the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Francisco Vargas MD12 Orlando Salido

1: I like the Vargas stance, wide but spritely, I always thinks like he looks like he's got the lot, not that i'm saying he does mind but it's a cool stance, and he's narrow, physically, and he keeps his elbows tucked in. Salido, doughier, stalking, dipping and covering up like he's trying to keep off the rain. Salido wants to work the body but Vargas is having success with sneak punches with either hand when he comes in - be interesting to see how that develops. VARGAS is coming correct though and takes the first based on the jab right hand.

2: This fight is already fascinating. If judging boxing is a study in styles then it's Vargas; he's nearly Salido's equal inside, but outside it's no contest, Vargas is more fluid and more correct. But it's not just styles; there's the ebb and flow of combat and here it's advantage Saldio. A twenty year veteran, he has the sense of when to push and when to wait and it's a fine counter-balance to what Vargas is trying to bring. Still, who hit who harder or more? VARGAS did the better work, winning this round with a guard splitting right uppercut for me.

3: The third is desperately close; Salido starts very well looking to do some work without smothering it but Vargas comes back with those narrow shots, sneaky inside - probably SALIDO just about shades it with the work he does behind Vargas's right elbow, that left hand to the body.

4: Salido loses every second he tries to rest in. Vargas just peppers him from outside and manages to find the occasional right hand. The fight turns on the exchanges inside, where SALIDO can do that a bit better and catch the eye. He lands the harder stuff down the stretch to steal the round, I think. So two-two after four. Little nick for Varas above the left eye.

5: Salido opens brilliantly on the backfoot, only giving enough ground to keep it at mid-range; but Vargas builds momentum coming forwards and lands wilder punches along the ropes to edge the first minute. Fascinating stuff this. SALIDO probably just about edges the round to go ahead for the first time after five.

6: VARGAS buckled Slaido's knees at the end of the first minute with a scything right hand to the top of the left eye and came surging on with punches, Salido's toughness shone with the comeback but really it's the first round either man won very clean. Seventh is a big round.

7: SALIDO is extremely aggressive at the opening of the seventh although Vargas takes the worst of it on those tucked elbows. Sharp flurries to teh head are Salido's preference at the end of the first minute and he scores well, although Vargas just tucks in and slugs in response. He's abandoned that out-fighting - he should be doing more of that, those points are handy.

8: Vargas wants to put Salido on the ropes. Salido has been allowing it but comes ballering off. Vargas can get him there but can't sundue him. Salido is finding him with punches and rough-housing when he throws them which leads to a clash of heads. They're getting a bit wilder which seems to lend itself mroe to SALIDO's styles. He lands good punches throughout the round to take a 5-3 lead. Ninth is huge.

9: Vargas jabs through the openign thirty secodns which he should be doing every round. Great work from VARGAS at mid-range throughout the round. Salido plays his part, but Vargas is chosing the range here, or at least prevents Salido reaching his preferred range for the most part. That's the difference; Vargas needed a rally and he staged one. Every round is crucial now.

10: Vargas finished the ninth looking tired and trying to avoid exchanges, but began the tenth very directly. Salido is on a kind of madman's cruise, not slacking exactly just fighting at 99% rather than 100%. My earlier read should put Vargas in the box-seat in these circumstances and he does indeed find Salido with straight-combinations that are hurful for the first time in rounds; and when he gets Salido to the ropes there's a moment of danger that has been absent. VARGAS strings two together despite Salido's late rally to make it 5-5 after ten.

11: Salido bores in head down and scores with a relentless barrage of uppercuts. I think he probably knows he's lost a couple and that's anathema to someone who wins rounds on heart and workrate. Now he brings plenty of both and he needs the former when Vargas catches him a good right hand as he whales away. They enjoy a rare clinch. I think SALIDO shaded the closest round of a fight full of close rounds.

12: A mid-round rally for Salido seems to be steering the round his way; btu Vargas comes back with tow hard shots off the ropes. He started brighter too in ar ound that looked like it might ebb out because of exhaustion - not a bit of it. They roar through the last minute and deliver another excruciatingly difficult round to score - i thought SALIDO edged it narrowly giving him the win on my card. But as the cliche goes, nobody deserved to lose this fight.

SALIDO:3,4,5,7,8,11,12
VARGAS:1,2,6,9,10

115-113 SALIDO

 

Roman Martinez UD12 Orland Salido

Interesting fight for Salido this. He opens feinting the younger fighter back with the jab and trying to wing in hard shots from outside. Martinez welcomes this and cautiously looks for two shots at a time while keeping Salido at distance. He also uses nice footwork to keep a step ahead of his more experienced foe. He's trying to out-speed him but not in the traditional sense. It probably brings him the first round on generalship although he lands nothing of note and a more aggressive Salido probably pinches the second. Salido dips and slides in while looking to land a short chopping right hook-cum-uppercut.

Martinez is boixng with a lot of nervous energy; I wouldnt' be surprised to see a bit of a late fade. But he's doing ok and lands two very hard looking right hands to take the round. He's taking sharp punches from Salido too though, who gets nowhere with his wading attack but is quite often there to land the second punch. Dropped heavily for an eight count by one of those right hands though, he's got his work cut out.

The skittish, quick-footed Martinez makes a proper rhthym unobtainable in this fight and it still hasn't settletd down to a pattern by five. Salido, without something to fling himself at consistently, isn't particularly comfortable, though he finds Martinez enough to take the fifth. He's being made to work though which is important.

Salido does well in the fifth making it messy and takign advantage but another of those surging right hands bags a key round for Martinez by dropping Salido to the canvas once more, and once more it's a reasonably heavy KD.

Salido absolutely msut have the sixth and you can tell from urgent way he boxes he knows that. He's aggressive and pressing and the occasional clinch from Martinez doesn't stop him picking up the round. I have Martinez ahead by the KDs after six. Martinez is persistently dangerous with that right hand though in what is a really good fight.

A really intense surge brings Salido a wonderful seventh, but he was never going to be able to match a workrate like that in the eighth and Martinez takes another messy round with hard straight punches, all the while shipping to the body. Salido just won't go away, despite being decked twice.

And that's Salido's problem. Dropped twice, he needs to stitch two rounds together somewhere but winning one takes huge effort that leaves him winded in time for the next one. He wins the ninth for me (but not the Mexican tv commentary) but loses the tenth, meaning he needs the 11th and 12th both on my card.

Having been repeatedly warned for low blows and naughties with the head, he loses a point on the cards at 1:30 of the eleventh and his task becomes impossible; worse, Martinez rallies behind that good news and takes the round. Coming out for the twelfth knowing only a KO can save him, Salido summons a performance of intensity but little quality to drop a decision I saw narrower than most but clean and clear.



MARTINEZ:1,3*,5*,8,9,11**,
SALIDO:2,4,6,7,10,12

*Scores a knockdown
** Ten eight due to a point deduction.

114-111 MARTINEZ

 

Roman Martinez SD12 Orlando Salido

Martinez looks a little better when both are fresh, but that freshness isn't going to last. He also looks a little more organised going backwards, less shrill; that might not work for him though. I thought that shrillness made him harder to pressure in the first fight.

Fascinating to watch two fighters try to break one-another's planning.

Also fascinating that they both visited the canvas in the third, and both pressed their advantages after their respective knockdowns. This, despite the fact that Martinez wasn't really knocked down, but rather had his foot stepped on; Salido, meanwhile, was legitimately knocked down. This is a possible difference-maker, as Martinez was never down in the first fight. Martinez legitimately hurt Salido in the opening moments of the fourth though, and he's applying some burn while still in nick. That straight-right - the hurtful punch - he needs to be at that range as much as possible, even if it's not always possible.

Salido needs the fifth and he gets it. I believe it to be as much a function of how persistent he is and the steady falling-apart of the opponent that that pressure brings. He's banging home now against a more static Martinez and it makes him even after six, mostly via bodywork but with the occasional sickener upstairs, usually a right.

Martinez looks crooked by the eighth, too much bodywork has been perpetrated upon him. Salido has taken over very early...three rounds up after eight. I have Martinez, who is brave, but has given up on his own plan, needs the 10th, 11th and 12th while fighting Salido's fight.

I think that Martinez finds a workable strategy i the eleventh. He's throwing from the outside, hard punches, many of them and then clinching a bit more up close. It's nearly enough, as i have him taking the eleventh and twelfth, although i gave a very close tenth to Salido to make it 7-5. A draw is ok though, because while Salido could have won the twelfth, Martinez could have won the tenth. I don't mind the draw though I edged it to Salido. Two great fights. Would love to see a third.

MARTINEZ:1,3*,4,11,12
SALIDO:2,5,6,7,8,9,10,

115-113 SALIDO

*Both down.