the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

I just watched Kelly Pavlik vs Edison Miranda, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Prior to the stoppage, I had Pavlik ahead by a couple points (57/55), and my God, what a war. It's weird how you almost never hear this one mention as a great MW fight, when Pavlik's next fight is often regarded as one of the best. I'd take this one over Pavlik-Taylor I anyday of the week. Quality, quality stuff.

 

Interesting, George. You're right - this isn't mentioned as a great fight. I'll be checking this out on your recommendation.

 

So will I.

 

Juan Manuel Marquez v Marcos Licona (10 rounds)

To begin - and I'm only piecing this together from the bits I heard - I think IBF featherweight champ Marquez was supposed to fight WBA champ Derrick Gainer in a unification of sorts, but Gainer pulled out and Licona was subbed in an over-the-weight non-title. The fight was contracted at 127, but Licona came in at 133. So he was fined $25,000 off his $70,000 purse. OK, that's the prologue.

The fight: This was the weirdest audience I ever saw next to the crowd at the Davey Moore-Buster Drayton bout from France. In that bout the Parisian crowd was simply muted during the slugfest. Not a peep. In this bout it was somewhat quiet with mingled boos coursing through the arena. And that I didn't get. Marquez and Licona put on an excellent contest where exchanges were often, crisp, fast and constant through the 9 completed rounds. What'd they want? Chavez-Taylor? Man, I have no complaints on this fight. Licona was a toughie, but for every hard delivery he landed, JMM landed something a bit better and a bit more and finally dumped Licona on the seat of his pants in the 8th. The corner retired Licona between the 9th and 10th rounds and I had an identical score to that of the 3 judges. 90-80 for JMM. But don't let the score fool you. This was a very competitive bout which I thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Just watching Mahyar Monshipour vs Shigeru Nakazato - bet you can't say that five times, fast - and my God, is Mahyar an absolute savage. I forgot just how mental he really was.

 

Oh, and if you haven't seen this one you should check it out. It's a similar sort of frantic pace to Monshipour vs Sithchatchawal.

 

I can't say it once.

 

So, watched this today and thought it was a lot of fun. Pavlik made the fight and forced Miranda to trade. The Ghost definitely got the better of the exchanges overall but Miranda was landing hard, flush punches too. I didn't take notes but did some mental arithmetic and came up with 59-54 to Pavlik after 6 rounds. I thought Pavlk swept the first three (even though they were competitive) and then I made round 4 even. Round 5 was the only round I scored out and out for Miranda with round 6 a 10-7 for Pavlik on account of two KDs. Plus, Miranda was wobbled before he went down. He was lucky to survive that one but round 7 didn't last long as he got overwhelmed and Steve Smoger stopped it correctly.

I think Pavlik-Taylor had the swings of momentum and Pavlik coming from behind, but the action between Pavlik and Miranda was furious, particularly early on but maybe ultimately a little too one-sided to be considered a classic. Definitely a good recommendation, though, George.

 

Myung Woo Yuh v Jose DeJesus I

George, finally getting around to your recommendations. Did the DeMarco fight the other day, which was phenomenal, but the DeJesus fight, I felt, wasn't the most competitive. Although the official judges felt otherwise. Anyways, about the fight. I'm really enjoying Yuh's fights and in this one I really thought he was in control from the beginning. I only gave DeJesus the 9th round and had rounds 10 and 15 Even. At the end of the fight I actually thought the scores would be wider than mine because I noted that in the hands of a more liberal scorer than I, they might have given a 2 point round to Yuh in rounds 5 and 13. Anyway, I had Yuh the winner by a score of 149-138 but the officials had him the winner 146-141, 144-141 and an amazing 144-143. Just didn't see it that close. Thought he did a terrific job of keeping DeJesus on the back foot and thumping him with his hard jab, body shots and right hands. DeJesus had a nice speedy jab and a good straight right but wasn't very busy with them while trying to fend off Yuh. I gotta tell you, many of you guys really like Jung Koo Chang, but no matter how many times I watch his fights, he's just not my cup of tea. Yuh, however, checks every box for me.

 

Mike Alvarado v Ruslan Provodnikov (WBO jr. welterweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 RP
Round 2: 10-9 Alvarado
Round 3: 10-9 RP
Round 4: 10-9 RP
Round 5: 10-9 RP
Round 6: 10-10 Even
Round 7: 10-10 Even
Round 8: 10-7 RP (scores 2 knockdowns)
Round 9: 10-9 RP
Round 10: 10-9 RP
Alvarado was retired between the 10th and 11th rounds

Total through 10 completed rounds: 99-91 Provodnikov (actual scores: 98-90, 97-90 and 96-92 all for Provodnikov)

I don't think I have ever seen a dull Provodnikov or Alvarado fight, so when I saw these two were matched, I envisioned fireworks. But to tell you the truth, although a good fight, I felt it was more grueling than anything else. After only the first round the Provodnikov corner were holding 2 icebags under his eyes, which did not bode well. And by fights end, both their faces looked like they had been through a meat-grinder. I actually thought Alvarado did OK when he stood his ground and counter-punched, but his corner had him moving continuously. Hey, what do I know? I'm here to watch the fights.

 

Watched Olivares against Zenzuke Utagawa from 1974. Not an especially noteworthy fight, but I was struck again at what an anomaly Olivares was in some ways. He's remarkable in that he's insanely accurate with his shots and is a master of punch selection while throwing just about everything from the outside arcing in. Almost nothing he throws is straight. He has very long arms for his height so such an approach can look a little ungainly at times but he's a smart, heady fighter who despite his power always throws in combination and knows how and when to press.

Utagawa, for his part, is game but just so-so. He's nowhere near the class of an Olivares.

 

Sal, I know what you mean about Utagawa. Even back then I was saying to myself, 'How is he fighting for a vacant title? How is he one of the 2 top contenders.' If Marcel had retired just that bit earlier, I'm sure the Olivares-Hafey fight would have been for the vacant title, which would have been deserving. As for the fight, it's been a good couple of years since I saw it but I recall thinking at the time, 'What a patient, methodical break down of an opponent!' Ruben just took his time, body and head.

 

It had that feel, yeah. Not much more than a routine trip to the gym for him.

 

James “Buster” Douglas vs. Mike Tyson (c), scheduled for 12 rounds for the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight championship at the Tokyo Dome on Feb. 11, 1990.

This is Tyson’s 10th heavyweight title defense overall and third defense as lineal champion, a claim he won when he defeated Michael Spinks in one round. An estimated crowd of 40,000 showed up on a Sunday morning (local time, scheduled at the odd hour for HBO television purposes in the U.S.).

Douglas, a 20-year-old 42:1 underdog, is 28-4-1 (19) and weighs 231 1/2. He’s ranked No. 2 by the IBF, No. 3 by the WBC and No. 4 by the WBA, having won six in a row since losing to Tony Tucker in a bid for the vacant WBA belt, with wins over Trevor Berbick and Oliver McCall in his latest two outings.

Tyson, age 23, is 37-0 (33) and scales 220 1/2. He is making $6M (to Douglas’ $1.3M) and has signed to face Evander Holyfield for a $22M purse in his next fight if he retains.

Scoring:

1. Douglas 10-9: Buster lands a few clean rights and gets his thundering jab going late in the round.

2. Douglas 10-9: Douglas starts landing more combinations including some clean and solid right hands. He punches first and last in every engagement to take the play away, starting the conversation and ending it, so to speak.

3. Douglas 10-9: (close) A lot of clinching this round but Buster edges it with a couple of snappy combinations.

4. Douglas 10-9: The action picks up as they stand toe to tie and Douglas surprisingly gets the better of it. He really gets the jab going.

5. Douglas 10-9: He rocks Tyson with combinations and Iron Mike’s left eye is starting to swell.

6. Tyson 10-9: (close) Slow round, Mike lands a few uppercuts.

7. Douglas 10-9: (close) Buster gets busier but Tyson does some good body work.

8. Tyson 10-8: Buster’s round until Tyson gets through with a dynamite uppercut late in the round. Buster gets up and the bell rings before Tyson can do anything to follow up.

9: Douglas 10-9: Buster does major damage in two sequences with volleys of solid punches that land cleanly. Close to a two-point round without a knockdown. Tyson left eye is completely swelled shut by this point.

10: Douglas stuns Mike with an uppercut and follows up with a sequence of blows to put Tyson down, ending matters at 1:22 of the round.

My card: Douglas 87-83

Official cards through nine: 88-82 Douglas, 87-86 Tyson, 86-86

(I’d forgotten how close this came to being a robbery, because had Tyson finished on his feet there’s every reason to believe he’d have gotten the nod on two cards regardless of how one-sided this fight was.

Tokyo Douglas fought as well on this night as any long-shot challenger ever has and completely took the play away from Tyson at every turn. Hell, few champions have ever shown this level of sustained focus and dominance in a single fight. A phenomenal performance.

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Tokyo Douglas is pretty much considered a separate fighter from regular Buster Douglas. It's like Robert Johnson and pre- and post-crossroads. Except that it lasted just one fight, not a whole career.