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

Round 6

Balbi tries in vain to establish his jab at mid-range, as Dorin slaps on his earmuffs and launches himself in close, usually skating past the jab and clobbering Balbi with both hands raining down from on high once inside. Balbi switches tacks, planting his feet and leaning into Dorin so he can leverage his own big hooks on the body. Once the arms come down, Balbi gets off with long straight flurries on the face. Dorin is pushing Balbi out to a middle distance and then chasing him with the overhand right, usually connecting before the challenger is able to set his feet.

10-9 Dorin, closer

59-55 Dorin

 

Halfway checkpoint: while lacking quite the same crackling electric feel as their Freeman Coliseum meeting, this one is well worth watching for fans of the first fight.

 

Round 7

Dorin swarming and rowing out those high overhands. Balbi can do naught but hold, and now is getting physically overpowered in the clinch, Dorin just never giving himself a moment's rest, driving Balbi against the ropes while flapping his freer hand (whichever it may be) into Balbi's sides. A few straight combos when the ref orders breaks, yet Balbi can find nothing in his arsenal to hold Dorin off, and no longer has the legs to simply avoid him. Get hit, or hold, those are the options.

10-9 Dorin

69-64 Dorin

 

Round 8

Balbi receives a warning for grabbing and yanking Dorin close, which results in a few head clashes. Ref sounds a bit miffed about it. Dorin with some home run swings up top with the right, but fanning. Dorin rushes into a check hook that grazes his pate (mostly Balbi's forearm scrubbing against it, more than his fist). Dorin then repeats the rush-in, and now gets clocked with a left upper-hook and right cross, which causes him to stagger off-balance and fall away to his left, ultimately landing on all fours (both gloves and one knee down). Inexplicably, the ref decides to rule it a slip. The commentators - again, very pro-Dorin - are incredulous, saying that unequivocally should have been a knockdown. Balbi keeps tagging Dorin with counter hooks and looping rights as the champ puts his face parallel with the canvas and comes flying in, letting go with nonstop (but telegraphed and light) hooks, mostly hitting Balbi's arms while pressing him into the ropes.

10-9 Balbi (robbed of a 10-8, kind of crazy... really hard call to bungle, it was a straightforward KD)

78-74 Dorin

 

Round 9

Balbi slugging it out with Dorin now, obliging him in the middle of the ring, but landing a bit more regularly as Dorin seems to have cobwebs from that exhausting and raucous eighth, and is missing point blank head shots without Balbi needing to use all that much upper body movement. Balbi drubs him into the ropes with a 1-2 and then sort of pelvis-bucks him in the face as Dorin gets entangled in & then falls between the middle set of ropes, causing Dorin to exit the ring from past his ankles, pulled in by the ref. Dorin winds up on big fat hooks as Balbi drills him with straight counters. Workrate still there for Dorin, just not any tidiness.

10-9 Balbi

87-84 Balbi

 

Round 10

Dorin uses his shoulders & head like a battering ram into the abdomen of Balbi, keeping him pinned helplessly on the ropes and whacking the body furiously. Dorin not doing any damage with his offensive bursts downstairs, but is keeping Balbi from retaliating as he's too preoccupied with figuring out how to get free (alternately trying clinches or flurries darting away from the ropes after bouncing his back off them, neither really working).

10-9 Dorin

97-93 Dorin

 

Round 11

Balbi hacks above Dorin's ears with either fist while backing up. Dorin rolling in with overhand rights, staying bent over from their momentum and dragging some left hooks against Balbi's stomach, and then flipping both hands up into Balbi's face to back him up and start the whole process over again. Dorin busier, and making at least glancing contact with a fair number of those headhunting overhand rights in pursuit. Balbi fakes a right hand lead and instead pumps a triple jab into Dorin's chin, landing two, but splaying his legs at an awkward angle and losing his balance on the third, just as Dorin steps in and slaps him with a light hook. The seat of Balbi's trunks ends up on the canvas, and the ref gives him a count?!?!? THAT was a ruled a KD, but the one from Balbi on Dorin earlier wasn't??? Balbi looks distraught that he's being screwed with a two-point swing but doesn't want to argue with the official and get himself disqualified. Bell rings shortly after he "beats" the count.

10-8 Dorin

107-101 Dorin

 

Round 12

Balbi gets the left jab flowing, trying to take the play away from Dorin before he can build up a head of steam with those body-threshing rhinoceros charges. Balbi hooker-cutting off the jab at mid-range, catching Dorin flush with it, but Dorin bounces on his toes in erratic patterns and jumps in with a stiff up-jab on the mouth. Balbi ties up. Gazelle hook from Balbi, sidestepped as Dorin gathers him into another clinch. Messy stuff in the final minute. Dorin whacks Balbi downward across the back of the head with a hook and then gets his own head wedged in Balbi's right armpit. They jerk violently in the clinch, tussling until the final bell.

10-9 Dorin, super close

117-110 Dorin

 

Swapping the calls on those knockdowns (giving Balbi credit for the real one, and subtracting the fake one in favor of Dorin) would still allow Dorin to retain the belt on my card, by a score of 115-112. So they're kinda moot...but also - wtf, John Coyle! Not a great day at the office..

 

Official scorecards:

Mikael Hook "from Sweden" 118-111
Medardo Villalobos "from Panama" 117-112
Stanley Christodoulou "from S Africa" 118-111

UD for Dorin, crowd goes wild.

 

Yeah...after reviewing it a couple of times, I wouldn't have a huge problem with the KD for Dorin, had the ref not blanked on the KD for Balbi.

Still not entirely sure Balbi doesn't go down anyway without the hook being present...whereas Dorin was indubitably down as the result of a punch.

 

19yr anniversary of the first Dorin vs. Balbi meeting, today.