Leonard Dorin Doroftei vs. Raúl Horacio Balbi I & II - the standalone IB's RBR scorecards

Round 7

Dorin is oozing ichor all over the ring, himself, and his opponent. Balbi keeps reopening the cuts around his left eye with accurate jabs, often more than one in a row. Balbi's reach serving him as he gets off in groupings with ample time afterward to either move in and tie up or navigate his way around Dorin. That said, Dorin is letting the leather fly indefatigably, and a fair few body blows are getting through for him despite Balbi's best attempts to deny him.

10-9 Balbi

68-65 Balbi

 

Lederman has it 69-64 Balbi.

 

Round 8

Dorin is flipping both arms up into Balbi's chest in the pocket, only for Balbi to chicken-wing his elbows out to push Dorin out into flurrying range, then closing in with his skull pinned to Dorin's throat before he can be handed a receipt. Balbi engaging Dorin in a contest of pure strength, grabbing each other around the waist and grappling for superior positioning, neither of them keen on getting carried to & placed against the ropes. Stiff double jab in the mouth from Balbi, and Dorin starts to blink and wince from it, something he as of yet hasn't been doing...

10-9 Balbi

78-74 Balbi

 

Lederman has it 79-73 Balbi.

 

Round 9

Dorin is staying home with that big twister left hook, and occasionally surprising Balbi with it when it connects flusher than usual (typically when Balbi has gotten over-eager with the length of his flurries), but in the spaces between contact with the hook Dorin is getting lit up. Dorin finally has Balbi visibly hurt with under a minute left, to a degree where the crowd and commentators (and ref, by his body language) all believed that Balbi might go down. Balbi able to see his way through, however.

10-9 Dorin

87-84 Balbi

 

Round 10

Dorin is chucking desperately now, big shot-put rights up top and left hooks downstairs. A big specimen of the latter strays too far south of the border, and Dorin is docked a point. Balbi caught as soon as they resume action with another hook below the belt. Stern warning on Dorin, whose face is now a crimson mask. Balbi slips a Dorin lead right and shreds him with jabs even as Dorin bull-rushes him into the ropes and smacks him across the jaw with a chopping left hook. Balbi dances his way outside and plants a hard left hooker-cut into the ribs of Dorin from outside the latter's punching range. Balbi flurries in and clinches. Dorin only able to land on the back of the neck as Balbi presses in close.

10-8 Balbi

97-92 Balbi

 

Lederman has it 97-92 Balbi, scoring the ninth even, 9-9 (10-9 for Dorin, with a point subtracted for the foul)

 

"If he just had a little more power..." says Jim Lampley. Amen. Story of Dorin's career.

 

Round 11

Dorin is forcing a rugged bout of infighting, plugging him with short rights and left hooks on the mandible and shoeshines on the body. Counter uppercuts from Balbi effective, but less so than in earlier rounds. They each hurt the other at various points in this frame, as both display signs of extreme tiredness. Dorin outworking Balbi, although perhaps finding very little real quality (and even less that's conventionally pretty). Dorin closes it out with a couple of hard jabs lumped onto Balbi's nose in the final twenty seconds.

10-9 Dorin

106-102 Balbi

 

Round 12

Dorin pumps out a double jab, and while slipping it Balbi gets his noggin wedged in the challenger's armpit. Hot mess, this, now, the referee having a hard time maintaining order. They clang together repeatedly and both get in some incidental fouls, unseen or unremarked on. Dorin reaches up high with an overhand right, skimming the neck of Balbi. Reach-around hooks on the body with both hands from Balbi. Dorin keeps advancing, sending those rights whistling upward. Balbi tries meeting him with counter 1-2s head-on, but has to retreat a few steps as Dorin just plows through. Hard right hook in the pocket from Balbi while turning Dorin. Another climbing right from Dorin finds the mark, and now Balbi holds. A few more rights by Dorin, now very disorganized, missing badly. Balbi with a hooking combo just before the bell, not very hard and partially blocked.

10-9 Balbi, super close

116-111 Balbi

 

Good shit, cheers @Drew101 - although you've got me a little misty-eyed in remembrance of what a great product HBO Boxing was at its best.

 

Lederman gave Dorin the championship rounds, and ends up with a 115-112 Balbi final score.

 

Official cards:

Ray Hawkins 115-112 Balbi
Duane Ford 114-113 Dorin (eh, not terrible..)
Gale Van Hoy 115-112

SD for Dorin

Oh wow. Good for The Lion, a good, honest pro ...but a hard pill to swallow for Pepe (who probably - IMO rightfully - felt he ought to have defended successfully).

 

Yeesh, and the rematch was in Bucharest? No wonder Pepe didn't regain his belts; failing to insist on a return to (at least ostensibly) neutral American soil was unwise.