[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izgUzcPlKN8&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_ZoGV5YmFc&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nigXpwSeHE&feature=related[/ame] It's a bit of a gem, is this one - very precise give and take. Kates was a bloody fine operator in his own right and was unlucky not to have wrested the title from Galindez a couple of times prior to this. If he'd landed that overhand right in the 4th perhaps 30 secs earlier, Saad might well have been ****ed, though how the blue thunder he managed to get up at all is something of a minor miracle in itself. Kates also did brilliantly to recover in the second and get up himself at the end of the fifth. Anyway, enjoy, and then bombard them both with lavish praise. :smoke
Awesome fight, but what else do you expect from these two, in particular Saad Muhammad? Kates was just unlucky to have fought in this era, period (although he was one of many who added to its supreme depth). A truly excellent technical boxer, if a bit hampered by his one-geared style.
A fine gentleman from this very forum sent me a nice collection of Saad fights that included this one some time ago, and this fight gets lost in the memory of so many other higher-profile wins in Saad's career. It's on a par with any of them. Saad is among my top five favorite fighters, and Kates is a truly, undeservedly forgotten fighter now, even here.
Thanks, I'm a big Saad fan and will be watching this soon. Just as soon as my "fights to watch list" is going low someone posts a fight I'm interested in. Thanks once again.
Cheers gentlemen. Saad was in so many barnburners that it becomes easy for pearlers like this one to slide off the map in comparison.
Saad certainly does a fair immitation of the "Terminator" in this fight - he was poleaxed - out...Then those eyes start glowing red....a spark of consciousness grows...He Rises..he advances...he will not be denied...