the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Park was phenomenal in that fight, genuinly the greatest Flyweight performance ever IMO

 

I've always thought Park vs Canto was a truly great chessmatch.You can really see them both thinking in there.

Canto was definitely past his peak physically and so the speed edge meant a lot, in the face of diminished activity levels and sharpness, but i'm not sure i agree he was significantly eroded timing-wise.

I didn't see much sloppyness or diminished integration between hand eye co-ordination and foot balance when punching.He wasn't falling in trying to lead, unable to keep his shots as tight as usual etc

Id put where he was in his career as similar to how laguna looked in his fights with Ramos to Buchanan, as opposed to his Ortiz level absolute peak.Canto, like lAguna was still more or less great imo, albeit at that same stage where he was going to start falling away seriously within a couple of years and a few more tough fights.

Part of what bothered him against Park imo was that he had got into a long comfort zone of fights where he was able to operate out of that backfoot matador comfort-zone that he was so good at.Playing the make them miss and make them pay card against fighters who were happy to lead regularly and stalk...thus allowing the great footwork of Canto to dictate things.

Park was the first fighter in ages who refused to do that and initiated a chessmatch at ring centre, with lots of feinting and an eye for being the one to make canto miss and counter.The speed and activity advantage gave him a comfort zone, but he did also straight outbox and outjab Miguel for good chunks of the first 12 rounds.That was what endeared the performance to me, i wouldn't like it as much if it was won 80-90% by pure speed\physical advantages and Park firing out loads of overwhelming partially landed combos without much creativity

.Park had the comfort zone, but it was more a more physically even technical fight than some of the other "defensive specialist gets beat by outside range\speed\activity" bouts like Hearns vs Benitez and Perez vs Lora

Well maybe arguably not Hearns vs Benitez, as Wilfred was physically impressive at 154 and not faded...he just didn't seem to care enough.

It's a shame Canto got shafted in the let-down rematch, as i think he could have still made another few defences, like Cervantes did after he regained the title post-Benitez.Maybe pick up a few strong wins against favourable styles for an old craftsman, like a not quite prime Laciar, Tae-Shik Kim, Magri etc..

 

Maybe not 80-90%, but there was a lot of that going on, I thought (although I wouldn't say his combos lacked creativity). That's what gave him the significant edge in the fight.

I agree with you that Canto wasn't nearly as far gone as people make out, though. I don't think he looked bad, to be honest. Excellent fight with a clear winner. Park at his best would've likely always taken that fight.

 

Yeah, don't get me wrong, it was a clear factor and park had a comfort zone throughout because of it.Just overall i'd put the fight in the technical chessmatch category, from both fighters perspective.

I'm probably just looking into it too much.Nobody has said it was a Pea vs Hurtado equivalent or anything like that, that fight being probably one of the definitive examples of an older, faded slower technician struggling with awkward speed.

 

Quality post lora. As I said, not seen the rematch; how does it go down and is it down to one of Park's lethargic showings (party-fuelled I imagine)?

 

Canto fought with more vigour and park wasn't as sharp.Plus he faded badly\mentally crumbled.I've heard he actually wanted to retire on his stool late in the fight, with the corner only just convincing him to fight on.

 

Both these guys were flawed as you say, but a couple of my favorites from the 80's. This is a good scrap. I always thought of it as a poor man's Monzon vs Valdez.

 

Today I watched Valdez-Briscoe III.

They should have been satisfied with two. This was an awful fight, devoid of any of the scintillating action of the second fight (I haven't seen the first). Briscoe looked slow and tame, which allowed the quicker-handed Valdez to throw combinations almost at will. It resembled a sparring match more than anything, and was not competitive. I had Valdez winning 13-1-1.

 

Chacon vs Lopez.

Whilst Chacon's style makes for a great fight, he really isn't the most skillful of boxers.

His jab is good and he is quite adept at getting leverage on his punches. But you cannot defend with your chin! Ok, that's exactly what chacon did here and he did so succesfully but that's not the point, or is it?

Chacon clearly would give a lot of fighter's a tough night but if you were to make any sort of judgement on him based off film, other than "hits hard and is formidable" there isn't much to say.

Guy had a great career (barring a strange hiatus from world class competiton) and whilst he does look formidable, he certainly doesn't look like a world class fighter to me. Maybe on the level of say Marcel cerdan? or a Basilio.

Don't get me wrong, these actually are world class fighters compared to the majority, just not their peers in the HOF.

Anyways, if anyone can decipher that babble and has seen the fight, it was a classic!

 

Hold on...Chacon really isn't all that great anyway. What he was good at was fighting off the ropes, absorbing punishment and powering his way back into fights.

He wasn't all that, not compared to someone like Basilio. Have you seen Chacon-Limon IV? Chacon certainly had two phases to his career, as I said when I made the suggestions what you'd think to be his physical prime wasn't because of his lifestyle and struggles with the weight, and up at a higher weight and shopworn he put on the best showings of his career.

A hard fighter to judge. But nearly always in great fights and owner of some quality scalps. Even if I do think he lost the 2nd Boza fight pretty clearly.

 

But yeah great fight especially whe you consider he's gunslinging with arguably the hardest puncher in featherweight history. He busts Lopez up!

 

Been ages since i watched it, but i remember Chacon boxing very well against Lopez.Good footwork and super accurate lead rights.

I agree he was never a great talent, though at 126 he was usually a pretty nice boxer-puncher when he showed up in shape.then the wars started...