BoxRec

Channel 5 tonight at 10.05 The Boxing Academy starts....strange how this was suddenly pushed on billboards and in the papers only this past week as i have not heard about it before. Apparently Audley Harrison and Steve Collins are training amateurs for six weeks to eventually fight one another and the winner gets a ringside seat at a fight at the MGM Grand.

Two shows are about to start in the US (one may have already begun) of a similar nature so maybe this is the flavour of the month and five have jumped on the bandwagon.

Anyone going to be watching?

Better than I expected it to be with it being on channel 5 and all. I'll watch again next time.

yes was ok some looked a bit handy... not bad at all..

how old is tony cesay?? he never go pro??? seen it says hes an ex boxer and now a coach.

cheers

It was a good show, great to see that five got alot of boxers past and present involved.

My one reservation was about the boxers themselves - Novices? Didn't look that way to me. Well certainly in the pad work and skipping abilities.

You can quite easily get a fresh licence (if you've been out of the game for a couple of years and forgotten about). You could see that the lad with the out of date licence had quite a few fights.

yeah there was a few stamps,, maybe 10-12 but you still get stamped sometimes even if you just weigh in and dont get a bout,, so maybe that accounted for a few also stamps for re-registering,

but id say a good 8-9 fights anyway,, and as you say some on pads looked very good not novice like at all but as they say pads dont hit back.

Its better they are not complete novices, boxings not something that can be learned in six weeks. The sparring would be like toughman contests if they where just new to the sport.

bigped wrote:yeah there was a few stamps,, maybe 10-12 but you still get stamped sometimes even if you just weigh in and dont get a bout,, so maybe that accounted for a few also stamps for re-registering,

but id say a good 8-9 fights anyway,, and as you say some on pads looked very good not novice like at all but as they say pads dont hit back.

Very true, but you could see the difference between that lad from the shetland islands and the ones who made it through to the last 15 after about a second of watching them on pads. The guy from the Shetlands was a novice no doubt. Most guys are unable to even hit the pad in the centre on their first go.

Some where saying boxing was their life and you could just tell that they had been at the game years by their stories etc. Which wasn't what the show was about - I would have rather seen the novices go through as it would have shown how tough the game is, these guys know how tough it is already.

stujones wrote:

bigped wrote:yeah there was a few stamps,, maybe 10-12 but you still get stamped sometimes even if you just weigh in and dont get a bout,, so maybe that accounted for a few also stamps for re-registering,

but id say a good 8-9 fights anyway,, and as you say some on pads looked very good not novice like at all but as they say pads dont hit back.

Very true, but you could see the difference between that lad from the shetland islands and the ones who made it through to the last 15 after about a second of watching them on pads. The guy from the Shetlands was a novice no doubt. Most guys are unable to even hit the pad in the centre on their first go.

Some where saying boxing was their life and you could just tell that they had been at the game years by their stories etc. Which wasn't what the show was about - I would have rather seen the novices go through as it would have shown how tough the game is, these guys know how tough it is already.

Total giveaway usually aswell is the good old boxing glove tatto on the arm seen a few of them,.. not a tatoo u usually get if you have had not a lot of involment in the sport. I remember my first fight my coach told me it was my opponents first fight aswell, seen him warming up and he had a boxing tattoo on each arm . found out after he had 10 and was undefeated.

Lefthookhappy19 wrote:Its better they are not complete novices, boxings not something that can be learned in six weeks. The sparring would be like toughman contests if they where just new to the sport.

Quite true, but alot of depended on the time constraints, I didn't realise (untill you said that it is filmed over 6 weeks) - might have been better if it was pre recorded and filmed over 6 months (obviously condenced in the editing). It would have been nice to have brought in a few useful amateurs in to embarras the novices in the initial sparring, it would have been good to have seen the improvement.

I can imagine that these fights are going to be 100 mile an hour jobs anyway.

I thought the programme wasn't bad, but I thought the quality of boxing was pretty poor.... in fact the majority were pretty useless...

I think that Bernard Doherty is prob the best...

E wrote:I thought the programme wasn't bad, but I thought the quality of boxing was pretty poor.... in fact the majority were pretty useless...

I think that Bernard Doherty is prob the best...

That geezer who was too big was probably the best.

What the odds that Doherty is related to Tony somehow, traveller from Ireland - Tony Doherty's family size and a passing resemblence. I think there is got to be a link there.

I thought it was a good programme and the level of ability was just about right. They were novices and they looked like novices. Having boxing gloves tattooed on your limbs doesn't make you a good boxer!

I'm backing the scouser Joey who lost his mum, he looked hungry as fornicate at the end when he'd been picked. That lad who went on the piss for two weeks before the training started, wtf was he thinking?? Good show though, sounds better than Oscar DLH's show by all accounts.

bigped wrote:yes was ok some looked a bit handy... not bad at all..

how old is tony cesay?? he never go pro??? seen it says hes an ex boxer and now a coach.

cheers

Tony is early 30's. never went pro, was never interested. ABA champ 1999

Cesay's an old warrior. Bit eccentric too, but a nice bloke all the same. Represented both England & Sierra Leone, and boxed in the Commonwealth Games for SL as well as trying to qualify for the Olympics with them too. Went to the world championships as well, if i remember correctly.

Boxingmad wrote:Cesay's an old warrior. Bit eccentric too, but a nice bloke all the same. Represented both England & Sierra Leone, and boxed in the Commonwealth Games for SL as well as trying to qualify for the Olympics with them too. Went to the world championships as well, if i remember correctly.

yeah he was in bangkok.
did well for himself as he didnt start boxing till he was nearly 20.

I had a couple of reservations about the programme.

1 6 weeks is not long enough, and they only have a month to get in peak physical shape, and I would have preferred if the show had been over many months rather than just a few weeks,

2 The weight constraint is very unfortunate, what was it 60-65 Kilos? That is going to rule out too many people. I guess they needed to do that format

3 There were obviously a wide range of abilities in there, not sure if that is a good or a bad thing, but as is said earlier, it was obvious that some of them had been at it a long long time. There was one guy (think he made it through) who was dipping and ducking under the pads and throwing ferocious looking hooks and uppercuts, who looked like he was very experienced.

That black guy who went out, sure could bloody skip eh?

Hopefully this is merely the first series. I think it serves a very useful purpose, in bringing boxing back on the box, in a form which the average bod on the street can understand, and present boxers as professional atheletes, which is something non-boxing fans often don't understand. It's amazing how many people think that they are just two blokes in a ring who like to fight.

All in all, not a bad effort at all, it's going to seem fairly lightweight to a lot of boxing fans, but it's worth remembering that it's not being aimed at hardcore boxing fans.

Thumbs up overall.
Wonder who the production company is.

There was also an age limit, I think it was 18-23. I did have a little enquiry for myself but failed on that account (only just mind).

I'm wondering whether the 'special prize' might be a professional contract with Sports Network? Any other ideas?

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I'm wondering whether the 'special prize' might be a professional contract with Sports Network? Any other ideas?

allegedly is in in next week to give his views. no doubt it will be the one that can make the most money epect maloney to come on the show shouting his views.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I'm wondering whether the 'special prize' might be a professional contract with Sports Network? Any other ideas?

Didn't they say? I thought it was training in America with Tim Witherspoon.

Oh right, was that the prize. I thought it would be something a little more major, not that I'm knocking Tim at all, he's a great guy but I thought it was leading to a more tangible prize. Great experience though for someone who is turning pro, but how long was that training for?

You could enter if you were 18 - 21, 64kg - 69kg & had had no more than 10 bouts, so some of them are bordering Intermediate level rather than Raw Novice

The prize is as mentioned training by Tim Witherspoon & ringside tickets for the Williams - Klitsco fight in November

Apparently the final is up in the air at the moment, i think due to the North Lads being alot better in general han the Southerners

I think that the tall scouse lad from Salisbury ABC is the favourite, Ismail i think is his name

I Applied for this show, and was told that because of my experience that i couldn't enter. Plus its for Welterweights only and i'm a lightweight.

200 from the north and 200 from the south was the starting number with on average 37% having had previous boxing experience 10 or less fights. the other 63% had no experience what so ever.

I think they should do a simelar show for those who have experience, say 20+ fights... would be much better t.v ...

Would be better if the show was open for more weights I think, have one fighter who makes it from each division from say, weltertweight to super middleweight/lightweight.

Maybe they picked welter because that's where the most fighters are?