Fight of the Fortnight #4: The Cobra Will Always Bite Back...

wheeeeeewwwww.....you make feel like a modernist! Thank you!

I don’t enjoy curry fights a whole lot, so it may take some willpower for me to revisit this one. I am getting stretched and limber so I don’t pull a muscle or something of the sort! Wish me luck

 

Colin jones held ?

 

These were some great fights... Hearns vs Kinchen should actually be considered as sort of a mini-classic in my opinion

 

I agree Philly. Froch isn't the most aesthetically pleasing fighter and Pascal spent most of the fight make wild lunges and being off balance. An exciting fight that I can well imagine enjoying live but watching back just doesn't do it for me as much as I hoped. Maybe I've been spoilt by some of the fights I've seen recently!

 

Thomas Hearns v James Kinchen

Really enjoyed this one. Love Tommy Hearns and he started this like the Hitman of old - spiteful jab, wicked body shots and looking like he was fully in control. Then Kinchen knocked him down with an innocent-looking sequence of punches and suddenly, it was bambi on roller skates (a Reg Gutteridge favourite expression).

Hearns had to use all his ring experience to navigate his way through the rest of the fight. Kinchen showed a good chin but was a little too methodical in the way he attacked in straight lines. Tommy mixed up his attack and won rounds by virtue of being more active.

This was a fight that Hearns could have lost but through experience and sheer grit, he got it done.

1 10-9
2 10-9
3 10-9 (closer)
4 7-10 (big round for Kinchen)
5 10-9 (after the previous round Tommy wisely elects to stick and move and wins the round)
6 9-10
7 9-10 (close) (66-66)
8 9-10 (very close) (cracking round that could have gone either way)
9 10-9 (good round for Hearns who controlled things with his jab and mixed it up with same nice body shots. Some more excellent give and take at the end of the round though)
10 10-9 (Kinchen just getting outworked by Tommy)
11 10-9 (close) (Kinchen takes first half of the round before Tommy comes back and pot shots The Heat to edge it. Could have gone either way)
12 10-9 (Some wild swings, some bug punches but Tommy is just a bit busier)

Hearns 114-112 Kinchen

EDIT: Deducted an extra point from Hearns in round 4 as Mills Lane deducted a point after that round apparently for holding.

 

Carl Froch vs Jean Pascal

Froch - Pascal

R1: 10 - 9
Froch clubbing with his deceptive style.
R2: 9 - 10
Pascal much better when working in with the jab.
R3: 10 - 9
Froch smashing those shots in.
R4: 9 -10
Froch's chin is insane.
R5: 9 - 10
Pascal tidier, landing shots later to definitively take the round.
R6: 10 - 9
Pascal lunging and losing his range.
R7: 10 - 9
Froch with some brilliantly timed shots.
R8: 10 - 9
Pascal very much slowing down and getting clumsy.
R9: 10 - 9
Both wide open! Pascal hurt.
R10: 10 - 9
Froch working well.
R11: 10 - 9
Pascal too inconsistent.
R12: 10 - 9
Both men giving it.

TOTAL: 117 - 111 FROCH

Notes:

• Nostalgic bout for me. I remember everyone supporting Froch back in the day.
• I love Froch's awkward style. An instinctive fighter with unique timing, iron chin and amazing fitness. Like Sung Kil Moon. He hadn't really implemented that shifty feinting game into his style here yet, though, like you see in later bouts of his.