the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Totally a pick em fight. Rahman would still be the naturally stronger guy but everything else i dont know

 

I would probably favour Shot Toney, because Shot Rahman has lost his once decent chin.

 

Just watched Benny Paret vs Luis Frederico Thompson II.

Lately I haven't been as into boxing as I was a few months back but this fight brought back all the love.

The fight starts off as a really brutal encounter with both guys just slugging it out, but by the mid rounds it morphs into an interesting battle of tactical and technical skills before it becoming a gutsy finish by both lads.

Thompson really impressed me here, as before I had only seen the Luis Manuel Rodriguez fight and Rodriguez just suffocated him, not allowing me to see much of Thompson. Here Thompson demonstrated a lovely laid-back relaxed style. He would stand in with Paret and just step or lean backwards to make some room then fire in some lovely well placed shots. His defence was so smooth and instinctive but with solid technical base, and his offence was lovely, especially the way he created room for his shots by switch hitting inside.

Paret showed his usual gutsy style but IMO could have done things differently. LMR just overwhelmed Thompson but Paret would get inside and stay in front of Thompson rather than try and swap him down with pressure, and in the later rounds Paret made a lovely shift onto the back foot and was forcing Thompson to lead then stepping in with his own counter-combo's but he slowly got away from this gameplan reverting to his plugging style.

I felt Paret took the earlier rounds with his workrate and occasional clean shot, Thompson was landing a lot just his punchers werent as impressive as Paret who disguised hard counters in with his flurries.

In the mid rounds Thompson took over with his fluid boxing. Lovely stuff here, although some rounds were close.

In the late rounds Paret nicked afew by going on the back foot but Thompson really tried to turn it on in the 13th by forcing Paret back but couldn't turn his effort into sucess and lost the last 3 because of it. Despite his goodintentions he ****ed it up abit.

However, I felt Thompson edged it but it really could have went either way.

Thompson: 2,4,5,6,7,8,10,12
Paret : 1,3,9,11,13,14,15
Total: 143-142 Thompson (8-7)

Here is SS's scorecard to compare

Luis Federico Thompson vs. Benny Kid Paret II: 144-142 Thompson
Paret: 1,3,5,9,10 and 12.
Thompson: 2,4,6,7,8,13.14 and 15.
Round 11 even.

 

Really nice read.

If Thompson were any more relaxed he'd be asleep.

Another fighter with that "casual technicianship" that I've enjoyed watching recently is Yama Bahama. I thought he did quite well against Emile Grifith and could have pipped it (though Emile did hurt him on quite a few occasions which I'm sure would see others giving him the fight) and against Joey Giambra, who I thought he schooled easily and effortlessly.

 

He is so relaxed, I couldnt help thinking how he'd do in todays amateur game it looks made for him.

I thought it was funny at times you had Paret going mental with flurries and Luis would just saunter back and throw an uppercut.

I'm watching Griffith vs Curvis right now, but I'll check out the Bahama fight after it.

An interesting fact on Griffith vs Bahama. Griffith was really terrified of fighting Bahama as his names rhymed, and after losing to Randy Sandy, he was scared to fight men with rhyming names. True Story.

 

An interesting thing about Thompson to me is his often extremely upright stance while being so casual and cute about everything.

His KO of Don Jordan is a peach worth seeing as well.

 

Griffith literally fought everyone out there, but ended up being scared of girls and guys with fruity rhyming names. Go figure.

The Bahama fight is one of the most watchable imo. Usually I find Griffith fights unpalatable with the way he simply imposes his strength on everyone and wins ugly, but there's a LOT of science in this one. Bahama starts wilting in the second half, but he does a nice lackadaisacal countering job in the first half.

 

Edwin Rosario v Jose Luis Ramirez I

Everyone talks about their 2nd fight but this is a real classic.

Chapo had a real mule's kick of a right hand but Ramirez being the weathered veteran, even at a relatively young age, ate it up and countered beautifully.

Rosario carried the first half of the fight but Ramirez came on in the 2nd half. Real contrast in styles - beautiful fight to watch. I think if it had of gone 15rds then Ramirez would have won by either TKO or decision.

This is a real afficianado's fight with the bonus of sustained action.

My copy is the ABC call with occasional Latin overdub between rounds - clear & sharp picture, very nice quality. Available for trade - my trading list can be found here :

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=27GAQFPN

 

Yeh he is quite upright, it leads to him swaying to avoid punches an awful lot, but rather than commit the cardinal sin of leaning back he tends to lean left and right.

He dosent seem to me to be a big puncher at all though. Would like to see this Jordan KO.

Crazy stuff.

I was just thinking about Griffith, he was a solid technician but when he struggled he tended to just impose himself, I see it in the Curvis fight. He's quite like Hopkins in this sense IMO.

I disagree that he is so bad to watch, I find most of his fights good.

Yeh, it is a really nice fight. Its weird how Rosario does amazing the first 6 rounds then just shuts off though, I felt it was a clear cut draw.

 

Probably the biggest reason I don't take to Hopkins either. Though with Bernard he often imposes himself through being a dirty **** more than using raw physical strength like Griffith (which makes it worse for me....)

I had Ramirez edging it, but it was obviously a fight of two halves and a draw ain't a bad result all things considered.

 

At times though you have to admie Griffith's imposingness, like in the Archer rematch. Griffith could be a dirty fighter too, he stuck his heid in against Curvis constantly. Really interesting fight seeing Griffith cope with a southpaw.

Could have went either way Ramirez vs Rosario I.

 

It sure is something that he could impose himself on heavier guys doing it, I'll give him that, but I still don't like it aesthetically.

 

Fair enough.

Just finished the Curvis fight, loved the way he worked the body in it. Curvis looked quite good but very tentative at times.

Also watched Ezzard Charles vs Bernie Reynolds, the KO was like something out of a Chaplin film, so over the top.

 

Watched Griffith vs Bahama II, as you say nice tactical battle.

The early rounds are really hard to score as Griffith is popping that jab and falling inside with nice shots and Bahama is countering lovel with his left hand and right uppercuts. I realy rate Griffith's jab and it is superb here, but to Bahama's credit hes jabbing with Griffith and holding his own. Bahama just edged most of the early rounds for me as he tended to do a bit more, and threw some sick body shots.

Griffith started to up it in the middle rounds and boxed a bit like Dick Tiger, in the way he came in with shots and fell into mid-range to land some harder counters. Griffith really showed his strength inside and hurt Bahama a few times, but it was still a close fihgt.

Griffith : 1,5,6,7,9,10
Bahama:2,3,4,8
Total: 96-94 Griffith (6-4)

 

Fury-Chisora, a good British heavyweight battle. :!:


I had it 10-2 for Fury. :happy