By Scott Gilfoid: Former British cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff will be making his pro debut tonight against 23-year-old American Richard Dawson (2-0, 1 KO’s) on a scheduled 4 round fight at the Manchester Arena, in Manchester, UK on the Denton Vessell vs. Ronnie Heffron card.
Flintoff, who resembles a skinny beanpole, is going to find out the hard way tonight why it’s not a good idea for an athlete to suddenly change sports and turn pro without an amateur background. That’s not how you do it, and I expect Flintoff to get knocked out cold tonight.
Even British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion David Price questions the logic of this move by Flintoff, saying to the Dailymail.co.uk “What he is doing is disrespectful to boxing, especially if it turns out to be a farce on the night.”
I agree with Price. It doesn’t look good for boxing to have guys turn pro, get a lot of attention because of their popularity in another sport, and then come out and likely put on a poor performance. No will blame Flintoff for looking poor and getting knocked out tonight, but it’s still not good for the sport to have guys turning pro without the experience.
In watching Flintoff shadow box I was struck by how slow, upright and weak looking he appeared. Flintoff just looks like a knockout waiting to happen, and nothing like a boxer at all. To me, Flintoff looks like a cricket player masquerading as a boxer. It’s a bad idea and I hope he doesn’t get too hurt tonight.
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