The Kid Gavilan Appreciation Thread

The Basilio fight was a one round either way affair IMO. Seems he had a rugh few decisions then.

Redrooster

I watched the 3rd Graham fight yesterday and thought Gavilan got it slightly

 

My research on Gavilan vs Olsen

Gavilan waited patiently in the ring for Olsen, as Welterweight champion he was not used to being first in the ring but tonight he was attempting to annex the Middleweight title. Ray Robinson previously had had won both the Welterweight and Middleweight title and Gavilan looked to follow in the footsteps of his old foe.

Olsen arrived in the ring; the balding 26 year old looked much older than his allotted years but was nevertheless a tough and worthy champion. He was a steady aggressive technician with a highly unusual but effective defence christened the ‘Olsen Crab’. He had won the coveted Middleweight belt with a knockout over Britain’s Randolph Turpin. This was a champion not about to give up his laurels.

As Olsen entered the ring he approached Gavilan holding a Hawaiian Lei and placed it around the neck of his opponent, to the disgust of ‘The Keed’ who looked ready to start the bout there and then!

Olsen was the 11/5 favourite, the punters and pundits thought his added weight and aggressive style would overcome Gavilan’s superior skill set and flashier style. Rumours also abounded about Gavilan having hurt his right hand in a tune up bout against Johnny Cunningham on the 23rd of February, but had since scored a 10 round decision over Livio Minelli. But Gavilan assured fans it would not hinder ‘The Cuban Hawk’.

The bout started cagily as both men looked to feel the other out with long probing shots. Gavilan, weighing surprisingly heavy at 155lbs, back pedalled away from the crouching and advancing Olsen, 159 ½ lbs. Honours were even as both men were tame.

The second was more of the same but both men started to land more as Gavilan was landing hard jabs and left hooks whilst Bobo was landing his right hand leads to the head of Gavilan. The pace had picked up but the bout was still in its infancy.

After the reconnaissance reports had come back and been reviewed by both men it was Gavilan who spryly stamped his control on the fight as he led his opponent on to hard lefts before moving off again, in the 4th a hard left hook from the ‘Hawk’ buzzed Olsen momentarily as Gavilan put the early rounds in the bag.

The tide changed as Olsen upped his work rate and started to out land the Cuban 3 to 1 as he backed him up with sneaky rights. Olsen was smartly feinting his left and throwing right leads which were landing. However Olsen was going against what many thought he would do, as he worked the head of Gavilan instead of the body. The fight kept this pattern although some rounds were closer than the others.

In the 10th Gavilan sensed the fight heading away from him so he came out more aggressively and began to trade with the bigger Olsen. Gavilan’s faster left hands were troubling Olsen and was forcing Olsen to hold on to escape the avalanche of the Cuban’s ‘missiles’ although Bobo’s right hands were landing he could not keep up with the intensity of the Hawk’s new found impetus. The savagery of the round had the crowd on its feet in appreciation of the action.
After the sensational 10th Olsen again took control with his precise right hand and work rate as Gavilan went on the back foot behind his smoke screen of left hands. The 11th through to 14th were all Olsen’s.

Again sensing the tide turning against him Gavilan made a stand as once again he slugged it out with Olsen and as before was landing the harder and cleaner shots on the Middleweight champion. Olsen was once again forced to seek refuge by holding as Gavilan’s whipping left hands were beating Olsen’s straight rights. Rousing the crowd both men slugged it out to the final bell. The furious round caused the South East Missourian to remark that,

‘The 15th round, when he (Gavilan) threw all caution to the wind indicated Gavilan might have been able to chill Olsen if he had been the same two fisted buzzsaw all the way.’

Many at ringside were split with Associated Press having it 7-6-2 to Olsen; New York Daily New’s writer Gene Ward had it 8-5-2 to Gavilan; Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Jimmy Doyle had it 10-5 to Olsen. As you can gather it was a close bout (to some). The crowd cheered lustily for both men in gratitude for the heroic fight they had offered. People at home sat in awe in front of the television screens desperately waiting the result of the judges’ cards.

The result….. a majority decision……. To the winner………..and………….still Middleweight Champion: Carl’ Bobo’ Olsen.

Referee Weisman had scored it 147-141 OLSEN; Judge Hintz had it 144-144 EVEN and Judge O’Conner had it absurdly wide at 147-139 OLSEN. The crowd enthusiastically cheered the winner and loser alike, but there was no outrage at the scoring as it was a desperately close and ‘open to interpretation’ fight.

Sportswriters shrewdly observed that Gavilan had neglected the use of his right hand, but Gavilan ever the optimist shrugged it off saying,

‘Well, I think I can lick him with my left.’

But soon after it came to light that Gavilan’s right fist had been affected by the earlier injury caused in the bout with Cunningham. The reporters also praised Olsen’s work rate and clever tactics as he triumphed over ‘The Kid’. The Milwaukee Sentinel thought,

‘Olsen had patterned his fight perfectly against Kid Gavilan.’

Gavilan however, had failed in his attempt to become a two weight world champion and Olsen had successfully defended his title. Gavilan looked for a rematch but it never did come around and focused on his Welterweight title. Whereas Olsen soon lost his title to a ‘comebacking’ Ray Robinson.


For Primary coverage try here for many different views on the bout

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=gavilan+vs+olsen&cid=4297286578339844&scoring=a&sa=N&start=10

 

Seems the Olsen fight was a fair deal IMO

 

It does indeed, the volume of work Gavilan did at MW is very underappreciated.

How much of the Olsen bout is their on film?

ok

 

Suppose you would get a good idea of the bout

 

This seems to explain the scoring of the bout well

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...BAJ&pg=3447,4438929&dq=gavilan+vs+olsen&hl=en