the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Saen Sor Ploechit UD12 Yong Kang Kim

This is one of these weird, strange nights that only far Eastern boxing can kick up...

Kim, a former champion, is Saen Sor's third defence of his WBA flyweight strap (he would rack up an impressive nine) and it was made in front of 50,000 boiling fans who go nuts every time Saen Sor misses a punch. And he misses a few.

Round 8 sums up these guys well, Kim comes out and he's shucking and jiving all over the place, moving forwards loads of head movement, dipping in and out but he just forgets to throw punches. He looks like a pressure fighter that just isn't throwing punches. And Saen Sor is all small moves, flash footwork, but he's not making angles for punches so much as moving and gliding about, a moving box-puncher without any cohesion. They look like fighters who turned up to their gyms as kids with pre-conceived notions on how they are going to box, but instead of having these ideas beaten out of them, they somehow are carried to titles and great glory on the back of these unfulfilled styles.

For the purposes of this fight though, it bodes quite well, as they both just end up stood in front of each other flinging leather back and forth. Saen Sor Ploenchit has the faster hands, throws more, and misses more, but Kim definitely has his moments (shame there aren't more of them as his name is easier to type) and his body-punching is clearly superior.

The legend has it that Saen Sor was winning even the first round when he was flashed, before going on to pretty much win every other round. Boxrec: "Over 50,000 fans turn out for free boxing event. Slick boxer/puncher champion dominates Round 1 only to go down.The rest of the fight saw the Thai easily outbox the former world champion Kim."

Firstly, Saen Sor really isn't that slick. Secondly, this was a closeish fight. I had them even going into the 8th round, I don't think it was easy for Saen Sor to outbox Kim at all. He definitely put his foot down in the final third though, and I may have been generous in giving Kin the 12th.

Somewhere in amongst the fouls and the strangeness (Kim does an impersonation of Roy Jones in the 8th, squatting low with both hands raised, showing them to Saen Sor, who watched him respectfully for a moment before realising he wasn't going to do anything, and punched him in the shoulder) a good-tempered and entertaining fight broke out. I enjoyed it and will probably upload it at a later date if anyone wants a look.

My card read 115-112 for Saen Sor Ploenchit.

 

Jose Bonilla UD12 Saen Sor Ploechit

This is the end of Ploechit's WBA fly reign, Bonilla just slightly better on my card though I do believe it could have gone the other way. Bonilla is a rare sort of flyweight, stocky with short arms, there's no real stretch to him and he's very short of range here. He makes a lovely adjustment though, and although he continues to box Ploechit going away he makes sure to throw a LOT of punches whenever the two are in close, which is often. This ploy allows him to take advantage of Ploechit's general are of disorganisation and inaccuracy. He missed a lot of punches although I thought he actually looks better here than he did against Kim.

Anyway, once they settle down they throw in a right ding-dong, Saen Sor hoping that the volume and his slender superiority in out-boxing will get him there, and it looks like it might as Bonilla starts to fade just a tiny bit down the stretch letting him back into a fight he was steadily being shut out of. Entertaining if not electrifying stuff.

Wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of Bonilla, limited but smart fighter, he throws this short little jab into the mix whenever he is combination punching and I just had a sense that it was purely for the judges benefit as it rocked Ploechit's head back without doing any real damage. He threw it going away occasionally too.

SAEN SOR PLOECHIT: 1,2,3,9,11
JOSE BONILLA: 4,5,6,7,8,10,12

7-5 BONILLA

 

Sergio Martinez TKO11 Matthew Macklin

Sergio's waiting style cost him early here as Macklin refused to be psychologically bullied. It was an interesting reversal in fact, and I think that Martinez felt the pressure to get going a bit at first, his boxing was certainly dis-jointed through 5 at which point he started to set down on his attacks a little bit and come looking for Macklin. Nothing dramatic, he just stopped waiting. Still, his tactics remained a little underwhelming, and even if Steward was quite right to say, after the stoppage, that Martinez had adjusted and broken down Macklin. It's true that Martinez's connect rate went through the absolute roof once he had Macklin pegged and he also totally dominated once Macklin started to struggle.

Fair play to Macklin, he made it interesting, loved his early stance and shot selection, I didn't like McGirt's advice in the corner, Macklin should have stepped out more rather than put pressure on with head movement - fighters always forget the head movement part when they get tired. More psychological pressure on Martinez would have been just fine, and he wouldn't have inevitably have fallen into the role of the rat to Sergio's Pied Piper. Still Martinez hypontises fighters, in the same way Jones did, even if those comparisons are overstated.

I'm very interested to see what Martinez does next.

I had Martinez four points ahead at the time of the stoppage, but I had them even going into the tenth. Dual knock-downs in the eleventh made the card wider, but Martinez had this fight nailed down anyway.

 

I agree. I had the same card, last time, I think, but I scored it a draw on the night.