He's wilting now yeah (raging against the dying of a light, but wilting nonetheless) but they were 50-50 in the opening few rounds..
Round 1 Mthalane 10-9, close Round 2 Kuroda 10-9, close Round 3 Mthalane 10-9, very close Round 4 Mthalane 10-9, close Round 5 Mthalane 10-9 Round 6 Kuroda 10-9, close
Mthalane in a rhythm now, got his mojo rising, has that jab polished up nice, thing of beauty. 58-56 Mthalane (but still Kuroda with some HEAVY attacks, getting the crowd on its feet, courageously wading into the fray even if very little is landing)
Round 1: 10-9 Mthalane close Round 2: 10-9 Kuroda close Round 3: 10-9 Kuroda close Round 4: 10-9 Kuroda close Round 5: 10-9 Mthalane Round 6: 10-9 Mthalane close
It was electrifying to see him react to all that encouragement from the crowd, and he may have "SRL'ed" it on the judges' cards (especially factoring in the crowd noise) but very little of that got through effectively, Mthalane was in stingy armadillo mode and had banked enough quality work in the first 2.5 minutes IMO..
Round 1 Mthalane 10-9, close Round 2 Kuroda 10-9, close Round 3 Mthalane 10-9, very close Round 4 Mthalane 10-9, close Round 5 Mthalane 10-9 Round 6 Kuroda 10-9, close Round 7 Mthalane 10-9
Round 1: 10-9 Mthalane close Round 2: 10-9 Kuroda close Round 3: 10-9 Kuroda close Round 4: 10-9 Kuroda close Round 5: 10-9 Mthalane Round 6: 10-9 Mthalane close Round 7: 10-9 Mthalane Kuroda still busy, but not landing anything of notice, most of his shots landing on Mthalanes gloves or forearms. Mthalane much cleaner work.
4-3 Kuroda. His face is swelling and he struggled through parts of round 7, still having moments through. Both eyes a mess
Actually really clever what Masayuki's doing, saving these awesome surges for the last half-minute before the bell to sway impressions...
Agree with that assessment of it 100% but I think he definitely has a good chance of banking that round on the judges’ cards. Will be interesting to see afterwards