Expectation: None. I saw Aragon once against Jimmy Carter in a truly epic fight, and I've never even heard of Davis. So if this is a great fight, I will be glad. If not, I will not be surprised. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected Description: 1. Davis scored as soon as the bell rang. He showed ring dominance over the lighter-punching Art Aragon. No action. Davis. 2. Davis reminds me of Henry Armstrong (though slightly less crude, and a bit more orthodox) and Dick Tiger also a little bit. Davis clinched, throwing Aragon off balance, causing him to miss; a tactic that worked well against Aragon. Davis. 3. Aragon tried to take to the offense, but only got muffled by Davis. Davis jumped the gaps with his jab or a hook sometimes, in order to close the distance too quickly for Aragon to jab in his own defense, so he was stuck clinching, which was neither to his advantage given Davis had the better body strength between them. Davis. 4. Aragon slightly stunned Davis with a long, glancing, chopping right. Davis came on better later on with the uppercut. Davis. 5. A right by Davis appeared to hurt Aragon early on. Davis followed up speedily with a volley. Davis. 6. Aragon's best round. Aragon. 7. Davis came on strongly; punching to the head and body. Aragon injured Davis a little with 40 seconds left in the round. Even. 8. Davis resumed his body work. At the same time, Aragon landed some fine 1-2's to the face of Davis. Davis was achieving very little by the end, leaning on Aragon, who tried to counter with uppercuts, with his back to the ropes. Aragon. 9. A pretty frantic round which was over quickly (I'm not indicating there was a knockout). Aragon. 10. Davis was so tired. Aragon landed another quick volley. The referee pulled Davis away, ending the fight on a punctured lip. Final score: 5-3-1 for Davis at the time of the stoppage Assessment: Aragon-Aragon showed resilience in getting outpointed for so long and then coming on late, although I didn't think he came on particularly well. Davis-Like I said, he reminded me a little of Henry Armstrong, and in some ways of Dick Tiger. He was tough and relentless, but it's hard to say how good of a fighter he was. Verdict: Not exciting at all. Move on to more important fights.
Verdict: Not exciting at all. Move on to more important fights. LOL I wish I had seen this note at the bottom of your post first. Actually, it wasn't a bad fight just sort of run of the mill. I wanted to watch it because when I was a kid my dad and I would go to the Santa Anita Race Track. The route my dad took always had us passing by Art Aragon Bail Bonds. That was the business Art owned after he finished his fistic career. Passing by the place would always get my dad talking about the great fights of the 1940s and 1950s and how "the fighters today are soft". Anyway, they were good stories and helped to spark my interest in boxing.
When I was posting this cuz I wrote in my notes to rewatch 9 cuz I knew I didn't pay full attention. But when I rewatched it I thought that the fight may have been a little better than my initial impression. Cool too, that you got to drive by his business.
William, I scored this a couple of months back and there were 2 things of note from both of our assessments; 1) We scored it differently. 2) I actuallly enjoyed it. Oh well, that just means we're all not in lock-step with one another and there was more than meets the eye on this fight. Here is what I wrote for what it's worth: Art Aragon v Henry Davis (San Francisco Cow Palace) 10 rounds Found this one today looking for a good scrap and I wasn't disappointed. This bout's scoring was on the west coast's 11 point system (also known as the Australian 11 point system) at the time. Where 11 points are divided (6-5 for a close round, 5.5 - 5.5 for an Even round). Here we go. Round 1: 6-5 Aragon Round 2: 6-5 Davis Round 3: 6-5 Aragon Round 4: 6-5 Aragon Round 5: 6-5 Aragon Round 6: 5.5 - 5.5 Even Round 7: 6-5 Aragon Round 8: 6-5 Davis Round 9: 6-5 Aragon Round 10: Referee stops the contest due to a badly lacerated lower lip by Davis where his lower teeth went through the lip in the previous round. Total through 9 completed rounds: 51.5 - 47.5 Aragon (actual scores: 51.5 - 47.5 for Aragon and 2 scores of 50-49 for Davis) Every round Davis started like a house-a-fire, but then Aragon's bigger shots just took over. I really couldn't see those two scores for Davis, but it is what it is. And Davis was PO'd when that fight was stopped. A good fight where the emphasis was clearly on entertainment.
Our differences of opinion on this is what makes it all worth while. Of course, even though I just wrote this post last night (based on earlier notes), I saw this fight about a month ago, so if I were to watch it again now, I think I might feel differently about it. However, your score is pretty interesting to me. I do remember thinking Davis was fairly dominant up until around the 6th or 7th. I differ with people on this a lot, but I tend to give rounds to the busier guy, and in this case I think we could agree Davis was busier, even if he was less effective at times. But hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's just means you're more open-minded than me.
The original Golden Boy. Toast of the West Coast. IIRC, Art despite the nickname was the ‘heel’ in most of his fights — people paid good money to see him lose (which he seldom did).
Would have loved to have been there for the first Aragon-Enrique Bolanos fight. Bolanos was the antithesis of Aragon. He was adored by the crowd. Surprised they held this at the Olympic, which could only hold 10,400. Something tells me an equal amount may have been outside unable to get in. But it sounded like a good, competitive fight and the atmosphere had to be electric.
