the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Crawford vs Porter.

This was the fight everyone wanted to see. And as it was unfolding, all I could think in my head was Crawford has now probably faced his best 3 opponents consecutively, well in terms of what I've watched.

I mean, I know Khan and Brook were past their best, but their decline was more mental and durability. Khan was still faster than Crawford and Brook still had better timing and reflexes. They just couldn't sustain the pressure.

And when you look at his WW career we can see the problems he's faced with each opponent. Horn was bigger, Khan was faster, Brook was better timed, Porter was more intense.

These are all facets that below WW Crawford has relied on to beat his opponent, and as he's entered this division he's had to overcome them one at a time. And it's made him look less superhuman, certainly.

I mean, he looked superhuman against Horn but Khan, Brook and Porter all took rounds off Crawford, and you could argue as a collective they took more from him then he from them.

And the same thing saw him succeed against every one, he's accurate and punches with spite. He's had to up his game against these men and the back foot sweet boxing has gone. He's had to put himself in range and land those killer shots, knowing the cumulative effect they'll have.

Against Porter, he couldn't just up his intensity, because Porter was more intense, Porter wanted that to happen. And if Crawford decreased his intensity Porter really put it on him.

So Crawford had to accept he wasn't the ring general here, this was not going to be his fight in his way. And he answered the challenge perfectly. He won some exchanges, lost some exchanges, but the constant was his accuracy told. Every shot took something from Porter.

Like a health bar decreasing. And by the 10th it was empty. The ending was sad to see because Porter knew what he needed to do, his body just couldn't take the punches any more.

After watching these fights, I honestly couldn't call Crawford vs Spence now. I had overlooked the times in Crawfords career when he looked vulnerable, when he looked like he was on his way to losing.

 

Fogger, if you like Iran Barkley fights, then I highly recommend his bout with Michael Olajide. Man, that was a fun fight.

 

Jerry Quarry vs Thad Spencer

1 Quarry
2 Spencer
3 Quarry
4 Quarry 10-8 knockdown
5 Quarry
6 Spencer
7 Spencer
8 Spencer
9 Spencer
10 Quarry 10-8 knockdown
11 Quarry
12 Quarry wins by TKO with 2 seconds left in the fight ?

105-102 Quarry

Decent fight i felt like Quarry controlled the fight early on, he started out first round fast and looked the stronger/faster fighter. And in the 4th round Quarry decked Spencer with a picture perfect left hook.

But after the 5th round Quarry sometimes suspect stamina looked to be coming into play again, as he seemed to be sleepwalking through most of the middle rounds, as Spencer just kept walking Quarry down with steady pressure.

Quarry had a nice brief flurry at the end of the 8th round, and i guess you could say that round was debatable. But i couldn't find another round to give to Quarry during middle portion of the fight, as Quarry just wasn't doing anything.

The 10th round was a huge momentum shift in the fight, i was about to give another round to Spencer. But at the end of the round Quarry once again decked Spencer this time with a right hand. And that seemed to lift Quarry as he got his 2nd wind, doing his Ali impression bouncing on his toes in the 11th round to outbox Spencer.

The final round Quarry had Spencer badly hurt in the last 20 seconds, and after a barrage of punches the referee literally stops the fight with seconds left in the fight. I did feel a little bit sorry for Spencer he wouldn't of won the fight, but it was literally 1.5 seconds left in the fight and i think he deserved to hear the final bell.

But as it was Quarry won by TKO in a decent fight, the difference was in this fight. Anytime Quarry lifted the pace it seemed like he could hurt Spencer, where as Spencer never showed in this fight he could hurt Quarry at all.

 

D, I wrote this sometime around the anniversary date, as you can see. This is what I wrote:

It's hard to believe that it has been 50 years since this tournament took place. Taking that in mind, here is the Jerry Quarry - Thad Spencer semi-final from the classic heavyweight tourney back in '68. Scored on the California system of 1 point a round, an extra point for a knockdown and none for an even round. Here we go.

Round 1: Quarry
Round 2: Even
Round 3: Even
Round 4: Quarry (scores a knockdown)
Round 5: Quarry
Round 6: Spencer
Round 7: Spencer
Round 8: Quarry
Round 9: Spencer
Round 10: Quarry (scores a knockdown)
Round 11: Even
Round 12: Quarry stops Spencer at 2:57 of the round

Total through 11 completed rounds - 7-3 Quarry

Official scorecards had it 7-6, 9-4 and 7-3 at the time of stoppage for Quarry. Spencer was a nice sharp puncher whereas Quarry could seemingly hurt Thad when he pleased. This was a young Quarry, who would get sloppy at times and who allowed Thad back into the fight in the middle rounds. But decent fight.

D, your score would have been 8-5 on the California system. If you want to see more scores on this fight, here are media scorecards from boxrec:

• Unofficial Scorecards:

• AP: 6-5 Quarry;
• UPI: 8-3 Quarry;
• Hayward Daily Review: 9-4 Quarry.
• NY Times: 11-1 Quarry

 

Thanks for that yeah i been watching quite alot of Jerry Quarry lately, i want to learn more about the Heavyweights during Ali's exile. It seems like a forgotten period in Heavyweight history.

I'm currently watching Ellis/Quarry i'll have my scorecard up in a bit.

 

Jimmy Ellis vs Jerry Quarry

1 Ellis
2 Ellis
3 Ellis
4 Ellis
5 Quarry
6 Quarry
7 Ellis
8 Ellis
9 Ellis
10 Ellis
11 Quarry
12 Quarry
13 Quarry
14 Ellis
15 Quarry

144-141 Ellis

For me i felt this was a pretty clear decision for Ellis, although it was close and in quite alot of the rounds not alot happened. But i feel like the difference was Ellis was able to fight on his terms and Quarry was never able to.

Ellis was able to keep the fight in the middle of the ring, pecking away at Quarry with the jab and occasionally landing solid right hands. Quarry would try and lure Ellis towards the ropes so he could counter punch, but Ellis would just walk away and the fight would resume in the middle of the ring.

That's what i meant earlier by "fighting the fight on his terms". Quarry was never able to fight the counter punching fight his likes. And was forced to come forward and he was just picked apart by Ellis at long range.

Quarry was able to have some success with some body punching, but overall Ellis was clearly fighting his fight in the first 10 rounds. And any rounds were their wasn't alot of action, Ellis would steal it by landing a few eye catching right hands.

Quarry did make a rally in the last portion of the fight, even hurting Ellis in the 13th round landing his best punch of the fight a left hook. But Quarry didn't take advantage and stood off too much not putting enough pressure on Ellis. And that was pretty much the story of the fight Quarry was never able to really close the distance on Ellis, who fought the fight on his terms at long range.

Overall not a very exciting fight to watch but intriguing nevertheless.

 

Jimmy Ellis is one of the most intriguing fighters. Such an odd career arc, from middling middleweight to heavyweight title claimant and longtime contender.

He wasn’t the best boxer, slugger or puncher but he had high enough marks in all categories to be a handful for anyone and was versatile enough to adjust game plans for different opponents.

 

Unfortunately before this fight I'd only ever seen his losses to Fraizer, Shavers, Ali.

It's a pity he gets more known for his losses, because looking at his record hes got few good scalps. Like flooring Bonavena twice and beating him more convincingly than Frazier ever did.

I tried to find footage of that fight, but unfortunately couldn't find any.

I know some people look down on YouTube generation. But it gives younger guys like me a chance to learn and experience these classic fights.

 

At the end of 1964, Ellis is a 15-4 middleweight coming off decision losses to George Benton (majority), Don Fulmer (split) and Hurricane Carter.

At the end of 1967, he’s a full-fledged heavyweight coming off a KO of Oscar Bonavena and about to beat Quarry and Floyd Patterson in his next two bouts. Amazing turnaround.

Interesting note: as an amateur middleweight, he lost to Leotis Martin and Johnny Persol. In 1967 he knocked them out in back-to-back fights as a heavyweight. Jimmy musta been collecting those receipts in his amateur days.

 

Brian Mitchell vs Jim McDonnell

1 Even
2 Even
3 Even
4 Mitchell
5 Even
6 Mitchell
7 Mitchell
8 Mitchell
9 Mitchell
10 Mitchell
11 McDonnell
12 Mitchell

119-113 Mitchell

This fight was a nightmare to score, especially the first 6 rounds. I can't believe i actually had 4 even rounds as i barely ever score even rounds. But i couldn't separate them in the early rounds, there was alot of good technical boxing and defense. Mitchell was always the aggressor and McDonnell was boxing well on the backfoot.

The issue i had is that there was barely any notable punches to swing the rounds, alot of the rounds there was nothing in them. Thankfully Mitchell started to get to McDonnell's body after the 5th round, and was just about doing enough based on his workrate to edge these rounds. Which thankfully made it a bit easier for me as i was having nightmare trying to split them.

I gave McDonnell the 11th round just based on his effort, he abandoned boxing on the backfoot. And decided to just go for broke and come forward and wing punches. But other than that i couldn't really find a decisive round that McDonnell won, although he was very competitive in a majority of the rounds.

Overall a decent technical fight with alot of good skills on display from both men, Mitchell deserved to win based on his workrate and body punching, McDonnell didn't do enough to win the rounds although he was competitive in most of them.

 

One thing I like that Brian Mitchell often did was end combinations with the jab — he would do this to reestablish distance and it also discouraged counterpunchers. Like a 1-2-1 or a 1-2-3-1. You don’t see that from a lot of boxers but you can tell it was something he worked on because it pops up in a lot of his fights. (Also in an otherwise even exchange if he landed the jab on the way out it won the exchange. In our gym we called that ‘you start the conversation and you have the last word.)

The remarkable thing about him, of course, is that he was the ultimate road warrior. After winning the title from Alfredo Layne, owing to apartheid, he fought 13 straight title defenses away from South Africa. Almost always in the other guy’s backyard. And he lost zero of them. I think he had like three non-title home fights along that time and then a couple at the end of his career.

It’s hard to win on the road. Not only can you run into suspect/crooked refereeing or judging, the other guy has the fan support and the comfort zone.

 

He's one of the most under appreciated world champions.

 

Brian Mitchell vs Tony Lopez 2

1 Mitchell
2 Mitchell
3 Lopez
4 Lopez
5 Mitchell
6 Mitchell
7 Lopez
8 Mitchell
9 Mitchell
10 Mitchell
11 Lopez
12 Mitchell

116-112 Mitchell

So i've seen the 1st fight a long time ago, never seen the 2nd fight although from memory i thought Mitchell clearly won the 1st fight. Although i never scored it round by round.

Anyway onto the fight this was a very good technical fight by both fighters, they seemed to take turns taking the momentum away from eachother.

For the first 7 rounds is was anyone's fight, but i thought after the 7th round Mitchell controlled the fight with his jab. And outworked Lopez down the stretch who didn't seem to have much answer for Mitchell's jab, except for a rally in the 11th round.

Overall a competitive fight for the first 7 rounds, but Mitchell took control from then on. Mitchell just seemed to be little bit better than Lopez in every department defense, speed, jab, footwork, etc.

 

Scartissue, thank you for the suggestion. I hope I can make time for it.

 

Livingstone Bramble vs Tyrone Crawley

1 Bramble
2 Bramble 10-8 knockdown
3 Crawley
4 Bramble
5 Bramble
6 Crawley 10-8 point deduction
7 Bramble
8 Bramble
9 Bramble
10 Bramble
11 Bramble
12 Bramble
13 Bramble winner by TKO

117-109 Bramble

Ferdie Pacheco had this alot closer than what i did, he had Bramble only winning by 4 points at the time of the stoppage. Which i thought was way off.

I thought Bramble walked Crawley down all night long from the opening bell, with educated pressure pounding Crawley to the body and head. Crawley would have some moments with his flashy combos and jab, but for me Crawley's punches didn't seem that effective. More flash than actual substance compared to Bramble's solid looking punches.

Overall it was a very determined effort from Bramble, he made a statement from the opening bell. How this fight was going to be fought on his terms, and he was basically saying to Crawley you haven't got anything to stop me, Crawley just didn't punch hard enough to stop Bramble walking him down and pounding him.