BoxRec

Boxrec's leading gobshite has his own column here:

http://www.britishboxing.net/news_1956- ... ucket.html

Mail the big fella...address at the bottom of the article. It'll give him something to talk about (not that Jimmy lacks material)

That's a really good and entertaining piece of writing.
Is it gonna be like a mailbag a la maxboxing?
If so that will be an excellent addition to an already great website

Excellent shout - a mailbag will bring a new element to the site - keep up the good work lads

Highly enjoyable read, maybe we can soon see the return of Uppercut magazine Great article look forward to the next piece.

very enjoyable but i had to tell him that complaining about harrison shooting his mouth off is not such a great idea when he has just told us that williams was never a world level fighter, the same williams that he used to hype to ridiculous levels in the not-so-distant before danny sacked him.

harrygreb wrote:very enjoyable but i had to tell him that complaining about harrison shooting his mouth off is not such a great idea when he has just told us that williams was never a world level fighter, the same williams that he used to hype to ridiculous levels in the not-so-distant before danny sacked him.

You're not the first, and you possibly won't be the last to make this mistake, but Boxrec's Jimmy Mac is not the same Jim Mcdonnell who trained Williams.

harrygreb wrote:very enjoyable but i had to tell him that complaining about harrison shooting his mouth off is not such a great idea when he has just told us that williams was never a world level fighter, the same williams that he used to hype to ridiculous levels in the not-so-distant before danny sacked him.

Email the bastard and tell him, Harry!

Jimmy is a quality knockabout writer and I hope it's a regular thing - but mailbags are reliant on interaction so I hope some of you ask him some questions/give him grief, etc.

Jamesy back in his saddle.

Good luck with it fella.

when i read it something was saying in my mind "he writes well this mcdonnell, how come he is such a rubbishy trainer" i should have put 2 and 2 together.

Terence wrote:Good stuff Jim, althoguh due to recent illness it took me a while to compute that it was you doing the column and not t'other McD

I prefer to think of Taylor as a coiled spring, he will spring into action when he steps up in weight or fights Winky again, he seems to fight up/down to the level of his opponents and his facial skin is stretched too tight at middle.

I tend to agree Terrence, I think he fights as hard as he needs to to win, although I actually think he would have made it easier on himself had he taken ring centre from Ouma and pasted him, I'm pretty sure he could have stopped Ouma within six rounds if he did that.

His weight making is as I said in the piece most likely an issue, I think he's scared to keep his foot on the gas in case he runs out of juice and tires, as he has done in his fights with Hopkins. I think Taylor will probably move up for his next fight, or after fighting Winky, I would like to see how he would handle Abraham and Miranda, I would make him favourite, but he would be forced to work in there.

Might have to make a point of saying that it's not Jim Mcdonnell's column, because McDonnell isn't a common surname, and we've both got the same first name.

Thanks for the kind words, nice to be back writing again after a very long break.

I'm starting to think Taylor is a tad overated. For me he is 1-3 in world class. Hopkins, Wright and Ouma.... it was only his size that got him past Ouma... Ouma is very good, never great, but it was only his lack of size that cost him.

Perhaps Jermain will be a better Super Middle, he did start at the weight.... but I don't think he is the next big thing at Middle. A decent world champion, but not sure he would beat the other champions.

stujones wrote:I'm starting to think Taylor is a tad overated. For me he is 1-3 in world class. Hopkins, Wright and Ouma.... it was only his size that got him past Ouma... Ouma is very good, never great, but it was only his lack of size that cost him.

Perhaps Jermain will be a better Super Middle, he did start at the weight.... but I don't think he is the next big thing at Middle. A decent world champion, but not sure he would beat the other champions.

At last, a fellow believer.

The problem with Taylor is mental I think. All the physical gifts are there, good movement, punch, chin, hand speed etc. Just a solid all round fighter. He just can't seem to impose himself on other fighters though. I don't know whether he lacks confidence in his own ability, his stamina, or if it's just a general lack of focus and concentration. He should have been able to make Hopkins work every minute of every round, and win easily, but he didn't. And by rights he should have stopped Ouma fairly early. Ouma was game but didn't really have anything to win the fight with.

A very nice piece.

Regarding Berto, I thought he looked good, but he was 2-3 weight classes bigger than the other fella! I also thought he looked very open to counters when he was winging away. Maybe he just felt Figueroa couldn't hurt him but, as with Kahn, sooner or later a puncher's going to plant one on that exposed chin and it could all go horribly wrong.

But I'm probably just being grumpy because the Sky commentary team's slavering enthusiasm over what was basically a light-middle kicking the shit out of a ligh-welter was getting on my tits.

What I liked about Berto was his fluidity. He also looked to me like he had decent defensive skills if he chose to use them. He was slipping quite a lot of those shots or riding them out, I think he was pretty casual because he knew the guy couldn't hurt him. Berto is basically a boiled down middleweight, that is true, but his array of punches, his movement and his bad intentions were very impressive. Of course, there's bigger tests out there for him, but thus far, I thought him very impressive.

Never seen Berto fight like that before. Last time, I had the impression of a mini-Lacy, right dow to the left hook obsession, rampaging facial expressions and sawn off runt look about him.

But yes, he had a Guzman look about him this time. Very relaxed and aware-looking, as if he knows what punches are going to come at him. You don't expect a guy with that build to have that kind of speed, movement & variety.

Good one Jim

Agree Taylor was a bit underwhelming last time out - doubt they like the Calzaghe fight now, if they've got any sense.

If Taylor could'nt hurt a LM, he's not going to hurt Calzaghe, and he isn't going to outwork him either.

Yes, Taylor said afterward that he 'punched himself out' after those first two rounds!!

WTF!! Christ, Calzaghe can work at a higher pace than that for 12 rounds, I think that Taylor's becoming dead at the weight if that's the case, because he only really put it on Ouma for spurts in the first two rounds.

Ouma's not even a big light middleweight, and once he became accustomed to Taylor's punches, he seemed to just walk right through everything he threw. Taylor's always struck me as a big hitter, but perhaps he's tanking from making weight and losing the power from his shots.

I really like some of the shots that Taylor is developing. I believe he is in a catch 22. Definitely struggling to make 160. But he would be crazy to fight a Calzaghe or a Kessler any time soon. Calzaghe's pace far too much, Kessler's style too refined.


I want to see Taylor fight Miranda. Miranda will go at him like Ouma did, but with some power. I know Taylor has better ability, but I want to see him work against someone who can hurt him. Give Kelly Pavlik 12-18 months and he'll give taylor one hell of a fight. Right now Pavlik looks the same level as Taylor when JT fought Edouard (Pav demolished the other Haitian, St Pierre recently)

So there are plenty of reasons to stay at middle. Some more:

Winky, the Argentine Carrera who just won the WBA belt, Abraham (IBF), & old amateur foe Sturm.

If Taylor goes for some of these, I'll be a Taylor convert.