FIGHT OF THE WEEK 4- Johnny Bratton vs Charley Fusari (70th Anniversary edition)

Welcome back to the 4th installment of rewatching (or watching for the first time), rescoring discussing and sharing memories of great and historic fights. This weeks fight (Shout out to @Jel for this idea, a fight I have never seen) takes us back 70 years to a closet classic welterweight battle!

I know this is before most of our times, and we have very few posters who are 75+, but it would be great to hear from any of our senior classic forum posters who may remember this. The footage is what you would expect from the time period, but it is watchable.

Hoping to see some scorecards and hear some comments on this fight. I am excited to get to watch a fight I have never seen before...hope you guys enjoy this one.

Let’s travel back to March 14, 1951- 70 years ago today and this weeks fight of the week!

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Not a bad idea, as he is one of my favorites. But he also has 3 threads on page 1 of classic so we have ample opportunities to discuss him. FOTW I am revisiting fights that happened during this week in history (March 14-20) and there is no footage of the Reggie Ford fight that was accessible to me.

 

This week has had a ton of great historic fights to view if you want to check some others out.
I was going to go with Chavez vs Taylor I (March 17) before Jel came up with this gem.

March 14-20
15 Pac Marquez 2
Tony Lopez vs Brian Mitchell 2
Chacon vs Boza Edwards 2
16 Bradley vs Provodnikov
17 D Hopkins vs Forbes
JMM vs Barrera
Chavez vs Taylor 1
Foreman vs Young
18 Sithcatchawal vs Monshipour
Collins vs Eubank 1
19 Morales vs Pac 1
Milton McCrory vs Colin Jones 1
20 Lenny Lapaglia vs John Collins (anybody who has not seen this one should check it out!)

I’m sure there are several I have overlooked

if you have any recs for fights fought in the month of April leave me a comment in this thread:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/fight-of-the-week-april-suggestions.664405/

 

A funny thing happened to Charlie during his amateur career. He had 2 bouts in one night, and after KOing Curtis Moore in the first, he went to rest for an hour or two. He took off his trunks and protective cup, put on his robe and went to sleep. When his second bout came up, they put on his gloves and he went into the ring. As he was being introduced, he removed his robe and everybody started screaming. In looking down he noticed that he had nothing on and was standing like September Morn! No Trunks, no cup, no nothing! He left for the dressing room on the double, got dressed and came back to win his fight.

He claims this was his most embarrassing moment.

source
http://www.njboxinghof.org/charley-fusari/

 

Can somebody identify or explain the scoring system in place for this fight? It can’t be a 5pt system because cards would max out at 75....to low to be a 10 pt scoring system? I am sure I have seen it somewhere before but my brain can’t figure it out at the minute

• Referee: Tommy Gilmore 78-72
• Judge: John Bray 74-76
• Judge: Ed Hintz 77-73

 

@McGrain can you tell me if I am correct (if so any notable fights that use this system? or point me to someone who can?

Each judges card = 150 the announcers say out of a possible 150 when the verdict is announced. So I assume (dangerous I know) that each round has 10 total points to award in any direction on a sliding scale such as 8-2 6-4 or 5-5 etc.

If so I really like this method? Just not sure if I am correct.

If so I need to rewatch this now and score it properly

 

it’s the only thing I can think of...it’s not fair to either fighter to score RBR pt or 10pt etc because they didn’t fight under that rule set so I find it hard to score it under that parameter.

I have never tried this way before but attempted clumsily and have 76-74 as my final score.

but I have a feeling the result will be for the opposite guy on the 10 pts system.

 

@Jel this is a fantastic throwback fight. Glad you suggested it and even gladder that I took the time to watch this.

this is the definition of a closet classic for those who have not seen this one!

 

Thanks for posting your card and the story! I will post mine tomorrow but it looks real similar to yours off the top of my head. I remember Fusari winning 1-2 real close (some might score it for Bratton?) while Bratton won 3-5 a little clearer. Which makes the official scoring system interesting to me. I have Fusari winning on a rounds basis as well (have not done the 10 pt must system yet so do know the result myself), but I need to find out more about this 150 pt scoring for this fight...but no luck in finding more about it on my quick search.

thanks for watching, scoring and joining in!