Hiroshi Kobayashi v Alfredo Marcano (WBA jr. lightweight title) Here is a hidden gem of a fight that I am so glad I saw and took a stab at. The story on this that I had heard at the time was that Kobayashi was well ahead and a bit of a fluke that he lost. Well don't you believe it. That's the story you get when the wire services and the judges are all the nationals. Round 1: 5-4 Marcano Round 2: 5-4 Marcano Round 3: 5-4 Kobayashi Round 4: 5-4 Kobayashi Round 5: 5-4 Marcano Round 6: 5-4 Marcano Round 7: 5-4 Marcano Round 8: 5-4 Kobayashi Round 9: 5-4 Kobayashi (Marcano receives a standing 8 count and then scores a knockdown)) Round 10: Marcano drops Kobayashi twice and the corner stops the bout Total through 9 compled rounds: 41-40 Marcano (actual scores: 43-40, 43-42 and 43-41 all for Kobayashi) Again, this was a terrific little bout with sharp punches from both fighters connecting throughout the contest. Marcano couldn't seem to miss throughout with his sharp stabbing jab and combos. Kobayshi seemed to hang back until he realized this guy was for real. Marcano became notably tired late in the 7th and Kobayashi really tried to turn the fight around - which he did to a point - before punching himself out after the 9th. The 9th was an amazing round and well worth exercising your judging skills on. Kobayashi really batters a tired Marcano and finally the ref gives him a standing 8 count (I'll bet in retrospect the ref regretted not stopping the bout). But then a tired Kobayshi walks into a right uppercut and he is down and manages to last to the bell. I gave it to Kobayashi by 1 point because he had a 2 point round before he went down, which deducted a point on my card. By the 10th Marcano had his second wind and Kobayashi was spent. Wild end to a really good fight. One that I enjoyed with its crisp punching throughout.
Danny Lopez v Shig Fukuyama California scoring of 1 point for a round (2 if there is a knockdown), none for the loser and none for an Even round. Round 1: Lopez Round 2: Even Round 3: Lopez Round 4: Lopez Round 5: Even Round 6: Fukuyama Round 7: Lopez Round 8: Fukuyama Round 9: Fight is stopped between rounds due to eye medication accidentally spilled into Lopez' eye Total through 8 completed rounds: 4-2 Lopez (actual scores: 3-3, 4-3 and 5-3 with Fukuyama leading on 2 out of the 3 cards) I've always found California officials to be about the most honest of the bunch. A place where even the visitor was going to get a fair shake even if it was against one of their big box-office attractions. I also think of the 10 rounder between Mando Ramos and Kang-Il Suh and Suh copping the close decision. I think of both of these fights because Ramos and Lopez were absolute stars on the coast and the officials scored it the way they saw it. On to the fight. I saw this back in '74 and it is far more exciting than I remember it. The ending was a real oddity. Lopez' manager Howie Steindler quite literally spilled a bottle of solution used to treat cuts into his eye between rounds 8 and 9 and Lopez could not continue. An unfortunate ending to a great fight. Rounds 6 and 8 were spectacular. Fukuyama showed amazing heart in both those rounds to fight through what Lopez was throwing. My only dislike was the film. The film quality itself is watchable but it looks like they truncated the 7th round, then showed the 8th, then went back to the remainder of the 7th that we didn't see, then showed the 8th again and didn't show what happened between the 8th and 9th. So just keep your eyes on things at that point so you don't get lost. But regardless of the snafu with the film, a damn good fight.
I know, it's right up there with the Virgil Hill v Adolpho Washington fight with the TV camera causing the damage.
Kelvin Seabrooks v Orlando Canizales I (bantamweight title) Round 1: 10-8 OC (scores a knockdown) Round 2: 10-9 OC Round 3: 10-9 OC Round 4: 10-9 OC Round 5: 10-9 OC Round 6: 10-9 KS Round 7: 10-9 KS Round 8: 10-9 OC Round 9: 10-9 OC Round 10: 10-9 OC Round 11: 10-10 Even Round 12: 10-9 OC Round 13: 10-10 Even Round 14: 10-9 OC Round 15: Canizales drops and stops Seabrooks Total through 14 completed rounds: 138-129 Canizales (actual scores: 137-128, 137-127 and 138-128 all for Canizales) If this was the last of the 15 rounders, it went out in style. Canizales fought a beautiful fight of boxing, punching and body work without forsaking defense. However, Seabrooks kept every round close with his sharp, straight punches. A really elegant, hard-fought fight that I highly recommend.
Jeff Chandler v Johnny 'Dancing Machine' Carter (bantamweight title) Round 1: 10-9 Carter Round 2: 10-9 Carter Round 3: 10-9 Chandler Round 4: 10-9 Chandler Round 5: 10-9 Chandler Round 6: Chandler drops and stops Carter Total through 5 completed rounds: 48-47 Chandler (actual scores: 48-47, 49-47 and 49-46 all with Chandler leading) I recalled watching this fight when it took place, but man, I'm glad I rewatched this today. What a fight! Chandler went 1-1 as an amateur and this was his only opponent. Carter got off to such a fast start, sharp-shooting with everything in his arsenal. When Carter kicked, the fight went into over-drive. Rounds 3 and 4 should have been measured on the Richter scale. Unbelievable pace and shots that were landing. Brief but brilliant fight.
Yesterday I watched the Gavilan-Ralph "Tiger" Jones bout, uploaded by our own @William Walker . Nice work sir. Good, good fight. The first three rounds were nip and tuck, with the aggressive Jones trying to exert what he thought might be a strength advantage against the career welterweight, spindly-legged Cuban. The pace was furious, toe-to-toe exchanges abounding with both men landing hard shots. Problem was, Gavilan never wilted. I gave Jones the first and a share of the third, and the rest, hard-fought as they may be, went to Kid Gavilan. By the 10-point must system (the one I always default to) it was 99-92 Gavilan. Terrific bout though, and yet another reminder of the richness of even "everyday" televised bouts in that time. Here as always Gavilan uses the famed "bolo" punch as a showpiece certainly, but also as a great counter to right hands over the top, and thrown to the bread basket or solar plexus it made Jones increasingly wary as the rounds mounted, along with the tough pace the two were setting. Gavilan was happy to flurry along with Jones in the trenches to exert his independence there, and was of course outclassing his man on the outside with jabs and lithe movement. Neither man was ever hurt but it was increasingly Gavilan's fight as it progressed, and I had it far wider then the judges, who scored it 5-4-1, 6-4, and 7-3 for Gavilan.
Gene (Ace) Armstrong v Italo Scortichini Some time back I watched the Henry Hank - Ace Armstrong fight and was pleasantly surprised watching Ace. A real nice fighter who could box and wasn't afraid to go in the trenches. So today I saw that his fight with Scortichini was in its entirety and gave it a gander. The Italian was a squat, wide-swinging, clubbing type of a puncher who never stopped trying, although outclassed. Ace stuck to his guns, boxing nicely, getting stuck inside every so often and utilizing great usage of the ring via good footwork. He really was impressive without having any kind of real punch. No sense running a card here, as I only gave the 2nd round to Scortichini for a 9-1 card, which all 3 judges had also. It's funny looking at Ace's record. He only lost 4 times, but that was 3 losses to Dick Tiger and his last bout to Luis Rodriguez. I wonder if he looked back on that a few years later and thought, 'I only lost to world champs and all-time greats, why did I retire so soon?'
LOL! I know what you mean. I just looked at his record and looked at where Dick Tiger was at this stage of his career and I would think for their first fight maybe the Armstrong camp wasn't too worried, as Tiger had lost to Spider Webb, Randy Sandy and Rory Calhoun. Their fight was close and they probably said it was no big deal. By their second fight, Tiger had split two fights with Joey Giardello and beat Holly Mims, so by this time they may have been saying, "He clearly isn't bad and we held him close, so let's give it another go." But by their 3rd fight Tiger had only split 2 fights with Wilfie Greaves for anything of note and they probably still thought they could take him. But such is life. His last fight against Luis Rodriguez was poorly researched. You don't comeback after 16 months of a layoff against a top contender. That probably was the final straw, but he should have come back with one or two marking time bouts before taking on something as daunting as Rodriguez.
Lupe Madera v Francisco Quiroz (WBA jr. flyweight title) Round 1: 10-10 Even Round 2: 10-9 Quiroz Round 3: 10-8 Madera (scores a knockdown) Round 4: 10-9 Madera Round 5: 10-9 Quiroz Round 6: 10-9 Madera Round 7: 10-10 Even Round 8: 10-9 Quiroz Round 9: Quiroz drops Madera, who fails to beat the count Total through 8 completed rounds: 77-76 Madera (actual scores not known) To begin, only a Venezuelan or Panamanian would be fighting for a WBA title with a record of 9-10-1, which is what Quiroz possessed. Moreover, not trying to take anything away from these two honest fighters, but if not for the age of multiple titles and newly created divisions, neither one of these two would be fighting for the flyweight title. Quiroz was a clubfighter and Madera was a journeyman. Quiroz had lost 9 in a row at one point before this fight and Madera had fought unsuccessfully for the NABF and Mexican titles. However, together, they put on a pretty good show. With Madera on the attack, but lacking that KO punch and Quiroz trying to box from range and sharp-shoot when he could, I enjoyed it very much. But let's call it what it really was. A good club-fight.
There aren't many fighters I'd flat out advise a fighter avoid like I would Luis Rodriguez. Especially after a 16 month layoff.
To be fair to Quiroz, the former Olympian was on good form going into the fight with Madera, scoring two wins over ranked contenders and former title challengers. After that, he deserved to be in contention after getting matched really tough early in his career. For his part, Madera had wins over former or future titleholders in Ursua and Flores, and had gone 2-1-1 against a pretty solid Katsuo Tokashiki, with all of those fights taking place in Japan. So he could hold his own in what was a reasonably deep Light Flyweight division. Fight was very good with fighters who were probably a little better than their records suggested. Both guys at their best, I think, were probably worthy of being ranked in other eras, if not actually securing championships.
Drew, I am a purist on this subject and bristle at politics and greed that get in the way of the sport. Lt. Fly as well as Strawweight and Super fly, etc. were all created for the money-grubbing Alphabet boys, not for the betterment of boxing or to give fighters a chance. Just think about flyweight for a moment. Where there was once a single champion, there are now 12 when you count 108, 105 and the 4 'champs' in each of those classes. It's pathetic how they watered down the sport. It was no different back in '84 when this fight took place, but they were only getting started. In regards to the two fighters, it was politics that got Quiroz a title shot, nothing else. He held no rating in the Ring ratings before his shot. I wouldn't consider his win over Rodolfo Rodriquez much. Rodriguez' career was in free-fall having lost 4 out of his last 5 and would never win another fight. His win over Becerra was good, but that's it. And with a 9-10-1 record he gets a title shot. But he was from Venezuela. How many pathetic and undeserving challengers did the WBA give title shots to from Venezuela, Panama and South Korea? As for Madera, again, really just a journeyman. Like Quiroz, he held no rating from Ring mag on either of his title shots. I feel his best win was over Candido Tellez, who had knocked him out in 3 rounds, but lost a decision in the rematch. Now Tellez held some very good wins in his career and a world rating, but he never got a sniff at the brass ring. I guess the point I'm trying to make is without the creation of Lt.Fly or the multi-titles and Alphabet boys behind them, neither of these fighters would be fighting for the championship of the world. It is something that has to be earned. I know my views are passe in this day and age, but I still don't have to like it.
Agreed. We miss out on a lot of the great fights that should be taken at flyweight (its criminal Ricardo Lopez never fought a lot of the great 108/112 guys in his day)