Victor Galindez vs Richie Kates 1 - Grueling bloody war (50 years later)

Here's my scorecard and write up of the fight 4 years ago.

Victor Galindez vs Richie Kates 1

1 Kates
2 Kates
3 Kates
4 Galindez
5 Galindez
6 Galindez
7 Galindez 10-8 knockdown
8 Kates
9 Galindez
10 Galindez
11 Galindez
12 Kates
13 Kates
14 Kates
15 Galindez wins by KO

133-132 Galindez

What can i say about this fight ? amazing courage shown by Galindez dealing with the horrendous cut. And amazing courage shown by Kates especially in rounds 7, 9, 10. When he took a tremendous beating in these rounds, and i'm not really sure how he got through these rounds to make it to the 15th round.

When i was watching this fight i was thinking, Kates is having a pretty easy nights work behind the jab in first 2 and half rounds. Then when Kates opened up a horrendous cut on Galindez via a accident headbutt. Then the fight stopped being a pretty jabbing exhibition for Kates and turned into an all out war.

When the fight was halted because of the cut it was a very strange occurrence. Reporters and cameramen went into the ring thinking that Kates had won the fight and it took almost 10 minutes to clear the ring. A very strange incident that i hadn't personally seen before.

When the fight eventually resumed Galindez went all out attack no holds barred, and anytime Galindez opened up he seemed to have Kates in trouble. As i noted earlier Kates went down in the 7th round and took a tremendous beating in rounds 7 9 10. Kates's boxing behind the jab which was working so well for him early on, was no longer apparent as Galindez would not allow him to box and just punished him along the ropes with a two fisted attacked.

I did feel Galindez let up a bit in rounds 12-14, as Kates was able to come forward and back up Galindez. Who wasn't really doing much work as he was in the middle rounds andthis tightened the fight up on my card, and going into the 15th round i had it 7-7 in rounds but Galindez up 1 point because of the knockdown.

The 15th round i felt like Kates was slightly edging the round until the last 30 seconds, Galindez got a second wind and started to land some big punches. With seconds to go in the fight Galindez lands 3 left hooks in a row with the last one being a peach of a punch, and Kates goes down and is counted out and Galindez wins by KO with seconds left in the fight to win one of the most dramatic fights you'll ever see.

Overall amazing fight amazing courage shown by both fighters. And once again this fight shows how amazing the Light Heavyweight era was at this time. Kates also comes so close again like he had against Muhammad but it wasn't to be.

 

I'd favour Muhammad in all honesty.

Galindez lost to Rossman during this period and I thought he lost atleast 1 of the fights vs Lopez.

The win over E.Muhammad was good though and I thought Galindez legitimately won that one by 2 points I believe ?

But all in all I'd probably go with Muhammad by late stoppage in a war.

 

This is one of those fights I think about when it comes to how brutal the sport can be. At times it's a proper horror show, and you don't really see it even in that era, let alone now (though I did get a similar feeling when watching Dubois vs Wardley).

It feels like an Aztec ritual with how bloody and savage it is. Galindez went ****ing mental in this one. Doesn't help that he just learned his idol just died.

 

@Flo_Raiden I did make a mistake BTW.

Looking at my scorecard I actually had Galindez/E.Muhammad a draw so I didn't have Galindez winning by a few points as I originally thought.

But I don't see an issue with Galindez edging that fight though and it doesn't alter my prediction on the fight you asked about.