the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Charlie Magri v Eleconcio Mercedes, terrific fun, two excellent fighters throwing big bombs.

 

Colin Jones D12 Milton McCrory

I think the reactions of the two fighters at the decision tells the story here. Jones celebrated like he had won, McCory was devastated. On the other hand it's a little more complicated.

A great fight described by the styles of the two men, Jones an enormously tough swarming puncher with low volume, McCory a box-mover with a stiff jab. I thought McCrory looked really good here, a little left hand happy and leaning in on occasion with lunging punches, but for the most part a very decent techie with a schooled straight lead and fine footwork. Jones did exactly what he said he wasn't going to do, and ceeded the early rounds to his American opponent, but he also forced McCrory to change his own plan. Determined to stay in and out-fight the Welshman he instead had to get up on his bike and run for large chunks of the fight. Jones was absolutely impossible to discourage, swallowing everythying that was thrown at him, and McCrory had some punches, left hook to the body and jab upstairs are standouts, but the straight right and a sneak uppercut also made an impact.

It looked like being a fight very much of two halves, but McCrory did manage to pinch the 8th on the run (whatever the hugely biased Carpenter commentary might lead us to believe) and also rallied beautifully in the 11th and 12th, despite looking out of it, to take those rounds on my card.

Speaking of which, my card is wider than even the judge that scored for McCrory and the considerable heart and grit Jones showed probably entitled him to more. Still, you score the rounds and not the fights I guess.

JONES: 6,7,9,10

McCRORY: 1,2,3,4,5,8,11,12

8-4 McCrory

 

Nah, I don't know much about him at all. I do have that fight though, so hang fire i may get it uploaded.

 

Larry Holmes TKO11 Renaldo Snipes.

I like Snipes. I like his face in the corner between rounds. He looks like he's going to cry. I'm not denigrating him though, this was some brave effort, he came to fight and he almost made it work. That punch in the seventh must have been as hard as Holmes would ever be hit, the Shavers moment aside? It was a really strange KD also, the slow-motions sinking into a kind of half-splits.

I also don't like the talk of Holmes taking Snipes lightly, particularly. His right-hand looked extremely sharp, uppercuts and the right hook coming square off that punch. Snipes was just inspired. Holmes was ready for his "Buster Douglas" moment though, and he has better recovery than Tyson, which made all the difference. He was ready to domnate slightly in the very next round.

Good fight. I got no problem with that stoppage. Snipes was taking that right hand flush, and although Holmes didn't look like he was rushing that's worse, not better. He measured Snipes for every one of those horrible punches. If it had gone on a little, I could have got on board with that, but i've no problem really.

 

Sugar Ray Leoanrd KO3 Bruce Finch

"As one-sided as a lynching" according to the rather colourful commentary...

Leoanrd showed all his punches here and was in scintillating form. This is how you do it against inferior opposition. A beautiful moment in round two where Leonard allowed himself to be steered to the ropes and pinned before dropping a sharp combination on a totally beffudled Finch who went into reverse faster than he would have done had he...walkedi in on a lynching I guess you could say?

Also noteworthy for the type of intimate and direct pep talk that made Dundee famous. "Do your thing and this kid'll fall apart." It sounds inadaquete, a platitude, but as was so often the case, he was quite right.

 

Colin Jones KO2 Hans-Henrik Palm

Great performance from Jones and he shows a really nice snapping jab in one but Palm maybe starts the second round better and finds his stride before Jones just cracks out an absolute beauty of a left hook and Palm is gone. Jones shows some cracking punches to close the show ripping in all kinds of hard shots to close the blinds. Real nice miniature.