(the first time) Just watched this one and i think i had it for Bassa, but only just. Once again Zapata started slowly, was this a habit of his? From what i have seen it seems it happened a lot. You could argue that Bassa won the first 6 rounds, though Zapata may have earned 2 of them. In round 7 the famous Zapata is present in the buliding, the pure boxer making life difficult with unorthodox angles. Also, in a few of his bouts, Zapata seems to neglect his great jab, a man not with a high workrate it seems. Anyway, the reason i made this thread is because i wanted to ask the forum if they felt Zapata was just getting beyond his prime here, was he even past his best, 29 years old, do boxers of this weight class burn out faster than their bigger counterparts? Or was he as capable as ever? One other thing i noticed is that in a boxing sense, Bassa was quite slick, but here he was all aggression, and despite his fast hands didn't look the most skilled aggression man i have seen. What i mean is, no matter who you are, when you fight Hilario Zapata you take on the role of aggressor.
Main problem was zapata was a lazy *******, like Benitez, Starling and some of the other great defensive fighters he too often admired his own ability to make fighters miss, rather than turning in a totally focused effort. .It's his performances in these two fights and hte Laciar one, that put him more in the borderline\near great category than the truly great one.All three bouts were very winnable fights and would have clearly established him as the best of the era behind chang. as it stands you can argue for him, Bassa, Laciar or Chitalada or some might say Yuh.
Thanks again Mantequilla, you're giving these threads of mine a lifeline. At 108 pounds i like Chang as the greatest of the era up to now, but i need to do more studying before i can pass justifiable judgement. Still haven't seen Yuh whatsoever.
You should check out the bassa zapata rematch as well if you can.Some great stuff technically in it; the extended exchange right before zapata drops Bassa is an especially great bit of technical work from both fighters.The kind of back and forth effortless slip and counter work that never fails to bring a smile to my face when i watch it.
I'd like to watch and score them both again actually.Just to refresh things. last impression was that Zapata had done enough to win a close decision.
In the first bout i either had Bassa winning the first 6 rounds or Zapata taking 2 of them, i just couldn't decide, but that's a four point swing, i had to make a decision and went with Zapata takung 2 of them, but i think i still had Bassa by a point at the end anyway, so it would have been academic either way, but my point is i found it hard to judge and thouht it was a close fight. I didn't like how early on whenever Bassa cornered him and let the leather fly, the camera would switch to one at distance. That makes it look like Bassa is landing, but with Zapata you don't know, a closer camera angle might have shown defensive mastery possibly.
I actually thought Zapata looked better in the rematch, so it's difficult to ssay he was past his prime in the first one. He was likely just not focused enough on that particular night to put in the kind of effort offensively that merits a win on the judges's scorecards. Or else Bassa just got the better of him on the night. In the rematch he showed more lateral movement and footwork than in the first fight, controlling the pace and causing Bassa to follow him a bit more lazily rather than cutting off the ring. I thought Zapata looked sharp as a tack against Dodie Boy Penalosa right before the first fight, so I think he was still capable of putting in top work, he just didn't always show up.
Thanks for the post Sweet Pea. I'm not making excuses for Zapata, as i don't believe in them, but to say the first Bassa fight looked winnable for him is not a standpoint i would criticise one for taking.
