Tony Sibson v Louis Acaries (European middleweight title) Round 1: 10-9 Sibson Round 2: 10-9 Sibson Round 3: 10-9 Sibson Round 4: 10-9 Sibson Round 5: 10-10 Even Round 6: 10-9 Sibson Round 7: 10-10 Even (shortened round) Round 8: 10-9 Sibson Round 9: 10-9 Sibson Round 10: 10-10 Even Round 11: 10-9 Acaries Round 12: 10-9 Sibson Total: 119-112 Sibson (actual scores: 118-117, 117-116 both for Sibson and a 118-116 for Acaries) Y'know, back in the day before we had access to fights, I would pore over magazines and other text and even though I had never seen a particular fighter, I could get a mental sense of how he fought. The mental picture I had of Acaries and his countryman Rufino Angulo for that matter, was they were a type of big one-punch bangers. And this proved to be true of Acaries (I've still never seen Angulo fight). Regarding the fight and scoring, I felt Sibson simply outworked Acaries. Louis would land one big punch, but Sibson was carrying the freight round after round. It bogged down those last three rounds where Sibson did a lot of clinching, but Acaries throughout the fight was simply depending on that one big shot to turn it around. The three Euro officials had it unbelievably close. I thought I was heavy with three Even rounds, but they had 5, 6 and 7 rounds Even respectively. I get it that it can be tough sometimes discerning between several smaller shots and one big shot, but for the most part I felt Tony's all-round game was better. One last thing. The 7th round was short by 26 seconds because of a faulty house-bell (which sounded more like a fog-horn). This hurt Acaries more than anything because he had pulled that round even on my card and could have taken it or dropped Tony because he had more momentum at the time. They finally turned off the house-bell around the 9th round because it rang again about a minute into that round. They finally reverted to something that sounded like two coconuts being banged together.
Israel Vasquez v Oscar Larios II Round 1: 10-10 Even Round 2: 10-9 Larios Round 3: 10-9 Larios Round 4: 10-9 Larios Round 5: 10-9 Larios Round 6: 10-9 Larios Round 7: 10-9 Larios Round 8: 10-9 Larios Round 9: 10-9 Vasquez Round 10: 10-9 Larios Round 11: 10-10 Even Round 12: Larios drops Vasquez twice and the ref stops the bout Total through 11 completed rounds: 109-102 Larios (actual scores: 107-102, 107-102 and an amazingly close 105-104 all for Larios) Every fighter hits an absolute career physical peak and this had to be it for Larios, although he still put in quite a few amazing wins in his career. Man, what an engine this kid had. It was pure workrate that had Larios so far ahead on my card. I was stunned really. I felt at any time Vasquez was going to kick in his next gear, but it really never happened. Larios just kept him on the end of a fusillade of punches from beginning to end. But despite my one-sided score, this was still a damn good fight. It wasn't like Vasquez wasn't throwing punches, just not at the rate Larios was.
I watched the Oscar Bonavena vs Karl Mildenberger fight from 1967. I saw that fight live on ABC's Wide World Of Sports. I think that it was very competitive, that Bonavena was more awkward than Karl was. I still scored it for Oscar, due to the knockdowns,
Carlos (Sugar) DeLeon v Alfonso Ratliff (cruiserweight title) Round 1: 10-9 DeLeon Round 2: 10-9 DeLeon Round 3: 10-9 Ratliff Round 4: 10-9 Ratliff Round 5: 10-9 DeLeon Round 6: 10-9 Ratliff Round 7: 10-9 Ratliff Round 8: 10-9 Ratliff Round 9: 10-10 Even Round 10: 10-9 Ratliff Round 11: 10-9 Ratliff Round 12: 10-9 Ratliff Total: 117-112 Ratliff (actual scores: 116-113 and 117-114 both for Ratliff and a seemingly ridiculous 117-114 for DeLeon for a split win for Ratliff) This was a fairly decent fight. DeLeon really looked like he was going to take off with this fight early, but Carlos was always a sort of lazy fighter and Ratliff really picked up the tempo and started hammering him whenever he could. The 11th round was about the best for action. That score for DeLeon was one odd tally. Couldn't see that coming.
Lee Selby vs George Kamboos JR Round 1: Selby 10-9 Round 2: Kamboos 10-9 Round 3: Kamboos 10-9 Round 4: Selby 10-9 (Close) Round 5: Selby 10-9 Round 6: Kamboos 10-9 Round 7: Kamboos 10-9 Round 8: Kamboos 10-9 (Close) Round 9: Kamboos 10-9 (Close) (Suuper close round but imo Kamboos just edged it) Round 10: Selby 10-9 (Close) Round 11: Kamboos 10-9 Round 12: Kamboos 10-9 Kamboos 116-112 Close fight Kamboos has a lot of dimensions to his game he'll probably cause Teo some problems. I was impressed by his ability to largely outbox a fighter as slick as Selby for large portions of the fight. I watched the fight for the first time at work as it happened and only saw the first couple rounds haven't been able to sit down and score it until now. I get why its such a controversial decision each round was hard to score as Selby would control the first 1-2 minutes and then Kamboos would start timing and winning the last 2-1 minute making many rounds hard to give a clear winner too.
Eloy Rojas v Wilfredo Vasquez I always liked Wilfredo Vasquez but had never seen Rojas fight before. Here we go. Round 1: 10-9 Rojas Round 2: 10-9 Rojas Round 3: 10-9 Vasquez Round 4: 10-9 Rojas Round 5: 10-10 Even Round 6: 10-10 Even Round 7: 10-9 Rojas Round 8: 10-9 Rojas Round 9: 10-10 Even Round 10: 10-9 Vasquez Round 11: Vasquez stops Rojas Total through 10 completed rounds: 98-95 Rojas (actual scores: 96-94, 100-92 and 98-92 all for Rojas leading) Rojas certainly had the dimensions on the shorter Vasquez, but seemed intent on knocking him out and stayed inside much longer than he should have. When he was keeping Vasquez on the outside of his shots he was golden. Vasquez, meanwhile did what Vasquez does. Work the body and fired those clean looping shots every chance he could and it paid off in the 11th round. Good fight. If you watch it, watch the Ironbar version. It's not as crisp a video as the other one you'll fight on youtube, but it has all the rounds where the other is missing a couple.
Philly, I watched this fight today and then checked if anyone had seen it. Lo and behold, you did about a year and half ago. I think your score was very relevant because it was a tough fight to score. In fact, this should be a template for scoring and to sift through the mire. There were so many variables on this because the crowd and the Thai announcers scream at anything Galaxy does, Galaxy's punches have much more wallop early on and then eventually bogs down into slaps, while Vasquez plugs away to the body and head with non-colorful shots. It really is a toughie to score as you said. Perhaps if the film was a bit sharper we would have more confidence in our cards. Wilfredo Vasquez v Khaokor Galaxy Round 1: 10-9 Vasquez Round 2: 10-10 Even Round 3: 10-9 Vasquez Round 4: 10-9 Galaxy Round 5: 10-8 Vasquez (scores a knockdown) Round 6: 10-9 Vasquez Round 7: 10-9 Galaxy Round 8: 10-9 Galaxy Round 9: 10-9 Galaxy Round 10: 10-9 Vasquez Round 11: 10-9 Galaxy Round 12: 10-10 Even Total: 115-114 Vasquez (actual scores: 115-113 and 115-112 both for Galaxy and a 114-113 for Vasquez for a split win for Galaxy) The knockdown was a bit funky. I really can't find any info on this whether or not it was official. Clearly, both Philly and I felt so. Galaxy clearly went down and the ref sent Vasquez to a corner and turned to the timekeeper to pick up the eight count. However, this is where it gets a bit hazy. It doesn't appear the timekeeper even tried to do so and the referee glares at him in a really pi**ed off manner. He then wipes Galaxy's gloves and has them box on. It was up to the ref to score this a knockdown, not the timekeeper. Was it official? Anyways, a very close and tough fight to score.
I really like watching Bones. He was a solid, solid fighter. He knew his stuff. For his age, and being against Cani, the competition was very impressive.
Wilfredo Vasquez v Juan Lazcano I do enjoy a Wilfredo Vasquez fight, but clearly this is one I should have given a pass on. Lazcano, known as 'The Hispanic causing panic', was simply too big, too young and too hungry for the 39 year old Vasquez who was only having his third fight at 135, where he clearly didn't belong. No point in running a card here. Vasquez tried but was simply outgunned in a fight where I gave every round to Lazcano before stopping Vasquez in the 9th. Quite amazing the talent level of Lazcano and the fact that he had to be one of the few very talented fighters in the multi-champion era who never won a strap from one of the big 4 alphabets.
Jose Luis Castillo v Juan Lazcano (Vacant WBC lightweight championship) Round 1: 10-10 Even Round 2: 10-9 Castillo Round 3: 10-9 Castillo Round 4: 10-10 Even Round 5: 10-9 Castillo Round 6: 10-9 Lazcano Round 7: 10-9 Lazcano Round 8: 10-9 Lazcano Round 9: 10-9 Castillo Round 10: 10-9 Castillo Round 11: 10-9 Castillo Round 12: 10-9 Castillo Total: 117-113 Castillo (actual scores: 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113 all for Castillo) This wasn't the barn-burner I was hoping for but it did have some hard-banging moments. I think the main factor in the bout was Castillo's constant banging downstairs every chance he got in every clinch. The facial impact Lazcano suffered also was immense. His eyes were mere slits in the last round where he showed tremendous heart trying to pull out the fight. Not great, but a good fight.
Chad Dawson UD12 Tomasz Adamek Dawson's shorts are ridiculous. McGirt is right on Adamek for following after the first round, step out, cut him off, Dawson is fast and has good distance, so he's going to land those sharp punches if Adamek gives him the real-estate. Dawson surprises with confident body punches to open the second and it's hard for just a second to see where any Adamek success is going to come from? How will be succeed? He's not boring in, he's not going to be able to jab at the quicker man, he feels planless, not least because Dawson has planted his feet. They are bumping up a lot lead-foot to lead-foot. Adamek does have a good third though, just a bit more aggressive, landed a couple of good rights to the body, he's driven off too easily though and is probably outlanded again, a snapping straight left though probably poaches it for Dawson! But it's a closer round. McGirt, again, good in the corner after the fourth, he's telling Adamek, don't run when Dawson throws, throw with him, picking him to be stronger, but it's tough, tough to let a guy hit you when he's hitting you that fast, whole body is screaming evasive maneuvers. Press ringside is revealed to have it universally 4-0 as Dawson drives Adamek back and into the corner in the fifth. Where is an Adamek round going to come from? Adamek is dropped in the seventh to add to his woes, and the fight is gone from him on the cards. He was unlucky, a straight left sent Adamaek flying back, good optic, about a minute left, but Dawson's foot was behind Adamek as the punch went in, and it was part trip. In truth though, if you get hit with as many very good punches as Dawson is landing here, you will get bowled over at some point. Adamek was rattled twice more in the round by Dawson punches. Comparisons in the commentary to the Calzaghe-Lacey fight are not unfounded through nine. In the tenth though, a glimmer for Adamek. Dawson has been getting a little cocky maybe, throwing more, had Adamek really miserable in the ninth, but he's looking for something that might not be there, in part at the behest of Mayweather Snr. in the Dawson corner. McGirt, meanwhile, is threatening in earnest to stop the fight after the ninth. "One more round I'm going to give you." Anyway, about half way through the round, Adamek lands his warning shot, a short straight right that finds the button and Dawson look like he wants to move for a spell, though he comes back with a hard combo. Dawson looked to be moving across Adamek square, a little carelessly to his own right and another one of those chopping rights puts Dawson down on his trunks. Adamek comes in hard behind the count and the fight blows up for the remaining seconds. I think if not for that flash this would have been remembered as one of the great and surprising schoolings. Dawson:1,2,3, 4,5,6,7*,8,9. Adamek:10*,11,12. * Adamek down, pretty unlucky really, looked like he tripped **Dawson down
Wilford Scypion v James 'Hardrock' Green First of all, I just want to say, put your pencils down and just enjoy the fight. So close and scrutinizing every nuance and shift change takes away from the action. Round 1: Even Round 2: Even Round 3: Scypion Round 4: Scypion Round 5: Green Round 6: Green Round 7: Green (I had it even, but Scypion was penalized the round for hitting after the bell, so under NJ rules it is simply given to the opponent) Round 8: Scypion Round 9: Scypion Round 10: Green Total: 4-4-2 Draw (actual scores: 6-3-1, 7-2-1 and 5-4-1 all for Green) This fight wasn't as good as the Green - John Mugabi fight, but there was good action. I would have loved to have been in the crowd for this one. Atmosphere had to be electric.