the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Threads or scorecards? Rough thought both was weird IIRC. I only do my threads in notes after losing my 'Hagler, The Thread' twice whilst writing it in the forum, so now I write them in notes.

 

I write my scorecards in notes. Most of my other posts go direct into the forum unless it's a longer post or a thread idea.

 

Koichi Wajima v Oscar Albarado

Exhausting war of attrition this one. After 5 rounds, they both looked like they'd been the full 15.

Wajima started well but ran out of steam in the championship rounds while Albarado timed his punches better at that point.

Good fight but also hard work to watch.

1 9-10
2 10-9
3 9-10
4 10-9 (close)
5 10-9
6 10-9
7 9-10
8 9-10
9 9-10
10 10-9 (scrappiest round so far)
11 9-10
12 9-10
13 9-10
14 9-10 (the better quality work is coming from Alborado
(131-135)
15 Alborado TKO Wajima (Wajima is sent to the canvas three times before the ref waves off the fight)

 

Mickey Ward v Emanuel Augustus

Ridiculous fight.

Ten rounds of wildness with rounds 5 and 10 standing out in particular. Ward took this fight by virtue of the knockdown in the 9th. Although Augustus landed more punches overall i felt the bigger punches were from Ward. Not an easy one to score and a case for Augustus can definitely be made but with the knockdown, Ward secured the fight.

Crazy action and Ring magazine's FOTY for 2001.

1 10-9
2 10-9
3 9-10
4 9-10
5 10-9 (crazy round)
6 9-10
7.9-10
8 10-9
9 10-8 (terrific left hook to the body drops Augustus)
10 10-10 (wild final round)
Ward 96-94

Ward 5 rounds to 4 with 1 even

 

Nelson vs Fenech

I gave Azumah the first two rounds and Fenech everything after that.

How this was scored a draw I'll never know tbh.

Not only did Fenech win clear, if he had an extra minute he could well have dropped Nelson and potentially stopped him as he landed some huge huge shots down the stretch.

Fenech also showed brilliant head movement and elusiveness at times when Nelson came back swinging.

Awesome performance.

Shameful result.

 

Azumah Nelson vs Jeff Fenech 2.

I don't think Nelson actually did that much differently in the rematch.

He sat down on his punches a bit more, threw a few more jabs, but that was just the first 3 rounds.

From round 4 onwards it was still a brawl and he was still being pushed to the ropes, it's just that this time he was picking the holes in Jeff's defence and the damage was accumulating.

But that's what he tried to do the first time round, he just couldn't keep Fenech off him for long enough.

Maybe his adjustment here was too subtle for me to notice, but whatever he did change, it clearly worked.

Excellent victory.

 

Johnny Tapia v Danny Romero

Remarkable and wonderfully eccentric performance from Tapia who fought like he lived, constantly on the edge, with his arrhythmic, staccato style befuddling the orthodox and somewhat predictable Romero.

I thought Tapia near enough swept the first half of the fight before Romero started to have a bit more success. Tapia's radar was in full operation as he showed some deft defense combined with some quality body shots, leaving the result in little doubt.

1 10-9
2 10-9
3 10-9
4 10-9 (closer)
5 10-9
6 10-10
7 9-10 (Romero's round)
8 10-9 (good body shots)
9 9-10 (close)
10 10-9
11 10-9
12 9-10

Tapia 117-112 Romero

Tapia wins 8 rounds to 3 with 1 even

 

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Going in blind, I don't know the result or what happened.

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9 : 10
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9* (49/46)
10 : 9
9 : 10*
9 : 10
10 : 9
10 : 9 (97/93)
10 : 9
10 : 9
9 : 10*
10 : 9
10 : 9 (

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)

Yeah, clear Tiger win. Giardello showed how good he was, but couldn't keep the Tiger off him for long enough stretched. Using the scoring methods at the time, I had it 11-4.

I like Tiger's style, it's centred around modern-looking aggression, and it's really fun to watch. He showed his bear-like strength here too, when it ended up inside and he yanked Joey around, easily. His most underrated asset was clearly his jab and foot-work though, he kept pinning Joey down and out-jabbed him consistently. Clear decider in most rounds.

 

Felix Trinidad KO12 Fernando Vargas

Oddly, I'd only ever seen highlights of this one, and glad I finally digested the whole thing. Excellent bout, with at l east two momentum shifts and solid skills on display.

Trinidad, as he is wont to do, starts quickly with that vicious left hook out of nowhere and fells Vargas twice in round one. He also takes the second and third on my card and seems headed for an easy night's work. Then in the fourth, Vargas dumps him with his own hook and a point is taken from Trinidad for a low blow, giving Vargas a 10-7 round of his own. Just like that, he's back in it.

I like watching Trinidad. The guy is a straight-up killer, and one of the best finishers I've seen. His jab is excellent, but he doesn't use it to control distance or score points. It's strictly a setup tool for the heavy stuff to follow, though it has real weight of its own. The jab here is a heavy, head-snapping, eye-swelling nightmare though it isn't as consistent as it could be.

Both display fine defense in close, with tremendous head and upper-body movement. The real difference for me here is when Trinidad stops trying to land huge shots as he did in the first, and begins to understand that he really only has to reach out and touch Vargas with his punches, just consistently land.......don't load up, just keep snapping short, straight punches. Soon, Vargas' face shows the effects and his swollen eyes can't pick up the increasingly heavy power punches Trinidad now feels more emboldened to throw. Vargas is tired but battles hard, winning the 11th on all three judge's cards (I disagreed there). He is felled in the final round though, and after the initial knockdown is done, his legs are gone. He falls twice more and the referee waves it off.

Excellent showing from both men, but Trinidad just showed a bit more dimensional depth. He's a pure puncher for sure, but not in the way a Julian Jackson is, where he too firmly believes in his own power to the point of loading up singular shots. He still disciplines himself to set up his big shots and throws flawless combinations. It's really nice to watch.

Trinidad-Vargas

1. 10-7
2. 10-9
3. 10-9
4. 7-10
5. 9-10
6. 9-10
7. 9-9 (low blow from Trinidad)
8. 10-9
9. 10-9
10. 10-9
11. 10-8 (low blow from Vargas)
12. TKO Trinidad

104-99 at the time of the stoppage.

 

Here's how I had it. Damn good fight.

Round 1: 10-7 Trinidad (scores 2 knockdowns)
Round 2: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 3: 10-10 Even
Round 4: 10-7 Vargas (scores a knockdown and 1 point deducted from Trinidad for a low-blow)
Round 5: 10-9 Vargas
Round 6: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 7: 9-9 Even (scored for Trinidad but penalized another point for a low-blow)
Round 8: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 9: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 10: 10-8 Trinidad (Vargas penalized 1 point for a low-blow)
Round 11: 10-9 Trinidad
Round 12: Trinidad stops Vargas

Total through 11 completed rounds: 105-99 Trinidad

 

We only differed on a couple rounds there!

 

Philly, I checked this out today and then checked the history and saw you had scored it last year. Our scores varied but it was that kind of a fight. NJ rules on a rounds basis.

Round 1: Even
Round 2: Scypion
Round 3: Fletcher
Round 4: Scypion
Round 5: Fletcher
Round 6: Scypion
Round 7: Scypion
Round 8: Scypion
Round 9: Even
Round 10: Even
Round 11: Scypion
Round 12: Fletcher

Total: 6-3-3 Scypion (actual scores: 6-5-1, 7-4-1 and 8-3-1 all for Scypion)

Those last 4 rounds really became clinch/maul fests, most instigated by Scypion. But he was fighting a smart fight. Next up I gotta check out Fletcher's fight with Tony Braxton. BTW, what happened to Fletcher? Didn't he end up back in the joint? If anyone would know it would be you.

 

Man I'd say 90% of fights I can rewatch like in the background, or whilst something else is on, but every so often I come across a fight that I can't do that with, one that i feel I need to make the centre of my attention above all else.

My next series of fights is the MAB-Morales trilogy. For them I'm gonna be watching the full broadcast with commentary and everything.

 

Just watched Billy Backus take the welterweight crown from Jose Napoles. It was the whole fight, ten minutes of silent footage taken from the nosebleeds but worth watching. The narrative here is that this was just an unfortunate blip in Napoles' reign, interrupting an otherwise sterling run of many years. It wasn't really his fault, it's inferred......it was more the eyebrow that just happened to open up.

While a bout not marred by cuts would most certainly have ended up in Napoles' favor, this was a very hotly-contested fight, with a particularly ferocious exchange in the exciting third round. The two competed evenly for position and both countered well, and both slipped shots. Napoles was probably winning up to the point but he was also catching a lot of leather.

In the fourth the referee quickly waved it off and Backus celebrated. Huge upset, good fight.

 

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It's 40 years on... oh where does all that time fly!

The quote to best describe this fight was said by a (IIRC?) reporter at the time: "The man became a legend, and the boy became a man."

Early on Duran had all the momentum, in fact it looked like a mismatch. His feints, counters and aggression made Leonard look silly. It was much more competitive when Leonard realized he needed to fight his way out of clinches and tried to get Duran's respect. This was about 5 rounds in. Duran was still getting the better of it, but Leonard's success gradually increased with each passing round. By the later rounds the momentum was more or less Leonard's! Actually, the late rounds were a pain in the arse to score.

I had this

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in the end, and the rounds are listed below.

Duran's feints were exquisite, he pried Leonard open like an oyster, and he was shy about snatching the pearl inside. I loved Duran's sense of awareness, it's like he had an inbuilt radar for exactly which part of his opponent was where. He used this to unleash uppercuts endlessly and manoeuvre Leonard around however he pleased. He also had a knack for finding the perfect spot to stifle any offence Leonard mounted, AND get off his own attacks without being hit.

Leonard's foot-work is gorgeous. Not much more needs to be said.

The historical significance of this fight cannot be oversold. It's literally (all IMO, of course) the best two-way technical fight ever, the best performance ever (from the best ever) and the best win of all-time. It also clearly has the highest combined skill-level seen on film, IMO.

And I'll never get the narrative that Duran only won because Leonard fought the wrong fight. First of all, if that's true then Duran should be given a ****ing Medal. Surely if he's that good as mental warfare he can make one of the most swarve, confident characters abandon his own strengths, then that is a great achievement all on its own. Secondly, Leonard tried to move off and box multiple times in this fight and he failed every time. When he was hurt he almost ran, and Duran was right there chasing and showing him time and time; again that the ring is only so big.

Montréal Duran beats ANY Leonard.

Here's my RBR: