It was a poor performance, no matter what the circumstances. Personally, I think if ur carrying an injury go hell for leather, he was never going to ride out a decision with an injury. I'm still a Haye fan, he's got the tools, but I can't feel but be let down after the fight.

To recap, i think Jim Watt had it spot on.

I was watching in a pub so didn't catch who's card they were quoting, but it was very different to Jim's. You're dead right, after that Jim gave a few rounds to Haye so it wasn't a complete whitewash.

MachoMan09 wrote:Jim Watt is almost always value for money. His Wegie accent is great. I can forgive his little errors, like when Ruiz went down for the second time versus Haye and he said to Ian Darke "He's not recovered, Reg..."

poor Watt. having been part of the Gutteridge - Watt axis, and then having to put up with the likes of Adam Smith and Rawling, it must make him pine for the halcyon days all the time.

stujones wrote:

crusader wrote:

G0mez wrote:Rawlings did his 'sitting on the fence' routine as per.

Watt was his usual overly critical self.

I swear if Watt was to star in Transformers 4 as a robot, he'd be known as Negatron.

He wasn't overly critical at all. He was bang on in this case. Should he have pulled a Foreman and acted like it was an even bout in which Haye put forward a great effort? In that case he would just be talking shit.

John Rawling did that at times - he called it a brave effort at the end of the final bell.

I think Rawling is a bit too worried about offending the fighters.

It's difficult for the professional journalists, they have to see those fighters on a regular basis, and a lot of fighters don't take the criticism well. There's also the chance you get denied access to them the next time you're doing a piece.

It's hard to be honest, yet respectful enough at the same time.

I think Jim Watt is top notch, I thought he read the Macklin fight perfectly and was good in the Haye fight, ok he does like a moan but generally he speaks sense and calls it how he sees it. Richie Woodhall and Spencer Oliver are great and probably would make brilliant commentators but for the time being I think Jim Watt Is still the main man!!

I get the feeling with Watt he's the only guy that can get his honest views across while still toe-ing (no pun intended) the Sky party line.

Example: before the fight he said something like "you'd have to favour Klitschko slightly".

I might be totally wrong but I felt like if you met him in the pub he'd say he favours Wlad by a lot, but by saying the above he managed to show the viewers he thought Wlad would win but still managed to maintain the "it will be very close/haye has a big chance" line that the Sky team seemed to be using.

I agree these guys are in a difficult role though - the boxing community is very close and it prob wouldn't go down well if you were extremely negative about the chances of a UK fighter. However, its their job and the best tv/magazine guys in any sport can be honest and objective whilst still maintaining strong relationships with the athletes.

I think analysing/reading is a fight skill he posseses - but as the main rep for Sky's commentary he always sours the occaision with his totally glass half empty approach for me.

For the most part he moans about technical mistakes, rather than give due credit for the other guy having success. If something happens 9/10 times he will pour scorn on those making an error rather than congratulate the one taking full advantage of it. And that colours the action a lot.

He never seems happy behind a mic, like the grumpy old neighbour who you dread to knock on his door when your ball goes over his fence.

Like was said previously, all the casual fans watching Saturday were lead to believe they'd witnessed the worst attempt at a fight in the history of boxing. Whilst Haye's mouth did him no favours in defeat, the fight commentary did him zero favours !