Absolute worst robbery of 2017

I've not watched much boxing this year apart from the handful of big fights so to be honest I don't have much to contribute to this topic so I had to vote "IDKSAB", even if I DID watch the two fights, I'd still not have a big enough sample size to choose from so to speak.

I kinda opened this thread exactly for the reason to just find out what were the big robberies and hopefully find some good fights. I'm not sure whether it was your intention or not but I though the OP was expressed in a rather snobbish manner so I commentated on that, sorry for driving your thread off topic.

 

Well, permit me to more closely analyse the action in addition to presenting my scorecard (from which you'll note that I had Cacace winning the fight);

R1 10-9 Cacace (Little happening here, one clean introductory punch early in the round deciding it.)

R2 10-9 Ward (Ward pressing the action for more of the round, neither doing much clean scoring work, Ward doing slightly more.)

R3 10-9 Cacace (About equal on the ambition front, Cacace getting the edge due to a couple of clean scoring lefts early on.)

R4 10-9 Ward (Very little between them in this round, Cacace showing some sustained ambition toward the end of the session, but Ward's ability to slip/block and counter nicking it.)

R5 10-9 Cacace (Mixed fortunes for both in the first half of the round, Ward slipping and countering a Cacace raid, but a body shot and a right hook scoring for Cacace. A deadlocked second half is livened up by an orthodox right cross to the chin of Ward just before the bell.)

R6 10-9 Ward (Ward's greater industry and modest success with the right hand win the first two minutes of this session, with Cacace's moments more sporadic, contributing a clean southpaw cross and a clever cross cum jab as he shifts. Cacace picks up his industry in the final minute, but his switches to orthodox bear no fruit, and a southpaw right hook near the end of the round is the only reward for his efforts. It's another close round, but I award it to MJW on account of his consistency and command in the first two thirds.)

R7 10-9 Cacace (Both men enjoying limited success with single shots in the first 1:30, with Ward's slight bossing of the tempo tilting it in his direction. Cacace answers with his own initiative in the second half of the round, pulling things his way with a counter left hook from the orthodox stance and providing another glimpse of his ability to cause problems with his left while shifting, this time turning his blocked cross into a scoring hook.)

R8 10-9 Cacace (Clearest round for either man so far, Ward offering only a messy brand of hustle as the round progresses, Cacace starting it strong in the orthodox stance and continuing to score consistently throughout the session after returning to southpaw.)

R9 10-9 Cacace (Much the same story as the previous round.)

R10 10-9 Ward (With very little quality scoring work being done, this one tilts to the bustling industry and initiative of Ward.)

R11 10-9 Ward (Cacace starts the round with a nice orthodox jab, registering a decent left hook in close quarters soon after, but Ward is setting a pace, showing keen defence and doing decent work with his jab through the first two minutes. Cacace gets through with an orthodox right cross as we enter the final minute, but Ward's bustle continues to dictate, and he finds modest but repeated success with his own right hand during the final 60 seconds.)

R12 10-9 Cacace (Cacace opens the round with initiative in the first minute, but the action is messy, with neither his aggression nor Ward's attempts to counter bearing much fruit or establishing an edge. Ward's jab is starting to do good work as we enter the middle minute, though. Cacace launches a pair of orthodox 1-2 combinations around the 1:30 mark, but the action is still very messy with little to seperate them going into the final minute, Ward pressing it throughout this period as Cacache looks to pick him off coming in, neither having any real eye-catching success amid the deflected potshots and scrappy cuffing inside, with a Cacache cheap shot on the break the cleanest punch landed. Any difference between them in this championship round is so marginal that I'm uninclined to assert any authority in calling it, but my aversion to scoring even rounds compels me to pick a winner and so I tilt it to Cacace on the basis of... Well, not very much at all. Maybe the decent right hand he landed in the middle of the round as a result of one of those 1-2 combos. Then again, Ward had been working nicely with his jab prior to that. There's really no room for great conviction in declaring a winner in this round.)

Cacace 115-113 Ward


First, allow me to say that Cacace had the two clearest rounds in the fight and did more of the good, clean, scoring work over the course of the 12 (especially concentrated in the 8th and 9th).

However, as you noted, we score fights on the basis of who took more frames, and there were just too many close sessions, rounds open to interpretation, to declare an injustice in the recorded outcome of this fight. I ended up giving the two rounds that I personally deliberated on to Cacace. If I decide not to give Cacace the benefit of the doubt in those (7 and 12), I come up with 115-113 Ward. It was that kind of fight. With those two rounds in mind, I could also have scored it 114-114 or 115-114 for Cacace (if I was more open to scoring an even round).

So 7-5 Ward would not have been an appalling outcome by my lights, and even less so the one official score of 115-114 (6-5-1) in Ward's favor. 116-114 (6-4-2) for Ward was questionable in as much as I feel a good judge should avoid scoring more than one even round in a fight, with multiple even rounds seeming to imply a general lack of discernment or decision-making clarity. 7-4-1 is questionable in that I feel 7 rounds for Ward and only 4 for Cacace is just showing too little regard for the latter.

To declare a robbery, one of the principles should have no case for winning the fight. I do not believe that is true in this instance. Ergo, I disagree with your assertion.

As for what a "performance should look like to allow someone to win away from home", it's a (perhaps unfortunate) reality of the professional boxing business that relying on occasional single shots can be a very risky strategy on enemy turf. Probability says that a visitor employing that strategy is not going to be favored on the official scorecards if a fight is close (and Cacace's corner knew it was close, which accounts for his busy start to the 12th). Why didn't they gameplan on a consistent jab and use of combinations throughout the bout? Anto coasted in spells where passion, creativity and industry were required. Not to say that Ward was a bundle of ingenuity, but he was able to do enough to make a decent case for himself.

 

I'd guess that I enjoy detailed, nuanced, 'nerdy' conversation just about as much as any fellow here (indeed, I've been labelled a "pedant" for it by one heckler), but I can't disagree with you. The thread started off on a less than pleasant footing, and that's why it has ended up being as much a debate over the tone of the opening post as a discussion of the year's big scoring injustices.

 

Wilder v Stiverne

 

So how's the boxing going?

 

I would just like to wish Adalaide Byrd a merry Christmas and happy New Year.

 

Murata-N'Dam 1 was the worst robbery amongst the bouts I saw this year.

 

GGG vs Canelo. GGG won it 8-4 or 8-3-1. BS Draw.

 

Well the GGG vs Canelo FIX was in before the first punch was thrown. Due to the attention and importance of the fight this robbery was worse.

 

I think you could make an argument for De La Hoya edging out Hatton in 2016