the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Park was a 9-round (as opposed to 6) Zab Judah.

 

From what I've seen he never reached the heights of Canto I again.

lora, was he an Olivares-esque party animal? Not a particularly dedicated trainer? Or do you think he was bound to drop off after a tough schedule early on and reaching the absolute pinnacle (in ranking as well as performance) and being chucked in at the deep end after only a few fights? I.e 80s Davey Moore.

Oguma was such a battler, seems obvious he'd be a bad matchup for Park.

Their first fight was just pitiful. Park got slaughtered.

 

well, tomorrow is the second installment of my "taking off from work early, drinking beer and smoking weed" extraveganza! so far on my list is:

1) johnson-pastrano
2)chandler-carter
3)spinks-qawi

what else should i add to my list....

 

Oguma-Park III now uploaded to YouTube :yep

 

I didn't get the chance to rewatch Mayweather Cotto last night, but did just now. Here's my score & impressions from the fight:

Mayweather vs Cotto

Rd. 1 10-9 Mayweather.
Rd. 2 10-9 Mayweather.
Rd. 3 10-9 Cotto. It could have really gone either way, I almost called it a draw but gave Cotto the benefit of the doubt.
Rd. 4 10-9 Mayweather.
Rd. 5 10-9 Mayweather but a close round, could easily slide over to Cotto.
Rd. 6 10-9 Cotto. Big round for Cotto, won it clearly. Will talk about it more in notes below.
Rd. 7 10-9 Mayweather.
Rd. 8 10-9 Cotto. Easily his best round of the fight.
Rd. 9 10-9 Mayweather. Was tempted to score it for Cotto for a bit in the middle, but Mayweather started the round well and probably stole it in the last 20-30 seconds or so.
Rd. 10 10-9 Mayweather, but fairly close.
Rd. 11 10-9 Mayweather.
Rd. 12 10-9 Mayweather.

Final Score: 117-111 for Mayweather. There may be room to slide round 5 to Cotto or call round 3 a draw instead of a Cotto round, but the score really isn't going to change much beyond that. My first time watching the fight I didn't keep score, but in my head roughly had it as 8-3-1.

Random things I found interesting: Cotto used to be known for having a rather porous defense up the middle, but in his last few fights he'd tightened things up considerably. For me this was most evident in the Margarito II fight, where he was blocking a lot of punches that had slipped through and caused him problems in their first fight. Mayweather caught onto that right away and used his right as a hook that went around Cotto's gloves. When Cotto started moving his hands a little to the sides a little to block it better, Mayweather caught him up the middle with uppercuts. Good adjustments by Mayweather, being ready to beat Cotto either way.

Like many people I've felt that Mayweather had a weakness both in his reliance on just a few types of punches (straight right, left hook) and only throwing one or two at a time. That was not the case in this fight, where he showed better variety and combinations. He punched to the body in close, he carved Cotto up with uppercuts from both hands, and as mentioned he had a lot of success with the right hook.

In round 6, Cotto (probably unintentionally) used a strategy that I've advocated as being potentially useful against Mayweather: he scored points early in the round, hitting Mayweather enough to give him a definite edge with the judges, then he started dancing backward, forcing Mayweather to have to come to him in order for Floyd to win the round back. Floyd was a rather ineffective stalker against someone in a full boxing mode, and never landed anything that had a hope of taking the round away from Miguel. The next round though Floyd prevented anything like that from happening by immediately landing several blows and Cotto was pushed right back into the role of being the aggressor.

Cotto did at least two things to Mayweather that I don't remember anyone else doing to him. The first is that he managed to catch Mayweather with punches while Mayweather was going straight back. Mayweather threw his punches, started to step back to reset, and at least a few times Cotto caught him with a jab despite that. It reminded me slightly of Ali-Frazier I, where Ali was no longer fast enough to dodge punches all the time while going back, and would eat Frazier hooks as a result.

Second, Cotto outmaneuvered Mayweather at least once while Mayweather was doing the shoulder roll. With the two at the ropes, Cotto jabbed twice, Mayweather went to roll & lean backwards to avoid the expected right hand followup. Instead Cotto took a step over to the left and caught Mayweather flush with another jab as Mayweather's body began to come forward again. I've always felt that it was possible to hit Floyd with surprise punches and from surprise angles if you just moved a bit to the side while he did that, but this is the first time I remember it being done.

And by the way, I don't think Floyd has ever looked more vulnerable to guys with a sharp jab than he did in this fight.

Cotto also proved that you can get to Floyd's body if you're determined enough and willing to to risk the counterpunches.

The poster Outboxer has been a big fan of using uppercuts against Floyd, something I never thought would be all that effective. However, Cotto did manage a few short ones inside when they were close enough that Floyd went into a more typical stance. I was surprised to see it happen.

Floyd's stamina remains impressive, although it was obvious that he worked hard enough in the early and mid rounds that he didn't have everything in the later rounds. Regardless, he definitely outdid Cotto in that department, because he finished strong and probably cemented several late rounds by finishing strong in the last minute or so. One thing is for sure, nobody is going to be able to beat Floyd without being able to fight all 3 minutes of every round. Otherwise he'll finish strong and take the fight out of reach as he did here and against De La Hoya.

Ok, probably won't get a chance to watch any fights over the weekend or the first few days of next week, but after that I want to do Pea-DLH, Chavez-Taylor I, and a few others.

 

'Roid Mayweather sucks.

 

Recently watched Tito's demolition job of David Reid and was reminded once again of how good Tito was back in the day. Just a vicious puncher....

After recently watching Cotto-Mayweather, I think the Tito of the Reid fight takes both those guys down on the same night at 154.

 

Reid showed a lot in that fight as well though. Heart, power, and the knowledge of how to slip punches even if he wasn't all that fluid at it.

Cotto-level as an operator IMO (not stylistically simialr of course) and deserves kudos for stepping it up so quick.

 

Massive heart. He actually fought well in the last round after having already been knocked down about 5 times... Quite incredible...

Agreed he was Cotto level as far as skills go, and would imo beat Cotto at 154 no probs.

 

Yep, would've been a lot closer on the cards if Tito was getting 10-9 rounds and not 10-8/7s.

 

:good:happy

 

Enjoy, it's a good one :good

 

Yeah, Reid boxed quite well during the mid rounds, despite being quite gun-shy....

 

Shame about his eye, obviously had a lot of potential.

Chucking a healthy Reid in with Vargas, Oscar, Forrest, Winky, Hopkins, Shane, Mayorga etc etc: would've been interesting at least.

 

Definitely see him with chances against all those guys bar Hopkins, even with the droopy eye.

He had decent pop, could definitely rattle some of the smaller guys...

How do you think he goes with the likes of Serge and Sturm?