Just rewatched Moorer vs Botha fight. I remember I didn't find it competetive when I was watching it for the first time. Now I decided to rewatch it scoring the rounds in the process. Round 1. Moorer controls the action with his jab for the first 2 minutes of the round, but Botha lands 3 good right hand punches on the last minute one of which rocks Moorer. Round for Botha Scoring after 1 round: Moorer 9-10 Botha Round 2. Moorer’s jab works really well, he also landed some nice body punches. Clear round for Moorer Scoring after 2 rounds: Moorer 19-19 Botha Round 3. Moorer controls the action again then catches Botha with a crisp right counter that hurts South African. Moorer tries to finish Botha, who is in huge troubles. Botha shows his toughness, barely surviving the round. Dominant round for Moorer Scoring after 3 rounds: Moorer 29-28 Botha Round 4. Moorer rocks Botha again at the beginning of the round. Botha regroups and landed a cople of good body shots at the middle of the round but immediately gets caught with a straight left hand to the head from Moorer. Michael controls the last minute of the round. Clear round for Moorer Scoring after 4 rounds: Moorer 39-37 Botha Round 5. Botha lands a couple of good right hands, but gets hit much more in return. Moorer mixes pucnes to the head and body really well and lands three good uppercuts to the head – two right uppercuts and one left. Clear round for Moorer Scoring after 5 rounds: Moorer 49-46 Botha Round 6. Moorer lands nice left hand to the chin of Botha at the beginning of the round. Moorer continues to outwork Botha for the first half of the round with a hard right jab and crisp combos. Botha wakes up at the mid of the round with a right uppercut to the body then lands right uppercut to the head. Moorer lands a couple of crisp punches at the last minute of the round. Difference in skills and ring generalship between Moorer and Botha looks huge. Round for Moorer Scoring after 6 rounds: Moorer 59-55 Botha Round 7. Very good round for Botha – he throws and lands a lot of right hands to the head, although he can’t hurt Moorer with them. Moorer lands some crisp punches at the last 30 seconds of the round but it’s not enough to steal round for him. Clear round for Botha – it’s his best round of the fight so far Scoring after 7 rounds: Moorer 68-65 Botha Round 8. Botha got tired in the round 7, Moorer controls the action in the first two minute of the round 8 then explodes with right-left combo that hurts Botha. Botha comes back with two good right hands to the head of Moorer. Michael lands nice punches at the end of the round. Clear round for Moorer Scoring after 8 rounds: Moorer 78-74 Botha Round 9. Moorer lands good combo on the ropes then catches Botha with a hard right jab to the chin. Botha looks exhausted. Two rights and one left hook to the chin hurts Botha at the last minute of the round. Moorer pummels Botha at the ropes but can’t take him away. Great display of heart by Botha, he even manages to land a couple of right hands to the head of Moorer late in the round. Moorer catches him with very crisp counter right hook , then lands good 1-2. Dominant round from Moorer Scoring after 9 rounds: Moorer 88-83 Botha Round 10. Botha catches Moorer with a right hand to the head but immediately gest caught by a left hand to the chin in return. Cood combo by Moorer with Botha being on the ropes, but Botha returns with a good left hook to the body and right hand to the head. Left from the Moorer and right from the Botha in the middle of the ring. Close first half of the round but Moorer outworks and outlands Botha in the second one. Hard right jab from Moorer rocks Botha in the middl of the ring at the last minute of the round. Botha looks deadly tired and gets battered on the ropes at the end of the round. Clear round for Moorer Scoring after 10 rounds: Moorer 98-92 Botha Round 11. Moorer dominates the round then knocks Botha down hard with two right hooks to the head. Botha gets up but Moorer drops him again, and again by two right hooks to the head. Botha is saved by the bell, but he is badly hurt. 10-7 round for Moorer Scoring after 11 rounds: Moorer 108-99 Botha Round 12. Mills Lane stops the fight with Moorer pummeling hurt Botha on the ropes – TKO12 Conclusion: fight was nowhere near as competetive as some people claim. Jim Watt had Moorer winning 110-98 after 11 rounds. He scored all the rounds for Moorer except of round 7 which he scored 10-10. I scored 9 rounds for Moorer and 2 rounds for Botha (plus 2 knockdowns for Moorer). Fights against Axel Shulz and Vaughn Bean were MUCH, MUCH harder for Moorer. Botha displayed a huge heart but nothing else in this fight
I agree. The Axel Shulz fight was way closer. I had Moorer winning that one but just barely. I thought Shulz beat Both Foreman and Botha. I really thought Moorer was going to beat Holyfield again whe they had the rematch after the Tyson fights. Man was I wrong.
I remember giving a couple rounds to Botha, tho I weight grunting in my scoring system. If memory serves, Moorer suffered broken ribs and a broken or dislocated jaw in the fight.
