Israil Madrimov vs. Terence Allan Crawford & Jared Dovan Anderson vs. Martin Bakole Ilunga RBR.

Madrimov is class. Love his jerky style, the feints were sooooooooooooo good. Really tough fight for Bud. I had it a draw, but a tight Bud or Madrimov win was fine.

 

I don't think Tszyu has the skills to keep Bud as inactive and guessing that Madrimov does, but we will see - Madrimov was patient, his defence and upper body movement was exceptional giving Crawford very little to sniff at - I can't see that being the same with Tszyu and Crawford will walk him into traps

 

Two of those cards have Madrimov LOSING round 9, which IIRC was easily his best round of the fight!

 

This pretty much sums it up for me.

It was a classic 50/50 fight, highly technical and a round either way or a draw would be fine...

But as a title fight, you're supposed to beat the champ to take his belt - not go 50/50 with him and get the nod because you're the bigger name, more popular and from the right country.

Robbery is a strong word, but there's clearly an A-side privilege at play.

 

My god is Almaayouf dreadful. Saudis are dumb to legitimately back him.
"****ing ****." - Michal Bulik

 

Even though I only had watched a little bit of Madrimov I thought he'd be difficult for Crawford, so full props for the win. I had Crawford by four points, like one of the judges. Most rounds were competitive, but Madrimov let too many early rounds go by just feinting without end product. Very good fighter, though.

 

It was a technically very strong fight. Some great defensive work by both men. Couple of close moments where both nearly connected with a huge shot, that could have changed the fight.

 

People genuinely had Crawford beating Canelo at 168 ... & based on what? Sweet FA...

 

I want to slap Steven Nelson for wearing those trunks. Ghetto culture gone too far.

 

Cruz got completely schooled, gawd damn. I bet on Valenzuela to spring the upset, but I wasn´t expecting this.

 

Exaggerated, rather than unreasonable, perhaps?

Was a UD reasonable?
IMHO no, it's too close for three unbiased scorers to all pick Crawford.

A close split decision in either direction I'd be fine with, or even a draw... But a UD for either man I just don't like.

I would expect there to be at least one for Madrimov (or even a draw card), but I don't see a UD as a fair reflection of how close that was.

To have a UD go against the champion in an extremely tight contest... It's just a little too pat for my liking.


To be clear, I'm not saying it's a robbery - but there's a clear A-side privilege for the home fighter in this one for it to go down in the record books as it does, IMHO.

 

This is all true - just as a matter of odds...

If a fight is truly 50/50, then the odds of all three just happening to swing the same way for a UD is 25%*.
*(If we remove the possibility of draw cards, any specific outcome is 0.5*0.5*0.5, or 12.5% - but there are two potential UD outcomes, so 25%... If you add back in the possibility of a draw card, all those numbers get smaller and the odds get longer).


25% chance of a UD in a 50/50 fight isn't the longest of odds, but it's long enough to raise a little suspicion if it's in the predictable direction, in my opinion - you are of course welcome to a different one!

I'm fine with that.

The only thing I question is whether, when there are multiple reasonable cards, I'd expect to see at least one go the other way - and in all honesty, in a title fight I'd expect at least one to give the champion the benefit of close rounds.

Couldn't agree more.

I think it probably is relevant, though to what extent I'm not sure.

I have no problem believing that.