Never saw this fight. Somone on youtube claimed Vito was ripped off in this one. Can anyone give me the run down? Luigi I'm looking at you!!
Both of these guys should be in the hall of fame if guys like turpin and graziano are in it. It seems like they have nearly every linear middleweight champ in the hall of fame.
I thought Vito had done enough to win the decision, especially with the referee ruled knockdown in his favor. (It was actually a shove, but as it was ruled a knockdown, British judge Roland Dakin had no choice but to award it to Antuofermo, the only round he didn't give to Minter.) A split decision was an accurate reflection of how competitive it was, but Dakin's flagrant jingoism was embarrassingly obscene. Those analysts who scored Vito the loser against Corro, Hagler and Minter had Antuofermo come closest to winning against Minter. As I see it, the champion gets the benefit of the doubt in a close one, and Vito fought like the challenger in all three of those bouts. If Dakin had scored it 144-143 for Minter, it would have somewhat controversial, but nothing like the 149-137 score he actually gifted Minter with.
Minter deserved the duke, something KO's writers had to explain to Mrs Antuofermo- they even went around to his house to re-score the fight with Vito's better half. :good Minter proved he was the better man in the rematch, when he won going away. Vito was the biggest overachiever in boxing history for me.
If Joan Antuofermo wasn't the boxing spouse of the century, I'd like to know who was. And in so doing, convinced everybody that he would take a rubber match over Antuofermo if one had been arranged. Minter looked very much up to Hagler's challenge after that return bout in London. Which just might eventually secure HOF status for him (especially among the diminished pool of talent enshrined in recent years). He really did make the most of his limited ability and equipment, showing how far it was possible to go with great conditioning, training discipline and courage.
I thought Minter started out brilliantly and I gave him the first 4 rounds. After that Antuofermo started coming on and I only gave Minter one more round plus a share of two other rounds. I had it 8-5-2 in rounds for Vito and with the extra point for the knockdown my final tally was 145-141. Most of the ringside writers and wire services had Antuofermo winning that fight. And, if you think there was a different perception between television and live. A friend of mine who was a professional judge took in that fight in Vegas and corroborated my assessment. His exact words, "Antuofermo was robbed blind!" Personally, I thought it was a good fight but never did I think the decision was in question. Scartissue
I don't think there was anything good about this fight at all. Neither fighter landed anything of note for 15 rounds...just pathetic offense from both. Vito was not robbed anymore than Corro was robbed againt him.
I actually like both of them as well. The fight was just awful and by far the worst performance i've seen of Alan.
The freakiest thing about Minter/Antuofermo I is that neither fighter was marked at the end. (Imagine the payoff somebody might have received for betting in advance that this bout would go 15 complete bloodless rounds!)
It was a dull fight, all I can remember is a seemingly endless repetition of Minter throwing his right and Vito clinching while trying to flail. Dull stuff but Minter must have done something special, seeing as he was the first Brit since Jack Kid Berg to win a world title in the States.
Not the most interesting fight, but Minter won by a mile. Okay Vito was doing all the attacking, but he hardly laid a glove on Minter. And even worse the knock down was a push. Woller
