Johnny Tapia vs Danny Romero Man this was as much fun rewatching a fight as have had in a while. The crowd and atmosphere in Albuquerque was electrifying. round 1 was as quick of a start as you could hope for. Johnny’s speed and reflexes are the story of the fight. He is so smooth, comfortable and confident bordering on arrogant but I always find his showmanship entertaining. Romero takes about 4 rounds to settle in and ultimately the difficulty he had figuring Tapia out both early and late, sealed the deal. Danny said he wanted to hurt him so bad and stop him that he loaded up...I think whether that was him or the generally fight strategy it played into Tapia’s strengths. Danny practically neglected the body except for an occasional loaded up shot, where Tapia dug there deep and often early on. Very fun fight, that while closer than Harold Ledderman would have you believe was not really in doubt for the most part. 1-4 Tapia 5-8 Romero 9-11 Tapia 12 Romero by default lol 115-113 Tapia on my card Tapia was lucky the ref didn’t rule his showboating in 7 a KD by bending over and touching the canvas with his gloves or me and 1 of the judges would have had a draw.
Alfonso Zamora vs Soo Hong Hwan Man I wished I could find the 2nd fight out there...although this was a disappointment! Hong is way to cautious and tentative, and his moments are few. Zamora is really patient for 3 rounds before turning into an assassin. I have no clue what Hong did in the 2nd fight to not only last 11+ rounds but to be up 2 pts on 2 of the judges cards...he didn’t show the ability or desire in this fight. zamora 30-27 at time of stoppage
I liked when Cosell said This isn't boxing, it's slugging. The way the fans want it." Well...something to that effect! But yeah you're right from a skilled perspective can't bring this fight up ever. But from a bang 'em going out on your shield-rockem-sockem-robot kind of fight. This is cream of the crop!!! JOHNSON VS CLOUD Very under rated fight and more so, I just couldn't figure out why the crowd was so quiet. These guys were in constant exchanges in the inside. For some reason watching it live, I kept wondering was the crowd being rude so they can see their hometown fighter? Regardless, I appreciate the exchanges and had it a draw. But understand why Glen felt he won, he threw more and landed slightly more.
Alfonso Zamora vs Eusebio Pedroza Man this is a very green Pedroza so wide open to being hit. 15th fight 2 years before he should be fighting at this level...and Zamora lands a brutal right dropping and stoping Pedroza in 2
Naoya Inoue vs Nonito Donaire This was a great fight! Not a slugfest, but a highly skilled hard hitting chess match where Inoue shows his greatness and Donaire solidifies his legacy in a valiant losing effort. I was one of the few picking a Donaire upset so I am even more impressed! Not sure why so many on here don’t appreciate modern boxers or try to discredit them. These guys are a tough night fir any great of any era. The top 5-10 P4P guys IMO are on par with other greats! Inoue shows a solid chin and toughness as he gets rocked and wobbled a few times but gathers himself well. How Donaire survived 11 makes it ROTY worthy! Rounds 10-12 Inoue shows why he is among the greatest of this era, he closes so strong and is brilliant down the stretch! rbr 1 Inoue 2 Donaire 3 Donaire 4 Inoue 5 Inoue 6 Inoue 7 Inoue 8 Donaire 9 Donaire 10 Inoue 11 Inoue 10-8 12 Inoue inoue 116-111 on my card in a brilliant fight! Rounds 2-3-4-7 are really the only debatable ones IMO, so the variables on the cards are a OK to me although I felt 1 card was to wide and the other a little to close. 115-112 or 117-110 seem the ballpark to me.
Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs Artur Beterbiev Decent fight from the great city of Philadelphia PA! Greg Sirb of The PA athletic commission did a great job of overruling a faux KD in round 1. 2 big guys, with Gvozdyk the more skilled and quicker IMO of the 2 and Beterbiev the heavier puncher. Ultimately the heavy thudding blows of Beterbiev drop Gvozdyk 3 times in round 10 ending the battle. Great to see 2 guys willing to risk their belts for an opportunity to unify them. rbr 1 Gvozdyk 2-4 Beterbiev 5 Gvozdyk 6 Beterbiev 7-8 Gvozdyk 9 Beterbiev Beterbiev 96-95 at time of stoppage
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Ike Quartey Well, this is not the most exciting fight ever, but it is a high quality low action technical chess match. I don’t find it controversial either, and feel like Quartey was not active enough. I think George had a better read on the fight than the rest of the crew. Even if I gave Ike 2/11 He would not have won my card. A very smart fight between to smart generals...but the fireworks are few. rbr 1-4 DLH 5-9 Ike 10-12 DLH w/12 a 10-8 round DLH 115-112
Esteban DeJesus v Buzzsaw Yamabe In light of the Arguello-DeJesus thread and many posters coming out on DeJesus’s side, thought I should watch more of DeJesus to see if I was underrating him a bit. R1 10-8 R2 10-9 R3 10-9 R4 10-9 R5 9-10 R6 DeJesus TKO Yamabe DeJesus looked excellent here in this 1977 defense of his WBC lightweight title against a game, but limited Yamabe. DeJesus started fast and a minute in had Yamabe in all sorts of trouble, dropping him more through accumulation of pressure than any one punch. DeJesus sensed a quick night and spent the rest of the round dishing out punishment on the Japanese fighter, but couldn’t finish him off. This could conceivably been a 10-7 round but it never looked like the scorecards were going to matter. To his credit, though, Yamabe found his way back into the fight to at least be competitive over the next three rounds, though he lost them all in my view. DeJesus adjusted and used excellent movement and defense to control the fight. Yamabe had come back into the fight enough that I actually gave him the 5th courtesy of some good straight lefts that I think he landed (quality of film not being great). DeJesus obviously realised he needed to step up the pressure and came out in the 6th jumping on Yamabe like it was the first round again, this time clearly landing a punch that dropped Yamabe clean. The referee rightly waved off the fight after the follow up knockdown had Yamabe on unsteady feet. Impressive performance from DeJesus against an admittedly limited opponent.
Philly, I wanted to watch and score this one as I like both fighters and I was keen on the match to begin with. However, I don't know if this is some knock-off video that I was watching because the camera zoom is so close to the combatants that I was missing the peripheral punches. I was hearing a thump, but wasn't sure if it was landing clean. I like to be clear on my score and there was too much I was missing, so I aborted it after the first round. I'll wait until a better version is available. I did, however, rewatch the first fight between Donaire and Vic Darchinian. Vic was such a monster back then, knocking everyone dead. I gave rounds 2 & 4 to Vic and rounds 1 & 3 to Nonito for a 38-38 score after 4 rounds. Nonito would have won the 5th round without the knockdown on my card, but it was all academic at that point.
Your timing has to be good. The one I watched was taken down an hour or so later. Have you seen Donaires brother vs Darchinyan?
Alfonso Zamora vs Thanomchit Sukhothai Zamora gets cut in round 3 not sure if a punch or a butt, but in 4 he goes all out and closes the show. Such a smart patient accurate finisher. 3-0 Zamora at time of stoppage
not bad, but not must see. I actually think he had the skill but his lack of power ultimately couldn’t deter Vic.
Just watched this after reading your fight report. Great action, heating up nicely in the early rounds before all-out slugfest in the middle rounds - shouldn't have been too much of a surprise when featuring Cornelius 'never in a dull fight' Boza-Edwards! I wasn't scoring it but it felt pretty even, only a round in it either way probably. So, yeah, surprising Alli seemed so confident he had it in the bag in the final round. Anyway, loved it - nice one Philly!
Dennis Andries vs Jeff Harding I As good of a LHW fight as any! The conditioning and stamina is great and the action is non stop! I can’t recall the last time I saw such good relentless body punching from 2 big guys. Outstanding! RBR 1 Andries 2 Andries 3 Harding 4 Andries 5 Andries 10-8 6 Andries 7 Harding 8 Harding 9 Andries 10 Harding 11 Harding (wide) Harding by TKO 12 every round tightly contested except perhaps 11. Harding puts the cap on a great performance and becomes Australia’s first LHW champ! Great fight