the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Mayweather vs Castillo II

I never ever took the time previously to watch this fight. I was always fascinated by the robbery debating of the first fight and assumed by Floyd winning a UD in the rematch that it was automatically a dominant and uninteresting fight to go ahead and watch.

I had it right as the 1 judge did I had it 116-112 as opposed to 116-113. I felt I was somewhat generous to Castillo so I was shocked to see the 115-113 scores.

Floyd 1-3
Castillo 4-7
Floyd 8-12
Final: 8-4 or 116-112 Mayweather

Interesting fight, Floyd started out very mobile using the whole ring and jabbing the head and body. He moved so much Castillo would at times miss and fall all the way across the ring lunging. However Floyd did not capitalize on these missed shots and was content to move way out of range.

Castillo I had win all of his 4 in a row where it seemed Floyd decided to stand his ground and let Castillo frequently get off first. He landed so many clean headshots in comparison to other Floyd fights. He did a lot of holding with the right arm and hooking the body with the left arm. De La Hoya employed the very same tactics in their much later fight. he also began to jab his way in using 2 to 3 jabs to then get to the body, again very similar to the De La Hoya fight. It also reminded me of the Hatton fight as Castillo fearlessly came in in straight lines looking to get physical inside, he had pretty fast feet and was pretty good at closing the distance on a less mobile Floyd.

From round 8 on Floyd decided to continue to stand his ground more than he did in the first 3 but brought back the movement he lacked in 4-7 and as Castillo appeared to be surging Floyd suddenly became aggressive coming in with sharp right hand leads. I dont know if he spent the early fight showing too much respect and adjusting, used his defense to tire Castillo, or if he laid back to study Castillo and pounce. He fought a near flawless fight not losing another round on my card.

I want to say having seen Floyd's many big fights I wonder about the breaks he takes in some fights. He did this clearly vs Castillo and very clearly vs De La Hoya another fight I revisited recently. He also did it vs Cotto in that round 6-8 area.

I was wondering if he isnt quite the 12 round fighter conditioning-wise his biggest fans make him out to be considering the way he can shell up and limit himself to single shots. Or does he use his defense to tire guys out by letting them tee off on shoulders and elbows and waste their ammunition. definitely seemed like his corner was telling him to do this vs Oscar and was something Merchant continued to discuss as the fight went on, hell he did in the McGregor fight. Or is Floyd just using these breaks to let guys get off with shots to find patterns and flaws only to pounce?

Might be an interesting discussion to have, though not in the general, its too tribal over there to discuss Floyd objectively

 

Lewis v Mercer

R1 Lewis 10-9 Mercer (close but Lewis)
R2 Lewis 9-10 Mercer
R3 Lewis 10-9 Mercer
R4 Lewis 10-9 Mercer (excellent action)
R5 Lewis 9-10 Mercer (very close round)
R6 Lewis 9-10 Mercer (scrappy, holding)
R7 Lewis 10-9 Mercer
R8 Lewis 9-10 Mercer (excellent but difficult to score - Lewis busier, Mercer with the more eye catching flurries)
R9 Lewis 10-9 Mercer (very close round)
R10 Lewis 10-9 Mercer (close but Lewis)
Total: Lewis 96-94 Mercer

Terrific fight that could have gone either way. Mercer was the one pressing the action but Lewis was generally busier, worked the jab well and fought well off the back foot. He also used single shots to the body at the end of combinations effectively, particularly in the earlier rounds. Mercer threw more power shots but they didn't land all that frequently but he started being more successful with his jab as the fight wore on. But it was Lewis who picked his punches better and my overall impression was that he edged it. I avoided even round scoring but several rounds were very close (5, 6, 8 and 9) and the fight could have gone either way depending on how you score those.

 

Jel, a good tough one and close. Here's how I had it.

Round 1: 10-9 Mercer
Round 2: 10-9 Lewis
Round 3: 10-9 Lewis
Round 4: 10-9 Lewis
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Mercer
Round 7: 10-9 Lewis
Round 8: 10-9 Lewis
Round 9: 10-9 Mercer
Round 10: 10-10 Even

Total: 97-95 Lewis

Jel, we both had Lewis the winner by 2 points, yet, agreed on only four rounds. Realistically, I can see a few different versions of this fight on anyone's card. Very close. Official scores 95-95, 96-95 and 96-94 for Lewis on a majority decision.

 

Well done, that was my score. 6-4 for Lewis. A 5-5 draw is acceptable. Lewis left the ring with a swollen / black eye.

There was no re-match. Lewis did not give them to Bruno or Klitschko either. Had this been 12 rounds, I think Lewis wins as he showed his class in the two final rounds.

 

It was a good fight, with Lewis landing his own lottery type of punch. Bruno was up and down mentally for sure, but if the money was there, who is anyone to say he would not take the re-match?

Bruno did not retire after Lennox Lewis. He went on to beat Oliver McCall in 1995, the same McCall that took out Lennox in two rounds, and at that time the loss to McCall was not avenged until 1997 by Lewis.

So a 1996 Bruno vs McCall match would been very big. I think the demand in the USA and the UK would be there for the fight.

 

Okay sure, the UK fans would not be gushing over a re-match between Lewis and Bruno having one of the belts by beating the one man who defeated Lewis.

Don't act like you know which calls were made. Tyson was selected for Bruno instead. If you have something on record where Bruno said in 1995 or 1996 he wasn't interested in the re-match with Lewis, then you'll have a real point.

So until that point is produced, back to the scoring thread...

 

Yet Bruno re-matched Tyson? Tyson did much better vs Bruno than Lewis did, and everyone knew Tyson would KO him in the re-match. So tell me why this re-match happened? You can't. History shows there was a re-match.

Lewis was still viewed as a flawed fighter back in 1995, with balance issues and a suspect chin. Frank was winning that one until Lewis landed a hook in retreat. I'm not sure if Lewis eyes were even on the target when he threw the punch to end it.

 

Aburius, thanks for putting me onto this. Really enjoyed this until the 14th and 15th rounds which became clinch-fests. But here we go, 5 point must system in effect.

Round 1: 5-4 Harada (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 5-5 Even
Round 3: 5-4 Caraballo
Round 4: 5-4 Caraballo
Round 5: 5-4 Harada
Round 6: 5-5 Even
Round 7: 5-4 Harada
Round 8: 5-4 Caraballo
Round 9: 5-4 Caraballo
Round 10: 5-4 Harada
Round 11: 5-3 Harada (Caraballo loses a point for excessive holding)
Round 12: 5-4 Caraballo
Round 13: 5-4 Harada
Round 14: 5-4 Harada
Round 15: 5-4 Harada

Total: 70-66 Harada

Good tactical fight until the late rounds, which as I said became a bit of a clinchfest. I agree with what you said about Caraballo not throwing punches when he had things going his way. The first round is the only one where I really have to explain. Harada scored a knockdown late in the round, which may have some scoring it as a 2 point round for Harada. However, I felt that was arguably the best round of Caraballo (even though he lost it) after having stunned Harada about three times during the round. I just could not give Harada a 2-pointer. I gave him the round, but just.

 

Tony Thornton v. Ismael Negron

Round 1: Negron 10-9

Thornton dominates but suffers a flash knockdown

Round 2: Thornton 10-9
Round 3: Thornton 10-9
Round 4: Thornton 10-9
Round 5: Thronton 10-9
Round 6: EVEN

Fight stopped between the 6th and 7th rounds because of a cut over Thornton's left eye

I had Thornton ahead 59-56 at the time of the stoppage.

 

Mando Ramos v Sugar Ramos, 1970

R1 Mando 10-9
R2 Mando 10-9 (very close)
R3 Sugar 10-9 (Mando cut, could easily have scored it the other way for the final seconds flurry from Mando)
R4 Mando 10-9
R5 Mando 10-9 (pretty even, but more eye catching flurries from Mando)
R6 Sugar 10-9 (again, very close round)
R7 Sugar 10-9 (great round!)
R8 Mando 10-9
R9 Sugar 10-9 (great round!)
R10 Mando 10-9
Total: Mando 96-94 Sugar

Fantastic fight that got better and better as it went along. I had Mando comfortably ahead at the halfway point although the fight was more competitive than my 4 rounds to 1 lead for him suggests.

Mando was cut in the third round and it got worse and worse as Sugar stepped up the pressure in the second half, until there was an inspection by the doctor at the start of the 9th. When things resumed, Sugar went for the knockout and battered Mando around the ring but he somehow not only held on but fought back. I figured Sugar needed either a knockdown in the final round or at least another round like the 9th but Mando fought his smartest round of the fight and clearly won it.

All in all, a great fight!

 

Ramos v Ramos

California scoring in effect. 1 point for a winner of the round, an additional point if a knockdown is scored and no points for an even round.

Round 1: Mando
Round 2: Mando
Round 3: Even
Round 4: Sugar
Round 5: Mando
Round 6: Mando
Round 7: Sugar
Round 8: Sugar
Round 9: Sugar
Round 10: Mando

Total: 5-4 Mando Ramos

From rounds 3 to the end there is only minimal commentary due to the west coast TV station having to switch to the news and they would comment only sporadically. Love this war! Jel, we agreed on 6 rounds, I had one even and we disagreed on rounds 4, 6 & 8. But that's not a biggie due to the closeness of each round.