the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Shawn Porter SD12 Yordenis Ugas

Scoring Shawn Porter is hard. But I like doing it. Big boy Ugas. Porter choosing to ox again, fighting in surges. Ugas mixing waiting with stalking and nicks the first round. Porter maybe edges the second with a counter-right hand over the top after sucking in a hard bodyshot. Very little to separate them here, but I thought Porter landed the harder punches. Porter is fighting like he did against Garcia, waiting and surging. They are boxing in bizarro world, Ugas stalking, landing to the body, Porter jabbing going away. Ugas steps into a meaningful lead after four winning the round with bodyshots int he final seconds as Porter, squat and leaning down and away, looked rather leaden-footed. Ugas look technically sure, unruffled, unhurried. He scores a good counter right with a minute left in the fifth. Porter heading into trouble on the cards again.

Porter throws that bathwater out in the sixth and goes Tonto. Ugas was baiting him verbally at the end of the fifth and maybe should have kept his mouth shout. Early, he's still giving himself room but flurrying more and probably wins the last 30 seconds of the round for the first time. Still close though, Ugas is into this. And he poaches the seventh with a gorgeous counter-right hand...very very close proud, these are hard again.

Porter taking a lot of useless steps here, burning a lot of energy for no advantage. He lands a lot of jabs in round nine though, probably takes this round on the jab, freaky ****. Porter is such an odd fighter. His dad seems obsessed with "technical boxing" but he's got a toothless pitbull on his hands. So odd. Still, good fight thanks to the weirdness. In opposite bizarro world. 5-4 Ugas after nine, anything could happen no. Porter could collapse or he could dominate the run in totally, wouldn't like to call it. Poter takes a close tenth, but that's the third desperately close round I've given him so if anyone needs to close it's him. He has outlanded Ugas overall though. And he takes the eleventh after getting slightly out-hit before a hard jab puts Ugas back on his heels to probably steal the round. I mean it's desperately close, arguable, hard.

Porter needs the twelfth to win. Ugas needs the round to draw for me. Interestingly enough - Ugas puts a right hand in and Porter goes down and it is ruled a slip - now there wasn't a lot on the punch, but there was no slip. That was a knockdown for me. A good right hand follows up a minute later. But Porter looked concerned. He was making sure his legs were under him after the "slip". 50.50 rule by the ref, at best.

Still, I respect the call and therefore have this a 114-114 draw. Lots of draws this week.

Porter:2,6,8,9,10,11.
Ugas:1,3,4,5,7,12.

6-6

 

Keith Thurman UD12 Shawn Porter

Gorgeous lead efts from Thurman, hitting three different left hands early; pushing, trailing jab from Porter in rushes as a response and you probably have your fight defined right there. Thurman is fast and organised. Porter is quick with his pressure and mostly ugly. This could be fascinating. I like Thurman's work better in the first. Porter has a better second though; he actually has Thurman looking disturbed with the pressure and lets him work him over a bit on the ropes. This is going to be good. Third round is great combat. Thurman scores a good punch at the end of that round (which Porter wins) and it leaks into the fourth; now we have Thurman looking for very hard two-piees while Porter surges with pressure. Thurman finds enough punches to win the fourth - my suspicion is that Thurman will win this fight only if he can force Porter to work hard enough that he drops off late. But we shall see! Good fight, good fight. 2-2 after four. Firefight continues into the fifth with Porter shading a close round with the aggression.

Thurman, quicker and technically better, is capable of outfighting Porter in the pocket for stretches, or at least, coming out of and going into the pocket, as in some of round seven. It means that Porter can't cast him adrift. Meantime, there's no question as to who is using more energy here, though Thurman's plan isn't exactly conservative. In the eighth, he does a lot of wide circling, hard on the lungs that.

Thurman is doing well in the ninth, but is cut to the right eye by a slashing left from Porter (i think). This seems to put him off - when Porter gets him cornered on the ropes and the referee orders them to "fight out", Porter rips that round right from him just as Porter looked to be setting off with it. Head clash caused the cut, not a punch. This is a huge round - Thurman is in trouble on my card now.

He rallies though, boy does he and although he's not beating him up, he is beating him in these final rounds. It's a combination of his knowing he needs them, Porter gassing a bit, which has allowed Thurman to dial in with hard two-piece combos.

The result: another drawn card. I am targeting close, controversial fights for the most part, but that's like three draws in a week.

Thurman:1,4,7,10,11,12.
Porter:2,3,5,6,8,9.

114-114

 

Keith Thurman SD12 Danny Garcia

Fast, zinging exchanges early, i'm into it, this is going to be a clean-hitting boxing contest, and i'm up for one of them for sure. Thurman, again, is faster, and after swallowing a Garcia left hook he lands a numerous string of hard punches,driving Garcia back and away and hitting him hard. Garcia doesn't go away though and lands another left hook - these two are looking to hurt each other but both have chins equal to one-another's power. Garcia swallowed an absolute bomb there.

Garcia keep his circle very tight, looking for that gorgeous pivot, Thurman does miss one and get clocked, but he flosses right after with a straight right to the gut and vanished before Garcia could even think about it. Close, excellent round - Garcia stalks until he lands a good right hand, then Thurman gets on the front foot to try to even matters up; the last seconds of the round, Thurman smuggles the round away - a round of hard, single shots. Left-right combo really hurts Garcia at the beginning of this round. Garcia is good, but he doesn't have the jab to keep Thurman under control and he can't out-pot-shot him with the speed dearth. I'm starting to wonder where the close cards are coming from? There must be a twist in the tail.

All change in the fourth. Thurman is trying to get his jab going and Garcia does not respect the punch. Garcia has good success throwing the left to the body and countering to the body. So this is a big fifth. They've both improved defensively, that's clear. And that might make the second half of the fight less thrilling. Close round - very close - I think I'll give it to the Thurman right form the final thirty seconds, sort of behind the ear though...nah, changed my mind, Garcia on the bodywork. He also outlands Thurman in the sixth to even things up on the scorecard, so there you go, I was worrying about how this fight might have ended up close and it did. In the seventh though, Thurman cuts off the ring adequately and edges things. So Garcia has yet to lead - he clearly wins the eighth, some good right hands, some good bodypunching, he is fighting at a very slow pace though, Garcia able to set himself for countering. He's gambling but he's winning.

It's like Garcia's been hypnotised here. He knows he needs more punches, surely, but he's not throwing them. Thurman is just out-touching him. It is no longer difficult to score, or that good a fight. I have Garcia in need of a 10-8 now. We do get to see the right version of Garcia at least, in the tenth, holding ring centre, pivoting very small moves, still arguably waiting a bit too much but making his way in often enough to take the round. Two more like that and it'll be another ****ing draw for me.

That's what happens. FML. I gave Garcia that ultra-close fifth though, so i'm happy the right man got the nod, he outlanded Garcia by compubox.

Thurman:1,2,3,7,8,9.
Garcia:4,5,6,10,11,12.

114-114.