Anyone seen it? Ive been waiting on a copy but it seems like it aint coming. Could someone give me a rundown of this fight please.
I have the fight somewhere, but haven't watched it in a while. I'll see if I can watch it this week and give a more detailed summary of it. What I can say from memory is that it was a close fight, with a surprising lack of action, and the champion and aggressor, Vasquez, was basically given the benefit of the doubt it seemed. It seemed like both guys might be showing their years in this fight. The result, even though disputed, came as a surprise to a lot of people, as Canizales was very highly regarded at this time and a lot of people picked him to win. It seemed he faded away after this - he was outboxed clearly by Jr. Jones not too long afterward (in a much more spirited fight) and that's the last I ever heard of him I think.
Just watched the fight again last night. While I was right in saying it was a lackluster-ish fight, I do believe Canizales was robbed. I had him sweeping every round from 6 until the end, with maybe one close round. The early rounds were close, with Vasquez pressing and lading the harder (but less frequent) punches, but Canizales appeared to take control in the middle rounds and dictate it until the end. In the last 2 or 3 rounds, Vasquez didn't even try to press the fight and was content to just back away. Harold Letterman scored the fight 116-112 for Canizales. The commentators thought the fight was a bit closer than that, but still had Canizales winning by at least a couple of points. One of the judges scored for Canizales 117-113, but the other two gave it to Vasquez by very slim margins. There was something strange about the way both corners were acting about the decision, as if they knew something was up. Moments before the decision was read, Vasquez's corner starting jumping up and down elatedly, lifting their fighter in the air, as if they'd somehow gotten word that the decision was their's. Conversely, Canizales' corner seemed very worried about going to the cards all through the fight, and they kept pressing their man to pick up the pace even after rounds he looked to have clearly won.
