the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Urkal gave Kosta Tszyu and Vivian Harris good fights.

 

Haven't seen either. I just remember urkals name floating around at that time

 

Jose Napoles v Ernie 'Indian Red' Lopez II (welterweight title) (California scoring)

Round 1: Napoles
Round 2: Napoles
Round 3: Napoles
Round 4: Napoles
Round 5: Even
Round 6: Lopez
Round 7: Napoles KOs Lopez

Total through 6 completed rounds: 4-1 Napoles (actual scores: 3-2, 5-0 and 5-1 all for Napoles)

Very competitive fight. Neither as quick as when they met a few years earlier, but both very wary of the other. It was ironic that the very best punch Lopez landed on Napoles was a lead right that landed a split second before Napoles landed his own right hand that took out Indian Red. There was a real scare at ringside at the time that the shot Napoles landed may have lifted out Lopez' eye. But all was good and Ernie was back in the ring several months later.

 

Barry McGuigan W15 Eusebio Pedroza

I remember watching this live in June of 1985, and have never seen it since. I was by then a devotee of Salvador Sanchez, but only got into boxing a year after Sanchez died, and Pedroza was my one tenuous link to my boxing hero. I had seen a few of Pedroza's efforts from 1983 forward, as he featured a lot on network TV back in the day, and despite his dirty tactics, I actually liked the guy. McGuigan was to me more a media creation, despite his real credentials. He was a good fighter and deserved his shot, but he was one the networks were trying to push on viewers with his background and politenesss and perhaps other factors. Even then I was more a fan of the underdog and the unnoticed, so I was pulling for Pedroza here.

If you weren't around at the time, it's difficult to explain exactly what this fight meant in larger terms. It was a big deal. Perhaps partially because it was being held in the UK and the time difference mandated it, they aired this one hours after the TV networks usually aired fights, and they showed it in the late afternoon, immediately before cutting to the evening news shows. It had an air of importance about it far beyond boxing, and the network (ABC in this case) rearranged their programming to accommodate it, a rarity then.

Barry's importance to Ireland and Northern Ireland was very deep and symbolic; with all the strife and violence in the area in the past and even in that present day, he was a unifying factor that couldn't be ignored. His ability and cheerful manner and steadfastness spoke to a nation at war with itself, and the saying in the day was "leave the fightin' to McGuigan." He wore the mantle of responsibility for that image well, and we in America only felt a portion of the affection and symbolism I know those in that region could relate to.

Pedroza, for his part, was aging. He'd looked decidedly human in his latest efforts, even getting floored by trilahorse Gerald Hayes before rallying to stop him late in a non-title bout at 130, and was forced to go the distance with the likes of Angel Levy Mayor and the desiccated remains of what had once been Jorge Lujan. He was ripe to be taken, but he wasn't going to go easily. The title meant a lot to the Panamanian, and he was as proud and stoic as they come, ready to defend his cherished title or die trying. Was Barry seasoned enough for this pro's pro? Did Pedroza have enough left in the tank for this strong young kid?

Barry came out chugging and pressuring, though not necessarily throwing a lot of punches. Pedroza took the first with good movement and quick, flashing combos that held little power but forced Barry to reset. One thing was for sure very quickly. Pedroza's legs were going to be tested early, and he would need every bit of his legendary stamina to hold off the relentless challenger.

The two more or less trade rounds through six, but in the seventh, after Pedroza was well on his way to winning the round, Barry heaves a long right and Pedroza momentarily freezes before crashing backwards into and down the ropes. The guttural roar from the crowd sent chills down your spine. It was a confirmation that this was REAL somehow. The kid belonged. This was not the usual Pedroza title defense.

Pedroza, refusing to bow to public opinion, rebounds majestically to win the eighth, moving fluidly and actually coming forward to pop McGuigan with shots as meaty as he could make them. The punches had little lasting effect though, and in the ninth, after what had been another good round for him, Barry rakes him late and nearly floors the champion with a barrage. The crowd is deafening.

Pedroza rallies to win the 11th and 12th, stoically refusing to acquiesce his title meekly. His courage and steadfastness were great to see. He was going to make young Barry work for this, though by then it seemed inevitable. After the 14th round, they cut to Pedroza's corner for a bit, and the tired champion looked for a moment out into the crowd with a look of resignation and almost sadness, as if he knew this was the last round of his reign. The kid had indeed been too much a whirlwind for his aging body. Still, he was going out as a champion should. Barry swept the last three on my card, and looked like he could have fought five more at the same pace. He looked fresh as a daisy. Pedroza, though still breathing only through his nose, looked somewhat beaten up and deflated, a mouse growing on his left cheek and his movements slowed a bit. He had always been the one to flourish in the late rounds, surging when his opponent could not hold the pace. Now he was on the other side of it. A true passing of the torch.

The decision was unanimous and perhaps inevitable. Barry had done it, and a long-reigning titlist had met the end of the road. A scintillating fight that showcased skill and determination from both in a way you rarely see. A true event that read like a Russian novel.

1. Pedroza
2. McGuigan
3. Even
4. McGuigan
5. Pedroza
6. McGuigan
7. McGuigan (10-8)
8. Pedroza (marvelous comeback)
9. McGuigan (had Pedroza almost down in the last moments)
10. McGuigan
11. Pedroza
12. Pedroza
13. McGuigan
14. McGuigan
15. McGuigan

145-140 McGuigan.

 

Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder I

Round 1: 10:9 Fury
Round 2: 10:9 Wilder
Round 3: 10:9 Fury
Round 4: 10:9 Fury
Round 5: 10:9 Fury
Round 6: 10:9 Fury
Round 7: 10:9 Fury
Round 8: 10:9 Fury
Round 9: 10:8 Wilder
Round 10: 10:9 Fury
Round 11: 10:9 Fury
Round 12: 10:8 Wilder

Total: 115-111 Tyson Fury

I scored this fight many times and always had Fury winning clearly. He controlled the ring and landed crisper shots more often than not. Wilder has 2 knockdown rounds and 1 besides that. I remember I scored 4 rounds for him once, but not this time.

 

Vicente Mijares Saldivar W12 Tury Pineda

I hadn't seen Pineda fight before and wanted to right that wrong; he was such a part of that legendary time and place that was late 60's-early 70's southern California boxing. This was the first one on the page when I looked up his name on Youtube.

Honestly, he looked awful here, but credit where credit is due; Saldivar looked terrific. It's true also that it's easy to look good when your opponent does little except stand in front of you and take a beating. It made me wonder if something was wrong with Tury or if there was something else going on. Of course, I'd never seen him fight before so couldn't say what his "normal" style was.

Saldivar has a nice gas tank, long arms and excellent movement, though in this case he moved purposely forward, spearing Pineda repeatedly with hard jabs, snapping his head back, and following through with rights that tore up Tury's face, cuts over both eyes. His focus never wavered and he won as he pleased. According to the ringside announcer, he'd beaten Randy Shields handily over 12 to earn this shot at the NABF lightweight title, so that's kind of impressive. The kid could fight.

I had Saldivar winning all 12 rounds, so won't go through the motions of a scorecard here; suffice it to say I'd like to see more of both. I read later on Boxrec that Saldivar did indeed challenge shortly after this for Esteban Dejesus's lightweight crown, and was stopped in the 11th. HIs career more or less unraveled after that, but this is another example of how deep that boxing scene was back then. I'd never even heard of Saldivar (no, not THAT Saldivar).

Anyway, a good educational thing for me.

 

Esteban Dejesus W15 Ishimatsu "Guts" Suzuki

I sure can pick 'em. This was just awful. I do not recommend. I'd read as I tried to entertain myself having had no luck watching the actual fight that Suzuki had big weight problems going into this tite defense. That could explain why he just stood there and allowed Dejesus to comprehensively outbox and outslug him at his leisure.

Guts did absolutely nothing in this fight. I was thinking at first that he might just be biding his time until a few rounds had gone by, in order to warm to the occasion and live up to his nickname. Nope. This was basically nothing but 15 tedious rounds of sparring for Dejesus. After six rounds of shadowboxing, Dejesus, perhaps trying to give his hometown fans some kind of excitement before going home satisfied that they would have a new world champion to brag about, came forward and started putting some serious hurt on the apparently weight-drained champion. Suzuki was indeed tough, and he weathered it, providing more opportunity for the vendors in the stadium to sell more of whatever they had over the full 15.

Nothing to really take from this except it's 45 minutes of my life I won't get back. If you haven't seen it, don't bother. I'll sum it up for you. Suzuki stood there, absorbing varied shots from Dejesus, who handily won every round blending boxing with occasional outbursts of combination punching. If you HAVE seen it, you have my condolences.

Dejesus ran the tables, winning every round. No scorecard necessary.

I'm going to go outside now and watch the grass grow. I'll fill you in on that later.

 

Sal, I love it that you viewed this fight but I wish you could have seen a prime Tury. He was all excitement with an absolutely deadly left hook but a not too sturdy jaw. He was one of the first fighters I saw when my town subscribed to the Boxing from the Olympic series. And Tury fought so often he became a fan favorite of mine. I actually picked him to beat Danny Lopez when they met. And let me tell you, that fight left me - as a fan - out of breath. There were so many shifts in momentum with how the fight was going and that crowd was going nuts with the bombs they were landing. Anyways, I too watched his fight with Vicente Saldivar Mijares some time back and it saddened me a bit. It always does when a once awesome fighter is aging out. But here is how I saw it:

Tury 'The Fury' Pineda v Vicente Mijares (vacant NABF lightweight title)

Man, Tury really takes me back. So many of his fights I saw on the old 'Boxing from the Olympic' weekly series. Off the top of my head I saw his fights with Mando Ramos, Danny Lopez, Bobby Chacon, Speedy Naldo, Masa Takahashi (a real war), Jimmy Heair, Howard Davis and Rafael Nunez. And I'm sure I've forgotten a few. In this bout he takes on the streaking Vicente Mijares, who was known at the time funny enough, as Vicente Saldivar. Although this is Pineda coming off his controversial fights with Suzuki for the title, he could do very little with Mijares, who boxed like a dream, including rattling Tury several times with sharp counters. Whatever it was he just couldn't get untracked to lay down his terrific left hook on Mijares. California was still a couple of months away from adopting the 10 point must system and was still employing the California point system at this time. So I scored this bout 10-0 for Mijares, giving Tury only a share of rounds 4 and 11. The California system was 1 point for a round, 0 points for an Even round, 2 points if there is a knockdown scored. so, 10-0 for Mijares who turned in a brilliant performance, cutting Tury over both eyes and only incurring a bleeding nose through most of the contest himself.

 

I wish there was more of Pineda on YouTube. This fight was all I saw, except for one or two highlight things.

 

Rocky Lockridge v Dennis Cruz

Y'know, the crowd didn't really care for this fight and neither did Ferdie Pacheco - not that that bothered me - but I didn't have an issue here. I just have always liked a Rocky Lockridge fight because of his all-action style. And this was no different - for me anyway. The southpaw Cruz was always in there but lacked the firepower that Rocky was firing and was always grilling Cruz along the ropes. I only gave Cruz a share of the 5th round before Rocky took him out in the 7th. I had it 60-55 through 6 and Rocky was headed over to the UK for his date with Barry Michael. It might not have been Lockridge-Boza-Edwards, but I had no issue with it.

 

Just watched it and i have a different score card than you
Tua Rounds - 5,6,7,8,11
Ike - 1,2,3,4,9,10,12
115 - 113 Ibeabuchi

 

First visit to the lab ahead of Canelo vs Crawford

Canelo vs Billy Joe Saunders , let’s see how much my thoughts sway from the time.

Round 1 - Canelo 10-9
Round 2 - Canelo 10-9
Round 3 - Canelo 10-9
Round 4 - BJS 10-9
Round 5 - BJS 10-9
Round 6 - BJS 10-9 *
Round 7 - BJS 10-9
Round 8 - Canelo 10-9 (Stoppage at end of round)

76-76

As I thought it was very competitive, would have liked to see BJS carry on his career, maybe not the fight. Canelo was about to punish him, looked spiteful at the end, Saunders didn’t want anymore.
Canelo as ever with a strong presence and good body shots, or even on the arms/chest early. Used his feints well.
BJS grew in confidence and started to show ring generalship, limiting Canelo’s activity and landing clearer shots as the fight progressed. I thought 6 was very close hence the asterisk and actually thought Canelo closed the distance in the 7th, before eventually forcing the fight out of Billy in the 8th, with the lean back counter uppercut that he uses a few times. Some trademark Canelo shots and pressure and also a little bit of inactivity. One of his last spiteful performances, and BJS was definitely a worthy champion who gave more than a good account.

 

Yeah I would have to see BJS go on but it's like that loss mentally took it all out of him.

 

Granted there won’t be much taken from this fight but I thought I’d watch a short Crawford fight before moving onto longer more recent fights.

Crawford vs Avanesyan

A typical Crawford fight, gets caught early but then works his way through the gears. As ever Avanesyan brought it and made it a good watch, similar to how he did vs Ennis a couple of years later. Strange to look back on this brief stint on BLK Prime, particularly watching from the UK. Also noticeable the activity of Crawford compared to Canelo, I believe since 2020 with Crawfords 1 fight per year doubled by Canelo, despite what I will say are his recent disappointing opponents.

Liked Paulie’s comments about Crawford looking like he is doing bag drills as he tees off from about the 4th onwards, nice shot selection and as often with him a very good finisher. Lovely closing shot. Wish we would have seen more of him at these slightly lower weights with more natural opponents rather than the jump up to the Canelo sweepstakes.

 

Barry Michael v Rocky Lockridge (jr. lightweight title)

Barry Michael's best efforts in this bout were rounds 5, 6 and 7 but I couldn't give him a round. There was just too much firepower coming from Lockridge throughout the 8 rounds this lasted. I watched the version with the British commentators and they were really elusive in giving Lockridge credit for much until the 8th round. In fact they had mentioned a number of times of Michael holding back in order for Lockridge to punch himself out. Oh, that's a great strategy against a machine like Lockridge. There was no holding back. Michael gave it his all but was just outgunned. My score was 80-72 for Lockridge after 8 rounds when Barry surrendered between 8 and 9 (actual scores: 80-73, 78-73 and a ridiculously close 77-75 all for Lockridge).