the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

@George Crowcroft and @roughdiamond - fancy scoring Herrera-Castillo 2 as well?!

 

It's on the list, but today is a day for Deathmask.

 

I'll get round to it. Already scored a few today (which I may post soon). Got Betulio/Espadas and Yuh/DeMarco on the list yet.

 

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Interesting fighter, the Mongolian Warrior, glad I got to watch a little bit of him, vs a heavily adjusting Deathmask. Shame it's in parts, so I'll just write about each vid at a time.

Sahaprom moving to his left, stiff arming and jabbing at Seven, as he tried to jab his way in. Sahaprom hadn't quite mastered that deluxe upper-body movement and feint game yet. Seven was coming in and hooking off the jab, landing flush at times. Sahaprom seemed to have things basically under control. I thought he won all 3 rounds, pretty decisively.

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Seven very wild, swinging like a madman whilst Sahaprom backs off, turns the angle and leaves the Mongolian Warrior in his dust. Deathmask isn't as refined here, and wasn't as used to integrating the baiting/waiting strategy yet. Very impatient and happy to let Choi taste some leather. All in all, he was still in control but not without difficulty.

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Deathmask showing some sublime, subtle defence. His parrying, blocks, twisting and neck-rolls whilst behind his high guard were awesome, and now he's letting his right hand loose with alarming frequency. I'm actually surprised that Seven could take them. The damage was evident as Choi got straight on his bike, and Sahaprom stalking. Clear win here.

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If you can't tell, I love the The Solemn-Faced Tiger. One of all-time favourites. No doubt.

 

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Sahaprom's first loss in almost a decade, to the quick-fisted lefty from Hyogo. Hozumi Hasegawa was seemingly unperturbed by the ever stoic Thai fighter who had absolutely decimated a Japanese idol to win his title and was only a year removed from dismantling the talented southpaw from Hasegawa's home province, in Toshiaki Nishioka. Hozumi enjoyed two major advantages without even entering the ring; the younger man, by 12½ years, was taking this fight in his home country.
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10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
9 : 10 (39-37)
9 : 10
9 : 10
9 : 10
9 : 10 (75-77)
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9 (

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Hozumi taking full advantage of his quicker hands and feet, whilst eating a decent amount of flush rights. Out-working Sahaprom, he showed excellent skills when it came to turning and moving off at angles, and hooking downstairs off his jab.

Sahaprom used that awesome head-movement on the way in and cut the ring well, landing rights and corkscrewing uppercuts but ultimately not having the opportunities to pull the trigger since before he could land something big, Hasegawa was gone. Had Sahaprom been that bit more reflexive, had more snap in his shots, and had a bit more speed to keep up with Hozumi. If Deathmask was in his early 30s, I reckon he'd have won based off the success he had here.

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I was going to do a Bobby Chacon double-header here, but the video of his bout with Chucho Castillo was too murky. So here we go with Chacon v Alfredo Marcano for the vacant WBC featherweight title.

Round 1: 10-10 Even
Round 2: 10-9 Marcano
Round 3: 10-9 Chacon
Round 4: 10-9 Chacon
Round 5: 10-9 Chacon
Round 6: 10-9 Marcano
Round 7: 10-9 Marcano
Round 8: 10-9 Chacon
Round 9: Chacon drops Marcano and the ref intervenes with Marcano in no shape to continue

Total (through 8 completed rounds): 77-76 Chacon (actual scores at TOS: 78-77, 78-75 and 78-76 all for Chacon)

I didn't think Marcano did too bad, but this was a fight of attrition and it wasn't until the 9th one could see Marcano beginning to fray at the ends. I think I heard somewhere that Marcano or his people thought Chacon was just a boy.

 

Marco Antonio Barrera vs Kennedy McKinney

MAB : McKinney

1: 10 - 9
2: 10 - 10
3: 9 - 10
4: 9 - 10
5: 10 - 9
6: 10 - 9
7: 9 - 10
8: 10 - 7
9: 10 - 8
10: 9 - 10
11: 8 - 10
12: TKO

TOTAL: 104 - 102 BARRERA (11 ROUNDS)

Notes:
A classic war, beloved by the forum! No write up from me as tomes have been written on it, both here and elsewhere.

 

Alexis Arguello vs Kevin Rooney

AA : Rooney

1: 10 - 9 (Rooney starting fast before Arguello adapts and catches up)
2: KO!

Notes:
One of the best set up KOs ever! Beautiful and study worthy. Rooney's game-plan, as Clancy said, was all over the place. Did he expect to out-strength Arguello?

 

Absolutely one of my favourite fights of all time. I'm going to rewatch this again just for the hell of it!

 

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Interesting little fight, and an elite win on Herrera's (ever underrated) résumé. So many rounds were hard to split, I can see why (if it was?) controversial. As you can see, I had it a draw, but I like Chucho and it was hardly a robbery.
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10 : 9
10 : 9*
10 : 9
10 : 9* (40-36)
9 : 10
9 : 10
9 : 10*
9 : 10* (76-76)
10 : 9
9 : 10
9 : 10
10 : 9 (

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Rounds which could go either way are marked with an astrix.
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Chucho's in and out pressure was giving a hesitant Herrera a lot of problems, and it made him look uneasy on offence. I know the feeling, coming in and attacking but a niggling thought telling you that it's a better idea to get back and keep jabbing. It's in his feet, they look reluctant to do what they're told. But Herrera didn't jump back out as soon as possible, he stayed and looked for more. Chucho bobbed and weaved so Rafa went downstairs. Rafa looked a little timid at first, but shook it off by the 4th of so.

Tea Break after 6.

7&8 were really close, but I went with Herrera since he did the better work at distance and I thought he slightly out-worked Chucho. Round 9 was just as close, but I liked the counters Chucho worked in. Castillo had some really cool 'springing' footwork, it was like he used his bob and weave as defence then jumped up as his level change before taking advantage of an opening. Rinse and Repeat, then it looks like boxing-equivalent of a kid on a space hopper. Round 10 froze a little bit but I gave it Herrera bases on his jab and hook to the body. For the finale, I thought Chucho took it clearly, fired his straights in with ease, and worked well to the body. It was an awesome round actually.

 

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Little light heavyweight 10 rounder, ended early by Mr. Jimmerson. At @Henry Hank's recommendation. This was a just a nasty, low-level brawl, and it was awesome.
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Round 1: Lapaglia 9-9, clear.
Round 2: Lapaglia 10-9, close.
Round 3: Jimmerson 10-9, clear.
Round 4: Jimmerson 10-9, close.
Round 5: Jimmerson 10-7, clear.
Round 6: Jimmerson TKO

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Crucifying body punching from Lapaglia on the inside. I loved Art's uppercuts, I mean I love all uppercuts, but these made a fight very fun. Lapaglia had a Mickey Ward-esc style, and Jimmerson's looked like a poor man's Mustafa Hamsho. Art had some vicious body shots of his own too. Made for a great little tear up.

Absolutely brilliant action in the first and final 3.

 

Myung Woo Yuh vs Mario DeMarco

Yuh : DeMarco

1: 10 - 10
2: 9 - 10
3: 10 - 9
4: 10 - 10
5: 10 - 9
6: 9 - 10
7: 10 - 9
8: 9 - 10
9: 10 - 10
10: 9 - 10
11: 10 - 9
12: 10 - 9
13: 10 - 9
14: 10 - 9
15: 9 - 10

TOTAL: 145 - 143 YUH

Notes:

• The highest work rate, action fight I've ever seen. Like Rock em Sock em robots.
• Ironically enough, I thought Yuh's defense and parries were the difference in this fight.

 

Since my momentary YouTube search for Seabrooks vs Curtis didn't reveal much, I figured why not go back and watch some fights from an old PM with Rough'. So sticking to the BW theme, it's one of his all-time favourites and a guy no-one could dislike: Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, vs Paul Ayala. I liked Ayala's style in the Tapia fights, so hopefully this is a good-un, although it's been described as a 'complete schooling'.

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10 : 9
9 : 10
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9 (

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Decent fight, but it was awesome performance over a very good BW. I'll never be a fan of these type of stoppages but hey-ho.

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Nicky Piper versus Leeonzer Barber, WBO Light-Heavyweight title, 1994

Heard someone not long ago refer to this fight, and they said something along the lines of, "Yeah, Piper was dominating and on course for the title, just got sloppy for one second and Barber took advantage". My memories of the fight were nothing like that, so decided to revisit it and see what I thought second time round.

Same conclusion: the guy who claimed that Piper basically pitched a shutout was wrong, and ITV's card which had Piper three rounds up before the stoppage was way too generous to him.

Piper started fairly well, having the last word in a lot of the exchanges despite being a sucker for Barber's right hand, which he ate straight down the pipe plenty of times. Barber's cleaner work took over from rounds 3 to 6 as Piper lost any structure to his boxing and started loading up with one big shot every time. Piper probably nicked the 7th and had a pretty good 8th though, so looked as if he might just have been in the ascendancy before the stoppage - but not the extent that some people claim.

Truth is, the first round and the finish were the high points of this fight, and in between it was a pretty dreary, low-quality affair despite both guys trying to be aggressive with what they threw. Just not a fight which flowed at all. It was also pretty much a hug fest whenever they got in close, with both happy to accept the clinch, throw no shots and wait for the referee to break them, which he had to do a hell of a lot. Neither guy showed any defensive nous and body shots were very few and far between, too.

Piper may have been close to the title in one sense, however, as Barber's right eye (and side of his face) was swelling terribly by the fourth or fifth round, and after the eighth there did seem to be a bit of concern in his corner over how long he could keep fighting as the injury worsened, which it was doing almost by the second. So while this wasn't a particularly good all-round performance from Barber, full marks to him for pulling it out of the (possible) fire in such a stylish manner in the ninth. They both opened up to throw left hooks, but Barber turned his own that little bit quicker and it was a beauty, bang on Piper's chin and put him down heavily. He just barely beat that count, but hadn't fully recovered and was soon down and out again. Should be noted that there were a few head clashes which the referee didn't seem to notice, but which definitely worsened the eye.

R1: Piper
R2: Piper
R3: Barber
R4: Barber
R5: Barber
R6: Barber
R7: Piper
R8: Piper (it wasn't until rounds 7 and 8 that Piper really got his jab going at all)

76-76 after eight rounds, and to be honest I think I was being more or less as kind as I could to Piper. Decent performance but one which showed his limitations. Barber looked poor at times, but boy oh boy, he pulled out a great finish. Beautiful left hook to swing it firmly in his favour.