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Just to spin off from the discussion about Liston vs Marciano - watching Poet's link to the Machen vs Liston fight made me think about how fight commentary has changed since it first emerged on television.
I don't know about anyone else but whilst I do enjoy good analysis (I emphasised the word good because often what I hear is anything but - especially from SKY TV) there are times when I wish they'd just shut the hell up and let me watch the fight. Poet's link was kind of jarring (in a great way) because the commentator was prepared to only to open his mouth when he had something relevant to say. For long periods there are these comfortable silences which allow you to concentrate on the action and not be distracted by inane babble.
These days it almost seems as if fight broadcasters are being paid by the word. Worse still, many treat the viewer as if he is some kind of idiot by emphasising some facet of the fight which would be obvious to someone who is both blind and deaf!
It is interesting watching the Liston fight because the long periods of silence allow you to hear what both the trainers and the fans are shouting. For instance, he didn't have to mention Liston was a socially ostracised character because it's clearly noticeable that everyone in the building is rooting for Machen.
It may sound stupid but this has always been a bugbear of mine. The fact that commentators (not to mention just about everyone who appears on TV these days) feel compelled to fill every available nanosecond with speech (no matter how trivial, nonsensical or just plain silly) says something about the needy society we live in where people are increasingly losing the power of independent thought and rely on others to do their thinking for them.
I don't really want to start another "favourite commentator" thread because they are legion but I will say that I always enjoyed ITV's Reg Gutteridge precisely because he chose his words carefully, spoke sparingly and with gravitas and most of all - didn't treat me like some kind of dribbling moron.
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