the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Marco Antonio Barrera v Naseem Hamed

No card for this one. I thought the first 5 rounds or so were close-ish but from round 6 on Barrera was in control.

Someone mentioned in another thread (I think/hope half-jokingly) that Hamed would spank Salvador Sanchez and Willie Pep. If he was outboxed by Barrera, he’s not touching Sanchez or Pep… or Marcel or any other master boxing featherweights for that matter.

The official cards seemed a little generous to Hamed - this was a 5 rounds-plus schooling in my opinion.

 

I don't think the fight was a schooling like everyone else seems to think, i always thought that was an overrated aspect of this fight, just because people like to see the arrogant fighter lose. But Barrera for certain neutralized Hamed, and won like 116-113 or 117-112 with the point deduction which was hilarious BTW.

 

It wasn’t a shutout, but it was a startling approach and result: Barrera was always an in-your-face aggressive guy who was relentless … which kind of figures right into Hamed’s approach to throw bombs from odd angles til he lands something that matters.

Instead, MAB literally put on a clinic with just boxing basics. Like the things you teach beginners — straight punches, 1-2s, control the distance, etc. And Hamed was completely perplexed. Just because it was a simple approach doesn’t mean it was easy, he was in with a dangerous guy, but by sticking to his knitting MAB exposed every weakness of Hamed and made him look the fool.

To me it was a triumph of pure boxing. It’s like he was painting a Mona Lisa and Naseem was flinging paint at a canvas and calling it art. But I’m a traditionalist at heart.

 

Second half of the fight I didn’t give Hamed a round and it wasn’t like I had to think too hard about it either. The point deduction was justified but it was pretty much revenge for Hamed getting Barrera in a headlock on the floor earlier in the fight. You could see Barrera was pissed off and he’s never struck me as a guy who is willing to let something go.

This fight was 5 years in the making and Barrera knew this was his chance to shine and fully restore his reputation. The great ones find a way back. It’s instructive to me that Hamed didn’t and just disappeared.

 

Meldrick Taylor vs Irleis Perez

I didn't bother scoring this one as Meldrick Taylor pitched a pretty comfortable shut out 100-90, this was a very impressive performance from Taylor, Perez who had pushed Hector Camacho and Jimmy Paul in close fights was pretty much dominated in this fight. As Taylor dazzled in this fight with his famous fast combinations and at times often underrated defence. Taylor bloodied Perez's nose quite badly in the 2nd round, and that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the fight for Taylor, to Perez's credit he never stopped trying as he kept trying to KO Taylor by loading up with the right hand, he was able to land the occasional right hand but nothing substantial. As Taylor just done a point on Perez with combinations.

Overall an impressive performance from Taylor over a very tough contender.

 

Meldrick Taylor vs Ivan Gonzalez

Another early fight from Meldrick Taylor against the tall gangly Ivan Gonzalez, before i do my little write up on the fight. Just wanted to say first off all respect to Gonzalez, he got kidnapped by his divorced father at 3 years old. And was abused, malnourished, and had pneumonia and was amazingly found 4 years later and made a complete recovery. So respect to him for making a full recovery and getting his life back on track.

Now onto the fight Gonzalez was a bit too cautious in this fight, backing away on his bicycle and not alot happened for the first 5 minutes. Taylor had a little issue landing on the much taller opponent which is understable but Gonzalez was on his bike alot, but that soon changed at the end of round 2 Taylor hit Gonzalez with a tremendous right hand, and that seemed to spark Taylor into action. Because right at the start of round 3 he knocked Gonzalez with one of the prettiest combinations you'll ever. And then proceeded to assault Gonzalez for the entire round flooring him once again. Gonzalez did well to survive the round but the fight was no longer a contest. As Taylor just plowed forward attacking Gonzalez with the occasional dazzling combination and body punches, whilst Gonzalez was on his bike mostly just trying to survive.

Midway through the 5th Gonzalez went down for a 3rd time this time from a body punch, then something strange started to happen. Gonzalez started pulling away, the referee Richard Steele called the doctor in, and Gonzalez convinced the doctor to give him one more chance which he did. Taylor then went back on the attack again and once again Gonzalez pulled away. Prompting Richard Steele to rightfully stop the fight, saying that sounds kind of funny in a Meldrick Taylor fight.

Now originally i thought it was from the body punches that Gonzalez was pulling away, but then i actually found out in the interview after. That apparently Gonzalez had dislocated his shoulder in a fight previous, and that the shoulder started to act up again for him in this fight.

Overall the knockdown was a peach and the story about Gonzalez was pretty heart warming, the fight itself wasn't that memorable outside of the 3rd round. But it's always nice to see a prime Meldrick Taylor in action regardless.

 

Meldrick Taylors vs Luke Lecce
This is Taylors pro debut and its on the same card that has the debuts of Biggs, Holyfield, Breland, Hill and Whitaker. What a coup by the Duvas to get all that talent at the same time.

Anyway Lecdec is 11-2-1 6 KOs and is on a two fight losing streak, first one to Ezzard Charles Adams (no relation I can see) by 8 round decision and 19-0 Charlie White Lightening Brown by KO in 9

Round 1
Lecce is trying to get his jab going, he lands a few and a couple of rights, but that's it for his highlights. The 18 year old Taylor proceeds to show very fast hands and a ridiculously fast jab. Quick combos promptly put Lecce on the ground 3 times and the fights over.

This was it for Lecce as he retire afterwards, for Taylor it was just starting. Impressive debut, Taylor may want to think about shoring up that defense though.

 

James Toney vs Mike McCallum 1

12/13/1991

IBF Middlweight Title

Round 1: 10-9 McCallum. Close
Round 2: 10-9 Toney. Beautiful round.
Round 3: 10-9 McCallum
Round 4: 10-9 Toney. Close. Great round.
Round 5: 10-9 McCallum
Round 6: 10-9 Toney. Close.
Round 7: 10-9 McCallum. Close.
Round 8: 10-9 Toney.
Round 9: 10-9 McCallum
Round 10: 10-9 Toney
Round 11: 10-9 Toney
Round 12: 10-9 Toney

My card: 115-113 Toney

Judges Cards: 114-114 Draw, 116-112 Toney and 115-113 McCallum

I've seen this fight to death but I'll always take an excuse to watch it again. Beautiful boxing. Toney edged it to me bc McCallum seemed to not have much on his punches the latter couple rounds but a draw or even narrow McCallum fine by me.

 

Evander Holyfield vs Dwight Muhammad Qawi 1

WBA Jr. Heavyweight Championship

Round 1: 10-9 Holy
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Holy. Close.
Round 4: 10-9 Qawi. Close.
Round 5: 10-9 Qawi
Round 6: 10-9 Qawi
Round 7: 10-9 Holy. Close
Round 8: 10-9 Qawi. Close
Round 9: 10-10 Even. These even rounds are whether you prefer Holys jab or Qawis pressure.
Round 10: 10-9 Holy
Round 11: 10-9 Holy
Round 12: 10-9 Holy
Round 13: 10-9 Holy
Round 14: 10-9 Holy
Round 15: 10-9 Qawi

My card: 145-142 Holyfield

Actual Cards: 144-140, 147-138 Holy and 143-141 Qawi for a SD Holyfield win

 

Just rewatched Gerry Penalosa vs Ponce De Leon. I'm sorry, but there isn't a ****ing chance in the world where you get bashed up, schooled, get out performed in every aspect of scoring and miss 1,140 punches and win the fight 120-108. De Leon winning this fight that wide is a ****ing disgrace. The entire time the HBO crew was trying to pretend he was winning via volume and were clearly bracing for such a shitty decision, with the whole "well this is what Vegas judges love to see" ****.

Gerry got screwed over a lot, and while a good amount of it was his own doing, but this one is particularly sour

 

Best fight I’ve ever seen with my own eyes (as in live in person).

I’ve told it before but I never tire of reminiscing: I was in college and got a call from my Pop out of the blue and he says, ‘Let’s go to Atlanta and see the Holyfield fight this weekend.’ Took me zero seconds to say hell yeah.

He sprung for flights, a nice hotel near the Omni and we had great seats. Flew over the night before and back the morning after. One of my most cherished experiences.

I’m going to see my Pops on Sunday when we celebrate Independence Day and I’m going to be sure to bring it up! Thanks for the reminder!

 

Sugar Ray Leonard vs Marvin Hagler
WBC Middleweight Title
4/6/1987

Round 1: 10-9 SRL
Round 2: 10-9 SRL
Round 3: 10-9 SRL
Round 4: 10-9 SRL
Round 5: 10-9 Hagler
Round 6: 10-10 even. Great round.
Round 7: 10-9 Hagler.
Round 8: 10-9 SRL. Close.
Round 9: 10-9 Hagler. Great, close round.
Round 10: 10-9 SRL
Round 11: 10-9 Hagler. Close
Round 12: 10-9 Hagler

My score: 115-114 Sugar Ray Leonard

Lederman's Card: 115-113 SRL

Judges Cards: 113-115 Hagler, 118-110 and 115-113 for SRL for SRL by SD

 

@Philly161 - damn, you’ve been watching some classic fights recently! Good scoring, too.

Makes me want to go back into the archives and rewatch a few myself.

 

Love this description! Always enjoy your write ups and reminiscences, Saintpat.

 

Meldrick Taylor vs Howard Davis

1 Taylor
2 Taylor
3 Davis
4 Davis
5 Davis
6 Taylor
7 Taylor
8 Davis
9 Taylor
10 Taylor

96-94 Taylor

So this was an intriguing fight to watch, two olympic gold medalists facing off against eachother, one who was just starting his career and the other who was coming towards the end of his career.

I thought Taylor actually started this fight very promisingly, he was aggressive getting his combinations off. And Davis seemed quite passive early on not throwing any punches, but by the 3rd round Davis started to open up. And surprisingly Davis who is known as a stick and move fighter, i thought actually got the better of Taylor on the inside in rounds 3-5. Landing the more effective punches and Taylor's famous combinations wern't really making an impact.

For whatever reason after IMO 3 good rounds in a row, staying on the inside and out fighting Taylor. Davis reverted to his old style of sticking and moving, now to be fair to Davis he did have some success boxing on the outside. And at times Taylor had trouble finding him and looked a bit baffled at times, but me personally i thought Davis did pretty well on the inside. And i think he should of stuck to that and kept going to the body aswell. But maybe Davis didn't have the confidence, or didn't think he could keep up that aggressive style of fighting for the remaining rounds.

The later rounds Davis didn't show enough initiative for me, as he was a bit too passive boxing on the outside. And allowed Taylor to steal some rounds with his workrate and aggression.

Overall i thought the fight was very close, and i had no problem with the draw. There was atleast 3 swing rounds in this fight. But for me Taylor won his rounds more convincingly 1, 2, 7, 10. Aswell as being the constant aggressor i think for me that's what edged it for Taylor. But when you have two extremely quick hand fighters, who are not big punchers that's always going to be a bit of nightmare to score.

Lastly it was a very good learning experience for Taylor, and Davis showed the young prospect. He wasn't going to be a stepping stone and another notch on the belt for Taylor. I enjoyed the fight alot it wasn't a barnburner, but it was a very interesting tactical battle between two highly skilled athletically gifted fighters.