Well the good news is, I am a fully-licensed trainer.
What started as a great weekend with Friday's Prizefighter took a decided turn for the worse on Saturday with Newcastle getting beat at Sunderland, but at least ended well on Sunday.
Everything went OK when I got in front of the board - the brown envelopes must have had enough in them - and after getting my manager's licence 11 years ago, it is great to back involved, great to be a part of the big boxing machine once again.
Lomax: Prizefighter champion
I passed my first aid certificate (which is about the only thing I have ever passed in my life), so the whole process was fairly quick. In fact when it came for the questions at the end, Tommy Conroy chipped and said "I don't think there is any point asking Glenn anything. But is there anything Glenn wants to tell us"!
I kept quiet though and I am glad to have got that bit over. It's still exciting though and cannot wait for November 14 when I'm in the corner for the first time on the Kell Brook v Kevin McIntyre bill up in Glasgow. We're actually on first, but I guess you'll see me on Sky Sports at some stage that night - and you're bound to hear the bus-full of raving Geordies we're taking up there!
Buzzing
The atmosphere though, will do well to improve on the latest Prizefighter. I know a lot of people were not that impressed by the judging, but at least it made sure there was something going on, something to talk about.
Michael Lomax did and it has got to be said, he did well all night. He showed us a bit of everything. He was good in the first fight against Craig Dickson when he was cut, then did enough to make it messy against Wright and I thought he out-boxed Bami in the final.
Glenn McCrory
Quotes of the week
And the York Hall was buzzing again. From start to end, everybody was engrossed in the action and I can tell you no-one left before the end of the final. Having watched boxing for the last 19 years the one guide I always adopt is that if the crowd goes home happy, you can consider the night a success.
I do think Nigel Wright can consider himself unlucky not have been in the final at least. He feels he was robbed by the judges and he probably had a fair point.
I agree he has every right to feel agreed, but the other way of looking at it is he did leave it open to a mistake from the judges. The next bunch of Prizefighters would do well to go back to the amateur days when you knew there would be discrepancies and try and avoid it, or tried to make the most of it.
Three rounds can mean the judges will come under even more scrutiny. But it also puts the fighters under added pressure and if they weren't before, they should now know what they cannot do: they cannot afford to lose the first round.
It's hard enough turning the tide of a fight over eight or 10 rounds, never mind three. Get round one in the bag and your halfway there and we saw that with the first two heavyweight tournaments when the big boys tended to come out all guns blazing.
Formbook
The welterweights though did put a different slant on it and it was fascinating to see. People keep pointing out the favourite has never won, but that's makes it work.
For instance, if I said I had Brendan Foster and Steve Cram at their peak running a 200m race and asked you to predict a winner, you wouldn't have a clue. Yes they were both great runners, but great long or middle-distance runners. You wouldn't know who to back in a sprint, would you?
So when the next Prizefighter is on the night of Ricky Hatton v Paulie Malignaggi, you can get your formbook, rip it up and chuck it out of the window.
Michael Lomax did and, it has got to be said, he did well all night. He showed us a bit of everything. He was good in the first fight against Craig Dickson when he was cut, then did enough to make it messy against Wright and I thought he out-boxed Bami in the final.
He has given himself a chance of kick-starting his career and while Prizefighter might not do wonders for the reputations of established championship fighters like Wright and Bami, for people like Lomax, it gives them a little bit more attention and a chance to get back on track.







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