Jim Watt- Time to move on?

I would post a massive long rant about this but simply put- I think its time Sky retired Jim Watt. A great commentator back in the day but his standards are slipping. Thought he was overshadowed by Paulie last night who for my money is the best in the game.

Thoughts?

Sky presentation with Box Nation commentators for me. Watt and especially his journalistic side kick that doubles up as a commentator are useless. Paulie is getting a reputable CV from behind the microphone.

Not sure i agree FULLY although I know where your coming from.

I enjoyed the eubank vs Sullivan fight when it was just Malignaggi and Watt. Good insight and made it that much more interesting.

When Halling gets on the mic he genuinely hasn't got a Scrooby about boxing IMO. He is horrifically biased and is just a disgrace.

I'd like to see Paulie and watt take charge for a few cards...if watt then becomes the Halling it should just be Malignaggi by himself haha

I don't know how Nick Halling landed the Boxing gig. He was brilliant on the NFL. Bring back Ian Darke or get Rawling back and pair them with Paul Smith or Froch.

I fail to see how watt is even relevant in todays boxing. I mean look at the average age of boxing fans now, 50% probably were not even born when he was boxing and how many of those that were even watched him? Not many people on hear approaching 50·

I thought Paulie showed both of them up last night correcting them and offering insight which was required, it did make me smile when Paulie and Watt were disagreeing about the value of Whyte jabbing Aj

Time to give Watt a break I think lads.

He has had a dreadful year with the passing of his daughter having also lost a son a few years ago to.

Without boxing what would Watt do maybe boxing takes his mind off of things to get rid of him now would be a new low.

Lets give him 1 more year at least.

Keep Watt and add Paulie to be the sense of reason. For the bits I could hear last night they seemed to work well.

Thought Halling called it right in the main event too. Credit where it's due although this board just likes to pan them whatever happens.

Watt is good when he's alongside Paulie as they can bounce off eachother, Halling blunts him completely.

Agreed

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Time to give Watt a break I think lads.

He has had a dreadful year with the passing of his daughter having also lost a son a few years ago to.

Without boxing what would Watt do maybe boxing takes his mind off of things to get rid of him now would be a new low.

Lets give him 1 more year at least.

You're joking right?
Keeping him on because of things that happen in his private life is ridiculous.

He's been terrible for years and is incredibly unpopular among boxing fans. He must have a dark secret about Rupert Murdoch to still have a job with Sky Boxing. He's been terrible for years. His family troubles have nothing to do with how he should be treated by his employers.

His arguing with Paulie was ridiculous. Of course Whyte should be using his jab, it was keeping Joshua from launching big attacks, exactly what Paulie was saying and Watt couldn't understand what he was on about.

OasisBFC wrote:

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:Time to give Watt a break I think lads.

He has had a dreadful year with the passing of his daughter having also lost a son a few years ago to.

Without boxing what would Watt do maybe boxing takes his mind off of things to get rid of him now would be a new low.

Lets give him 1 more year at least.

You're joking right?
Keeping him on because of things that happen in his private life is ridiculous.

He's been terrible for years and is incredibly unpopular among boxing fans. He must have a dark secret about Rupert Murdoch to still have a job with Sky Boxing. He's been terrible for years. His family troubles have nothing to do with how he should be treated by his employers.

His arguing with Paulie was ridiculous. Of course Whyte should be using his jab, it was keeping Joshua from launching big attacks, exactly what Paulie was saying and Watt couldn't understand what he was on about.

You lot act like Paulie is the second coming. Watt has a better record then Paulie and fought much better opponants Watt was arguing that Whyte had nothing behind the jab thats all.

Give the guy a break you just don't like Jocks.

What has the the opponents they have fought got to do with their pundit abilities. I think Watt would be helped if halling was fired

The Sky team is not far off being pretty good, if they were to replace Halling and Watt with Darke and Paulie I would consider it pretty faultless. Froch is OK, Smith and Moore are pretty good and Nelson is a decent enough presenter now.

I thought Watt and Halling were terrible in the Joshua fight, when Joshua got rocked they were talking like he was nearly finished.

The way I saw it Joshua got caught, did the right things to recover and then ended up coming on strong towards the end of the round

Paulie had to hold his tongue a few times to stop contradicting them

When Watt and Paulie were talking technique and Halling pipes in with I don't know about any of this technique stuff but I see Joshua having the hardest fight of his career, REALLY?? Makes Michael Owen look spontaneous.

Joshua throwing a corkscrew uppercut and right hook, didn't realise he had those in his arsenal.

You get the impression last night they had all been told there was a lot of bad press about the show being PPV last night so all stress how terrific value it was. Fair enough, but the point was laboured and then some.

Smith said something to the effect of: "Hope the judges score the wrong way" in the Campbell fight. He seemed almost apologetic for scoring for Mendy (as Adam Smith scoured ringside for someone who'd scored for LC). Terrible bias.

I don't mind Watt at all. Paulie was different class while Halling is terrible (as is AS).

It sounded good, but I refuse to pay it on principal, you need names to sell PPV.

Sad reality is Joshua is now a PPV fighter...

I've mixed views on malignaggi. Sometimes he adds good insight, he has an enthusiastic manner that can help with the sense of occasion... But he was complicit in the hatchet job commentary that had most of America thinking kameda was jobbed in McDonnell 2.

Admittedly that fight split opinions but it was universally split across the Atlantic so I think it's a fair bet if the US commentary team had called it for McDonnell there would be no 'controversy'.

He's also made those ranting ped comments about pacquaio... That sounded like they'd been scripted for him by floyd.

Better than halling? Well you could stick a mic on a pile of steaming dog turds that would be better than halling but Paulie still has a question mark on him for me.

Watt is just like most older men, stuck in his ways... Often Seems to decide before the fight, or after a round who the winner is and steadfastly sticks to it.. Shame, the gutteridge watt partnership was the high point of British boxing commentary.

Rawling is almost as bad as halling. No mean feat.

As has been said, break the bank and get Ian darke back.

milkyboy wrote:I've mixed views on malignaggi. Sometimes he adds good insight, he has an enthusiastic manner that can help with the sense of occasion... But he was complicit in the hatchet job commentary that had most of America thinking kameda was jobbed in McDonnell 2.

Admittedly that fight split opinions but it was universally split across the Atlantic so I think it's a fair bet if the US commentary team had called it for McDonnell there would be no 'controversy'.

He's also made those ranting ped comments about pacquaio... That sounded like they'd been scripted for him by floyd.

Better than halling? Well you could stick a mic on a pile of steaming dog turds that would be better than halling but Paulie still has a question mark on him for me.

Watt is just like most older men, stuck in his ways... Often Seems to decide before the fight, or after a round who the winner is and steadfastly sticks to it.. Shame, the gutteridge watt partnership was the high point of British boxing commentary.

Rawling is almost as bad as halling. No mean feat.

As has been said, break the bank and get Ian darke back.

Haha yeah he got some serious stick for the McDonnell fight, which in my opinion wasn't that hard to score

Malignaggi always seems overly enamoured with the flashier skills or hit and move style of boxing when scoring fights I feel. His technical analysis is miles ahead of anyone else at Sky though. They may feel he is wasting his breath though.

You'd think he'd know an arrrrum punch when he sees one... Made a career out of throwing them.

Well of course they are going to be bias when Eddie has them in his pocket. They need to be positive towards his fighters.

I agree Watt is set in his ways. I lost it with him in Froch Groves I. Yeh, Groves got an amazing start but after that all Jim could see was Groves. Froch was doing a lot better in that fight than people gave him credit for.

There's bias and then there's bias TMW, I can't stand the bleating on about the Brits and then the hoping the judges have it wrong and give them the win etc. I'm still shaking my head at Watt trying to justify not scoring the Campbell knockdown. WTF is that all about.

I love watching the Brits do well (yes even Matthews Trussy:) but I don't like seeing anyone cheated out of a victory (close call is fine) and I find myself hoping whoever the home fighter is gets sparked out when Watts commentating. He annoys me that much.

Feel sorry for Watt. Remember the stick he took for scoring the Froch Dirrell fight to Dirrell? People got real personal with him including Froch. I don't think he's ever commentated so openly since and has tried his best to fit in with Hallings brand of cheerleading.

Smith is appalling but he is clearly how Eddie and Sky want to sell their fighters. Very poor sometimes.

hazharrison wrote:Smith said something to the effect of: "Hope the judges score the wrong way" in the Campbell fight. He seemed almost apologetic for scoring for Mendy (as Adam Smith scoured ringside for someone who'd scored for LC). Terrible bias.

I don't mind Watt at all. Paulie was different class while Halling is terrible (as is AS).

The bias is horrendous - how anyone could give that fight to Campbell is baffling.

Cheers, Rodders

themadworldofjb wrote:Well of course they are going to be bias when Eddie has them in his pocket. They need to be positive towards his fighters.

I agree Watt is set in his ways. I lost it with him in Froch Groves I. Yeh, Groves got an amazing start but after that all Jim could see was Groves. Froch was doing a lot better in that fight than people gave him credit for.

I had the froch groves fights in my mind when I made the comment. He was too groves focused in the first, though I did have groves comfortably ahead myself the rounds were closer than he gave credit for. It was the second fight for me where he completely lost the plot though. Jim thought Froch holding the centre of the ring was enough to 'like his work better'. Sky had froch 4-0 up after 4, HBO had groves 4 up. Most sensible observers saw a tight tactical fight with nothing to separate them before the KO.

As I have said before, I think the biggest issue with Sky commentary is that its essentially manufactured as to what Sky and Matchroom want to sales pitch.

Halling is nowhere near as bad as he comes across. He is just the embodiement of what Sky and Matchroom think the average boxing viewer is, what they think and what they like to hear. Jonny Nelson is the same presenting. All questions loaded with a particular angle or objective. I imagine everyone involved in the production is blunted by whatever it is Sky/Matchroom want to sell.

Best commentary of the year? Smith and McCory doing the Fury fight. Unencumbered by Matchroom cheerleading they just called it as is.

I would love to go back to the old set up. Friday fight night for domestic, saturday for world and/or PPV. You can almost have two teams for each of the shows.