I'd admire your loyalty and passion for Frank Fletcher but Hagler was levels above The Animal. Of course, you can't use A beats B and B beats C so A must beat C logic but Hagler handled every contender who was around in the 80s that Fletcher struggled with and the only reason he didn't meet Fletcher was because Frank lost in his opportunity for a title shot. I don't see the early 80s Hagler who handled Minter, Hamsho, Roldan and Scypion having any more trouble with Fletcher. Hagler was a very precise puncher and against a guy like Fletcher who came to fight and would most likely come to him, Marvin's offense would have been laser guided and deadly. I just don't see this going past 4 rounds.
I agree with both of you! I do think Marv would win but Fletcher would IMO do better than Mugabi for example. edit: Fletcher vs Mugabi the Animal vs the Beast would be a nice hypothetical
Nelson vs Sanchez Rd.1 Nelson Rd.2 Even Rd.3 Sanchez Rd.4 Nelson Rd.5 Nelson Rd.6 Sanchez Rd.7 Sanchez (knockdown) Rd.8 Sanchez (big) Rd.9 Sanchez (big) Rd.10 Even Rd.11 Nelson Rd.12 Sanchez Rd.13 Even Rd.14 Sanchez I thought Sanchez did a good job of going to the body early even in the rounds Azumah was strong. That could have played a role later. Sanchez always finshed with the lefthook. Once he found the range for it and hurt Nelson I felt like he was in control after that. Nelson never totally got his legs back. He did stay competitive because of his big heart and great condition. He was fighting with every ounce he had. People throw around the word warrior too much but Azumah Nelson truly was. I had it 7-4 with 3 even for Sanchez.
Since the Eagles are off tomorrow I am going to tabulate our cards....so if you want to beat the deadline get them in soon!
Probably will only get to one of the two remaining fights before then - Pryor-Arguello or Mancini-Kim.
Pryor v Arguello 1 Here's my card and my observations of this great, great fight: R1. 10-9: Stupendous start to the fight. Pryor comes out of the gate like he always does and threatens to overwhelm Arguello, but he's in with an ATG so it's not going to be that easy. Still, a huge first round for Pryor and a remarkable statement of intent. R2. 10-9: Incredible pace and intensity from Pryor again, Arguello is doing all he can just to survive. R3. 10-9: A closer round but Pryor is still the much busier fighter. However, Arguello does land some good shots. R4. 10-10: A more even round this time, Arguello managing to measure Pryor a bit better and appears to hurt him at one point. Pryor's volume gives him a deserved share of the round. R5. 9-10: Close again, but Arguello is now blocking a lot of Pryor's punches and lands the best punch of the round... but Pryor bounces back to outbox Arguello in the last 10 seconds to nearly take a share of the round. Remarkable stuff. R6. 10-9 Pryor is back on top again and outlanding Arguello - he's just relentless. R7. 9-10: Still close and now the pattern of Pryor piling up points before Arguello lands a big punch is emerging, making it hard to score. R8. 9-10: Close round again but Arguello edges this one in my view with the bigger combos. Pryor just won't be discouraged though. The frenetic, unforgiving pace continues. R9. 9-10: The best period of the fight for Arguello so far, he's found his range now with more consistency and lands two huge right hands at the end of combos. But I'll be damned if Pryor doesn't come back again and could conceivably take a share of the round. R10. 10-9: A good round from Pryor. He didn't ship damage like the previous few rounds and kept the punching volume up while Arguello seems to tire a little. R11. 9-10: Arguello edges this one with his big right hands at the end of the round. R12. 10-9: Despite taking another big right hand, iron chinned Pryor comes back and finishes the round strong enough to take it. He's like the Energizer bunny in there! R13. 10-9: They start this round like it was round 1 all over again! Arguello lands his final huge straight right that would have decapitated an ordinary fighter but Pryor is no ordinary fighter and Arguello must realise he can't hurt him now. It's his last hurrah and Pryor comes back once again to edge the round. Nothing will stop him. (125-123) R14. Pryor TKO Arguello A remarkable finish from Pryor! A huge unanswered flurry and the ref has no choice but to stop it. Observations: -Despite having watched this on numerous occasions and it being my favourite fight, I've never scored this before. -I have to say my scorecard felt very subjective due to the way the rounds would unfold. Pryor was outlanding Arguello 3 or 4 punches to 1 at points but Arguello punctuated his combos with big right hands that kept him in the round and were sometimes enough to edge it. Because of that, I did find it difficult to pick a clear winner in several of the rounds. Having said that, I never had Arguello ahead. The best was even (after the 9th and 11th rounds). But Pryor dictated the pace and build the momentum and deserved to lead on the cards prior to the stoppage. -The first round was just as intense as Hagler-Hearns but this one carries on for another 13 rounds. The pace, set by Pryor, was phenomenal. At times I felt Arguello was having to expend a fight's worth of energy just to survive a single round. -Whatever you think of Pryor, on this night he showed all the hallmarks of a great fighter. There aren't many fighters at 140 I would favour over him in this form. It was by far his greatest performance and it was a great performance by any standard imo. -Less than 24 hours after Pryor had battered Arguello into unconsciousness, Ray Mancini would meet Duk-Koo Kim. As Charles Dickens would write: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' -I wasn't sure after watching the likes of Sanchez-Nelson and Gomez-Pintor recently whether my memory of this fight had somehow become separated from the reality and whether it would hold up again, particularly after actively scoring it. But it did - big time. I still consider this the greatest fight I've ever seen.
Ah, damn it, was just sitting down to score Navarette vs. Choi II now. Apologies on behalf of my ADHD. Might do anyway, for the sheer heck of it.