Simpiwe Vetyeka vs. Nonito Donaire RBR

If by "assumed win", you mean "attempted murder", that would indeed accurately describe what happened in Tyson vs Marvis

 

I scored the co-main event for Walters through 4 rounds, 2-2 rounds, 38-37 points, giving Darchinyan the 1st and 3rd rounds, and giving Walters the 2nd round 10-8 for the knockdown. In the 1st, Walters threw a few weak jabs then a few straight rights, then Darchinyan was the aggressor for most of the round by periodically lunging in with mostly straight rights but a few times with straight lefts, then the last 10 seconds of the round was a toe-to-toe exchange with no definitive shots landed. In the 2nd, Walters threw 2-3 weak jabs, Darchinyan threw 3-4 awkward lunging straight lefts, then Walters landed a left-right combo to the head; with about 1 minute left in the round, Walters landed a solid flash right uppercut that put Darchinyan on his butt for a knockdown, then Darchinyan subsequently responded by throwing 5 straight lefts without really connecting. In the 3rd, Walters early on landed a right uppercut to the body, Darchinyan landed a straight left, Walters landed a left hook to the body, then Darchinyan was the aggressor for most of the rest of the round, mostly lunging in with straight rights, occasionally with straight lefts; Walters threw a few counter rights, and rarely initiated exchanges with straight rights that mostly missed wildly. In the first part of the 4th, Walters started moving forward, landed a straight right to the head, then two rights to the body, then a chopping overhand right to the head; Darchinyan landed two straight lefts to the head and one to the body, then Walters landed a right to the body, then Darchinyan landed a left to the body and subsequently missed with several straight lefts.

Walters opened the 5th with a weak double jab then a right to the body, then badly missed a right-left combo, Darchinyan half-landed a straight left, Walters landed an uppercut then a left-right combo to the head, Darchinyan half-landed a straight left. Walters then landed a huge left hook to the head that visibly rocked Darchinyan [the commentator immediately said the fight was (effectively) over], then followed with a left to the head, left to the body, and a right to the head that knocked down Darchinyan. Darchinyan beat the count but was now clearly out on his feet; Walters landed a left to the head, Darchinyan desperately tried to tie up Walters, but Walters threw 2-3 grazing shots to the head, then landed a crushing left hook to the chin that landed Darchinyan flat on his back for the second knockdown of the round. The fight was immediately waved off without a count, and Darchinyan stayed down for a few minutes.

The pre-fight tale of the tape gave Walters a small height advantage (5'7” to 5'6”, though the difference seemed larger than that), and a very large reach advantage (73” to 64 1/2&#8221. I expected Walters to respect Darchinyan's power, and use his reach to establish his jab and keep his distance. Most of the fight was indeed fought at distance, but Walters only rarely threw jabs, which never seemed effective. That said, Darchinyan was never able to get in close on Walters to pressure him, instead he relied on lunging in with straight punches. Walters kept a wide stance with his hands up, and he was able to ward off most of Darchinyan's punches or make him miss, but he only rarely effectively counterpunched Darchinyan. Except for the knockdown in the 2nd round, neither fighter really landed much of consequence until Walters landed that huge left hook to the head in the 5th that led to the end of the fight two knockdowns later. Walters impressed me with his defense, and with his power shots in the 5th round. This is the best win of his career so far, especially since Darchinyan was coming off the Donaire rematch, which he had dominated for the first 8 rounds of that fight. That said, Darchinyan is quite small for a featherweight, and is nearing the end of his career, so I don't think this fight tells us much about how Walters would fare against the elites of the featherweight division.

 

I'm guessing 10-10. Vetyeka took either the 1st or 2nd, and with the extra point for KD it's 49-46. I had it 48-47 Donaire.

 

Luis Pabon is the same guy who turned in that abomination of a performance with Klitschko/Povetkin. He's from Puerto Rico, but he always seems to show up in big international fights. And without fail, he manages a way to screw things up. He's the Puerto Rican version of Laurence Cole.