False Panics! - Fights that are perceived to be close, but really weren't

I definitely remember being surprised when I watched Holmes v Norton as I thought Holmes was comfortably ahead going into the last round. How the judges made it so close was baffling.

The reverse case for me was Chavez v Taylor where I thought the fight was much closer than I'd been led to believe. I still thought Taylor was ahead but there were some very close rounds and Chavez was definitely landing the more telling punches. Taylor's combinations were flashy so they were more eye catching but Chavez's were more damaging as proved to be the case. Harold Lederman's scorecard was almost ridiculously one-sided as he had it a virtual shut out for Taylor after 11 rounds.

 

Frazier vs Ali 2

1974-01-28 : Joe Frazier 209 lbs lost to Muhammad Ali 212 lbs by UD in round 12 of 12

• Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Tony Perez 5-6
• Judge: Tony Castellano 4-7
• Judge: Jack Gordon 4-8

• NABF Heavyweight Title (1st defense by Ali)

 

Marcel vs Gomez (first fight) and Shibata. He really handled them both but got a robbery draw against Shibata and was only awarded a majority decision against Gomez I believe. I didn't think the Arguello fight was as close as some do either; Marcel really rallied down the stretch in that one and beat Alexis at his own game despite looking to have been tiring in the middle rounds.

 

Yeah I agree completely on Chavez vs Taylor. (Incidentally, that's the very first fight I ever intently watched all the way through, as a little kid.)

I was always baffled by the people outraged at the stoppage, as it requires them to employ an explicit double standard for when technicalities should or shouldn't matter:

"Hey, Taylor was technically ahead on points, so clearly any reasonable person has to disregard that there was technically two seconds on the clock."

Supposedly Steele was therefore obligated (ethically?) to overlook the obvious fact that Taylor was technically unfit to continue. It never ceases to amaze me how people will insist on splitting only the hair that suits them.

 

Mayweather McGregor was a perfect example of this, McGregor had no chance and was played with and walked down

 

I didn't think Lomachenko-Russell was close at all, the cards were a bit baffling in that one.

 

The referee's prime responsibility is to protect the fighter(s).

 

Hagler-Duran. Nunn-Barkley? I completely agree re: Holmes-Norton.

 

How did you score it? Pretty sure I had Taylor winning the first 8 rounds.

Biggest reverse case for me was Duran-Leonard I, a very close fight.

 

Erik Morales vs In Jin Chi. Plenty of people scored it a draw or a win for Chi some even saying it was a robbery. It was a close fight but I thought that Morales' tactical superiority allowed him to net enough closely fought round to clearly win.

I think people's opinions were shaped by the fact that Morales looked burnt out/jaded for the second fight in a row and that he was struggling with a lightly regarded opponent. Of course Chi would later prove he had world class ability, even though he never accomplished as much as his formidable abilities could have managed.

 

I watched it again the other day and although I didn't actively score it, I did think Taylor was well ahead in the first half of the fight but as the fight moved into the second half, my impression was that Chavez was landing more frequently than in the previous rounds and with harder punches than Taylor. By the ninth Taylor's blows just weren't popping as much. I think some of those rounds were in the balance and could have been awarded to Chavez. By the 10th, Chavez was definitely edging the rounds and the 12th was a two point round had there been no stoppage.

My point is that not giving Chavez a single round going into the final round almost shows a willful ignorance to what Chavez was achieving in there - a gradual accumulation of punishing punching (as was his style). Richard Steele himself said that he could tell that Chavez's punches were having a damaging effect even quite early in the fight. Of course, if it were the 15 round era, there'd have been no controversy because there would have been no way Taylor would have made it to the final bell, even without the stoppage in the 12th.

I thought the judging was actually close to perfect on Duran-Leonard. Two scored it by one point to Duran and one by two points so it was a very close fight as reflected in the scoring but the right outcome.

 

Duran/Leonard 1 in Montreal. I would also say that Duran/Hagler wasn't as close as the judges had it. I thought Marvin won by a few rounds.

 

McGregor took arguably 4 rounds off Floyd before he gassed and the supposed ATG took over. Floyd looked terrible and embarrassed the sport of boxing.