the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Erick Rosa SD12 Victorio Saludar

Rosa just hasn't made a move since he picked up this strap at the end of 2021 in what was something of a controversial 105lb scrap.

Lots of missing in the first minute but it is Saludar who realises in the second minute that the fight is there to be taken by the scruff, and he does, trailing hands to the body, aggression, he surges Rosa to a neutral corner and untidily works him. There's nothing monumental about his work but it scores him the round. Rosa does make an interesting adjustment though, throwing southpaw lefts at the torso and scoring a couple of good punches as the round winds down it will be interesting to see if he persists with that or if the corner mis-steers him. Second round so close, and really interesting, Rosa's superior defence and a southpaw hook to the body just cool Saludar out and his aggression is going under-rewarded in comparison to one- but keeps the round so close. Then he scores with a hard right hand on the bell. Even round i'll give to Saludar, barely. This fight is interesting.

Wonderful from Rosa in the third. He moves off, circles, travels along the rope. Saludar mirrors him beautifully, good footwork, but when Rosa settles down Saludar behaves a bit like he's "caught" him and becomes overly-aggressive. He cannot say he wasn't warned. Rosa made no secret of the slingshot left he was throwing throughout the round. He lands two fo these about ten seconds apart with a minute to go and Saludar's leg just gives out under the impact and he is dropped for a 0 count then recieves the standing eight. What affect with this have on the fight? Things now even on my card.

Big round the fourth - would Saludar's winning strategy survive the KD? Maybe not - he was careful. But he does squeeze out the round for me. This gives Rosa a problem - how does he win rounds without scoring a knockdown? He solves the puzzle in seven through nine with defence. If he can make Saludar miss with x amount of his punches, because he scores at a reasonably reliable rate with those slingy lefts and the occasional southpaw right counter and will lift the round. If he gets tagged, he drops the round. He's got good timing now though on Saludar's straight punches while going straight back, and Saludar is too wary of that slingy left to press the issue. So it is Saludar now who has the problem! And it is compounded in the ninth when a knockdown is called - it's borderline but reasonable to call for me. A punch did go in for all that the coming together of the two fighters is what was probably mostly responsible for the KD. So Rosa is actually ahead for the first time in the fight. Well done to Saludar though for turning the tables in the 10th and landing a right hand hard enough to cause Rosa to come unstuck and, to his fury, receive a count of his own. Rosa goes from one point up to one behind with two remaining and needing both of them to win. Saludar clearly takes the 11th, no question, and does the better work in the closer twelfth too. Difficult to justify the offical decision in my opinion.

Saludar:1,2,4,5,6,10^,11,12
Rosa:3*,7,8,9*,

*Saludar down
^Rosa down

114-111 Saludar.

 

Daniel Valladares SD12 René Cuarto

This is wonderful, these two share: stature, haircut, hair colour, skin colour and black trunks with a red stripe Good, good work everyone. Mexican Valladares has red gloves and Filipino Cuarto has black gloves: that's how i'll hold onto this.

Cuarto had some sucess in the final minute of the first with an unfiltered, two-handed, steaminig attack which he launched twice to some affect but Valladares is the one who took the round with the clean punching. Both have quick feet but Cuarto looks less able to decide what he wants to do with his. Still, it is Vlladares who ends the round with the problem: what is he going to do about these milling attacks? Counter left-hook is the perfect answer, well done. Valladares lands it three times in this round and it draws a rueful smile from Cuarto each time. He knows the signficance of that punch. Otherwise the pattern is the same, and very entertaining as well as very rough - the referee has handed two warnings down, one to both fighters for ignoring him and one to Cuarto for holding and hitting. Am loving this.

BIG punches from Cuarto to take the third. He is winging them and landing a few. Crazy fourth round, the tape repeatedly comes loose on Cuarto's glove, a clash of heads opens up a serious cut on Valladares's left eye, Cuarto receives a reasonable final warning from a put-upon referee and they both throw the kitchen sink. Because of all the stoppages it seemed to go on for about 8 minutes and I was into it. Close, but this is Cuarto's fight, Valladares needs to straighten up and find the straight punches. It isn't ill-advised for him to close though because Cuarto loves a headlock but the next will likely see him docked.

Very, very close fifth. Maybe Valladares skinned it with the cleaner stuff but this is an even round under a civilised scoring system. Takes the sixth too to dig himself out a bit of a lead with the neater boxing and the superior defence. Seventh is dull and low-quality but I favour Valladares again which tells me he has it dialled in. Cuarto has some compounded bad luck in the eighth when a legit KD off a short right hand is ruled a slip. He does stop the rot by winning the round but should have the additional point. Valladares keeps winning rounds though. The basic difference here is that Cuarto, even when winning spells in rounds, is there to be hit, so he never wins his spells by that much. Valladares, by contrast, often remained elusive when enjoying success. This made him the natural home for rounds.

Good dirty fun this, but each round was worst than the last as the quality was sapped by fatigue. Far too many stoppages for doctors and tape, in fac there were so many for tape that Cuarto actually had a point deducted in the tenth, which I didn't even know was a thing. It was maddenign though tbf. I had this wide, don't understand the split.

Valladares:1,2,5,6,7,9,10*,11.
Cuarto:3,4,8,12.

*Cuarto has a point deducted for repeatedly loose tape on the glove! Never seen that before.

116-111 Valladares.

 

Hekkie Budler UD12 Elwin Soto

It feels like Budler has been around since the late seventies and he looks badly off the pace in the first round, but Soto gets little of meaning done either; still, I think he nicked it with one or two more single shots. Both land a nice looking left hook to the body. Budler mixes his leads to fine efffect in the second, but Soto still lands the harder shots in a close one. And the third. Budler is in trouble; he is busy bus Soto consistently hits him with harder punches. There's Budler in the fifth, straight punches well timed, timing outing speed. A pair of 1-2-3s the highlight. Some real pretty boxing takes him the seventh, too, a switcheroo for the ages followed by an uppercut splitting a confounded Soto's guard; Budler hasn't solved the Soto left hook to the body though. 5-2 Soto after seven...

Veteran doing veteran things: Budler surrenders the middle of the ring, speeds up his footwork and shows a preference for but not a marriage to moving to his left. Not one hook to the body does Soto land in the eighth. The fight turns nightmarish for Soto, who can't find Budler - I have it all even after ten.

Special, Soto scrapes the 11th and Budler needs the twelfth for the draw on my card but instead he scores a knockdown to win the fight (the KD was also the difference on the judge's scorecards). A crazy fight of two halves and the clinic Budler puts on in the second of these has to be seen to be believed. Yaldi.

Budler:5,7,8,9,10,12*
Soto:1,2,3,4,6,11,

*Soto down.

114-113 Budler.

 

Sivenathi Nontshinga SD12 Hector Flores Calixto

Tough assignment for South African Nontshinga, all the way to Mexico to take on the house fighter Calixto. Wee vacant strap on the line.

Nontshinga's jab is real, but it Flores seems to recognise early that it has no variety: fast and hard straight down the pipe and that's it. It's hurtful, and fast, but Calixto neutralises his man with bodyshots late in the round and I think, nicks it from him. In the second Calixto troubles Nontshinga once more with firefighting but Nontshinga stays true to that jab and absolutely nails his man with a twin right for a 1 count with a minute remaining. The third round is great. They exchange withering bodyshots as Nontshinga heads to the trenches agianst expectations. I thought Calixto just shaded this in the final second of the round but geez Louise, either way is fine. Nontshinga surrenders his jab, and his lead, in a round of the year type fourth.

The fifth is better than the fourth. It's a phonebooth war dominated early and late by Nonshinga with Calixto taking over in the middle of the round. A cut to Calixto's head resulting from a clash of heads put him wrong for a moment but had nothing to do with the huge right hand Nontshinga landed to turn Calixto away for a moment and take the insane round. They take literal turns brutalising each other in the sixth, Calixto goes last, shades the round for a single point lead on my card going into the second half of the fight. It's all getting a bit ragged now, but no wonder. How do they make the distance?

Calixto looks the more ragged of the two to start the seventh, Nontshinga feeds him a couple of very hard right hands. 8th is absurd in so many ways. I gave it to Calixto who threw twentyhundred punches. But who knows, he seems to have given up all semblance of trying to hurt his man, it looks like he's fighting a ghost.

Ninth. No clue how to score this fight. I don't even know what is true any more.

Tenth. "The blood is now on the paperwork that we have here at the commentary table as well."

Eleventh. Nontshinga shows more poise and blasts Calixto to the teeth with a standstill right hand. This is the story of the fight now Calixto's exhausted volume versus Nontshinga's better work. I am going for the better work I guess.

Twelfth round shootout for all the marbles. If Nontshinga wins it, he takes it by the knockdown; if Calixto wins it he takes it 7-5. It's Nontshinga, and he does it by extending the distance and landing a handful of quality straight punches.

Absolutely crazy. This one is recommended. And if you "don't like modern boxing", strap into this waybackmachine which will deliver you to October 1st, 1951.

Nontshinga:2*,5,7,10,11,12.
Calixto:1,3,4,6,8,9.

*Calixto down.

114-113 Nontshinga

This content is protected

 

Kazuto Ioka MD12 Joshua Franco

Both these guys are throwing a lot of punches from the start, the jabs are flying, but it's Ioka's precision that takes the first three rounds on my card - will be interesting to see how Franco mounts his comeback. Volume will be key. It certainly feels unlikely that Ioka will lose rounds while outlanding Franco, but Franco is clearly gonig to lose a round here and there where he lands more but the quality comes form Ioka, I would guess.

The good news is that Franco was catching up to Ioka in the third and landed at a higher rate than we've seen although there's no question of him having won the round. In fact the right hand Franco landed at bell is as good as it gets. Franco does outland Ioka down the stretch in the fourth though, and i thought nicked it. He needs to carry that aggression all the way as illustratd in the fifth when Ioka clearly outsnipes him. It's hard to be Franco here - if you give Ioka too much space, he finds some unorthodox one-two to take the round; if you get reckless, he punishes you. The Goldilocks zone is not big. Franco finds it through seven though; and we have a fight on our hands, a hurtful one with loads of beltline work. Franco wins the eighth which is a disaster for Ioka really, who hasn't lifted a round since the fifth - hence the firmer work in the ninth and tenth which makes the 11th and 12th a shootout for the decision. I have them split, and a drawn card. A close decision either way is fine too - I ave the ninth and the eleventh crazy close and gave them one each.

Weirdly bloodless this, sort of unsatisfying. I think part of it is to do with Franco's punches which are so heavy sounding to so little apparent effect. But an honestly waged fight.

Franco:4,6,7,8,9,12.
Ioka:1,2,3,5,10,11.

114-114.

 

Gary Antonio Russell MD10 Alexandro Santiago

Santiago is a funny looking kid but he does well against Gary's southpaw lead, scores with a couple of rights down the pipe. All the Russell bros like a jab and can move and I think he did a goo dneough job of this to take the first. A gorgeous double straight left is the key combo in taking the second but Santiago is not going away and he scores a good overhand right punch of his own. Santiago looks out-and-out too small to win this fight, whatever else may be true. The third is closer though and in the final minute Santiago disrupts him well with swarming aggression though. Needs ninety to a hundred seconds of that to win a round for me.

Hmm. Seems I was wrong - Santiago abandons headshots pretty much and attacks the body in the fourth and all of a sudden Ruseell looks much more hittable and at about 1:20 pretty uncomfortable. Santiago won the fifth. Bodypunches have changed more than one fight in this thread and given the reletive statures of the two fighters I should have thought. We have a fight. After looking disorganised in the sixth, Russell is back in control of himself in the seventh and an even round is marred by a low blow about half way through, Russell the recipiant. Santiago then benefits with a few flash-presses that Russell doesn't look ready for after the bell. Santiago scores his first offical warning for not listening to break instructions (and the rest that's gone before presumably) nad I think Santiago has nicked the crucial, crucial seventh. 4-3 Russell with 3 remaining.

Santiago maybe tires a bit but makes a grab for the tenth. It's not quite enough but good fight.

Russell:1,2,3,4,8,9.
Santiago:5,6,7,10.

6-4 Russell.

 

Stephen Fulton MD12 Brandon Figueroa

Figueroa looks huge! No wonder he's up at 126 now, this is from a couple years back at 122. Figueroa is a bit naughty, leaning, heading with the head, twice warned for rabbit punches - Fulton nicks the first round with some good straight right hands. Aggression an bodypunching buys Figueroa the second, looks ill-disciplined though when he gets busy. Neither man is interested in jabbing. It's rough stuff, but solid fare, Figueroa is a strange spiderboxing, Fulton is more classical. He's in a weird fight here in round 4 though, much more Figueroa's fight but I feel like Fulton landed he better stuff, and indeed, this is Figueroa's problem throughout. Figueroa seems to out-throw and out-land Fulton in every round, but the crisper puncing is always from Fulton, who lands the better punches in almost every round through six. By this point, I have Figueroa in trouble and Fulton way ahead, before Figueroa finally stops the rot in the eighth.

Figueroa's chin is absurd. He takes flush bombs with no response. This must be one of the best chins in the sport. It's allowed him to weather some tough times against a superior boxer, and now Fulton is slipping and throwing less - for real he finds himself being beaten at the end of the eighth. Down the straight it is just an absolutely rammmy, this is not clean enough to be a great fight but it is a good, weird one, which is just what I need right now. Fulton's disastrous tenth, it looked momentarily like he might even go, requires a response if he's going to win the fight - he rallies in the eleventh to shade the round with good footwork going back and cleaner punching to edge both the round and the fight.

Fulton:1,3,4,5,6,7,11.
Figueroa:2,8,9,10,12.

7-5 Fulton.

 

Murodjon Akhmadaliev SD12 Daniel Roman

Roman is quick and big and looks very serious. Akhmadaliev hits hard and is stalkng here, Roman making small moves. Very much a feeling out round, but I thought Roman landed the better punches despite the great southpaw left Akhmadaliev landed early. Akhmadaliev is falling pretty short with his punches at the moment, he's short in stature and reach by the look and Roman is doing well with ocunter uppercuts, lands one to body and one to head. A combo in the last thirty seconds, left to the neck right to the face, probably turns it around. This is going to be close and difficult to score. Akhmadaliev plants a bit in the fourth and it is menacing but he remains elusive none the less, gliding away. He's more graceful than he appears, I always forget until I see him. I think it's because of the bulldog frame. Anyway, clean work from Akhmadaliev in the fourth but it hasn't ruffled Roman, not a bit. He stays on Akhmadaliev's coat-tails with the uppercut in the fifth. It's a really great uppercut - nevertheless, booming shots from Akhmadaliev on the bell extend what is now a handy lead. Roman gets another crack at his careful, read-dependent offence in the sixth though and manages to bag the round with uppercuts and a some less vigorious straight punches.

Very nice double-jab right uppercut form Roman to open the second half of the fight, but the lead-left right-jab backwards 1-2 from Akhmadaliev is so much more visceral. Still, Roman in his steady, unruffled way, scoring straight body punches, staying off the centre line, punches his way to the seventh. It's so unspectacular but it's effective. Also: he is not scared of Akhmadaliev. Good fight this.

But not that close. I don't understand the official cards. I love scoring a split or an MD but this shouldn't be one - Murodjon Akhmadaliev, all the way, he's a bit special, hope he gets to fight Fulton if the Monster doesn't get in there.

Akhmadaliev:2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11.
Roman:1,6,7,12.

8-4 Akhmadaliev

 

Ra'eese Aleem MD10 Eduardo Baez

Aleem's ten rounders from the last year are sort of beyond explanation he held - and still holds - a minor strap. But in 21/22 he fought ten rounders rather than twelve-rounders defending his "championship" belt, it's so weird. WBA interim 122lb strap isn't the most prestigious but you'd imagine it'd add a little to the purse? Anyway, Baez has collapsed since but there was some excitement about him here.

Aleem looks savage. Hard bodypunching, a great right hand/lefthook upstairs in this first round which he canters to. Aleem looks stiff-backed and a little deployed, neither reacting nor driving the fight. Oooft but after dominating round 2 (mostly) he gets absolutely tagged with a beasting right hand. Certainly not enough to take the round, but here's the warning, because this thing travelled the length of the Panama Canal it went all the way. Baez then changes up impressively in the thrid, looking for the body, fighting aggressively, slipping rather than just looking for a static defence, I think h ewas trying to counter in the first couple and was out-sped so now here he is front and centre. Uppercut/loft-hook combo - omg it was beautiful - at about 1:20 might change his mind though - he's certainly shelled up a bit at ht emoment. Baez maybe takes the fourth with some hard leads, Aleem looks a little disorganised suddenly, vulnerable to the Aleem hook. Aleem has essentially been rewarded for re-exerting himself I think perhaps a little unexpectedly.

I'll tell you what I think it is: Aleem is a bit knackered. He absolutely wings his punches and now he's knackered he's a little slower, a little off balance, he's telegraphing hte big ones and putting two down maybe where there was three before when they're in close (Aleem good at all ranges I note). Baez has remained neat. Could go gutter-war this and it's already entertaining. I have it square after six, but a nasty clash of heads, more Baez's fault than Aleem's I think, has opened up a nasty cut on Baez''s forehead. Related or not, Aleem runs away with this after that. Impressive but juvenile performance from Aleem. Tenth was a lof of fun though.

Aleem:1,2,3,7,8,910.
Baez:4,5,6,10.

6-4 Aleem.