This post of mine pissed me off, and here's why: I was writing it, about two hours ago, and it was quite a bit longer than it is here, but I had taken about 45 mins. to write it up, and when I clicked the "Create Thread" button, it told me to refresh the page. I did, and the draft was gone! So here I am again, laboring for you guys, to bring you this classic boxing report (lol): I was anticipating a good fight here, and a UD by Canzoneri, but I expected it to be a close one. This content is protected 1. McLarnin would do something I'd never seen done to McLarnin before (of all his filmed fights), and that was-hurt Tony. The first time it happened was odd. He hit Canzoneri with three glancing blows (one missed, actually), and Canzoneri backed up to the ropes. He seemed hurt by that; that must be when he hit the mic. I don't think it's a myth/ lie planted in the title, cuz Canzoneri was tough as hell, and he just didn't get hit with anything from McLarnin. Two other times McLarnin also scored on Canzoneri, who was staggered. It was a big round for McLarnin and a big accomplishemnt. McLarnin. 2. Canzoneri's head must have cleared by now, and he settled up with McLarnin. A left jab-right hand combination put McLarnin down to one knee for a second. Blink and you'll miss it. But it was not a slip, no doubt about that. Canzoneri. Intermission: Already, I was excited. Two fast rounds already in the books, it was shaping up for a good fight. 3-5. This was the kind of fight I expected from Canzoneri. He was defensive, but more effective, outjabbing and outhooking McLarnin. McLarnin developed a nosebleed near the end of 5. Canzoneri did more than enough to earn all three rounds. 6. This was one of McLarnin's better rounds, as he escaped more of Canzoneri's blows than he had done so far. After that, a good exchange ensued, albeit brief, in which McLarnin started a cut on the bridge of Canzoneri's nose. Canzoneri. 7. Canzoneri. 8. McLarnin did seize this one by a slim margin, but it was so slim it's not impressive. McLarnin. 9. An ordinary Canzoneri round until later on, when he hit McLarnin, McLarnin staggered back into the ropes, and nearly went out. Canzoneri. 10. Canzoneri. The final score was 8-2 for Canzoneri. The fight itself confirmed but defied my expectations. I was expecting a Canzoneri victory, and a UD at that, but I was expecting it to be close within each round, but it wasn't mostly. McLarnin just never really looked very sharp or powerful, and was too wild for his own good. He was wild from the Ross fights, but I was certain Canzoneri would cure McLarnin of his wide-swinging style, which he did. I think McLarnin was probably down-hill since the brutal Ross trilogy, and was not going to make much of a comeback. Verdict: Personally, I wouldn't call it a classic the way the announcer did in the commentary, mostly cuz it was too one-sided for my tastes. Still, it was a good scrap, especially those first two rounds. I thought it was a good fight to be the last Canzoneri fight on film, thus making the last memory of him a pretty positive one.
William, good synopsis. I'm a little stronger on this fight than you are. It's one of my very favorite fights to watch, if not the most favorite. Canz is absolutely magnificent. He thought it his greatest performance. Below is a link to a voice recording where Tony talks about the fight. He also clears up your confusion about his encounter with the microphone. After you listen to it, you'll know where to look for it on the film. This content is protected .
Thanks for your praise and for providing the audio. It did clear it up. I went back and watched it. Canzoneri does hit his head as he turns around. It's interesting really, if Canzoneri hadn't hit his head on the mic, he may have won every round. If you enjoy the fight more than me, that's fine. It was a good fight, I still enjoyed it. I've seen it 3x this week. It's just one of those things I suppose. Some fights mean more to some than others. People think I'm weird for some of the Emile Griffith, Ernie Terrell, and Eddie Machen fights that I like.
As too it being Canzoneri's best performance, it kind of depends with me. Of course, we don't have all of his fights on film, much to my chagrin, but I personally find his wins over Kid Chocolate and Jackie Berg more impressive and stimulating. I might even surmise the Ambers win was more impressive to me. However, this is going off of appearance. I think that the McLarnin win is probably his best out of these in the sense that it's a combined win and performance. The Berg fight is not a big name on your record. The Chocolate one is, but the Kid was a featherweight. Ambers is an equally good name to McLarnin, but he was pretty young and relatively inexperienced.
Great post. Great fight. And thanks for putting in the extra work and rewriting, despite the computer hassle. I had this same thing happen to me the other day when I wrote a couple of paragraphs to post. I got suspicious and copy and pasted what I wrote before refreshing. I was glad I did, as it deleted what I wrote! Just like you described. I most likely would not have rewritten what I wrote and just let it go. Fortunately I just re-pasted and then posted. Mine was only a paragraph or two, so my hats off to you for doing the work all over again!
Thanks. What had happened was that I started the post, and finished writing it about half an hour later, and the post took about another half hour to write. Anyway, I think I probably had it up too long, and that's why it all happened. Sure as hell wish I had just copied and pasted too.
Nice film and a good fight. I was surprised with McLarnin's poor performance. It just didn't seem to have it at any point in this one. McLarnin would rally later that year to beat Canzoneri badly in a rematch and to beat Lou Ambers, before retiring. I think this could be Canzoneri's best performance. I find his style odd but it worked for him. Despite their comparative youth, both fighters might have been shopworn by this point. They each had been having tough fights for over a decade.
