It's about time this fight made its way to Youtube. It was always a favorite of mine, and I've been telling anyone who will listen that it was one of the best fights I've ever seen, but until recently few people I ever talked to had ever seen it. [yt]LYn1YXEwSqA&feature=channel[/yt] [yt]DSGJ_5Q7ZyA&feature=channel[/yt] [yt]pyb9pFvl7b0&feature=channel[/yt] [yt]5JsuIAyRopI[/yt] [yt]PqGphADdt44&feature=channel[/yt] This was the first fight between LHW champ Victor Galindez and leading contender Richie Kates. The fight starts off slowly the first couple of rounds, but don't let that fool you; it soon heats up! I don't think I've ever seen a fighter bleed as much as Galindez did in this fight. (Notice the difference in the color of the referee's shirt between the start of the fight and the end. :shock And a word of warning: don't blink as the fight nears it's final seconds. :yep This fight also highlighted an ill-fated rule called the "no foul rule" that came into practice around that time, which stated that a fight could not end as the direct result of an accidental foul. This fight caused the rule to come under intense scrutiny and re-evaluation, but ironically, we would not have seen the fight we see today if not for it. Galindez and Kates would eventually meet in a rematch, and this time Galindez won by a close, perhaps somewhat debatable decision, in a fight that was decent but lacked much of the fire and drama that this one had. Enjoy!
Damn good indeed, though i think i actually prefer the second fight. kates let the play get taken away in this one pretty early and never got back into it imo.Took a terrible beating at points.
Kates was a beautiful stylist, just seemed to lack that extra something that seperated him from the elites. I've seen the rematch and extended highlights from this one, but never the fight in its entirety. From what I recall Kates just couldn't really cope when Galindez went into berserker mode. The second fight is a bit more pleasing to the eye IMO as well, though not as action-packed. I'll probably review this one in full sometime soon.
Very good fight! The second one wasn't bad either. About 15 years ago, I spoke at great length with Richie and his wife about these fights with Galindez, in a visit to Vineland, New Jersey. Richie, to this day, is absolutely, positively convinced that he won the rematch and was robbed by the judges!