This content is protected 1. Gavilan. (I could be wrong about this one) 3. Gavilan turned tiger and chopped at Cartier's body. A good right hand staggered Cartier, whose knee buckled, and he could've hit the deck. The round was fought at a lively pace that I found enjoyable as both landed freely and solidly. In the final battle of the round Gavilan stunned Cartier with another right hand. Gavilan. 6. A more average round, although both still got in a few good slugs near the end. Cartier. 9. The lively pace not only continued, but grew to be more on the level of round 3's action. A left hook by Cartier hurt Gavilan enough to enrage him and Gavilan got violent, but also less effective. Good round. Cartier. 10. Gavilan came out with victory clear in mind. An overhand right at 9: 47 of the video finished Cartier, technically. Cartier didn't go down, but he retreated past Gavilan, clearly groggy. Gavilan went in to finish, and Cartier fired back some, but was staggering around so much and had no control of himself. He was as good as dead. A perfect overhand right turned Cartier to jelly, and he went down on his face. It was one of the strangest KD's I'd ever seen. I gave the majority of these rounds to Gavilan, but they are only half. I was under the impression that Gavilan was losing, due to his dull look early in the fight, then his desperate attacks in the latter half of the match. Verdict: Great comeback win and KO, and a pretty good fight I found upon rewatching. A good watch altogether, and short. So there's no reason to avoid it. It's a good example of how a lesser fighter can have an ATG almost beat, but then blow it in the final round.
This knock out deserves studying. How was it that KG, with so little power, a stinging puncher, probably, was able to KO bigger men (Walter wasa legit MW). I will say it was unwise of Cartier to muss Gavilan's hair in the ninth.
A weirder going down for the KO than Layne vs Marciano. I think these reactions, as I posted then, are from muscle memory. Cartier came up short pretty consistently against the best men. He lost all his fights to the four champions he fought. He was stopped 9 times in 61 fights, a fairly high percentage, so I don't think he had a good chin. Off the announcer, Gavilan had to KO him to win and he did. A fun enough fight to watch, but not one of the Kid's best performances, except for the last round. Thanks for posting.
I agree, the Kid struggled against a more mediocre opponent. Struggling against Bratton, Turner, and Basilio he looked good. But against Cartier he seemed slow at first and missed more than usual.
