if you LOL'd when Abril lost to Rios check in right here

Excessive holding is illegal. Grabbing someones punching arm is also an illegal tactic and the referee would have been justified in issuing warnings.

There is a huge difference between guys like Floyd and Pernell and what Abril and sometimes Cory Spinks do. Out boxing is hitting cleanly and then evading or blocking punches. It is not clinching at every opportunity to stifle opponent's offense.

Thus, there is a case for Paul Williams, Michael Katsidis, and Pac for coming forward aggressively and possibly deserving rounds against lara, that guy kat just fought, and Marquez. There is no case for Cory Spinks deserving a victory over Mayorga when he was FALLING down to avoid punches - that's a knock down, not a slip.

the zeitgeist of boxing is to reward this spoiling because it limits effective aggression, but how much effect did Abril really have on Rios? It made both of them look crappy - this kind of negative style needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because if he stopped grabbing things might have changed quite a bit. It's against the rules of boxing to grab your opponent, this is why the ref separates you.

Abril won because Rios couldn't put his punches together, but boxing rewards this negative style too much, and would probably not have done so in the 1950s-1970s. Perhaps some of it is Ali's fault.

Floyd is clearly in control whether he holds or not - the other guy can't land on him and he makes the other guy pay. That's not really what was happening in those other fights I mentioned where the "boxer" was given the nod (or not, in this rare case).

 

It wasn't a robbery really, just a very close decision that Dirrell probably 'deserved'. It's just that I like to pretend it was cause the thought of Dirrell getting royally ****ed over is amusing to me because he's such a twat.

 

This

When one judged scored it 116-112 for Rios. I already knew the fix was in.

 

Good Post...