“He’s well past the again 9. He’s shot. I believe that he has delusional tendencies,” Glaser mentioned to Tru Faculty Sports activities. “They pay him some huge cash.”
Glaser additionally rejected a viewer’s suggestion that Kellerman was merely delivering speaking factors equipped by Zuffa brass.
“I don’t consider that,” Glaser mentioned. “I believe they’re all popping out of Max’s mouth.”
That’s the place Glaser could be overlooking the plain. Kellerman has spent a long time protecting boxing with out pulling punches. His willingness to talk candidly has at all times outlined his broadcasting persona. But his therapy of Zuffa’s featured prospects has been noticeably extra beneficiant.
Nobody must be shocked {that a} commentator working a Zuffa occasion isn’t spending the published tearing down the expertise the promotion desires to show into headliners. Kellerman is a part of the tv product.
The actual concern is simply how far the promotional push goes.
Callum Walsh is just not Roy Jones Jr. His current outing in opposition to Tyler Denny uncovered technical deficiencies that make the comparability unworkable. Walsh stays solely too upright, pulls straight again in a straight line along with his chin uncovered, and lacks the fluid upper-body motion that made Jones just about untouchable in his prime. Towards Denny, Walsh obtained tagged repeatedly, suffered a knockdown, and was compelled to grind out a full ten rounds in opposition to a domestic-level fighter he was imagined to blast out.
That efficiency is miles beneath what the elite fighters produce round these divisions. Match Denny in opposition to Jaron Ennis, Sebastian Fundora or Vergil Ortiz Jr., and it’s troublesome to image him surviving deep into the combat. At that stage, Denny would have far much less alternative to use defensive holes and hold round lengthy sufficient to attain a knockdown.
Broadcasters recurrently enhance the house expertise on their community. The issue begins when the reward turns into so excessive that it turns into troublesome to take significantly.
Kellerman possesses the boxing recall to make almost any historic parallel sound plausible for a quick stretch. He pulls up names, types and traditional bouts quicker than nearly anybody within the enterprise. That depth of data is exactly why inserting Walsh in the identical sentence as Jones carries extra significance coming from him.
Glaser views the commentary as proof that Kellerman has misplaced his fastball. That evaluation misses the mark. The sharper critique is that Kellerman is solely laying it on too thick.
Zuffa desires Walsh and its different featured fighters to develop into real sights. There’s nothing uncommon about Kellerman emphasizing their strengths. The difficulty comes when showcasing a prospect’s upside turns into measuring him in opposition to Roy Jones Jr. earlier than his ring work warrants something near that comparability.
Till Walsh begins destroying fighters he’s imagined to destroy, invoking Roy Jones does extra to reveal the gap between the 2 than elevate Walsh.
