the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

I agree, because he fought over 15 rounds - he did lose that fight because he was old, however, IMO. That is, I'm presuming he would have had more left in 14 and 15 if he was 30.

On the other hand, so did Hopkins, but taking Calzaghe to the wire at that age is insane. Not that Torres is a big silly or anything, but a younger southpaw volume puncher is hideous opposition for an old bas.

 

MATTHEW SAAD MUHAMMAD UD15 JOHN CONTEH

1: Damn, when you don't see Conteh for a while you forget how glorious his left hand was. It was almost unique the way he "stuck" the punch to the opponent's face. It's not a thumper of a punch but it just sticks right where he wants it, that is accuracy married to range right there, he doesn't waste many, it looks the same whenever he throws it from that distance, but he goes up and down with enough exquisite timing that that doesn't matter. You know when he shortens it up (he does so once in this round) it's going to be a sick puppy of a punch. Muhammad lands the harder stuff here but a lot of his work isn't getting through. He does land a beast of a right hand behind Conteh's elbow though. You can tell that Conteh's defensive habit of ducking, covering, and leaning in is going to cost him as the fight progesses. CONTEH round.

2: Conteh is parrying very well, Muhammad wants to prod with this blinding jab and then use it to cover the right hand, which he is winging in, but he's telegraphing it and Conteh makes him miss by feet on one occasion. Muhammad might land a meaty right to the body, hard to see with the camera angle, but Conteh is happy to peck away with a double-jab to the torso, although he does trouble himself to land a single right-hand. CONTEH round.

3: Conteh is boxing very safety first considering how dominant he is, he's not dialling in on Muhammad's head at all, still pecking for the body, although he does land two cuffing power-punches in this round. Muhammad just misses and misses and misses. At the end of the round Muhammad menacingly closes to three-quarters for a spell and throws a lot of rough-house punches in a warning for what is to come. CONTEH ROUND.

4: That little surge was like the champion flipping a switch and he fights with new urgency in the fourth. Suddenly he's closed the range a bit and he lands two thudding right hands, one on Conteh's ear with the thumb part of the glove, one legitimate body shot which sounded rather horrible. Conteh sort of ups the urgency himself, but it's like he's urgently looking rather than doing. He does land a decent left and a smooth counter right but it's a MUHAMMAD round.

5: Now the champ sets out to mug Conteh, he's not looking any more, rather he's booming in the right hand. Conteh is still making him miss with almost every jab but he's also looking a tiny bit fragile in front of Muhammad's aggressive surges which usually contain a hard right hand gift for the scouser before they are over. Conteh even looks momentarily hurt on the ropes at the end of the round, but also seems reluctant to move. Nasty clash of heads at the end of the round. Tiring in the fifth spells a long night. MUHAMMAD round.

6: Sizzling reply from Conteh in this round, he seems to want to be more aggressive which basically means firing the right hand and he does this, but it's the left that bring him the round, two beautiful punches, one up, one down, both of them making Muhammad think again. He seems pensive and doesn't perform any meaningful rushes in this round which belongs to CONTEH.

7: Muhammad is bleeding above his left eye now and Conteh looks happy to risk targeting it. His right hand looks as beautiful as his left at times and this is one of those times as he gets close and then shoots it across his own upper body no distance at all, a hurtful punch, the type you see on Joe Louis highlights. Muhammad doesn't look hurt by these punches to me, but he looks legitimately inconvenienced, like he's not sure what to do with Conteh when he's cracking him like that. CONTEH now has a handy lead on my card, 5-2.

8: The fight has sort of flipped a bit, with Conteh aggressively stalking and blasting home his right while Muhammad rams him with a couple of really nice jabs. At the end of the round his throwing combinations of that jab, but I still feel that CONTEH shaded this close round...

9: Conteh fought the ninth with absurd caution but Muhammad does nothing either. Muhammad is now not throwing his right hand at all. He's just throwing the jab and he's short with most of them. Conteh throws almost nothing and when he does he's shoe-shining a bit with his left, the snap seems to have gone out of it a bit, but when he lands a cracking overhand right with seconds left in the round he nicks it. CONTEH round.

10: Finally Muhammad start to fight again and I thought he had Conteh hurt twice in this round, once with a hook, once with a right hand. Conteh gambled a couple of times with his own hard punches but he's not making it in this frame. I think Conteh tries a straight-up headbutt at the end of the round The whole fight is being decided on the outside, they've thrown one uppercut between them. MUHAMMAD round.

11: Eleventh feels like a very big round, although knowing what we know about fourteen, it's tempered a bit. Conteh seems to sense that same urgency and he starts brightly, staving Muhammad off with that shorter jab, pushing home a very decent right hand and once again snapping jabs at the mid-section. In the final minute though, Muhammad appears to buzz Conteh with a stinging left and Conteh's organisation departs for the remainder of the round; MUHAMMAD gets home with several left hooks to shade a close, crucial round.

12: Conteh starts the twelfth brightly, landing good jabs, but after about 80 seconds, Muhammad lands a booming right. He seems to be telegraphing less now by virtue of the fact that he is trying to land the left jab rather than paw/measure with it and it's crucial because this one-two is the difference maker. You can't outjab Conteh. Because he's the puncher, Muhammad takes the lead in the round with such a blow, although Conteh looks sprightly enough one moment later, dumping a second one-two attempt by Muhammad. When he lands two left hooks as the round winds down, Conteh's response is aggression and he forces his man back to the ropes with hooks of his own, evening up a tough tough round on the ropes with some half-blocked but crisp work. Muhammad comes lurching off the ropes and stumbles as he misses, he looks tired. The final twenty-five seconds are spent in a pair of meaningless tussles. I think i'll give the round to CONTEH based upon the work he did on the ropes, but it's as close as a round can be. So i have it 8-4 for Conteh after twelve.

13: Conteh misses countering opportunities as a tired Muhammad falls in with some of his punches and it costs him, as MUHAMMAD gets home some untidy right hands to take the round.

14: The last round really underlined how gruelling this fight is, lots of movement, swapping hurful punches, Muhammad winging his, Conteh throwing more. You do wonder what a bleeding cut on Muhammad might have done for Conteh, at least on my card. Anyway, this is the round in which he was dropped twice. The first one was hurtful, a left-right-left, Conteh's brain just didn't know it was hurt straight away, he just seemed to fall over when his legs failed to respond. Muhammad in the corner with his hands raised, turning to see Conteh somehow getting up is very like the same scene from the same round of Balboa-Creed I he looks so ****ed off when Conteh makes it. His big mangled illegally tended face looks a mess. Conteh bites down on his gumshield after Muhammad lands a left, he comes battling back when he should spoil, almost falling over as he tries to grab. Muhammad inevitably finds him again, with a double jab, and it's a 10-7 round for Muhammad and the fight is all square on my card. Conteh takes until nine, the referee looks for a second like he's going to call it, bell.

15: MUHAMMAD outfights an incredibly game Conteh in a shockingly tough round. They both look hellish at the end.

MUHAMMAD:4,5,10,11,13, 14*,15
CONTEH:1,2,3,6,7,8,9,12,

*Conteh down twice.

142-141 MUHAMMAD


Closer than I remember it (without having scored it), Conteh really impressive performance considering he's past prime, and more impressive overall by my reckoning. Still, Muhammad pulls it out with some good aggressive firing in the run in, it's significant that he won the 13th, 14th and 15th. Especially impressive because it's the first time he went 15. The only time. That for your first title defence and your first fifteen rounder, **** that.

 

MATE PARLOV SD15 JOHN CONTEH

The jaw on Parlov he looks like he could hold a shot from a train. He also looks a whole weight class bigger and has a hideous, difficult style as is apparent form the outset. Evil looking fight. I couldn't separate them in the first, probably me just not seeing what i'm looking at early doors tbf it's all a bit freaky. In the second, Parlov pretty clearly out-pecks Conteh for my money, and continues to out-jab and out-move him in the third and fourth. Plus, defensively, that giant forearm takes a lot of steam of Conteh's punches here and there. But Conteh, here in bizarro world, is reduced to out-throwing and out-fighting Parlov. Angelo Dundee made this call very early and fair play to him. No way for Conteh to do a Conteh on Parlov by the looks and I suspect he would have been a pain in the ass for Conteh at any point in his career. 2-1-1 Conteh after four.

The number of left hooks Conteh throws and misses between 5 and 8 is absurd. He must hit Mongov round the back of the head with that punch about ten times. Meanwhile, Parlov is landing his straight left from waaaaaay back yonder. For such a gangaloin he's an absurdly well balanced fighter, he finds a pitch really easily for his punches and Conteh is repeatedly taken by surprise. He looks befuddled, troubled, and is fighting far too fast in order to win these rounds. He adds to his own troubles by being a little too eager to get his head across by the referee's eye and loses a point in round eight. Still capable of the sublime such as the left hand feing, right hand punch he lands in five, he's also being out-generalled here. I have it 4-3-2 after eight, abd because Conteh loses a point in the eighth for heads, he's further behind than that looks.

Conteh turns swarmer to get back on top, which is weird. He tries everything, from glancing the left jab off the top of Parlov's head, to sort of hopping onto him with a pumping jab, but he never really gets that left going. So he's just trying to slip and slide his way inside and lash out hard punches, his bread and butter the left-hook to the body. He's like a crazy scouse-Mexican hybrid and it gets him back into a fight that I feel was slipping away a bit. 6-5-1 113-113 after twelve. Three rounds for all the marbles.

13: Parlov looks to be running away with it as he outlands the wild Conteh at mid-range, but Conteh rallies brilliantly and nearly knocks Parlov's headov with a bizarrely and newly uncorked uppercut. Parlov's mouthpiece gets knocked across the canvas as Conteh makes it three rounds on the spin.

The fourteenth round of the fight is missing on YT :twisted: So my card is incomplete. I thought Conteh had a better fifteenth but he had that point taken off, so I have have it 7-6-1 with an additional point off for Conteh...so that means the missing round is really important.

Anyone?


PARLOV:2,5,7,8*,10,14
CONTEH:3,4,6,9,11,12,13,
EVEN:1,15**

*Conteh has a point taken away for naughties with the head.
** Conteh has a point taken away for the forearm.

 

Yeah, I was aware I was going in a slightly different direction with these which is why I went into some detail. I think he did extremely well against Saad, as you can see. On the other hand, yes, Parlov is awkward as all hell and I think he out-generals Conteh pretty much, although Conteh's effort is brave in trying to change that hand back around.

 

Virgil Hill SD12 Henry Maske

Hill looks smooth and stylish in the first by my money. He boxes well, using an up-down left hand that is not dissimilar to Conteh's although he hasn't quite the elegance or the timing. HE makes a very fine impression doing it through four though, and I can't really see any of these rounds going to Maske. It's not just Hill's totally superior jab, or his total control of real-estate, it's also a sizzling right hand to the midsection that Hill seems totally unable to predict, block or counter. Essentially Maske is being outsped and he needs a feint, a punch he can tank in behind, a timed jab to take away or match Hill's, something. He forces one or two exchanges but they are never better than even.

It's a hell of an atmosphere considering this is a scrambling rush of a fight. Between 5 and 8, Maske shows signs that he is creeping back into the fight, and Hill looks tired both in the fifth and the seventh, like he might begin to struggle. Maske is such an automaton when it comes to pacing, he legitimately boxes in the twelfth as though it were the fourth. But Hill forages well, introduces a pot-shoting left hook and did enough to take a key eighth, making Maske look slow and confused as he was in the first five. It's his sixth round on my card - Maske needs to sweep 9-12 to take a draw on my card. Will not happen, but I think Maske may get the best of these final four maybe. He's a 15 round fighter I reckon.

Very impressive finish from Maske, although Hill doesn't help himself with running and grabbing and failing, really, to work. He does burn a lot of energy as a fighter but the way he gives ground in the eleventh is a bit embarrassing. Only by virtue of a very very close tenth does Hill win the fight on my card, 7-5, and that round was arguable and could have gone either way (like seven, which I scored to Maske in fairness). I'm honestly rather surprised that Hill got the decision. He definitely did not dominate Maske, ran for the eleventh and something like it in other spells, and most of all he relied upon a very dominant opening. How often do judges score 4 or 5rounds in a row to one fighter? You don't often see it they almost always toss in an odd round out here or there, especially with the weight of a crowd upon them. Very good judging won this fight for Hill IMO, nice to see the system working for once, of course - but Hill was lucky.

Draw is a good card.

MASKE:6,7,9,11,12.
HILL: 1,2,3,4,5,8,10.

7-5 HILL.

 

Virgil Hill SD12 Lou Del Valle

Hill gets tagged with a ridiculous punch in the second round and decked. He's developed this weird strategy of surging in against Valle behind a jab and a right hand, but the southpaw Valle is countering him again and again, all through the first two rounds. It's a bit weird, then, that Hill takes 3 and 4 using basically the same tactics. There are some differences though. He returns to the straight right to the body that pulled him through versus Maske, and he looks for the body more and more as Valle gives him the outside line, looking for the right and left hands below the elbow. Valle might also have become a little hypnotised laterally by looking for that counter-straight rather than just doing his work and waiting. Interesting to see Hill deal with a guy about as fast as he is.

This is not a great fight, but it's fascinating to see Hill work with this problem. He's being out-worked, Valle is about as quick, and he appears to have a left-hand that is just as dangerous (though he is crossing it, as a southpaw). Valle, for his part, is coming out aggressively to try to punctuate rounds he wins with aggression in the next, but gets countered to death. It's a tense, difficult affair and I would suggest that Hill has perhaps failed to solve Valle's sideways, scooped style but is good enough and owns enough experience to win the individual forays to make the fight very close - and certainly to punish his aggression. Hill wins the eighth which is a big, big round on my card making them 4-4 with Valle ahead on account of the KD.

Another fascinating Hill run in. He scoops the ninth and looks for all intents and purposes in the box seat for the run in, but Valle digs deep in the tenth and makes aggression work as a strategy for perhaps the first time. He bangs Hills head back with left hands throughout the first couple of minutes to win it clearly, taking the KD point into the last two rounds. Valle clearly edged the eleventh (They are almost identical on punches landed after this round by punchstats) and I thought Hill snuck home in a close twelfth. This makes Valle the winner on my card by virtue of the KD.

That is satisfying to me. I had two close rounds to Hill and none to Valle. OF course, with cards this close, any close card is ok - it's a question of who you like, i'm afraid, there were quite a few rounds where Hill appeared to outland Valle, and Valle appeared land the harder stuff.


HILL:3,4,5,8,9,12
VALLE:1,2*,6,7,10,11

114-113 Lou Del Valle

*Valle drops Hill with a really neat counter-left inside.

 

Virgil Hill SD12 Fabrice Tiozzo

It is odd to say about a fight where Hill drops Tiozzo with crackling jabs once in each of the first two rounds, but once again Hill appears underwhelming against a top 5 ranked guy. Tiozzo comes roaring back into this contest out-picking Hill in round 4 and then out-blasting him in a berserk round 5 where he looked momentarily to have Hill in bad trouble. Hill seems in total control for the first nine minutes, working that left hand with consistency and accuracy, throwing jabs, hooks, and a kind of narrow hook that looks almost like an uppercut, but in actual fact, Tiozzo (who probably is a bit underrated) is also landing rights, in fact there is damage to Hill's left eye after just a round.

Bad goes to disaster as Hill has points removed for alleged low blows in the sixth and the ninth. Certainly, he was harshly treated in the ninth. What all this adds up to is the narrowest of leads for Hill going into the tenth based entirely off those KD's in round one and two. Worse, Tiozzo, by this point, is just walking up to Hill and hitting him. Hill surely does get hit a lot for a "defensive specialist", something I don't think he is at all. Furthermore, a fighter with the requisite toughness seems able just to walk through him. Apart from the left-jab and some decent feinting (which does trouble Tiozzo a bit - Hill doesn't do it enough) he doesn't appear to be that much more skilled, and what advantages he does have are vanishing in the funk of Tiozzi's old fashioned determination, guts, and drive to win the fight in front of the home crowd.

Hill is expert at winning crucial rounds though, and eight and ten were both such rounds. They stopped a pervasive rot on his scorecard and gave him a meaningful lead going into the final two rounds. He needs these two points, as Tiozzo boxes brilliantly on the backfoot in the eleventh, albeit against a tired, discouraged opponent. I thought he stole the round making Hill lead, which is really surprising. I couldn't separate them in a wild, brutal, ludicrous twelfth with guys falling on each other winging in crazy punches, lunging, falling back and driving, it was pandemonium. I believe that means Hill wins by a point on my card, but who knows.

Probably, justice was done here as I wasn't sure about the ruling on low blows, and Tiozzo was definitely looking for them. But how the hell did Hill twice get decisions against European heroes in their own backyard with raucous crowds in attendance? A defensive fighter without power who backpedals the occasional round away to more aggressive opponents?

Strange Brew.

HILL:1*, 2*,3,8,10,
TIOZZO:4,5,6**,7, 11
EVEN:9**,12

*Tiozzo down from a jab.
**Point taken off Hill by referee.

 

Dariusz Michalczewski UD12 Virgil Hill

The first two rounds of this fight are Hill in microcosm. In the first, he out-touches MD,popping him with jab, cuffing with other punches. MD follows, gloves up, trying to dial in, but he's cutting off the ring with an urgency Maske, for example, couldn't muster. This already looks grim for Hill, IMO. In the second, DM is just walking up to Hill and hitting him. This is something i've seen repeatedly with Hill. Guys just flat out did not respect his power, and he didn't have the art to compensate for that when guys were dead game. Illustrative are the left hooks they exchange toe-to-toe. Hill places a perfectly targetted slap behind the right glove, on the ear, and DM bangs home a ******* of a punch on Hill's temple. Round decided.

Hill's solution is to go for volume. It has it's own problems for him this style because he tires and because he offers his generally more heavy-handed opponent opportunity. He takes the third on numbers, but DM out hits him in the fourth and beats him up in the fifth, a round in which Hill also (Reasonably) has a point taken from him for low blows. He goes punch-crazy in the sixth and lands enough leather to take the round, but DM lands the more hurtful blows throughout. DM is the most interesting of these two. Denies his own straight-backed Euro-history with a keen defensive stance combined with fast pressure and snappy punching. 3-3 after six with the low blow putting DM in the lead by a digit.

For all that i'v been generally unimpressed with Hill this week (and i've watched several fights I haven't scored here in addition to these, fights that end in a stoppage), I have been impressed with Hill the man. Thousands of miles from home (again), getting beaten up a bit, he is basically out-jabbed in the ninth having lost the seventh and the eighth. That's a disaster for Hill. He can't win a fight in which his opponent's left is as good or better. He starts to run but DM's pressure is quick and to Hill's credit he probably knew this. He threw so much leather he took the round. Out-fought and tactically moribund he found a way back into the round and the fight. This is part of what I mean when I say he has a knack for winning key rounds. Here, it doesn't matter. He loses the tenth as DM stalks, pressures, finds the right punch and that leaves Hill needing an extra point from somewhere.

Hill just made a career out of being fast and never going away. Impressive really. DM beats him pretty clearly here though. Shame he and Jones couldn't get together. I wonder how DM would have done with a fresher, faster Hill?

HILL:1,3,6,9
MICHALCZEWSKI:2,4,5*,7,8,10,11,12.

*Hill has a point removed for low blows.



116-111 MICHALCZEWSKI.

 

Dariusz Michalczewski UD12 Lee Barber

I remember Barber who did real good work in the UK in the nineties, defended his strap all over and though never overwhelmingly good, made the best of what he had - and he did fight his way into the Ring top five. He gets sweet **** all out of DM however, who beats him for the first time in five years and takes his strap

Barber definitely has his moments in the first four though, he boxes like a stylist with his right hand hanging, a little like Toney, and I think it perplexes the inexperienced DM a bit. Certainly, he has great success with it, two overhand rights in the first and a counter-right uppercut (to the left jab no less!) in the fourth the choice of his punches. There is a sense though that DM is starting to solve Barber though, getting his superior left to do the heavy lifting on the outside, then closing the distance on Barber (Who looks a weight class bigger) and fighting him up close. Middle rounds should be interesting.

DM dominates, as expected, closing and overhauling Barber's shallow lead courtesy mainly of his determination to find range. He's identified mid-range as his preferred theatre and he gets there over and over again to out-punch the bigger man in neat, controlled bursts. Barber doesn't go quietly though, and first tries to backpedal and jab his way back into the fight. It doesn't work. DM just comes in behind the left and there he is, popping up again. So in the eighth he tries to fight fire with fire in a great round boxed aggressively by both men, and I thought the American shaded it courtesy of that right. When he can get it working he is trouble. I still get a sense that DM will romp home though.

And that's basically what happens. Barber looks tired and peed off, he lands another low blow and for the second time has a point reasonably taken off; DM keeps that range and lands the better punches throughout.

DM seemed solid, unspectacular, but is organised with good pressure and a certain tactical courage. "Formidable" is probably the best word.

MICHALCZEWSKI:3,5,6,7*,9,10,11,12*
BARBER:1,2,4,8,

116-110 MICHALCZEWSKI

*Barber has a point rightly taken off for low blow.

 

VICTOR GALINDEZ UD15 EDDIE MUSTAFA MUHAMMAD

Ninth defence of Victor's strap.

1: Interesting to see Galindez literally just looking at his guy, he does try and snap a left hook to the body but really he's just peering in, clinches inside when he has an opportunity to work, throws almost nothing, allowing Muhammad to keep him on the end of the job. He's obviously more skilled offensively than he appears in this round so you have to presume that he is having a look. That's something you never see in the twelve round era, a guy ceding a round to take a peek. Muhammad doesn't do much himself, just pokes out that long left which he probably grazes enough to take a nothing round. MUHAMMAD round.

2: MUHAMMAD boxing brilliantly IMO. Galindez refuses to lead, but Muhammad refuses to be rushed. He just shows headmovement and remains very patient, out-prodding Galindez but taking absolutely no risks. It's boring and excruciatingly tense at the same time. Galindez may have to change a gear soon because Muhammad or someone in his corner has made a blinding read on him I think. I hope I don't end up with Muhammad winning this, I could use a Galindez card for my peace of mind

3: GONZALEZ nicks this round on the basis of three punches; a left-right as Muhammad tried to evade at close range and a lunging left in the final thirty seconds. In commentary Angelo Dundee speculated that Muhammad "got hurt" by the one-two, and although i'm not convinced, who am I to argue? Still, he looks steady enough, continuing to push with the jab, conserving energy, looking, presumably, to a late rally. The problem is he's not stretching the much more experienced Galindez in the meantime. At all.

4: Send you to sleep. Muhammad introduces bodypunching in the final thirty seconds and it looks like this will settle the fight. However, the first significant punch he lands is indicated as low by the referee. He lands another, but it is more slapping, before Galindez drives him to the ropes with flashing punches in the final seconds. Nobody won this round really, I hate giving even rounds post 60s, but there's no separating these. EVEN ROUND. The fight must emerge soon, they are both boxing with too much tension for it not to.

5: Sure enough, Muhammad comes out more aggressively and Galindez responds in kind and is getting the better of the exchange. Muhammad manhandles him a bit, Galindez retreats to the ropes, Muhammad hits him round the back and Galindez appears to want to complain to the referee - with Muhammad stood in front of him throwing punches. It's all themore extraordinary then, when having gone square and wide, Muhammad throws a right hand which Galindez slips, counters, and drops an off balance Muhammad to the canvas. He's unhurt; and they exchange hard punches at the same conservative pace as the opening rounds, but now looking to hurt each other 10-8 GALINDEZ

6:"Muhammad is not going to out tactic Galindez, Galindez has too much experience, he needs to fire," says Gil Clancy at the begining of this round but Galindez is so hard to fire against. Muhammad is doing a magnificent job of making Galindez miss. But he hasn't been coming back with much. I think he snuck this round with activity, with a very controlled aggression. Galindez looks as unnerved by Muhammad's style as Muhammd does by Galindez's. There is literally a punch in it but MUHAMMAD takes this round to even the fight on my card.

7: I scored the seventh for GALINDEZ and then Angelo Dundee said "Muhammad has had his best round so far" which was a bit of a bummer. But I'm going to stick to my guns and disagree with the great Dundee. Muhammad did have a good round. He made Galindez miss loads. But I didn't see a lot of punches. The memorable punches, to me, were thrown by Galindez, a right-hand over the top, a ragged tumble of punches while falling in to the bigger man at the bell (which, in fairness, happened after Angelo's comment). GALINDEZ round.

8: This is MUHAMMAD's best round of the fight. He's so relaxed in there, having dominated early he boxes beautifully in the final forty seconds to keep wily Galindez off him, using the ropes, footwork, a jab, a clinch to keep him from working his way back into the round. Early he dominated proceedings with an excellent counter-hook and a hurtful body attack. It's all square again.

9: Great round of boxing. Galindez is cut, the commentary team thought by a punch, the referee thought by a clash of heads. Either way, Galindez is furious. He hurls himself at Muhammad, attacking aggressively, throwing the bigger man back, physically, roughing him up inside with right hands, hurling in rocket-ship hooks from the outside. It seems a disaster for the champ, because the cut is apparently below the eyebrow but above the eye, but probably this is the motivation he needed to separate himself from a still calm Muhammad. GALINDEZ round.

10: Galindez still looks furious, and at the end of the round he taunts Muhammad with a "come on and fight!" gesture before edging forwards for the first time in the round. But it was inexplicable peace in our team, really. Galindez stopped fighting aggressively and it allowed MUHAMMAD to pop his way to an absolutely crucial round. So strange. Galindez dominates this one, I think Muhammad was beaten.

11: EVEN ROUND. Nothing interesting happens at all. It's frustrating because you feel this fight is there to be won for Muhammad. Easy for me to say, but in fairness, Clancy and Dundee are vocal in their descriptions of what they would have Muhammad do; nobody has anything to say about Galindez. That was the Galindez trap of course. Start punching and he'd drop you. Without being intimidated, Muhammad is just fighting so conservatively.

12: I'm finding this fight awfully hard to score. Partly this is becasue the two greatest minds in boxing history keep disagreeing with me. I'm sure they'd be saying something similar :yep Here, they seemed to admire the right hands that Muhammad was dropping, but I thought GALINDEZ out-worked him, I thought this was the busiest he'd been with his left hand in some time, I thought he landed a very hurtful punch to the body (to be fair, Clancy remarked upon this hit) and I thought he out-hustled Muhammad in the busiest round since Galindez got cut. This puts Galindez a single point ahead for me going into the championship rounds.

13:waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar1!!!! How did that happen? Galindez was doing well but then he landed a flagrant low bow on Muhammad who tried to retreat - the referee wasn't having it and motioned him back in. Naturally enough, Muhammad immediately hit Galindez in the ***** and Galindez went crazy. They lashed at each other for a crazy short spell, but the tragedy was that Muhammad had a point removed for his own low blow. That was unfair. GALINDEZ round.

14: This is what Muhammad should have been doing. He lands a great right hand as part of an aggressive stalk and hurts his man in doing so. It's probably too late for him now but it's good to see him bulldog Galindez at the ropes. MUHAMMAD round.

15: What looked like tactical brilliance to me early ends up looking like tactical ineptitude as Muhammad lets the last round trickle away trying nothing more than a couple of right hand leads to the head and a good right hand punch to the body. Worse, I thought he let GALINDEZ dominate the run in and probably shade the round. He must have been a frustrated man watching this tape.

GALINDEZ:3,5*,7,10,12,13**,15.
MUHAMMAD:1,2,6,8,9,14.
EVEN:4,11.

*Muhammad dropped.
**Muhammad has a point removed for low blow.

7-6-2 Galindez, a little wider with the KD and unfair point deduction.

 

148-147 | 147-146 | 147-145

These are the official cards, so if there was no low blow deduction (There shouldn't have been) you have a majority draw. That would have been good. That would have been the right result IMO.