the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

I will scrawl down a fight on paper when I get curious about the chatter I'm hearing on it. Eventually I will get to it and I did today when @Jel and @George Crowcroft raved about this awhile back. Here we go........

Alex Arthur v Michael Gomez (British jr. lightweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Gomez
Round 2: 10-9 Arthur
Round 3: 10-8 Gomez (battering)
Round 4: 10-9 Gomez
Round 5: Gomez drops Arthur 3 times and the bout is stopped)

Total through 4 completed rounds: 39-36 Gomez (actual scores unknown)

To begin, man, what a fight! And what an atmosphere there had to be in that arena. I felt bad for Arthur. Despite boxing nicely in the 2nd, he just couldn't keep Gomez off of him. That 5th round was something. Arthur really hurt Gomez with a left hook to the body during an exchange and looked like he could pull it out (I didn't look up the result before watching, so I had no idea who was going to win) but Gomez was not to be denied this night. Bummer for the Edinburgh fans, but great for us watching who didn't have a horse in the race. Guys, you didn't oversell this. It was awesome.

 

Speaking of Alex Arthur and Michael Gomez these fights are worth watching, if you haven't got anything to watch.

Alex Arthur vs Stephen Foster
Michael Gomez vs Carl Johansson

 

I absolutely adore Michael Gomez. One of the most crazy life stories I've ever read, one of the kindest men I've ever met, and one of the most entertaining Mancunian fighters ever.

This fight was absolutely amazing.

Gomez vs Khan, Lear, Bognar (1 & 2) and Johansson are all brilliant. Most are pretty short, too.

 

Oscar Valdez vs Miguel Berchelt

1 Valdez
2 Valdez
3 Valdez
4 Valdez 10-8 knockdown
5 Valdez
6 Berchelt
7 Berchelt
8 Valdez
9 Valdez 10-8 knockdown
10 Valdez wins by KO knockout of the year ?

88-81 Valdez

I'm not gonna lie i was kind of sad to see Berchelt lose, i've seen all of his title fights. And i was a bit of a fan of his, at one point i was hoping he would get a fight with Lomachenko but anyway onto the fight.

Valdez just looked sharper from the opening bell, i don't want to sound biased because i'm fan of Berchelt. But to me he didn't look very sharp at all, i'm used to seeing him put punches together but i didn't really see that at all in this fight.

But i'll give Valdez credit for an excellent jab, he scored at will with the jab. Which was impressive considering he's the shorter man with the shorter reach. And it was a pretty punishing jab and he bloodied Berchelt's nose early on with it.

And pretty much that was the story of the fight, Valdez beating Berchelt to the jab all night long. And occasionally he'd rip some superb left hooks in there aswell, which caused the knockdown in the 4th round.

I thought Berchelt won rounds 6 and 7 because he was actually able to get off punches in them rounds, by being aggressive and pushing Valdez back. Which he wasn't doing before as he just stood in the middle of the ring getting pot shotted by the shaper/quicker Valdez.

But after that little bit of success for Berchelt, the fight went back into the same pattern of Valdez hitting Berchelt at will with the jab. And the fight started to become a very punishing one for Berchelt, as he started to swell up from the pin point accurate jab and left hooks.

Berchelt went down again in the 9th round with a beautiful uppercut, and the writing was on the wall. It was just how long Berchelt could survive the punishment.

Finally in round 10 Berchelt walks into a brutal left hook counter, and he's laid out in what was one of the knockouts of the year.

I was going to say great performance from Oscar Valdez, but i decided after the fight to look him up. And i see he was caught last year with banned substance ? which is disappointing and it kind detracts from his win.

 

Troy Dorsey vs Manuel Medina

1 Dorsey
2 Dorsey 10-8 knockdown
3 Dorsey 10-8 knockdown
4 Medina
5 Medina
6 Medina
7 Medina
8 Medina
9 Medina
10 Medina
11 Medina
12 Medina

115-111 Medina


I really enjoyed the fight i was looking forward to this one, as both men are very exciting fighters who throw alot of punches. And have been in plenty of FOTY candidates.

So Dorsey as he often does started off like a whirling dervish taking it to Medina, both of the knockdowns were mirror images of eachother. Both from hard right hands from Dorsey, the first knockdown i thought Medina wasn't that hurt by it, but the 2nd one i thought he did look hurt. Although to his credit he recovered fairly quickly.

But after that great start from Dorsey with the two knockdowns, the fight turned around quite abruptly. As Medina started out throwing and out landing the punching machine Dorsey. I think he had Dorsey a little confused aswell, because Medina was so unorthodox throwing punches from all different angles even switching southpaw from time to time.

Dorsey still looked dangerous though, as he was still landing hard right hands. And i think an argument could be made he could of won the 5th. But that's the only round after first 3 rounds that you could argue Dorsey won in my opinion.

But as the fight wore on Dorsey was becoming less competitive, and the right hands were no longer looking like a threat. As Medina kept throwing punches non stop out landing Dorsey 4 to 1.

I have to say in the last 3 rounds or so, when Dorsey had two really bad cuts on his eyes. That i think the fight should of been stopped in all honesty, Dorsey's face was a crimson mask and it appeared to me he could barely see if at all.

I can understand Dorsey was the champion and the fight at that point, was still up in the air points wise because of the knockdowns. But to me after 8th round or so, it had become apparent Dorsey wasn't going to win. So i think the fight should of been stopped with them cuts.

But overall a really exciting and gruesome fight with the cuts, Dorsey had an amazing start. But after them knockdowns was thoroughly out fought by the non stop attack by Medina.

 

Julian Jackson vs Thomas Tate

1 Jackson
2 Tate
3 Jackson
4 Jackson knockdown 10-8
5 Tate
6 Tate
7 Jackson
8 Jackson
9 Tate
10 Jackson
11 Jackson
12 Tate

115-112 Jackson

So i haven't seen this fight in years and i was quite surprised, Tate did alot better than i remember. Tate threw a pretty good double jab all night long, and anytime Jackson looked to have Tate in trouble Tate would always come right back.

I felt overall Jackson had the better of it, he landed the harder punches and more of them, but Tate certainly had his moments and there really was some brutal exchanges in this one.

Final thoughts Jackson showed he could fight a grueling 12 round slugfest, and not just be known to knock people out early. Tate showed an unbelievable chin, and to me that just goes to show how impressive Roy Jones stopping him in 2 rounds was. Because Tate had never been stopped in 48 fights and went 12 rounds, with possibly the hardest P4P puncher of all time.

 

That shot Roy Jr. hit Tate with, it’s like he dropped his glove about 2-3 inches and before you could blink Roy had launched a missile right at the uncovered spot.

 

Sumbu Kalambay vs Robbie Sims

1 Sims
2 Sims
3 Kalambay
4 Kalambay
5 Kalambay
6 Kalambay
7 Kalambay
8 Kalambay
9 Kalambay
10 Kalambay
11 Kalambay
12 Kalambay

118-110 Kalambay

Kalambay gets off to a slow start in this one as he sometimes did in his fights, Sims wobbled Kalambay with a Southpaw right hook in the 2nd round.

But after that it was a masterclass from Kalambay, as he slipped and slide with his very smooth boxing skills. And picked Sims apart with jabs and counter right hands, this really was the art of boxing on the backfoot and countering.

Sims was in the fight due to being the aggressor, but he was just outclassed by a prime Kalambay. Who was red hot at this time and would of been a handful for anyone at this time.

I've always thought Kalambay gets underrated because of that freak 1 round loss to Michael Nunn, to me he's one of the finest Middleweights ever. And had he fought the FAB 4, i think Kalambay would of held his own against all of them possibly even beating 1 or 2 of them at that time.

 

Erik Morales v Marcos Maidana (Crap title to justify a 12 rounder)

Round 1: 10-9 Maidana
Round 2: 10-9 Maidana
Round 3: 10-9 Maidana
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-9 Morales
Round 6: 10-10 Even
Round 7: 10-9 Morales
Round 8: 10-9 Morales
Round 9: 10-9 Maidana
Round 10: 10-9 Morales
Round 11: 10-9 Maidana
Round 12: 10-9 Maidana

Total: 116-114 Maidana (actual scores: 116-112, 116-112 and 114-114 for a majority decision for Maidana - Harold Lederman also scored it 114-114).

I'll always speculate when a fighter has had enough in his career. Sometimes I'm right, other times, not so much. I incorrectly called for the retirement of Duran after the Kirkland Laing fight and I did so again when Morales was stopped by Manny Pac in 3 rounds. He looked just so fragile that I said he should never lace them up again. Had you told me he would pack on 10 more pounds and 5 years later be duking it out competitively with Maidana, I would have said you were crazy.

But to the fight. A terrific contest. When Morales could keep the fight in the center of the ring or in pursuit of Maidana he was golden. But Maidana invariably bulled him to the ropes which was his forte. I had it even after 10 but Morales just didn't have anything else left in the tank but fumes for those last 2 rounds and Maidana took full advantage of it. Still, an excellent effort by Morales.

 

Chris Pyatt vs Sumbu Kalambay

1 Kalambay
2 Pyatt
3 Pyatt
4 Pyatt
5 Kalambay
6 Kalambay
7 Pyatt
8 Kalambay
9 Pyatt
10 Pyatt
11 Pyatt
12 Pyatt

116-112 Pyatt

Very tough fight to score Pyatt was definitely the more active of the two, but alot of Pyatt's punches missed or were blocked. Kalambay definitely landed the cleaner punches, but the problem was there just wasn't enough of that from Kalambay. As the younger fresher man just outhustled him on sheer workrate, and Pyatt showed at that stage in there careers he just wanted more than Kalambay.

Kalambay to me didn't look that sharp with his punches like what he had in his heyday, but his slippery upper body movement was still there.

Overall a decent close fight with quite a few rounds that were very tough to score, but Pyatt just showed he wanted it more and was a deserving winner.

 

Terry Marsh vs Akio Kameda

1 Marsh
2 Marsh
3 Marsh
4 Marsh
5 Marsh
6 Marsh
7 Kameda doesn't come out for the 7th round

Marsh 60-54

So this is my first time seeing Terry Marsh fight, obviously i've heard alot about Marsh. Regarding the infamous shooting incident, with Frank Warren but lets not go into that.

Anyway as for the fight Marsh pretty dominated the fight from the opening bell, with steady pressure and throwing good correct punches. Kameda didn't really have much to offer, as Marsh pretty much pounded him round after round.

The only excitement was that Marsh had 2 fairly bad cuts, that developed in round 2 from an accidental headbutt. And it was a question whether Marsh could get him out of there, before the cuts got too bad.

But to me Marsh never looked in any danger of being stopped by the cuts, he was the boss from beginning to end.

Overall it was decent performance from Terry Marsh, he threw some nice correct punches. I was impressed with a few uppercuts he threw, looked really good on the eye.

Funny enough Hector Camacho was at ringside, and there was a possibility of Camacho vs Marsh happening. Which i never knew was even talked about, but i don't think Marsh would of stood much chance against a prime Camacho, who was just a class above him in all honesty.

 

Just a quick side note i feel like watching a Nicolino Locche fight tomorrow, i've heard all the praise about him being the best defensive fighter of all time, i'd like to finally see what all the fuss is about.

 

I don't know if you're into this sort of thing, but there's a brilliant video made by one of my good friends where he commentates over the Fuji fight and he's an excellent analyst.

This content is protected

 

Nicolino Locche vs Takeshi Fuji

1 Locche
2 Locche
3 Locche
4 Locche
5 Locche
6 Locche
7 Locche
8 Locche
9 Locche
10 Fuji doesn't come out for the 10th round

90-81 Locche

So my first time seeing Nicolino Locche fight and i have to say i was impressed, i counted 2 clean right hands that Fuji landed in the entire fight. Locche's ability to just avoid Fuji's jab and right by fractions, using just his head and body movement was amazing, considering he's quite a stationary target aswell.

Locche's offense wasn't quite what i expected, i noticed he threw alot of lead left hooks to the body and head, that gave me RJJ vibes honestly.

The 9th round Locche stood in the pocket, and at times i thought i was watching a James Toney fight. As Locche was using his own version of the shoulder roll, and his right hand which was virtually non existent for entire fight. Became apparent here as Locche started shooting right uppercuts and right hands on the inside similar to James Toney.

Overall i enjoyed watching Nicolino Locche fight, i thought this was a great boxing exhibition of defence and skill.

 

Eamonn Magee v Shea Neary (for Magee's Commonwealth jr. welterweight title)

Round 1: 10-10 Even
Round 2: 10-9 Magee
Round 3: 10-9 Neary
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-9 Magee
Round 6: 10-9 Neary
Round 7: 10-9 Neary
Round 8: 10-9 Neary
Round 9: 10-10 Even
Round 10: 10-9 Neary
Round 11: 10-9 Magee
Round 12: 10-9 Magee

Total: 116-115 Neary (actual score: referee sole arbiter - 116-114 Magee)

Although I had it close, it just never felt like Magee did enough in this fight. He was a beautiful counter-puncher, but outside of the 2nd round when he momentarily stunned Neary and the last round, he never made an attempt to force this fight. It was a good old-fashioned domestic bout but I just felt Neary did the real fighting in this contest.