Fight of the Fortnight #1: Southpaw Standoffs.

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Cornelius Boza-Edwards vs Rafael "Bazooka" Limon

Round 1: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Limon did very little until the last minute of the round when for 30 seconds he went to war with Corny)

Round 2: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Closer round, Corny wins it for me on the strength of his southpaw jab & hook)

Round 3: 10-9 Limon (Close, Limon got away with several low low blows. Most of the round was on even terms however Limon landed the best shots of the round)

Round 4: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Limon is fighting very dirty, twice this round besides low blows referee Dick Young said something to Corny during a break and both times Limon nailed him on the jaw with a big shot on the break. Like the low blows Ref Young hasn't said a word about hitting on the break either)

Round 5: 10-8 Boza-Edwards (A beautiful straight left floored Bazooka Limon right on the seat of his trunks in the opening stages of this round. What a rally and round after the knockdown by Limon & both fighters respectively)

Round 6: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Put on a boxing clinic this round, jabbing and moving mixing his shots perfectly this was all Corny and looked like a round from a Rocky movie. I bet Bozy landed 90+% of his punches thrown this round)

Round 7: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Close, Limon started better this round and did land a couple nice shots but I felt Corny still did the better work and remained more active throughout the round)

Round 8: 10-9 Limon (Finally was successful in dragging Bozy into his fight in the muck, a brawl broke out in which Rafael is the more skilled of the two. Limon's best round since the 3rd by far, he hurt Corny towards the end of the round to take the frame on my card)

Round 9: 10-9 Limon (Another good round for Bazooka Limon, he hurt Corny again towards the end of the round)

Round 10: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Close, but good comeback round for Bozy. Got back on his jab, and turning Limon. Wild exchange at the end)

Round 11: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Brilliant round for Bozy, Bap! Bap! *turn* Bap! Bap! *turn* Limon looks like he might actually be starting to fatigue this round)

Round 12: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (Mostly controlled by Corny, he hurt Limon late in the round as Bazooka was trying to stage a late rally)

Round 13: 9-9 Limon (A good comeback round for Limon, but all the fouling finally caught up to him as blind as a bat referee Dick Young finally takes a point away for a way south of the border shnuts shot)

Round 14: 10-9 Limon (Comes out firing away with a quick succession of uppercuts to the body, balls & head then flips the switch to windmill mode. Corny Bozy Ed circles away, and a attempts a awkward Ali Shuffle, while swaying his hips & shimming his shoulders that has the crowd cringing loudly on their feet. Limon gets inside again with another all out bodily assault to Boza's midsection/balls, Bozy does land the best shots of the round including staggering Bazooka a couple times but the round goes to Limon for me. Although Bazooka pushing his luck again almost costing himself another point as he continued to punch as referee Dick Young physically tried to separate the fighters)

Round 15: 10-9 Boza-Edwards (A all out action round from both completely exhausted fighters. Bozy takes the round for me on cleaner punching, but I have no problem with anyone scoring the round for Bazooka)

My Score: 145-138 Boza-Edwards

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Great all action affair!

 

Ronaldo Navarrete vs Rafael "Bazooka" Limon

Round 1: 10-9 Limon (Close, good feel out round the more active Bazooka takes the frame on my card)

Round 2: 10-9 Limon (Closer, Navarrete landed some of the best shots of the fight so far but Bazooka surged late to take the round for me. This round could be scored for Rolando with no argument from me though)

Round 3: 10-9 Navarrete (Takes his first round on my card on the strength of hard flush counter punching)

Round 4: 10-9 Navarrete (Close again, the cleaner harder punching by Rolando just edges the round for me. Another swing round, though Navarrete did stun Bazooka Limon early in this round that had him holding then backing away quickly for about 20 seconds)

Round 5: 10-9 Navarrete (A lot of clowning around this round from Rolando, but he got all the effective work done)

Round 6: 10-9 Limon (Takes the round for me in a boxing round on the strength of his jab)

Round 7: 10-9 Navarrete (A brawl breaks out in the middle of what had to this point been a fairly clean boxing match. Both men using their heads, Limon with the low blows. Navarrete lighting Bazooka Limon up with his left hand this round)

Round 8: 10-9 Limon (WAR errupts! Limon hurt Navarrete bad this round!)

Round 9: 10-9 Limon (Staggers the champion again! Back and forth action, Navarrete trying to fight back lands some wicked shots of his own. He refuses to grab on and hold when he gets hurt)

Round 10: 10-9 Navarrete (Good comeback round for the champion)

Round 11: 10-9 Navarrete (Another good round for the champion, and he finally edges back into the lead on my card

Round 12: TKO

My Score: (105-104 Navarrete) ATOS

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Grueling fight, both men gave everything they had. It looked like for long stretches this was the champions fight to lose as he was the better boxer and appeared to be the harder puncher, while Limon is relentless with the better chin. The stoppage kind of came out of nowhere, as it looked to me like Navarrete was having another good round. He was landing the big punches, when in the last 15 seconds of the 12th round Bazooka Limon puts together a rally that sends a tired and apparently stunned defending champion (Navarrete) to the canvas. The ref counts him out, and Rafael "Bazooka" Limon has reclaimed his title he lost to Cornelius Boza-Edwards.

 

I'm 1 hour behind you in Illinois.

 

And the old like myself

 

not trying to nitpick but you might want to alter your card to 145-139; At the end of 13 Limon was deducted a point for a low blow making the round 9-9, just an FYI

 

very fun fight between 2 guys I enjoy a bunch...not sure either guy could be in a boring fight!

 

Picking off the low hanging fruit here after a mad busy week at work in the lead up to Christmas, just to get my name on the board. Will try and give this thread the time it deserves in the next few days.

Hamed v Kelley

1 8-10
2 9-10
3 9-10

Obviously seen this one plenty of times before but didn’t remember Hamed looking so awful.

First round Hamed started well and was winning the round before getting suckered in and leaving his chin out to dry - awful defense and poor balance but not badly hurt.

Round 2 was close, could have given it to Hamed who looked unsteady for much of the round and touched down twice in quick succession to get a standing 8 count. The counter he hit Kelley with got him back in the fight but I thought Kelley edged it overall.

Round 3, Kelley boxed well, while Hamed’s jittery movements suggest he hadn’t settled into the fight yet.

Round 4 and fireworks, Hamed unloads and Kelley went down hard but then got careless again and touched down for another standing 8 count. Hamed lowers the boom for the final time and Kelley is clearly hurt and the ref makes the right call.

Hamed’s firepower got him through this one. Without the punching power he’d have got outboxed by the more orthodox and fundamentally sound Kelley.

 

Sergio Martinez v Paul Williams 1

1 10-9
2 10-9
3 9-10 (close,scrappy and difficult to score)
4 10-9
5 9-10
6 9-10 (close)
7 10-9 (close again)
8 9-10
9 10-9 (close again)
10 10-9
11 9-10 (good action)
12 9-10 (horrible scrappy round)

114-114

Not a great fight by any means but a very decent scrap nonetheless, although things did get messy on occasion.

This was a close fight that was hard to score. The only controversial thing about the official result was the horribly one-sided scorecard of 119-110. I came out of this feeling that a draw was the right result, which my scorecard happened to reflect but there were plenty of rounds that could have gone either way.

Rounds 1 and 11 were the standouts in terms of action but things were slightly let down by the wrestling in the final round which Williams edged almost by default to give him a deserved share of the fight on my card.

 

Whitaker v Ramirez 1

I’m not a fan of Pernell Whitaker’s style but you’d have to be a blind Mexican (or Jose Sulaiman - God rest his rotten, corrupt soul) to think he lost this fight. Sweetpea has an argument for a shut out here although I thought Ramirez did enough to take a couple of rounds on my card with another one that I awarded but that was razor thin and a share of a round too.

Fighting Whitaker must be somewhat like fighting a mosquito. You know it can’t hurt you but damn is it irritating! Of course, you can’t just award points to a guy for only avoiding punches any more than you can to a guy for just coming forward but Whitaker’s key to victory here was the jab, which he used (without causing any real damage) to bank rounds. When Ramirez went to the body he had some success but it was few and far between.

1 10-9
2 10-9
3 10-9
4 10-9
5 10-9 (first entertaining round, Whitaker throwing some combos)
6 9-10 (best round of the fight, Ramirez went to the body with some success to take this one)
7 10-9 (Whitaker back on his bike; Ramirez finding it hard to locate him; Whitaker using his jab to pick up points, an irritant more than an actual offensive weapon)
8 9-10 (Whitaker showing slick defense still but Ramirez landed best punch of the round)
9 10-9
10 10-10 (the implacable Ramirez is missing more than he lands but lands enough for a share of this round)
11 9-10 (Ramirez edges the round with some decisive body punching, although Whitaker with some combos has an argument the other way)
12 10-9 (Whitaker lands the better shots)

119-112

 

I have been wrestling with this...I do find Whitaker great, I just don’t enjoy his fights a lot and not sure I wanna punish myself this Christmas! Who knows. I did have Whitaker winning narrow years ago, I am not sure what a rewatch would do?

 

I had Ramirez winning . I don't give rds for running. Whitaker did NOTHING to take a championship away. Ramirez landed the only punches that mattered. Not all countries coddle run and hide fighters like whit and Floyd. And I am glad. It's Hagler -Leonard except Leonard's was 100 xs busier and aggressive than Whitaker Ramirez deserved the decision. And btw, no way this Whitaker beats the greats of lightweight history.

 

I enjoy Whitaker fights like I enjoy watching paint dry so I don’t blame you. It’s like watching an artist who has great technique but leaves you emotionally cold.

 

Ramirez tried to make the fight, there’s no doubt about that. I don’t award rounds for running but I don’t reward rounds for hitting air either. The fact is that Whitaker’s pitty patty jab connected with Ramirez’s face and Ramirez just wasn’t landing in those first five rounds. He had more success as the fight wore on but not nearly enough to take it in my view.

As for beating the great lightweights in history, I’ve never felt Pernell was quite at the same level as the likes of Gans, B Leonard, Canzoneri, Armstrong, Williams, Duran or Ortiz. I have him at number 7 all time but there are half a dozen lightweights on top of the six I already have ahead of him who have a good shout to be greater than him at the weight. And H2H I’d probably pick all of my top 6 to find a way to beat him. But he was the best of his era (early 90s) without a doubt.