the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Nah, can't remember at all, I think I probably didn't score it, I wasn't really interested from memory.

 

Leo Santa Cruz MD12 Carl Frampton

Frampton kicks off the same way - he's trying to show different levels and lateral looks but without compromising footwork. Picking not badly with the jab. But it's Santa who scores with the first meaningful punch and Santa who lands more punches this round. He's doing better at holding the distance in this first round. That's a difference for sure. Still, they have enough big exchanges that Frampton won't be sad, but he lost the opener.

Santa is working hard to avoid overextension which he's correctly identified as a big problem, not just physical but strategic. He's boxing much more within his sphere of influence and stopped trying to extend it so far. He's also looking for his jab to deal with Frampton's counter-rushes and it is a handsome looking punch. Cruz will fight when he must but it's not his first priority right now. Cruz wins a very hot fourth which is very bad news for Frampton. That's his wheelhouse. Basically he's on the inside throwing high high volume with good accuracy and hoping it will carry him and it does. This is the opposite of the first fight: Frampton is in trouble on the cards after six. He just cannot tie a couple of rounds together which almost always means L-O-S-S. That spells moon. He has a good seventh though, showing some great defensive work right at the end to protect what he put in - and this has made it a closer fight.

Lots of holding in the eighth compared to their other fight - which is a very interesting round. Santa lands more, Frampton lands the more eye-catching stuff and I think that Frampton's aggression just about carries it for me. But very, very close round making it a close fight at 4-4 despite the fact that it feels like Carl is losing. Got the crap beaten out of him in the ninth. Santa is jabbing but not risking much behind it and that's got Carl very frustrated. He's passed the over-extend onto his opponent, very good generalship. Fair play to Carl for hanging on.

Poor closing from Frampton; Santa Cruz dominated him.

Frampton:3,5,7,8.
Santa:1,2,4,6,9,10,11,12.

116-112 Santa Cruz

Official: 114-114, 115-113x2

 

Leo Santa Cruz MD12 Abner Mares

The first fight between these two from 2015. Mares opens very aggressively in what looks like a big ring they'e not going to need. Cruz looks pre-prime in this one by a fight, a little clums coming forwards, Mares finding him with right hands early then out-throwing him inside in a thrilling first. He's waiting for the Cruz power-punch then throwing two-handed.

Mares want the top of his head behind Santa Cruz's left shoulder, that's where he wants this fight. Then he throws two-handed to volume score. That's a very tiring strategy and nor does it work for him in this round. Cruz scores well at distance and spins Mares for a key exchange near the end of the round for his first real infighting score. The second is as clear for Cruz in the second as the first was for Mares. Cruz is dialled in now. I was wrong about him not being prime for this fight, he was. Very long prime this guy has had/is having.

I've missed what it is that has discouraged Mares, but he's now plodding - away - while Cruz stalks him gently, he's over-reaching a little bit but Mares isn't anything like as compact as Frampton and he is failing miserably to take advantage. Mares had a clearly defined and affective strategy for the first 1.25 rounds but now he looks vulnerable. Santa Cruz clipped low in the first minute of the fifth - this round is very close, maybe the beltline work by Mares can capture him a key round. Nope. Santa Cruz is running away with this a bit. Fifth was close though. Sixth wasn't; Mares is just being stalked and out-hit, what a strange, bizarre fight. Wtf are his corner saying?

Mares has a good seventh, working hard, getting to the inside, troubling Cruz more but he still doesn't win it on my card. I think Cruz landed the better stuff right up until the end of the round. Mares now needs a knockout to win on my card.

Santa:2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11.
Mares:1,9,12.

117-111

Official: 114-114, 117-111x2.

Drawn card is as bad as you will see. Despite the fight being very good in patches it was frustrating due to Mares' strategy which was odd. Not entirely sure why there was a rematch, but I'll take a look.

 

Yuriorkis Gamboa UD12 Orlando Salido

I remember this being mad as ****.

Another weight disaster for Salido but at the re-weigh - so just bull**** really, either he can't fight because his advantage is so big it's dangerous or he made the weight and can fight; even crazier, HBO weighed them in at the same poundage - 140lbs. Salido can't win the strap; only Gamboa can.

Salido looks at sea in the first, repeatedly beaten to the punch, outswarmed at one point, hit with hard punches to head and body. Gamboa is gorgeous in the ring, stocky but fast, a deep stance but he is mobile. Max Kellerman describes him going "up the middle" and with the right, this is the case, but the left is often a hook rather than a jab. Pretty great. Explosive. Fast-handed, sometimes drops those hands - he's out-touching Salido pretty-clearly. Salido, being Salido, is not for going away though.

Gamboa is warned for hitting on the break in the fifth. Referee looks displeased. Gamboa just steadily moving Salido onto abuse with his movement. This is also a round that while clearly losing it, Salido scored with meaningful punches for the first time. Salido is probably a little determined to land the uppercut though. Not sure that's happening quite yet.

Salido is applying significant pressure though, attempting to wear him, looking to tire him, while deploying a consistent attack that is meeting with some success. He lost the sixth though - clearly outlanded and by better punches. Gamboa landed a punch after the seventh - Salido landed one right on the bell I think. Arguably should have been a point off.

Clearly this irritated Gamboa this exchange after/on the bell, he comes for Salido bigtime at bell, lacerating him with Gamboa trademark hooks with both hands but this is Salido, not the weak opposition Gamboa has been dusting. When he comes again, Salido lashes him to the canvas with a hard overhand right to bag his first round of the fight. Salido outlands Gamboa to win the ninth, too - Salido looks tired but Gamboa looks pretty discouraged in fact. I gave Gamboa an arguable tenth and he took the eleventh clean; he batters Salido in fact. It was an interesting little spell that. Gamboa looked nothing so much as pissed off with the pressure Salido was bringing, like he didn't like the fact that Salido hadn't gone away. A hard punch he landed in the tenth seemed to turn him back on.

In the twelfth, Gamboa landed a good overhand right and flashed Salido for a KD; later, as he drove Salido along the ropes, he appeared to score another KD on Salido but also landed a shot to the back of the head clearly after Salido was down. Cortez didn't count, but took two points from Gamboa for landing the punch while he was down.

Good, weird fight, too one-sided to be thrilling.

Gamboa:1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,11, 12^ **.
Salido:8*,9,.

114-109

*Gamboa down
^ Salido down
**Gamboa has two points deducted for hitting Salido when he is down.

Official: 116-109, 114-109, 115-109.

 

Yuriorkis Gamboa TD 8 Daniel Ponce de Leon

Daniel Ponce de Leon, good dig, fresh off a 130lb defeat to Broner but still ranked #5 at 126lbs. Good puncher, tough man, and he has a very good first round, southpaw jab is nice, has Gamboa hopping a bit although the Cuban settles into the round. Gamboa is definitely paying this guy the proper respect, he's leading with the jab often and countering with the bombs more than leading with them, though that's a gorgeous feint with the left and overhand right to drive Ponce back then crowd him. You can just see Gamboa has made up his mind how to fight this fight and that it'sg going to work. Now it's up to Ponce to change the record - he wants to do it with a trailing left - it's really not working. That punch has so far to travel against an athletic reactions based fighter and he's just missing, missing. Pattern set, it will be interesting if Ponce can do anything to break it.

He makes a reasonable effort, but not really. In the fifth and sixth his glove-high pressure makes Gamboa uncomfortable and he lands enough to make a case for taking both rounds but Gamboa's tendency to land the more eye-catching stuff makes it tough. Both Salido and Ponce found spells where they were able to reveal Gamboa's vulnerability to a fighter with real guts and great temperament (Gamboa's other great weakness) but it's not generally enough to overcome that beautiful offence.

In the eighth a bad and clearly accidental clash of heads brought an end to proceedings. It was a nasty cut.

Gamboa:2,3,4,5,7,8.
Ponce:1,6.