the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Evander Holyfield vs Chisanda Mutti, cruiserweights scheduled for 10 rounds in Lancaster, Pa., on March 1, 1986 … a rare pro fight in Amish country.

Holyfield is 8-0 (5) and on an upward trajectory, already ranked by the IBF and, I think WBA. The Olympic bronze medalist is a fast climber and, according to ABC, has a title fight lined up against Dwight Muhammad Qawi if he wins and Qawi defeats Leon Spinks in his upcoming defense (spoiler: he did).

Mutti is the British Commonwealth cruiser champ (African-born fighting out of Germany) with a 23-5-2 (15) record and coming off a KO 12 loss to Lee Roy Murphy for the IBF title.

Televised by ABC, scored on the 5-point must system that was in place in Pennsylvania at the time.

1 — Holyfield 5-4: Evander comes out throwing chopping combinations while Mutti shows a nice jab and little else. Holyfield wobbles him late in the round with a left-right off a double-jab but Mutti handles it.

2 — Holyfield 5-4: Evander picks up the pace with stiff combos to the body and head. He’s moving Mutti around with his shots but Chisanda weathers those and does a bit of nice body work and lands a good right hand-left hook combo. He’s durable but his punches have no effect on Evander.

3 — Holyfield hurts his man about 45 seconds in and cleans up with some blistering combos. Mutti seems to have ridden out the storm when Evander catches him with a right hand and left hook along the ropes. He goes in for the kill and puts his opponent down as the ref steps in to stop it, but Mutti crashes to the canvas out cold at 1:37.

This is a good look at young Evander: still a work in progress but clearly a gifted and special fighter.

Evander ends up winning two KO tuneups in the next two months before besting Qawi in arguably the best cruiserweight title fight ever for his first belt.

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Muhammad Ali vs Joe Bugner 1

1 Ali
2 Ali
3 Bugner
4 Bugner
5 Ali
6 Ali
7 Ali
8 Ali
9 Ali
10 Ali 10-8 dominant round without a KD.
11 Ali
12 Ali

118-109 Ali

I didn't think this was anywhere near as close as what the judges had it.

Bugner fought well in regards to staying in the fight boxing on the backfoot and using his left jab to good effect at times. Whilst also not getting dominated in any round per se except the 10th round in which I thought was a 10-8 round with how dominant Ali was.

But Bugner simply didn't do enough to win most of the rounds. As Ali walked him down and was landing the better punches all night long.

Ali did take this fight seriously and he was sitting down on his punches really looking to get Bugner out of there. And a few times Bugner was noticeably hurt, but in fairness Bugner showed good durability which he was known for to survive a few rough moments.

All in all a solid fight and its one of Ali's better performances of the 70s. In this fight Ali isn't the outboxer he's more of a stalker sitting down on his punches.

 

I always wanted to score this but could never sit through it. Regarding valuev I also felt Ruiz beat him

 

Muhammad Ali vs George Chuvalo 1

1 Chuvalo
2 Chuvalo
3 Ali
4 Chuvalo
5 Chuvalo
6 Ali
7 Ali
8 Ali
9 Ali
10 Ali
11 Ali
12 Ali
13 Ali
14 Ali
15 Ali

146-139 Ali

Call me crazy but I felt Chuvalo had quite a good start to this fight.

Ali was flat footed and playing around a bit too much in the early going allowing Chuvalo to hit him too often to the body.

And i liked Chuvalo's effective aggression and solid body punching early on.

Yeah Chuvalo wasn't landing much to the head but the body punches were hard and very effective and I felt Chuvalo took an early lead.

But after Chuvalo's best round of the fight in the 5th round, Ali started to take control and then really started to distance himself from Chuvalo in the scoring. Ali now started using more movement and he picked apart Chuvalo at range and gave Chuvalo a sustained beating from the 6th round onwards.

I couldn't find a round to give to Chuvalo after the 5th in all honesty.

All in all a spirited effort from Chuvalo and I think his tactics were right by primarily staying to the body trying to wear down the much faster fighter in Ali.

But unfortunately for Chuvalo.....

Ali takes body punches better than anybody in history and the fact Ali didn't show any signs of slowing down after taking quite a battering to the body in first 5 rounds is quite astonishing.

One final point I'd like to bring up is Chuvalo did stray low numerous times and he didn't get a single warning for it by the referee. I'm sure there was no real malice from Chuvalo as he was just primarily going to the body and some punches will stray low.

But there was quite alot of low shots and he should've been warned for it or had a point deducted.

But the fact Ali didn't complain at all shows what a tough man he was.

 

D, I scored this about 3 years ago and we are on the same page regarding the verdict. Primarily, the closeness in the scores. This is what I wrote:

Muhammad Ali v Joe Bugner I (Nevada's 5 point must in effect)

Y'now, I saw this fight back in '73 and never really paid attention to the actual scoring. Years later with the advent of boxrec I saw the (sort of) close scores and thought the youthful Ali fan in me did not take into account some of Bug's work (back then i thought Ali controlled it clearly) and wished to rectify this today. So I checked it out today and am left shaking my head as I scored it 60-50 for Ali, giving Bug only a share of rounds 2 and 4. In fact, a more liberal judge than I, I could see giving a 2 point round to Ali for the 10th round where Ali gave Bug a real going over. To be clear, actual scores were 57-54, 56-53 and 57-52 all for Ali, which I don't think gives a real clear view of what happened. I thought Bug fought only sporadically throughout. At times I thought, "OK, here we go now." when Joe would suddenly start throwing some jabs or go to Ali's body. But in true Bugner fashion, he would then stop and Ali was pouncing again. Joe truly was a physical specimen, but he really needed some motivation. This fight and his fight with Joe Frazier later in the year were probably two of his best. His worst being the second Ali fight and the Jack Bodell fight. In both 15 rounders I felt he just stood there eating punches, doing an imitation of a heavy bag. Anyways, I digress, suffice to say I didn't see it as close as the judges, but I might be in a minority here. Anyone else score this?

 

Muhammad Ali vs George Chuvalo 2

1 Ali
2 Ali
3 Chuvalo
4 Ali
5 Ali
6 Ali
7 Chuvalo
8 Ali
9 Chuvalo
10 Ali
11 Chuvalo
12 Ali

116-112 Ali

A better fight than their 1st meeting IMO.

Ali used lateral movement for the entire duration of the fight. And didn't take liberties with Chuvalo in the early going like he did in their 1st meeting when he challenged Chuvalo to hit him to the body.

I thought Chuvalo was less successful in the early part of this fight compared to the 1st meeting. He wasn't able to get to Ali's body as much who didn't stand flat footed like he did in the early rounds of their 1st fight.

But Chuvalo did significantly better in the later rounds compared to the 1st meeting IMO. He was able to trap Ali on the ropes at times, and even land some flush head shots which he struggled to so the 1st time as his whole offense was to the body.

The best round of the fight was the 12th round Ali really had a go at trying to get Chuvalo out of there in the 1st half of the round. But Chuvalo made a spirited mini comeback at the end of the round.

Overall I enjoyed this fight more than the 1st fight. I thought it was a slightly more competitive fight and Ali took it more seriously but Chuvalo still made it a rough night.

All in all a good fight.

 

D, finally got a chance to check this out. Man, it was a great old-fashioned club-fight. Not much in the way of technique, but it was an entertainer. The 7th was the best with both fighters down before being stopped. I had the fight scored the same as you.

 

Muhammad Ali vs Karl Mildenberger

1 Ali
2 Ali
3 Mildenberger
4 Mildenberger
5 Ali 10-8 knockdown
6 Ali
7 Ali
8 Ali 10-8 knockdown
9 Ali
10 Ali 10-8 knockdown
11 Ali
12 Ali wins by TKO

108-98 Ali

Despite the wide score this was more competitive than what it appears.

Mildenberger was game throughout and had success mostly with his southpaw right jab and the occasional straight left.

Ali's timing seemed a little off and he had some issues adjusting to the southpaw style early on.

But in the end Ali won pretty convincingly and the stoppage was totally correct. As Mildenberger's face was a mess and he was eating hard solid punches and not reacting well to them.

Funnily enough some of Mildenberger's best rounds were the rounds he got knocked down.

For example the 7th round Mildenberger won the 1st half of the round pretty convincingly and I was going to score this round for Mildenberger. But Ali as he often did in this fight would take the play away from Mildenberger later on in the round and score a knockdown.

All in all I enjoyed the fight it was a very spirited effort Mildenberger and he gave Ali some issues for sure. But I don't think he won that many rounds in all honestly, simply because the knockdowns took away any success he had in the rounds.

 

Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 2

1 Ali
2 Ali
3 Frazier
4 Ali
5 Ali
6 Ali
7 Frazier
8 Frazier
9 Ali
10 Frazier
11 Ali
12 Frazier

115-113 Ali

Nowhere near as good as the FOTC or Thriller In Manilla. But it had its moments of good action but too much clinching from Ali disrupted the action for me.

It's a simply a case of a fight of two halves.

Ali used movement to outbox Frazier at range and nullified Frazier's offence with his clinching whenever Frazier got close.

So Ali built up a significantly lead in the first 6 rounds.

But then Ali tired a bit down the stretch and Frazier was able to get his offence going and landed more left hooks. But Ali simply built up too much of an early lead for Frazier to comeback and win a decision.

Two moments I want to talk about before I wrap this up.

Ali had Frazier quite badly stunned at the end of the 2nd round. And the referee thought he heard the bell in which he was wrong, and Frazier got a nice 10 second recovery time, I wonder what would've happened without that mistake from the referee.

The punch that hurt Ali the most was actually a single overhand hand from Frazier right at the end of the 8th round. And it's funny because you'd automatically think it would be the left hook but infact it was the right hand.

All in all not a bad fight but certainly not a classic like the other 2 fights.

 

Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 3

1 Ali
2 Ali
3 Frazier
4 Ali
5 Frazier
6 Frazier
7 Ali
8 Frazier
9 Frazier
10 Frazier
11 Ali
12 Ali
13 Ali
14 Ali
15 Frazier doesn't come out for the 15th round.

134-132 Ali

Rewatching this great fight again I noticed a few things I didn't notice before.

Frazier was very consistent with his work especially the body. But he wasn't able to really land consistently on Ali in regards to real devastating punches.

Don't get me wrong Frazier did occasionally land some very good head snapping left hooks.

But Ali would cover up on the ropes and Frazier would try and find angles around the arms and sometimes through the guard.

But I don't think Frazier was landing anywhere close to the consistent head snapping punches that Ali was landing.

For me Ali was landing the cleaner harder punches consistently throughout the fight. And that's why Frazier started to wear down badly down the stretch and his face started to break apart.

All in all an amazing fight though and it was a pleasure to revisit this again and actually score it for the 1st time.

 

Muhammad Ali vs Oscar Bonavena

1 Even
2 Ali
3 Ali
4 Bonavena
5 Ali
6 Ali
7 Ali
8 Bonavena
9 Ali
10 Ali
11 Bonavena
12 Even
13 Ali
14 Even
15 Ali wins by KO

147-142 Ali

Ali didn't look too good in this fight his timing, movement, and sharpness didn't seem like it was there. Which is surprising since Ali looked pretty good against Quarry in his comeback fight just 6 weeks prior to this.

So I don't know why Ali seemed flat in this fight.

I know Bonavena is an awkward customer but in general I didn't think Ali look that good to me. I guess there was ring rust but as I said he didn't look as bad as this vs Quarry in his 1st comeback fight after almost 4 years.

All in all despite a rough sloppy fight Ali scored an impressive KO started with a picture perfect counter left hook and won convincingly in the end.

 

Buster Douglas Vs Jerry Halstead (1988)

1. Douglas
2. Douglas
3. Douglas ( scores two knockdowns)
4. Douglas
5. Douglas
6. Douglas
7. Douglas
8. Douglas
9. Douglas ( wins by Knockout)

This was part of a succession of fights as part of Douglas's reconstruction after loss to Tony Tucker. Douglas was too skilled for Halstead who couldn;t stay out of range of Douglas's straight left jab and right crosses where he scored at will Douglas also was also able to score the first knockodown with a right uppercut and the second right cross, followed by a left jab. This was Pretty much a shutout for Douglas although Halstead was up for it and had his moments but not enough to decisively win any rounds for me. Halstead still wanted to fight after he was knocked out and Douglas went to speak to him in his corner.

 

Buster Douglas Vs Mike Williams (1988)

1.Douglas
2.Williams
3.Douglas (Douglas scores two knockdowns with a jab)
4.Douglas
5.Douglas (close round)
6.Willams
7. Douglas (Douglas scores knockdown with Jab and then wins by knockout)

The winner of this fight would fight the winner of Michael Spinks and Mike Tyson. Williams was touted as the prospect whereas Douglas was seen as the journeyman gatekeeper. Williams heavily muscled was too stiff while Douglas was more relaxed. Richie Giachetti was in Douglas's corner for this fight.

 

D, I should have warned you about this one. Oh, man, I reviewed this last year and I can't say less about it. Here is what I wrote:

Muhammad Ali v Oscar Bonavena (NY rounds scoring)

Round 1: Even
Round 2: Ali
Round 3: Ali
Round 4: Bonavena
Round 5: Ali
Round 6: Even
Round 7: Ali
Round 8: Bonavena
Round 9: Even
Round 10: Ali
Round 11: Bonavena
Round 12: Ali
Round 13: Even
Round 14: Ali
Round 15: Ali drops Oscar 3 times for an automatic stoppage under the 3 knockdown rule

Total through 14 completed rounds: 7-3-4 Ali (actual scores: 8-5-1, 12-2 and 10-3-1 all for Ali)

I wanted to see this again as I did watch it live when I was a kid and just needed to check it out again. Bad mistake. Ali looked woeful here and if I was gauging how he looked here going against Frazier I would pick Joe in a heartbeat. A truly amazing difference from this fight to his performance against Frazier. But I digress. Oscar gave a good account of himself in his own unique, take-no-prisoner style but the fight was a stinker.

 

Easy to see how many tough fights Ali was in......