BBC Blog Network

User Profile

Ben Dirs - BBC Sport

Listed below are comments made by Ben Dirs - BBC Sport between Sunday, 8th November 2009 and Thursday, 12th November 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Haye does what he has to do 11:25pm on 12 Nov 2009 ronan1984 - Not me buddy, I had Dirrell winning the fight! Although the biggest robbery in the last 10 years? Don't think so - did you see the Tyson Fury-John McDermott fight?!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bendirs/2009/10/froch_and_fans_frustrated.html
Haye does what he has to do 1:48pm on 09 Nov 2009 Devilishly_Red - Yeh, I agree. This notion that a challenger has to be clearly better to take a champion's belt is just that, a notion. There's nothing that says it in the rules, a challenger just has to be better, by a round is enough. The idea that a challenger has to be lots better is frankly a bit dodgy and does boxing no favours, because the suggestion is judges have ulterior motives in scoring the fight.

Thankfully, two of them got it spot-on Saturday. As for those saying it was a difficult fight to score, I wholeheartedly disagree, I think Haye walked it, I only remember giving Valuev two rounds in the whole fight. And, as someone pointed out abovve, German TV gave Haye just about every round. I'll repeat my challenge: can someone please tell me when exactly Valuev landed a decent punch?

Oh yeh, and what have people got against Lennox Lewis all of a sudden? This county... wonders never cease...
Haye does what he has to do 1:28pm on 09 Nov 2009 John Ginivan - Haha! Yeh, he ruddy loved that book, it's just a shame we weren't able to fit his whole quote on the front: he reckoned it was the most dramatic book written since the Bible.
Haye does what he has to do 01:22am on 09 Nov 2009 RIGHT, I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS, WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME JUST... only joking, lovely arguing with you, or agreeing, and many thanks for all your chat over the week, it's been good fun as usual.
Haye does what he has to do 00:10am on 09 Nov 2009 Ben - Same name, but we were watching different fights...
Haye does what he has to do 11:50pm on 08 Nov 2009 Pondo1664 - HE'S 7FT TALL AND WEIGHS 23ST!

rigadon - Between 1996-98, when Akinwande and Hide held the WBO belt, the WBC champions were Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, the WBA champions were Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, and the IBF champions were Michael Moorer and Evander Holyfield. None of the aforementioned challenged for the WBO belt. Meanwhile, Hide defended against Willi Fischer, Damon Reed and a 39-year-old Tony Tucker, Akinwande against Brighton's Scott Welch, Alexander Zolkin and Jeremy Williams. Things have changed admittedly, but it was the B league back then.
Haye does what he has to do 10:41pm on 08 Nov 2009 ben - Nice name. Yes, but Ali and Mayweather never fought blokes who were seven stone heavier and ince inches taller! The point I'm making is, they often fought on the back foot. And I disagree, Valuev wasn't landing with jabs, he was throwing it out all night, but not landing. And if Haye was landing "once a round with a single shot", how come I had L-R-L, L-R-L, L-R-R, denoting combinations, written all over my notepad at the end of the fight? So, I totally agree with two of the judges - and the bloke next to me (I won't say who he writes for) gave Haye every round but one!

pontoon - Ian Darke was spot on if he said that, you can't just give points to someone for coming forward.
Haye does what he has to do 9:14pm on 08 Nov 2009 lightsout - I haven't forgotten Frank Bruno, if you read the blog again I said Haye is "only Britain's third heavyweight world champion since Bob Fitzsimmons in 1899".

Pondo1664 - I can't imagine Haye lost any sleep last night worrying that he didn't knock Valuev out.

Yeh, heard about Frank Warren on the wireless, bit strange. As 5 Live commentator Mike Costello pointed out on air, I don't remember Frank complaining much when Amir Khan played pretty much the same game against Andreas Kotelnik. And Kotelnik was the same size as Khan.

I would love to sit down and watch this fight again with someone who thought Valuev won - with the sound down. Then I'd ask them as the fight progressed to point out exactly when Valuev landed with any meaningful shots, indeed did anything other than walk forward and stick out his jab. Again, while I must stress that I am not slating anyone's opinion, reading some of the comments above it's almost as if Muhammad Ali never existed. Watch the fight against Liston, he's backpedalling almost the entire fight, landing every now and again with flurries. Watch Floyd Mayweather, he's like a matador. And if you want to see boxing at its purest, get on Youtube and watch a highlight reel of Pernell Whitaker. It's called boxing, hitting your opponent without getting hit. Whether you're legging it while you do it is irrelevant.
Haye does what he has to do 3:33pm on 08 Nov 2009 Tom - No, not lazy, just right. Hide and Akinwande were WBO 'world' champions at a time when none of the top fighters considered it worthwhile to fight for. It was pretty much the same as claiming to be a world champion now if you own the WBU belt. Right, got a plane to catch... bye!
Haye does what he has to do 12:19pm on 08 Nov 2009 dmseiir - Come on kid, try a little bit harder, you can work it out.

A quick point on Jim Watt. So he didn't see the fight as many of you saw it, there's really no need to stick the knife in. People see fights different ways, and the guy's a former world champion and we should at least respect his opinion, whether it tallies with yours or mine or not.

As for all those accusing Haye of "running", I would never come on here and suggest you don't know about boxing, just that you have a differing opinion, but I would like to ask: how exactly would you have liked Haye to have fought? Standing toe to toe just to fulfill the wishes of the baying crowd? Beating up Valuev for eight rounds before walking onto one? And then perhaps you can tell me when exactly Valuev landed a punch of note. Just walking forward for 12 rounds does not win you points. From my position ringside, Haye landed significantly more punches, snappier punches, and more hurtful punches.

exiledpolish - "An opinion blog is fair enough, but when sports news is being coloured by the writers pre-formed opinion of the fight it becomes pathetic journalism. Why not just give it to the Haye PR machine to write?" Desr oh dear, I'd hate to be there when someone disagrees with you about something that actually matters. Were you also on here accusing me of bias when I said Joe Calzaghe was beaten by Hopkins? And were you one of those calling me a "disgrace to my profession" for thinking the American beat "our boy"? It's boxing, it's a game of opinions, and I strongly believe that Haye won that fight by some distance. Oh yeh, and funnily enough, two of the judges agreed!

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

Ben Dirs - BBC Sport