I just watched the Sentana Sports version of the Kessler-Calzaghe fight on DVD. Goodness, now I really know that HBO is up Calzaghe's *$$! They somehow managed to score it 118-110! Even two of the ringside judges (who in Europe tend to give the home figter the benefit of the doubt/be biased - see Abraham-Miranda or anything by Ottke for that) gave the fight 116-112. The British commentators scored it 116-113 (as did I) and 116-112. Also notice that most americans say Kessler was OUTCLASSED - while the british commentators actually said Kessler was winning about halfway through the 8'th. One thing's for sure - if Kessler had landed 1-2 more hard shots in the 8'th or 9'th round (or avoided that bodyshot in the eigth) things might have gone altogether the other way. A couple of punches really can make a difference!
It was a competitive fight and the official scores reflected that. How HBO gave JC 10 rounds is anyone's guess. The fight was even up until about halfway and when Joe changed tactics it was his show, but Kessler was still dangerous throughout.
Kessler took too many rounds off. Calzaghe has a way to manipulate the rounds by bouncing back and forth and attempting to mock his opponent. Always getting hit in the process, but I think his attempt at the Roy Jones type flash kind of makes some forget that he gets punched when HE does it.
nah Kessler didnt take too many rounds off, Calzaghe made him take the rounds off!! Kessler didnt get outclassed inthis fight, by a long way, but in the end it was just Calzaghe's workrate and energy that prevailed. I scored it 116 - 113 on that fantastic night, just hope joe can do it again come April 19th
If ten rounds are close, but all are won by one fighter, the score may look like a landslide when it was a close fight. Some inherent limitations have to exist in any scoring system. Enough of that "European judges" stuff! Hill won the first fight over Maske when it was really too close to score, Eubank got a gift draw in Berlin, Rocchigiani's hometown, Dariusz lost at home against Gonzales, missing out on his opportunity to match Marciano's record (fair loss, but a corrupt scoring system would have given him the win) Sturm just scored a draw in his previous fight which he could have won, Huck was behind on the scorecards against Cunningham (again, fair scoring, but a corrupt system would have had him ahead).....there are some bad decisions everywhere, but to use Calzaghe - Kessler, were the better guy won as some kind of proof that all fights in Europe are scored by biased judges is going a little too far. It was a few points off, so what? Never happens in the US, I am sure...
thank you man, the European judges stuff is just pure B.S., i'm just worried about the yank judges on April 19th, i can really see Joe being robbed on a S/D for some reason
That sounds exactly right to me. 2, 4, and 12. That's all. Watching it live, I thought Joe was gonna overwhelm him and stop him in the 3rd.
I wasn't using it as "proof" that European judges are biased, just to say that you would usually expect the (supposedly neutral) HBO be more accurate than the ringside judges when there are 50000 home fans screaming at them.
116-112 for me as well... it's wasn't terribly hard to score. In the beginning there were some close rounds then Calzaghe started dominating. Kessler had a great 12th as Calzaghe didn't give a f* on playing it safe and Mikkel landed some great punches... Ironically, it seemed that the last punch of the fight stunned Joe but it was too little too late...
I agreed with the British broadcast (who gave Kessler rd 7) that Kessler maybe only landed 4 solid shots in that rd but they were HUGE shots. Why Kessler didn't follow up (same in rd 8) when Calzaghe was clearly hurt I don't know. I think Calzaghe managed to make him spend too much energy throwing "full" punches in a attempt to match Calzaghes arm punches in the early rounds and wore him out.
How could Calzaghe be "dominating" if he never had Kessler in trouble (except momentarily in the 8'th rd where he screwed it up by rabbit punching). He "touched" Kessler a lot but they weren't really hurting him. Whenever Kessler landed his right Calzaghe slowed down for a minute afterwards.
ive never seen the HBO version but i pretty much agreed with the British commentators. It was a good competitive match, with Calzaghe being the clear winner. Which is how the officials scored it.
They were hurting Kessler as kessler was very worried about getting countered and he was MADE to be tame. Kessler did not have the heart to beat Calzaghe. Every time Calzaghe scored with a slap it made Kessler start all over again and reset his offense. Any other fighter with a good straight right like Kessler would gladly trade slap for punch. Or at least give it a try. Calzaghe was landing clean shots but by far not hurtful shots. Thats why Kessler is a SOFT fighter to me.