Phileas Fogg

2 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

Even David Price managed that tbf!

I believe at the time, Price was a pro with a fair few fights and Joshua was an amateur still. Nonetheless, there's a fair few of these stories about Joshua getting knocked down in sparring.. I guess it's inevitable when he looks so dangerous in actual fights. 

6 minutes ago, Stortz said:

He looks 15 years older already doesn't he?! If he stays motivated he will go far. He put AJ down in sparing too

 

Watched that earlier actually, interested to see how he'll get on. Only 19 but no reason why he can't squeeze in a few more fights in 2017 and have 10+ by middle of 2018. A few people think his opponent at the weekend took a dive! Watched the replay a few times and I don't think so.

Tyson Fury also spoke very highly of him after recent sparring with Hughie and Tyson.

I see Daniel Dubois won again. Only 19 but insanely big and strong.. he's not far off Joshua in terms of size and he's 8 years younger. Tipped for big things and looks impressive. One to watch.

Midday and found a good stream - here - excited for this fight 

On 07/03/2017 at 22:58, SARJ said:

Good. I can't wait to hear what Aerosmith song he renditions when he beats a Polish taxi driver.

Genuinely made me laugh! Would be good to have him back, but only on top form. He's a great boxer and I don't him to do himself a disservice by not being in shape.

16 minutes ago, southvillekiddy said:

(Slightly over-the-top?) tribute to Pembo (brought on by guilt?) just appeared on the OS. If I was a cynic I'd say the Club was given a nudge to do this by the fans after the insulting "relieved of duties" sentence the other day.

Absolutely the reason why. Why didn't they just issue that in the first place? Most people knew about the sacking for at least 12 hours before they announced it.

Real shame. I thought we had the momentum until the Magnusson injury. Come on, last minute equaliser.

Ugh, I really really want LJ to succeed. Would hate it to go wrong for him. Really hope we turn it round this half.

13 minutes ago, Star of a gunner said:

only the fog can save us now

On my way to intervene 

Have a feeling Wilbraham will start tonight. LJ emphasised the need for leaders in the team during his press conference and with O'Neil out we will require a bit of experience and composure tonight. 

29 minutes ago, ChippenhamRed said:

Why do we have to limit ourselves to looking at the last two months? I'm not pretending there aren't problems, clearly our form is poor. But we have already shown we are capable of winning matches at this level, unlike last season we are never getting battered 4-0, and we have the financial capacity to make improvements in January.

People are too quick to write the season off and too quick to judge our entire season based only on our recent form. If we were as dreadful as some are making out, we wouldn't have won the matches we already have. It's as if some revel in our failure more than they do our success.

With 25 games to go it is ridiculous to rule out a top 10 finish. I didn't expect us to finish 18th after I went to Reading away back in January.

Definitely - no coincidence that Otib is far busier after a defeat. There are some issues that need sorting quickly with this side and I hope we're prepared for January.

Whilst I agree about issues with the team, tactics etc which are all valid - I think it's a bit sad that obviously some fans have gleefully waited for poor form to show their true colours re Johnson. There's some that hated the idea of his appointment - I really think for some this is down to his playing time here. They then hated the fact he did quite well and was winning the fans over. They hated it when we appointed that 'suit' Ashton with his corporate vocab.. then he appeared to do his job quite well.

Now we're seeing some people's true colours emerge. I can totally understand legitimate concerns, there are issues that need addressing urgently. What I don't like is over-egged criticism of Johnson because up until the last few weeks he was proving some people very very wrong and they've had no opportunity to vent.

12 minutes ago, Stortz said:

It's an interesting debate. Hatton tapped in to the football supporting lad market, particularly around Manchester and his fans were rabidly loyal to him. He took tens of thousands to Vegas with him several times and his ppv figures for the Mayweather fight were amazing- well over 1 million buys for a fight at 5 am on a Sunday.

I think AJ has a lot more crossover appeal to non boxing fans though and his potential earnings and popularity dwarf Hatton's in the long term, Ricky was at the peak of his career when getting that many buys, AJ is a relative novice.

Thought AJ came over well in the IFL interview yesterday, less of a media trained gonk

One final point @SuperI disagree with your 'bang average' rating of Hatton. He wasn't a very good boxer you're right, but he was the best pressure fighter this country has produced since Nigel Benn and fought 2 of the biggest names ever to get in the ring. Fair bloody play to him I say!

Agree, think if he carries on being marketed well he'll do very well in that crossover to non boxing fans. His face fits I think and if/when he wins World Heavyweight Champion eventually I think he'll probably win Sports Personality (unlike Fury).

Getting Stormzy to do his ring walk performance was very clever and I think we'll see more of that going forward. Wonder if we will on Saturday? I predict some big entrance show. 

I disagreed with Super mainly that the country are that much behind AJ in comparison to Hatton. I don't think it's anywhere near yet. Give it a year or two though. 

I can't see him ever taking legions of fans to vegas. Perhaps that's partly the football lad market thing though. Same principle as following your football team. 

This is still an awesome video

3 minutes ago, Super said:

I think that was more down to what big names Manny and Floyd were. Sadly the heavyweight division now doesn't have these since the likes of Tyson and Holyfield called it a day.

Well of course, but as I said - I don't think a theoretical Wlad vs AJ fight would better Hatton vs Mayweather for public interest. People loved Hatton, he was hugely popular.

These links below are testament to that - Hearn predicts an optimistic 400,000 for this weekend whereas Hatton vs Matweather was around 3x that in the UK alone.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxing/2329041/Ricky-Hatton-shatters-viewing-record.html

http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/eddie-hearn-on-the-anthony-joshua-vs-eric-molina-pay-per-view/

2 minutes ago, Super said:

Disagree with that Hatton had massive following in Manchester, AJ has the support of the whole country.

Not so sure really, of course lots of his support came from Manchester but I think there was far more public interest in his fights vs Mayweather and Pacquiao than AJ fights. I think that is partly down to choice of opponents. Theoretically though, I think Hatton vs Mayweather would still have been a bigger event nationwide than if Joshua was fighting Klitschko.

AJ is marketed pretty well. He looks like what people think a heavyweight boxer should look like physically. Bit of a rags to riches story who's turned his life around.. gold medal winner.. says the right things.

Compare that to Fury, who I believe is a better boxer.. despite all his antics, he will never be completely accepted nationally due to his gypsy heritage.

9 minutes ago, Super said:

Have to say watching the gloves are off with AJ what a credit this guy is to his sport. None of this embarrassing trash talk rubbish fighting at press conferences etc unlike the morons we have seen in the past week. Top bloke no wonder people in this country are getting behind him.

Don't agree there - I find him very boring to listen to. He's a bit like a footballer, lots of safe answers and not much personality.  I much prefer more interesting characters for boxing, not ones that say the right things and talk about 'staying humble' all the time.

I don't think the country are that enthused either, he's got nowhere near the following someone like Ricky Hatton had for example. People loved Hatton, there's no chance AJ would inspire thousands of fans to go to Vegas.

Of course the wifi stopped working at the 11th round. Up until then it based on what I saw it was a good fight, thought Kov was going to win going on the first two rounds but then Ward seemed to work out how to beat him. Very good quality fight overall. 

26 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

Should be easy to find one mate,try dimsports 

Cricfree working pretty well.. should be a good fight. I like Kovalev but can't call it.

 Managed to find an Internet cafe with good wifi to watch this.. now if I can get a stream to work that would be good

6 minutes ago, Chairman Mao said:

Is he playing well?

I don't actually think he's at the game 

2 minutes ago, RedLionLad said:

400 others watching it too.

Where's the live broadcast?

6 minutes ago, joe jordans teeth said:

I've never bought into the possession nonsense,what I do buy into is team spirit and we got bundles of that

If the opposition don't have the ball, they can't score. 

Good result today, shame we couldn't nick a result at the end

2 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

All bigger population centres 

Liverpool only slightly, I think club size influences the decision too.

4 minutes ago, richwwtk said:

I hadn't realised the tickets were cheap. That may well have made a difference, but I believe my point remains valid that it really wouldn't have been a particularly big deal for us whereas for them it was a chance to 'play with the big boys'

I think it would have been. We've had terrible cup draws for years. Look at West Brom last year, not particularly exciting but we still sold out the away tie (although tickets were dirt cheap).

I would love us to draw one of Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool/United later, especially away. Lots of people are bored of our systematically terrible draws and want a big team, failing that lets get one of the smaller teams left in and make a good go of the cup.

Just now, richwwtk said:

I'm not convinced we'd have taken 4,000. It wouldn't be such a big deal for us. I know I would have struggled to get excited about playing anyone's reserves in the second round of the league cup.

Of course we would've done, and more if we were offered more tickets. Tickets were well priced, we travel very well to London, we have lots of expats there and haven't had a game against one of the bigger sides for years, especially away.

3 minutes ago, Just Red said:

You know what,  times change. I loved standing on the East End for many years,  but now I love our new stadium far far more. Ok there may not be the packed in like sardines feel but all the new facilities on other make up for that and some. Would I swap it all if given the choice? Would I ****!! Your only saying you love it because that's all you have got and all you will ever likely have. 

I think he's got a point.. Kind of.. Overall I like the redevelopment and it was needed. AG doesn't have the same feel though, imo the atmosphere is worse and the south stand is a poor replacement for the EE. Hoping it'll all come together eventually but there are aspects of the old AG that I miss.