FOTW #20: The Castro-Johnson-Jackson decisions

Interesting choices mate! I have a busy week but I am curious about these. Castro vs Jackson 2 is the only one that stands out in my memory. Good choices IMO for a change up. Got an Argentine maybe @red cobra will join us lol

 

I scored Jorge Castro - Reggie Johnson 1. I scored for RJ 116-112 or 8-4 in rounds. I gave RJ 1,2,4,7,8,9,10,12, I gave JC 3,5,6,11. For much of the fight it looked like JC would give RJ the first 2:30 of the round and then start fighting in the last 30 seconds. I had to remember that RJ won 5/6 of the round and to not score the whole round for JC because he fought hard for 30 seconds. A good fight to watch.

 

I scored the second Johnson - Castro fight for RJ 114 -113, or 6-5 in rounds. I gave RJ 1,2,5,,10,11,12, and gave JC 3,4,6,8,9. RJ fought out of a southpaw stance, but I suspect that he was right handed. He didn't use his left hand much and when he did, it was an arm punch. His right jab and hook were his best punches. When JC went southpaw in the third and part of the fourth round he was effective, he didn't use his left and it became a battle of right hands. JC was busier in this fight than he was in the first one and I had him leading after 9 rounds.

EDIT, there was no round 7 in the video as was pointed out. I checked my paper score and there was no round 7, I just got my scores out of line and when I tallied I made an extra round. Apparently out of habit I gave 12 rounds when I only had 11 rounds scored. This makes my score even closer and the fight could easily be scored for JC or a DRAW.

 

Hey bro enjoyed your write up and have been thinking about it during the fight. Just got done round 9 and agree with some of your insights. It does look like Castro is taking off large portions but I also think it is strategy and his best chance,

Castro seems a little soft/flabby and not in great shape. His punching is reminiscent of a Galento with wide slow looping hooks that look crude and clumsy when he misses and looks poor but has some solid power when they land. Johnson is a classic boxer mover causing him problems. He just can’t find him consistently enough, as Johnson is using foot speed good angles and maintaining distance,

When the rounds start Johnson is jabbing and moving and Castro can’t do much. Castro backs to the ropes with a high guard D trying to lure Johnson in but Johnson does not bite. Instead of rushing in like Castro wants/needs him to he maintains distance poking away with the jab and probing the defense with a variety of punches but many are getting blocked. When this does not work Castro moves center ring where Johnson again moves and jabs and takes the exchanges. Then with about 30 seconds left Castro goes all out and lands heavier punches. In rounds 3-5-6 I think those heavier blows took my card, where in 4-7-8 Johnson avoided them and took them.

Decent little scrap you have it 6-3 Johnson I have it 5-4 Castro heading into the championship rounds. I do think this is a fight you can’t just watch but need to really sit down an score (I don’t mean you but boxing fans in general). If I was just watching this as a whole I would think Johnson was running away with it. Partly because I feel he won 3 comfortable rounds 2-7-8 by a good bit, and the other 6 (I have 5-1 Castro in very close debatable rounds). On the whole Johnson is doing much better in my 9 compartments he is a hair behind...again one of the flaws in the 10 pt must system.

Oh well my pot of coffee is ready so I am off to score 10-12

 

I will post my card in a minute. But rounds 9-12 are very fun to watch, really the whole fight was but the home stretch saw both guys perform well.

Castro seemed to fight from the start in 9-11. In 9 he came out strong and then Johnson took over mid round and then Castro again came on strong to close. I scored Castro you went Johnson. In 10 he again started fast, but Johnson again took control this time to not allow Castro to take it back in the close we both went Johnson. 11 is likely Castro’s best of the fight and he fought the whole round...I don’t think stamina wise he could have done this all night, but he took this round clear in my mind and took both of our cards.

This is a fun fight and I can’t believe it is the first time I watched it

 

Pat, you've seen a different version from what I've seen of the second Johnson-Castro fight. I saw the version that Kevin had here, which was fought in Argentina and had German commentary. But the problem with this version is that it is missing the 7th round. Anyways, here is how I scored it.

Reggie Johnson v Jorge Castro II

Round 1: 10-10 Even
Round 2: 10-9 Johnson
Round 3: 10-9 Castro
Round 4: 10-9 Johnson
Round 5: 10-9 Johnson
Round 6: 10-9 Johnson
Round 7: Missing round
Round 8: 10-9 Johnson
Round 9: 10-9 Castro
Round 10: 10-9 Johnson
Round 11: 10-9 Johnson
Round 12: 10-10 Even

Total (without the 7th round) 107-103 Johnson

Even if we give Castro the 7th it would be 116-113 for Johnson on my card. Castro was a clubbing type of fighter whose great success was based on a rock jaw, a hometown crowd that cheered at anything Castro threw and some very accommodating judges. But Johnson's pin-point punching won it comfortably on my card.

 

Castro vs Johnson I
As I said above this is a fight you need to score to be able to say who won. If not it may look like a landslide for Johnson or at least through 8. I found 4 what I felt were clear rounds 3-1 for Johnson. The other 8 rounds I think can be scored in a variety of ways and 8-4 Johnson or 7-5 Castro are realistic cards for me...
Once again I had a draw (4 of my last 6 FOTW’s are draws, I hate it.), I am hoping these other 3 won’t end up draws on my cards

RBR
1 Castro
2 Johnson (19-19)
3 Castro (Castro 29-28)
4 Johnson (38-38)
5 Castro (Castro 48-47)
6 Castro (Castro 58-56)
7 Johnson (Castro 67-66)
8 Johnson (76-76)
9 Castro (Castro 86-85)
10 Johnson (95-95)
11 Castro (Castro 105-104)
12 Johnson (114-114)

Draw 114-114
We had 1/9 different you went Johnson I went Castro. Good fight and tough to score in a lot of these rounds.

Castro is a better defensive fighter than I gave him credit for. He has good power but is slow, lumbering, wild or crude in his punching. Johnson has great movement and is a classic boxer mover. Johnson is clearly the busier and more pleading fighter to the eye, but Castro is very effective when he lands and landed the bigger better punches. This might come down to your preference of busier, accurate ring generalship or fewer but more powerful punches

 

It did look like Castro was retreating to the ropes trying to lure Johnson in, many times as soon as JC's back touched the ropes, he'd throw a right hand. I wasn't the one taking the punches so I don't know, but from watching it looked like RJ didn't have much on his left hand and JC might have had good success moving to his right, into RJ's left hand and then using his right hand and left hook. If RJ is not right handed I'd be surprised.

 

Castro was a WBA favorite. The other two were not. The WBA looked at them as water carriers for Castro. Add in the corrupe Argenitinian commission and you know the Americans were not going to get a fair shake in Argentina - they had to knock Castro out or dominate him to win a decision. Anything close was naturally going to go to Castro.

 

Castro vs Johnson II
TBF I could see 8-4 for either guy as realistic. I felt there were 6 clear rounds 3 for each. I felt like 5 rounds were debatable and like scar I can’t find round 7 (and I have searched both in a rewind and looking in other places YouTube and outside). I felt Johnson took 2-5-11 clear and we all scored him. I felt like Castro took 3-4-9 clear although scar and I didn’t score 4 the same.

I felt 1 was close scar and I scored even par scored Johnson. 5 was close Johnson and we all agreed, 6 was close Castro pat and I agreed scar scored Johnson. 10 was close Johnson and we all agreed. 12 was close Johnson pat and I agreed scar scored it even.

The one thing we did all agree on was a Johnson victory although by different scores,
Pat 7-5
Scar 7-2-2 w/one missing
Philly 6-4-1 w/one missing

RBR
1 Even
2 Johnson
3 Castro
4 Castro
5 Johnson
6 Castro

7 Missing

8 Johnson
9 Castro
10 Johnson
11 Johnson
12 Johnson

106-104 Johnson
Johnson should win outside if a 10-8 7th round I will come back to that point in a minute

The judges wow I wished I could find the official RBR from them.
1 118-113 for Castro meaning he had only 2 rounds for Johnson and 3 even rounds. I can see 3 even rounds I just felt Castro/Johnson took at least 3 of these.

2 115-113 for Castro. I did not score it this way but feel 7-5 Castro is defendable if you like his punches over the crisper and busier Johnson. I would disagree but not strenuously

3 115-112 Johnson. I don’t have a real problem with this Johnson margin of victory until you do the math. Apparently 5 rds/pts for Castro and 8 rds/pts for Johnson which = 13? Out of 12 meaning he had a 10-8 round somewhere? Unless missing round 7 was a 10-8 round I didn’t see anything close to a 10-8 round so I feel even though this card looks fair I don’t get it.

 

Any interest in scoring the first fight? I felt that was a lot more fun than the 2nd one.

 

my score is actually one round closer, I checked my scoring sheet and I only had 11 rounds scored. Round 7 was missing and I apparently miscounted. Since most fights have 12 rounds the score seemed right at the time.

 

I scored the Jorge Castro - John David Jackson II fight. IMO this fight should have been stopped early and a new surface should have been put on the floor of the ring or they should have let the boxers fight in golf shoes. The story of this fight was the Pepsi and Isenbeck ads on the ring surface, they were slick and got slicker as the fight progressed, making it impossible for the fighters to set down on their punches or to use effective movement. The slickness of the ring probably affected JDJ more than JC, but it ruined the fight and neither fighter was as effective as they could have been.

I scored it 96-94 for JC and 5-4-1 in rounds. JC scored two knockdowns (I think?) but in the 4th round he lost the round after the knockdown so I only gave him a 10-9 round. I gave JC 1 (2pts),2,4,5,9, I gave JDJ 3,6,8,10, and scored 7 EVEN. The fight shouldn't have counted against JDJ's record, it was like boxing on ice. JDJ tried to move after punching and slid and fell a number of times and at other times his feet slipped and he didn't fall. When he tried to push off of his back foot to punch, the foot would slip backward. The ring had more to do with the fight than the fighters.

 

Castro gave some master classes here and proved himself to easily be the best of the bunch. What more could one want in a fighter? Skill, toughness, a deft touch, pacing, trapsetting, temerity.