BoxRec

Adam and Glen really blew it last night, total hyperbole. I think that whole team needs revised. Johnny is overbearing in the studio and made Carl Froch very uncomfortable a few times even going so far as to touch Carls leg to silence him. Froch looked very surprised and then brushed at his leg! If it wasn't so rude it would have been hillarious.

Johnny should be gone in favour of Froch or Moore, Adam should get behind the scenes where he belongs and Dave darts banished altogether. The faces he pulls as he finishes an autocue reading are pathetic.

Yeah I found it painful too, nothing against Kel, who I'd love to see go far, but the desperate hype Smith was trying to generate was sadly misplaced. You'd think Kel had just taken out Roberto Duran.

McCrory clearly didn't share his boss's MASSIVE enthusiasm, and tentatviely made a few guarded comments about how Kel should, perhaps, er close the show, but generally kept quiet, took his boss's lead, and towed the Sky party line.

Smith is clinging on to one of the few prospects Sky now have, and it shows. The whole boxing programme at Sky needs a serious change, plus Smith needs to insist the next Brooks showcase is against someone a bit more motivated than last night's middle aged Polish punchbag.

They've got a lot of good pundits. Moore and Oliver are superb and IMO deserve more air time to get their views across. Smith is far better in the studio, he's far too exicitable as a commentator. And Watt brings great sense to the commentating.

[quote="alexpaterson"]They've got a lot of good pundits. Moore and Oliver are superb and IMO deserve more air time to get their views across. Smith is far better in the studio, he's far too exicitable as a commentator. And Watt brings great sense to the commentating.


Smith is a cheerleader the sooner they are rid of him the sooner we hear honest appraisals instead of the Sky party line. I am not a fan of Woodhall either he even put on a fake gruff voice last time he called a fight with Adam. Sad.

I agree that Spencer should have more airtime. Froch is also excellent. Moore could host Ringside without the need of a sidekick. He is natural and asks relevant questions. Adam and Johnny have allowed their massive egos to botch every high profile interview they have done like Hopkins and Wlad Klit.

Yeah I thought Smith was giving up the commentary, he has always been distinctly under par in that role.

I agree. Smith was pretty dreadful with his OTT hype, last night.

However he is the SKY Boxing Head man, so is anyone surprised. He is not a good commentator and biased but hey-ho.....

Enthusiasm thats all it is.

Yet again boxrec posters jump on the very people who bring boxing to our screens. Whilst the emergence of allegedly is good, do people want Sky to pack it in so Frank W arren has the monopoly he had in the past.

they think Bullshitting is going to win boxing back, bring back fans, veiwers and credentials(?).

WRONG - tell it like it is, No _hite, give history, show old pictures, clips, ratings - compare then too now, give history, build it up, encourage fighters and fans to learn about the GREAT past and slowly the interest will return.

make an informative, educated and enjoyable evening out of it - that will bring people back/in!!!

NOT Hype and _ullshit about 3rd rate fighters!

DaveBoyMorrison wrote:Johnny is overbearing in the studio and made Carl Froch very uncomfortable a few times even going so far as to touch Carls leg to silence him. Froch looked very surprised and then brushed at his leg! If it wasn't so rude it would have been hillarious.

I did not see the above but i'm sure it was cringeworthy, reading that came as no surpise to me, i've never been a fan of Nelson as a tv pundit.

King Geedorah wrote:Agree on Froch. He was getting into really talking about what Kenny Anderson had shown in him sparring only for Nelson to interject with some generic comments. Should have left Carl to finish what he had to say as he's sparring the guy, fights in the same division and has walked the same path.

I do like Nelson but there's a touch of the Jamie Redknapp about him these days, seems to be want to assert himself over the new faces.

I was about to write this myself, it was interesting hearing that Froch had sparred Anderson and he was ready to tell us more. Froch was giving genuine insight into the stuff we don't see behind the scenes and then Johnny Nelson just totally butted in and talked right over him with the usual generic guff that tells us nothing we haven't already seen.

They definitely need more from people like Froch, Jamie Moore, Spencer Oliver etc, they are really good at punditry and bring genuine insight to the table. They also aren't rude and constantly stopping the other guys talking.

Definitely not Adam and Johnny's finest hour it seems, wherever I go today I'm hearing complaints about the overhyping. I agree totally with the post re the bullshitting of the public, it isn't the way forward. If the public hear that - and they're not stupid, they can spot it a mile off - then why should they trust a word they hear from those commentators?

There are ways of being supportive of a fighter without descending into the vulgarity of full blown hyperbole. Carl Froch, for instance, was positive about Brook without overstepping the mark. You really don't have to.

Brook is a good fighter and I understand Sky's need to convince that they have stars on their roster since the Warren stable left, but this isn't the way to do it. It would be better to always be straight with the public and let them make up their own minds. If a fighter or fight is good, they don't need to be told non stop. They will notice it themselves. There's no need to be condescending.

Nelson is just a prat, can't remember the last time I've watched a night of boxing and thought he talked sense.

Froch was bang on as always, could have him and Macklin in the studio, put Nelson out to grass with McCrory.

I've been watching a lot of the rugby world cup and listening to the pundits on the ITV coverage.... puts Sky's boxing lot to shame. Sean Fitzpatrick might be the best pundit in any sport at the minute.

ALI wrote:

DaveBoyMorrison wrote:Johnny is overbearing in the studio and made Carl Froch very uncomfortable a few times even going so far as to touch Carls leg to silence him. Froch looked very surprised and then brushed at his leg! If it wasn't so rude it would have been hillarious.

I did not see the above but i'm sure it was cringeworthy, reading that came as no surpise to me, i've never been a fan of Nelson as a tv pundit.

He is actually getting worse. It obvious him and Adam have a special relationship but he is not content with that he must have the last word or he sits back fuming. It's almost a comedy watching ringside or some of the PPV bills as Johnny just can't take a back seat to anybody. If Adam had any balls (johnny?) he would sit them down beforehand and let them know the score. It's getting on my wick.

Someone mentioned allegedly...I think that's going to be worse than sky with my alltime worst team, Bunce, Rawlings and Keys. I think allegedly will be the end of FWank and not before time. He seems to have gotten it all wrong but time will tell.

The worst thing about Sky is they have the potential best team in the world but are incapable of spotting natural talent. Look back at Johnnys interaction with Moore, Froch and especially Barry McGuigan and you will see an egoist in action.

SKY have become a joke

If they'd just been honest and said Kell put on a good performce against a fringe contender who in reality was ranked around 40th in the world and whose world title fight was for a paper title that had no bearing on the Welterweight rankings then all good but they made out that Kell was a future world champion based on beating RJ which is stretching it beyond breaking point.

It's fine looking good against Boxers like Rafal Jackiewicz, Lovemore Ndou, Michael Jennings and Krzysztof Bienias but these guys aren't Top 20 Welterweights and there is a world of difference between them and the current Top 10 so untill Kell actually gets in the ring with another young hungry contender then he's just all Hype for me and someone who has been matched very well against a bunch of Euro/world soft touches.

Get him in against a young contender like Mike, Jones, Brad Solomon and Selcuk Aydin or even a live underdog like Sebastian Andres Lujan, Jan Zaveck, Randall Bailey, Carson Jones, Luis Carlos Abregu and jesus Soto Karass.

Till then i'm not interested especially with Sky trying to make him sound World class off the back of a few wins over fringe contenders and No hopers.

LOL someone please up footage of this stuff. It sounds hilarious.

Last night's show was full of cliches and at the end of the day soundbytes. I lost count of the amount of times they referred to Brook's oppo never having been stopped etc.

Froch was good but they hampered him with either talking over him, cutting him short or asking him banal questions. Rhodes was ok but again suffered from the questions being asked to him.

Yeah it's a shame as Johnny is probably a very nice guy, but on TV he's just out of his depth - I've always thought he adds zero to the show, just talks a load of PR friendly rubbish and spouts endless cliches.

But he's been on so long now that he clearly thinks he's the bees nees, and the attention grabbing moves are starting to get really noticeable.

But there's just no way Smith will ever drop him. Hopefully one day the camera will cut to Johnny and he'll say "well that was a f***ing great fight Dave" and he can be quietly moved on.

orbtastic wrote:Last night's show was full of cliches and at the end of the day soundbytes. I lost count of the amount of times they referred to Brook's oppo never having been stopped etc.

Froch was good but they hampered him with either talking over him, cutting him short or asking him banal questions. Rhodes was ok but again suffered from the questions being asked to him.

Agreed..... I'm not sure what having never been stopped adds to an opponent's credibility when he's clearly limited.

Hopefully he swears or says ''I hate white people'' in an Andy Gray moment and gets the sack.

McCrory predicted Wlad would beat Haye 3 weeks before the fight. 2 weeks later he said he was confident Haye would win.

Tells you everything you need to know about Sky and their 'pundits'.

I'd like to see someone give Jon Thaxton a shot at being a pundit and/or commentator, I always thought he did a good job on the ITV broadcasts but haven't seen much of him since they pulled the plug on their boxing coverage.

As I mentioned on another thread, what annoys me most about Smith's commentating is that he rambles on and on and on without actually talking about what's happening between the ropes. It's like it's a pre written script he's got in front of him for each three minutes.

Like his enthusiasm and would like to see him replace the horrible and cringeworthy Dave Darts as presenter.

Also noticed Jonny Nelson touching Froch's leg trying to intervene when he was talking....... what a twat.

More negative sh@t because people do not have anything else to moan about.

This place is getting as bad as Eastside and dog [email protected]

The criticism you make is against production not the individual pundit.
Everyone on the show is miked up to the Producer via ear piece, who issues instructions to the interviewer.
If the Producer instructs (for instance) Nelson to cut the Froch discussion about Anderson what is Nelson supposed to do ?
What I'm saying in a round about way, is that it is often irrelevent what the pundits want to say - they act on instruction.
You can all campaign for someone's dismissal, but whoever gets the job will always be severely impaired when it comes to the expression of personal opinions.
Sky are getting it wrong, not the pundits.
I often watch fights with the volume off to get my own slant on the fight whether it's on Sky or anywhere else.
I also agree with pirate - the amount of negativity around here of late is not what most of us are used to.
Sky have been and will be important to boxing in the UK.

Boxing Pirate wrote:More negative sh@t because people do not have anything else to moan about.

This place is getting as bad as Eastside and dog [email protected]

What positives can you add to the discussion then? Do you rate Johnny and Adam? What is your point here?

twenty six wrote:The criticism you make is against production not the individual pundit.
Everyone on the show is miked up to the Producer via ear piece, who issues instructions to the interviewer.
If the Producer instructs (for instance) Nelson to cut the Froch discussion about Anderson what is Nelson supposed to do ?
What I'm saying in a round about way, is that it is often irrelevent what the pundits want to say - they act on instruction.
You can all campaign for someone's dismissal, but whoever gets the job will always be severely impaired when it comes to the expression of personal opinions.
Sky are getting it wrong, not the pundits.
I often watch fights with the volume off to get my own slant on the fight whether it's on Sky or anywhere else.
I also agree with pirate - the amount of negativity around here of late is not what most of us are used to.
Sky have been and will be important to boxing in the UK.

As informative as your post is it also contradicts itself. If Sky themselves are to blame then what's wrong with a discussion on the matter?