Okey dokey Okey Ko !

ODD-JOB

Good shot old chap - Dean francis was 20/1 at one stage !!! What a scrap :eek:

Anybody watching it ?

Big Ears

Normally I'd watch any Friday Fight night , but I was only after coming back from a match and felt too knackered to bother going down the stairs

I thought 'ah it will probably be pretty average anyway' , some are describing it as British fight of the year :mad:............

foams

Great fight, they were killing each other, Francis had
very accurate shots ,a great finish.

Hero Of College

Francis messed up by getting jailed, he reminds me of Haye, that time he said that if Calzaghe walked into a room that he wouldn't even bother to say hello to him. He could have had massive money fights at 168.....now he's earning a pittance at 175.

Big Ears

I got round to watching the fight(well from rounds 4-9) , and it was indeed very entertaining .

Hero I think Francis' biggest problem has been his shoulder , if not for that I reckon he would have got himself a World title at some point . He's basically a one handed fighter who's quite a bit past his best nowdays , and when he's still good enough to be British and Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight champion like that it tells you how good he was .

Hero Of College

Big Ears wrote: »

I got round to watching the fight(well from rounds 4-9) , and it was indeed very entertaining .

Hero I think Francis' biggest problem has been his shoulder , if not for that I reckon he would have got himself a World title at some point . He's basically a one handed fighter who's quite a bit past his best nowdays , and when he's still good enough to be British and Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight champion like that it tells you how good he was .

He dislocated his shoulder against a guy called Undra White- who later went on to get beaten by Vinny Paz. After that I think he did a stint on the inside.

Big Ears

Hero Of College wrote: »

He dislocated his shoulder against a guy called Undra White- who later went on to get beaten by Vinny Paz. After that I think he did a stint on the inside.

Ya I think he did have some time in prison , but the problem was in his comeback(the originals one) his shoulder kept coming out .

Over 5 years ago he fought Matthew Barney for the British title down at Super-Middleweight , it came out again(early) but most felt Francis still did enough to win .

Francis demoralized by the shoulder situation went away for a while , and returned less than 3 years ago . On his comeback the shoulder came out again against Tommy Eastwood for the English Cruiserweight title , Francis still won and probably wider than the score suggested .

Adam Smith said last night that it has come out 4 times since it happened against Undra White , so that shows you how much of a problem it's been .

Sure a prison spell wouldn't have helped either but had it not come out against Barney(or after that) his career could have been very different .

Hero Of College

Big Ears wrote: »

Ya I think he did have some time in prison , but the problem was in his comeback(the originals one) his shoulder kept coming out .

Over 5 years ago he fought Matthew Barney for the British title down at Super-Middleweight , it came out again(early) but most felt Francis still did enough to win .

Francis demoralized by the shoulder situation went away for a while , and returned less than 3 years ago . On his comeback the shoulder came out again against Tommy Eastwood for the English Cruiserweight title , Francis still won and probably wider than the score suggested .

Adam Smith said last night that it has come out 4 times since it happened against Undra White , so that shows you how much of a problem it's been .

Sure a prison spell wouldn't have helped either but had it not come out against Barney(or after that) his career could have been very different .

Once the shoulder comes out, thats that. Its like a broken chassis in a car...you might as well toss it away. Its scrap. You can recover from a knee injury, an ankle injury, hand problems, but the hip and the shoulder will plague you for good once they arise. Its a pity- but he blew his shoulder out fighting someone called Undra for what I believe was the IBF Intercontinental title at 168. Bad luck.

megadodge

I think Francis is the biggest waste of talent (from a British perspective) of all time.

He was an excellent boxer, with a big punch in either hand, intelligent, durable, well conditioned and confident. His shoulder (not the prison spell) was his undoing and even fighting one-handed way past his best he can still win titles.

He would definitely have won a 'world' title of sorts and could have been a major, major force at super-middle. Shame.

Hero Of College

megadodge wrote: »

I think Francis is the biggest waste of talent (from a British perspective) of all time.

He was an excellent boxer, with a big punch in either hand, intelligent, durable, well conditioned and confident. His shoulder (not the prison spell) was his undoing and even fighting one-handed way past his best he can still win titles.

He would definitely have won a 'world' title of sorts and could have been a major, major force at super-middle. Shame.

I always liked the look of him. He fought a guy called Mark Baker {from Sidcup} a Gypsy brawler, allegedly, and DF was 2 points down going into the last round. He found the punch to pull it out. He was a big muscular banger who could end it, early, late.

However, he had a hint of the David Hayes about him- his comment about not talking to Calzaghe if he walked into the room was typical of a man whose head was just not wired for making the grade. People forget that Joe burst his arse to make the grade and then put up with his own injuries.

Of course, the shoulder didn't help. You can work on a cut in the corner, but a shoulder.......game over.:(

Big Ears

Hero Of College wrote: »

Of course, the shoulder didn't help. You can work on a cut in the corner, but a shoulder.......game over.:(

While I do agree with you , tell that to Danny Williams . For a fighter who is mentally quite weak it's amazing how Williams has such a big heart .

Hero Of College

Big Ears wrote: »

While I do agree with you , tell that to Danny Williams . For a fighter who is mentally quite weak it's amazing how Williams has such a big heart .

They didn't actually do any work on the shoulder. He was given the 3 mins and told to take him out. Which, of course, he did. Leading Boxing Monthly to suggest that Williams was maybe a bigger more explosive puncher than Vitali Klitschko.

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