BoxRec

No, I am not starting a thread to criticise Warren again. Just been reading his Frankly Speaking column on his website.

He is critical of a recent Charity boxing bout between James Cracknell and Kerry Walmsley. It claims that Cracknell was two stone lighter, but had to boil down to make weight . Sounds crazy and I cannot understand why the lighter man had to make the weight.

Was anyone there for this.

well i think the 2 stone advantage was wrong, it was three kilograms.
basically Walmsey can box a bit and Cracknell couldn't.

http://www.sportuk.tv/pages/boxing/syd_lawrence.html#

Hi,

Read a report on this in Mail I think.

Don't think James had to boil down but he was given a weight to make and trained hard to hit it. His other boxer arrived from NZ and hadn't been told what weight they were fighting at and was 2 stone heavier than James. So James was faced with either pulling out (and loosing the charity money) or going ahead with it. He went ahead.

Apparently he said he was doing well working behind the jab, but then started to trade and the next thing he knew he was in the changing room asking what happened. Apparently he got up and was giving interviews at ringside but has no recollection until he seemed to come too in the changing room.

Hope this helps.

Nice for these other sportsmen to see what a tough game boxing is.

Yes, but ultimately as with 'White-Collar' when one gets badly hurt which will happen, sooner rather than later. Who is left to pick up the pieces and once again fight off the abolishionists?

The situation is crazy and yet the BBBC do absolutely nothing to protect the Sport.

Why couldn't he raise money by err...rowing?

It made me laugh really, these posh folk from posh sports turn up for a bit of fun and Pimms

Then the harsh reality of the sport hits home when 3 of the fellas are knocked cold.

The BBBoC should distance themselves from this thou, we wouldn't want to associate ourselves to this.

Leave them mix with the cage fighters!

boxingchat wrote:Yes, but ultimately as with 'White-Collar' when one gets badly hurt which will happen, sooner rather than later. Who is left to pick up the pieces and once again fight off the abolishionists?

The situation is crazy and yet the BBBC do absolutely nothing to protect the Sport.

Why couldn't he raise money by err...rowing?

hopefully people who can spell 'abolitionists' for a start.... like the man says, its not a posh boys gane, is it (spare me the 'Blue Blood' factoid ty)? let em row and play croquet and bugger the servants, its all they are good for anyway

boxingchat wrote:The situation is crazy and yet the BBBC do absolutely nothing to protect the Sport.

Would they have any jurisdiction over this type of thing? If they do, they need to put some measures into place.

But in general, they could and should do a lot more to protect the sport.

Ban shitty titles from being fought for on these shores for one.

For once some of the comments Frank made in his column made a lot of sense and James said he should never have done it. The charity has now pulled out of white collar boxing events.

No one forced Cracknell to box that night, he showed bottle for doing it and should be proud of himself.
If Men(or Woman) want to box ffs let them box, better that than 5 blokes getting pissed and kicking 1 poor bloke half to death(happens all the time).
Don’t let the nanny state gets its claws into boxing as well as everything else.
Where all barbaric cavemen at heart anyway, it’s mans nature to fight.

My fave Warren vitriol in a recent column. Ricky won't beat Castillo. Castillo's past it. Great economy of expression frank. Hatton loses cos he left Warren. But if he wins, it's because Castillo's shot.

The event was a disgrace. Lawrence has actually got an amateur bac kground and was huge - he carried on lumping the guy as the ref was breaking them up.

James Cracknell was outweighed by 2 stone at least. HE trained at my gym for a bit and actually was beginning to get hold of some basics - prob was he just froe a bit and traded. His chin always comes up when he lets punches go, and he is clearly a bit chinny.

He was a friendly and polite guy in the gym and it was terrible to see him interviewed in the ring after being properly laid out.

Watch it here - like a tree being felled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No_z9NyIf8s

The guys who organised this should have:

1. thought about the danger of getting unskilled huge guys throwing punches at each other with reckless abandon.

2. tried to get the guys to hold back a bit - remind them it's a fun charity event not about killing the other guy.....

Cikey, thats a canditate for KO of the year. Timber.

The man in the street should realise that the average fella, even good sportmen can't get in the ring with a few weeks training.

You can play football but you can't play boxing.

These blokes learnt the hard way.

Didn't Frank used to promote in the Unlicensed scene?

I already know the answer, just makes him a tad hypocritical in my opinion.

He says he knows better now
well he would wouldnt he.............

Eh, didn't catch on from the comments just what a mismatch that was - maybe the most sickening boxing video I've seen in a good while.

What is it with all this novelty boxing pish? On the front page of today's paper shows Tommy Sheriden smiling gleefully (all PR is good PR for him) sporting a cut from a bout last night with Roddy Collins (Steve's bro). He got it done at the Southern General but brushed it off under his usual populist spiel, though it does make you wonder just when something is going to happen... Sheriden said he landed a body blow and Collins heated up after playing with him... THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WITH FIGHTERS... If this is to continue let guys with no experience fight guys with no experience, those with some background (Collins/Walmsley) matched appropriately. Perhaps the bbbofc could appoint a specific 'czar' to oversee this? Or if not, surely they should rename to 'the british board of professional boxing control'? Might need to: if this fad continues to spread the umbrella term will only marginalise them.

I doubt license holders would be prepared to subsidise such nonsense

Coco wrote:I doubt license holders would be prepared to subsidise such nonsense

I think that if any licence holders of any kind (Trainers, Promoters etc) got involved in this then their licences would be suspended by BBBoC. As its basically unlicensed boxing

boxingchat wrote:Yes, but ultimately as with 'White-Collar' when one gets badly hurt which will happen, sooner rather than later. Who is left to pick up the pieces and once again fight off the abolishionists?

The situation is crazy and yet the BBBC do absolutely nothing to protect the Sport.

Why couldn't he raise money by err...rowing?

I suppose the same could be said for mismatches such as Macca vs Gunn. A natural 200lb monster puncher vs a fairly inexperienced, inactive blown up club fighter. Way to set an example..

Fairplay to Cracknell though for getting in the ring to raise some money for charity but did anyone else laugh at his entrance tune. "Do you really want to hurt me"
Knocked out for six.

A fair point was made by Warren and also by Boxingchat on this thread is that was Cracknell (or anyone else partaking in such events) given a thorough examination before the bout. He might have even had a brain bleed ala Joe Mesi, and therefore a accident waiting to happen.

I do want to raise two points from this - not as a criticism to what was said by boxingchat just a point.

1) Why should Cracknell need to have a thorough examination WHEN IT DOESN'T EVEN HAPPEN IN NON CHARITY AMATEUR FIGHTERS. I am sure the many who have fought amateur on here will say how easy it is to get an amateur licence. Basically, the only checked my heart/chest with a stesthascope and my balls to see if they were fine with the old "please cough" feel. That was it.

Indeed for my only stoppage defeat, I actually only turned up cause I was struggling to get fights and I didn't want to let the club down as it was a home show. I had a fecking fever and when the doctor examined me he said my temperature was over 100. He asked me did I want to box, my honest answer was "what do you think" and he said how strong I looked etc. I can hardly remember anything of the bout. There was no way I should have fought. I went back to the club one more time when well did some hard sparring and told my so called coach "thats what I can do when well" followed by "fornicate off you tosser for not having the sense to know I was fucked".

So really, why should the celebrities go through a more rigourous medical than amateurs. Now, I would be all for amateurs and celebrities BOTH to have stringent medical tests before being licenced.

2) My second point would be is that people here a mentioning the BBBoC and should they be involved. Personally, I think it should be treated as an amateur contest under the rules and guidelines of the ABA. If I remember rightly and celebrity fight showcased on the BBC has to now really be an official amateur fight. As a result, the last televised Celebrity fight was quite an even matched affair, although the skill level was poor, it was on a par with the average debutant.

Mismatches occur in the fight game, big KO's occur in the fight game (even in the amateurs). Of course, you get coaches bull shitting about the skill level of a novice. Even in the lower levels bull shit about weight etc. Of course fighters turn up "late" so they can't weigh in, but their coach (who happens to be early) that he is "around the weight" of the fighter. Then when you face them you see that he is about 4 inches taller and 2 stone heavier. Shit like this happens, seen it, been on the recieving end (got pictures and it looks like Rocky vs Drago and I was a massive Featherweight) I have also been the one who was told "don't weigh".

Its not good for the sport that such mis matches occur, but they do even when regulated. Especially in Amateur bouts, there are different level of novices and hard to regulate. It is possibly more concerning when it happens in championship bouts, but it does in both the amateurs and pro's. Watch the youtube of it and ask "was this any worse than Hide vs Damon Reed", was this any worse than any of the Kevin Evans Welsh finals (with the excpetion of his bouts with Gammer).

Twinkle Toes wrote:Didn't Frank used to promote in the Unlicensed scene?

I already know the answer, just makes him a tad hypocritical in my opinion.

yes, the original fw shows were unlicensed, but the two fighters were boxers, at the same weight, who boxed and trained for a living.

how can you compare that to a professional rower fighting two stone under his opponent in his first ever bout.

where is the logic behind your comment?

Irrespective of the weight difference, an unlincensed show is an unlicensed show.

Going by your own logic, unlicensed shows are fine as long as they have people fighting at the same weight.

Nice!

I believe anyone who promoted in the unlicensed scene as much as Frank did should really be keeping quiet, even more so when it come to passing critisicm about it.

Like I say - hypocrite.

So what if Warren started in unlicensed shows? Unlicensed just means not sanctioned by the BBBofC.

As I recall Warren was blackballed by the BBBofC who at that time had rather cosy arrangements with certain other promoters of the time. Said promoters did everything they could to ensure that Warren could not get a promoters license, and so Warren put on unlicensed shows and eventually the BBBofC were forced to accept his calls for a license.

I'm no Warren cheerleader, but from people I know who follow the unlicensed scene, there are plenty of well organised promotions, with proper ambulance crews on call etc.

If someone cannot get a license from the BBBofC, you cannot blame them in those days getting in via the back door.

Considering some of the diabolical mismatches the BBBofC have allowed in recent times, I don't really see them as being whiter than white.

E wrote:The event was a disgrace. Lawrence has actually got an amateur bac kground and was huge - he carried on lumping the guy as the ref was breaking them up.

James Cracknell was outweighed by 2 stone at least. HE trained at my gym for a bit and actually was beginning to get hold of some basics - prob was he just froe a bit and traded. His chin always comes up when he lets punches go, and he is clearly a bit chinny.

He was a friendly and polite guy in the gym and it was terrible to see him interviewed in the ring after being properly laid out.

Watch it here - like a tree being felled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No_z9NyIf8s

The guys who organised this should have:

1. thought about the danger of getting unskilled huge guys throwing punches at each other with reckless abandon.

2. tried to get the guys to hold back a bit - remind them it's a fun charity event not about killing the other guy.....

Blimey that's a sickening KO - poor bloke must not have had a CLUE what he was letting himself in for, no way he'd have agreed to that if he'd he an idea of what he was in for.

Very very dangerous, he looked near enough dead on the canvas.

The other guy showed no mercy in there did he...not his fault of course.