the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Yesterday I watched Rafael Ruelas TKO 10 Jorge Paez. I remember the magazines speaking very glowingly about the back and forth action and oddly I'd never seen it.

I'd agree with the idea the action was good up through about the fifth. Paez goes down twice in the first, and seems destined for a short night but covers up and protects himself using the Archie Moore cross-arm defense long enough to mount his own furious rally in the fourth, badly wobbling Ruelas and exciting the crowd. He shot his bolt then however, and did little else but get bullied around the ring from that point on. His face began to show the effects of Ruelas' battering and he retired at the end of the tenth, doing nothing but absorbing punishment by that point.

Couple observations; Ruelas was not pretty to watch, as I've long thought. Gabe was a much better technical fighter. Rafael was all gangly arms and legs, flailing around awkwardly. He didn't use his height and reach terribly well, instead choosing to lean in and rip uppercuts through Paez's cross-arm defense. He did that throughout his career though, so it wasn't simply a convenience for this fight. It unnecessarily opened him up to attacks he could and should have avoided.

Second, Paez just didn't belong at 135. He was soft and undersized at the weight, and couldn't compete with Ruelas' physicality. His stamina, so suspect at 126 because of reported weight-draining, suffered at 135 as well perhaps because he was trying to carry TOO much.

 

I think Gabe Ruelas was a natural fighter. A better athlete. Much smoother. And boxing came naturally to him.

Rafael was, to me, a made fighter. Nothing came naturally to him, no real instinct for it. To me he was a made fighter, a taught-and-drilled boxer who learned from good training what to do. I think with lesser trainers and managers than the Goosens he would have become more of a journeyman. They tapped 100% of his potential.

And yes, Paez is just too small to compete at this weight. Game and willing, for sure, but over his head with the upper class at 135.

 

Agreed. The Goosens assembled as good a fighter as they could with what they had.

It would have been nice, too, to see Gabe's career play out a bit more naturally. His run at the top was abruptly ended with the Jimmy Garcia tragedy.

 

The goosen’s did wonders for Frankie Duarte as well. And that was late in his career.

 

I think the Goosens could make an average fighter good and a good fighter really good. Not sure they could make a really good fighter great.

 

Oscar De La Hoya v Derrell Coley (welterweight title)

Can't remember seeing this before but I wanted to check it out after Coley's excellent performance against Oba Carr, which I scored a draw. Coley was not a banger but a fast boxer with very sharp combos. Apparently bad blood between these two leading up to the fight with Coley saying how much he hated Oscar and predicting a 6th round KO. Didn't quite work out that way, but the styles meshed nicely for a decent contest for us. The best round was the 4th when Coley took the first half of the round by firing sizzling combos at ODLH before Oscar came back in the second half and hurt Coley. The fight was grinding down slowly with Coley's right eye closing, his nose bleeding before Oscar ended it in the 7th with a body shot. I gave every round to Oscar for a 60-54 card but I enjoyed the fight as well, as it was competitive.

 

Props to the promoter (I’m guessing Cedric Kushner) for matching the White Buffalo against the Black Rhino.

Etienne was a prison boxer who learned his craft behind bars and, after his career, returned there.

In a cocaine-fueled frenzy, he robbed a check-cashing business, car-jacked a vehicle with a woman and her children inside, wrecked it and then tried to shoot a police officer.

He’s serving a cozy 105-year sentence in Angola Prison in Louisiana.

 

I wonder if his Public Defender instructed him to bob and weave during his trial. I'm sure he would have taken as much heed to his lawyer as he did his cornerman.

 

Glowacki vs Usyk

I only gave Glowacki the 4th and that could have gone the way of Usyk tbh.

Usyk, in his first title shot, put on a masterclass of outlanding his opponent. Glowacki was dangerous throughout with thatong overhand shot, and some rounds were really competitive, but the pace was very much dictated by Usyk who kept his distance and demonstrated exquisite accuracy.

Great showing by Usyk here with a commanding 119-109.

 

Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall

1 Catterall
2 Taylor
3 Catterall
4 Catterall
5 Catterall
6 Catterall
7 Taylor
8 Catterall 10-8 knockdown
9 Taylor
10 Taylor 10-8 point deduction
11 9-9 point deduction
12 Taylor

113-112 Catterall

So i haven't been on here for awhile i decided to watch this fight, as i heard alot of people saying this fight was a robbery.

In my view i don't really see why people are making such an outrage about this, in my view this was a close fight. Catteral for certain had the better of it early on, he was landing all the eye catching punches. And was slicker than Taylor who looked frustrated and couldn't really land anything of note.

But after Taylor got knocked down i thought he made a strong rally down the stretch, to make the fight very close. It wasn't pretty or effective but Taylor was the aggressor, and Catteral for me was too defensive down the stretch and got outworked.

Just to note i thought the point deductions were absolute garbage, i saw no reason for the point deductions what so ever. And it just made the fight harder to score for the judges for no reason, Taylor undeservedly got a 10-8 round out of it, and then on the flip side was hard done by as Taylor got an even round in a round he won.

Overall a fight of two halves i don't agree that this was a robbery, that word gets thrown around too much at times. A fight as close as this which had multiple point deductions and a knockdown certainly isn't a robbery, a controversial fight yes but certainly no robbery.

 

The more fights you score, the fewer robberies there are. That’s my view on it.

 

I 100% agree. I actually think the hate some highly experienced judges get is massively over the top and unfair. There's are instances where it's absolutely fair, but the vast majority of the time it isn't.

 

There are a lot of people who don’t grasp that a 10-round fight can be very close and competitive and still be fairly scored 100-90.

If Fighter A edges every round, it can be one-sided on the scorecard but still be a close fight. Some people actually think a judge is supposed to give Fighter B half the close rounds even if he thinks A won it because the rounds are close and that’s ‘fair’ — but that’s not how it works. The judge’s job is to ascertain who won the round and score it that way. If one guy is winning the close rounds in that judge’s view, that’s how it should be scored.

 

Checked out a couple of heavyweight fights from back in the day. Saw them both but good revisiting them.

Carl 'The Truth' Williams v 'Smokin' Bert Cooper

Both fighters came into this bout very hot, but Bert was really mouthing off to the cameras. All he was talking about was Tyson. When asked about the task in front of him with Williams, he scoffed, "Not on my level." Well, he really should have paid more attention than looking beyond 'The Truth' because Williams dropped him in the 1st and won every round on my card (although an argument could be made for an Even 2nd round) before Cooper's corner retired him before the 8th for a 70-62 score on my card.

James 'Quick' Tillis v Marvis Frazier

Round 1: 10-9 Tillis
Round 2: 10-8 Tillis (Frazier receives a standing 8-count)
Round 3: 10-9 Frazier
Round 4: 10-9 Frazier
Round 5: 10-9 Frazier
Round 6: 10-9 Frazier
Round 7: 10-9 Frazier
Round 8: 10-10 Even
Round 9: 10-9 Frazier
Round 10: 10-9 Frazier

Total: 97-93 Frazier (actual scores: 98-91, 97-91 and 96-92 all for Frazier)

This one was more competitive but more frustrating. Tillis had some good tools, but man, he was either just lazy or would simply gas after a couple of rounds. I'm thinking towards the latter because I have seen him drop and hurt very good fighters but all of them early with his exceptional 'one-two'. Then it would seem he would gas. That 2nd round he was very unlucky that ref Joey Curtis opted to employ a standing 8-count on a very hurt Frazier. He wasn't getting out of that corner so that was a life-preserver thrown to him. Good nostalgia watching these two fights.

 

Kelly Pavlik v Jose Luis Zertuche (12 round eliminator)

Round 1: 10-9 Pavlik
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-10 Even (Best round of the fight)
Round 4: 10-9 Pavlik
Round 5: 10-9 Pavlik
Round 6: 10-8 Pavlik (scores a knockdown)
Round 7: 10-9 Pavlik
Round 8: Pavlik drops and stops Zertuche

Total through 7 completed rounds: 70-64 Pavlik

I heard this mentioned somewhere as a great fight, but I will call it a good fight through the first 5 rounds. After that Zertuche just couldn't cope with the reach and power of Pavlik. The 3rd round was awesome as they both went at it, but Zertuche - although crowd-pleasing - did not have the skill level at this class and was getting his resolve chipped away. He gave it a good go, though. The KO was reminiscent of Ruben Olivares' KO of Efren Torres.