Phileas Fogg

Saw the Crawford fight - very impressive. Rumours he wants to move up in weight which would be interesting.

Saw the Whyte fight too - solid win, very easy for him though. I like Dillian White and how he's prepared to fight anyone. Would like to see him fight Jarrell Miller next, interesting fight with two very tough (but perhaps not the most technically gifted) fighters. Would like to see the winner of that fight go on to face Wilder.

Fight week for McGregor vs Mayweather - I will watch the weigh in which may end up being a better spectacle than the actual fight. McGregor looking quite gaunt after cutting weight. I imagine he'll blow up to 170+ for fight night.

Paulie confirmed on MMA Hour that he wants to fight McGregor next St. Patrick's day.

Hope that happens - would be interesting.

22 hours ago, Eastside Moonwalker said:

I think most of us are in that camp

Don't think that's true. Impression I get is that most are willing to give him and the team a chance. A bad run like last season though and that'll quickly change.

2 hours ago, Stortz said:

I can't agree with either of you. Mcgregor's team have edited two seperate incidents together to make the footage and you can clearly see that McGregor pushes him down with his glove on his neck. The punch he throws as he is holding Paulie misses altogether then the latter half trips over McGregor's leg prior to rolling over. You can even see Joe Cortez move in to rule no KD but the footage (surprise surprise) stops at this point. Here it is clearly visible in slow motion:

Frankly they are desperate for PPV sales as ticket sales are rumoured to be very low- they are trying to convince people with no clue whatsoever that McGregor has a chance.

They have treated a well respected boxer like a tosser by releasing the pictures and latterly the footage and other boxers are now refusing to spar McGregor- Andre Berto pulled out yesterday. What happens in sparring should stay in sparring, not be used to classlessly sell a few more PPVs.

And even if it was a legitimate KD, if they think knocking down a smaller, retired, out of shape Malignaggi by cheating gives McGregor a chance against Mayweather, then they are in an absolute world of shit come fight night.

McGregor's team have spliced 2 different incidents into a 45 second clip from a 12 round spar. I don't see how you can draw a conclusion of who had the better of who from that! Paulie has called for an unedited version to be released after the fight and claims he easily won 10 rounds. I very much doubt that that will ever happen though.

 

Agree - at first I thought it was a legit knockdown but then I saw the same clip you posted and it's a does look like there was some untoward contact.

It looks and sounds like, Paulie said this himself, McGregor did well in the sparring. Doing well vs an out of shape Paulie is totally different to Mayweather though, even at 40.

Would be very interesting to see the full 12 rounds. Paulie's contradicted himself a few times on how many rounds he 'won', it's gradually crept up as more leaks have come out.

9 minutes ago, jayjay said:

City have just purchased another winger or wide man and Johnson's substitutions today were to bring on wingers. We seem to have abundance of wide players, to the point where they can barely be accommodated within the 18 man squad. I thought wingers liked wide pitches but Mr Johnson has had AG reduced in width. I am sure brighter posters than me will enlighten me as to the Baldrick like strategy involved.

We've got 2 wingers. Brownhill and Paterson aren't strictly wingers but midfielders who can play wide. We don't really have that many at all.

2 minutes ago, JamesBCFC said:

So none in the season I asked about then..

We can't just disregard the issues from last season. It's largely the same group of players and the same manager. It does seem to be a bit of a recurring issue with our side under Johnson.

Donkey business

Just now, Esmond Million's Bung said:

in isolation they were shit today and still managed to beat us, that is what counts not whether they are a good side on paper, that was the excuse last during our run of losses.

Not sure why you're being so pedantic.. it was pretty obvious what I was saying. It's a competitive division and we'll lose tight games. 

Just now, BS3rich said:

Still think we lack a bit of bite in CM. Will be good when Baker is in the team to partner Wright. A tad worried we might struggle against the real physical sides in this league..today being a case of that 

I agree, would love us to go for Jackson Irvine who got a goal and a red card for Burton today.

1 minute ago, Esmond Million's Bung said:

You must be kidding they were awful, the only time they looked good was when made them look good.

Didn't watch the game, and no I wasn't 'joking'. Squad wise they're a decent side, doesn't really matter how they did or didn't play today in isolation.

2 minutes ago, tinman85 said:

Unfortunately our dire away form will cost us again. Need a top keeper, Baker must start ahead of Hegeler who looks too sluggish. Also a powerful pacey striker. However we could play 11 v 7 at St Andrews and lose. Ultimate bogey team and we all knew it would happen. 

I assume you must've watched the game live to be able to give that sort of analysis? 

1 minute ago, Red Right Hand said:

A reality check we needed perhaps?

Don't think anyone sensible was getting carried away.

Narrow loss against a decent side, not hugely surprising in this competitive league.

We don't seem like the sort of team to take advantage of 10 men. Hope I'm wrong - a real chance to get a very respectable point.

Tyson Fury has been fairly active on social media last few days. Latest u-turn on his 'retirement' imminent I think.

22 hours ago, SARJ said:

That's the problem Mr Fogg my ol' Mucka, we'll never know the truth until McGregor is actually in a boxing ring in front the cameras.

For what is worth, Malignaggi is one of my favourite boxers of all time. Love his style and ability, especially as he has no power. Whilst he does trash talk to get fights or hype fights, he's a genuine guy in normal interviews and he doesn't lie about things like this normally. Malignaggi himself admits McGregor got the best of the first spar (not many boxers would admit that), but you got to take into account he's retired, out of shape and hasn't been actively training.

I highly doubt Paulie is lying on this occasion and the reason we've heard/seen so much of him these past few days is because he's genuinely angry about the photos/stories leaving the McGregor camp. If you look at the interviews with that South African boxer who sparred McGregor, Van Der Heen I think his name was, it's the same story with regards McGregor, ego-maniac who only releases photos favourable to him.

For those who have Spotify, Paulie runs a weekly podcast called 'From Brooklyn To The World'. I thoroughly recommend listening to this week's edition, which covers the spar and gym stories in great detail. Sounds like McGregor is a total d!ckhead (shame as I kind of liked the guy). He even got referee Joe Cortez to come in and ensure there were official introductions and stare downs before sparring, which is unheard of :laugh:.

Thanks for bringing 'From Brooklyn To The World' to my attention. Listened to it after I saw your post - very interesting. I agree with you, I don't think he's lying.

McGregor sounds like his best to preserve his image and maintain his 'cult of personality'. As a result he comes across as naive, controlling and insecure. 

Great insight and looking forward to have to hearing what Paulie has to say on the 26th.

16 hours ago, Tomarse said:

What is UFC, three rounds of 3 minutes?  Jumping to 12 straight off must be near impossible 

3 rounds of 5. In some ways it's more taxing than boxing but requires a different set of muscles and in a way a different kind of fitness due to the grappling involved.

There's lots of contradictary reports coming out about Malignaggi-gate so it's hard to know who to believe. 

Sheehan (involved in filming McGregor's content for Showtime) has come out saying that McGregor was beating Malignaggi easily - and the 'knockdown/push' pictures are from a legitimate knockdown from a 4 punch combo.

Link here about 5.20 in

Obviously they want to sell the fight so it's preferable if they make it look like Connor has a shot. Watching Malignaggi's interviews and his twitter though, he is coming across as awfully bitter about the whole thing.

20 minutes ago, Stortz said:

I was just saying to @Phileas Fogg the other day that it had dragged on far too long to be going ahead.

The right decision imo, he would have taken a hiding second time, as Hearn and co well knew- hence they were so keen on the rematch. It would have been a highlight reel ko.

So, Pulev next for AJ at the Millenium Stadium or O2 I guess. Vegas makes zero economic sense for that one.

A shame but no need for him to get a pasting to tarnish his legacy and health. Got nothing to prove.

Don't think there is any active heavyweights that could realistically beat AJ. Ok, Wilder could get a freak KO I suppose.. 

Whilst Fury is in no fit state and Dubois and Gorman are a few years too young, I can't see anyone to touch him for a while. Heard there's a few Eastern European amateur heavies that are potentially very good, can't remember the names though!

4 hours ago, Tomarse said:

Think it's more the time of day.  £100 would put a lot of people from staying up. 

Good point. Will almost definitely miss it live and watch a YouTube replay I think. Fight week and weigh in should be fun.

14 hours ago, Super said:

Will find a stream. Thought it would be more than that.

£20 seems a reasonable price to me considering it's the equivalent of about 100 in the USA.

Do we have a PPV cap or something in this country?

1 hour ago, Super said:

Still we have boner v garcia tonight

Miller vs Washington on the undercard which is potentially quite an interesting one. If Miller wins it should put him in contention to fight one of the higher profile HWs.

Someone like Dillian Whyte perhaps which I think would be a good fight. 

40 minutes ago, yardy said:

You'd expect Messi to score against a back four made up of All Blacks in their football debut wouldn't you, despite them being bigger and also elite sportmen in a sport as similar to football as boxing is to MMA!

I think a better comparison would be Federer vs the number one squash player in a tennis match at Wimbledon.

Theoretically a transferable skill set with many parallels, but fundamental  differences in technique and positioning make it heavily in Federer's favour. I see your point though. 

3 hours ago, Tomarse said:

Tyson retires again... guess those runs out in Marbs finished him off. 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/tyson-fury-announces-retirement-boxing-10876805

Comeback by December then?

He's just pissed off because Hennessy and his uncle Peter met with David Haye's new company today to do a deal about a fight with Hughie. Loyalty is a very big thing in that community and he hates Haye. He can't understand it.

He'll u-turn on it soon enough. If he gets let off after that hearing he'll be back.

Thought last nights one was a bit embarrassing by Conor. People are starting to switch off about these press conferences, last night's was the worst so far.

Being over an hour late in starting didn't help. Conor's material was poor I thought, Floyd's stuff - although scripted - much better.

Expecting a more entertaining one in London later.

It really is pantomime stuff, can't really take it too seriously.

1 hour ago, Stortz said:

Couldn't agree more mate, it seems massively contrived to me, they're both just playing up to their usual roles. Compared to something like the build up to Whyte Chisora it's kids' stuff.

McGregor is the greatest salesman in the history of sport, he's really convincing people he has a chance.

54 minutes ago, MichaelRobartes said:

Agree with this PF, you can pretty much see Mayweather counting the money as Conor struts around slagging off his clothes and calling him all the names under the sun.

Agree with you both - they're both going to cash out from this fight. It's good fun but doesn't feel genuine. If there was genuine dislike they wouldn't be able to get within a couple of inches of eachother screaming in eachother's faces without physical contact - whether it's written in the contract or not.

46 minutes ago, EmersonsRed said:

I do genuinely believe Floyd is pissed off though. Showtime did everything to make this tour difficult for Conor and it's all back fired by the simple fact every single crowd is in Conors favour. All of them. It'll only get worse too, the way that Floyd turned against the crowd was interesting last night.

None of it will make a difference on fight night but

Don't think he is, he's just in character. I watched him being interviewed by Paulie Malignaggi etc on that panel after last night's conference and he was cool as anything. Let the mask slip that it's all a complete act I thought.

Floyd wouldn't be bothered by the crowd, only that Showtime exec was when they gave him stick! Reckon the conferences in Brooklyn and London will have a great atmosphere. They should have added one in Dublin. Surprised they didn't actually.

1 hour ago, Super said:

CM is only there for the money not a chance he actually believes he is going to win so he won't be betting anything.

I'm not so sure, the glory if he won and the riches that come with it means he will force himself to believe it's possible. 

Everyone knows it's a huge ask, but to have the level of self belief he has means he won't actually think he'll lose.