the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Pacquiao D TD 6 Aga Sanchez

Strange fight this, very messy, quite difficult to score, but I still think Manny was probably jobbed. Sanchez had a point deducted in the third for low blows and according to Boxrec another one deducted at some point (I didn't see another explicit deduction) and it's certainly difficult to score him a majority of rounds IMO.

It is unclear though. Sanchez does a lot that's right, active against Manny's straight lines and tying him up on the inside, but his punches were wild and unnecessarily winging - he's throwing big KO shots that aren't going to land when if he'd worked carefully he might have deserved his draw or even earned himself a little more.

As it stands, Pacquiao gets to be neater and land the harder stuff, although he definitely allowed him to be taken out of his stride by Sanchez's dirty tricks. He openly gestures, grimaces and snarls out his frustration as the disjointed combat is made even more so by necessary interventions from the referee.

He was also cut badly in the second in an accidental headbutt and that threw him aswell. He lost the second. In the sixth, another head clash turned a nasty cut into a proper wound and the fight was correctly called. Judges have a three-way draw.

Pacquiao: 1,3,5,6
Dirty Sanchez: 2,4

Chuck in that point deduction and I think you have problematic score cards personally.

 

MUHAMMAD ALI UD12 GEORGE CHUVALO

First round is really strange - Ali moves beautifully and hammers home a fine jab on numerous occasions, Chuvalo manages to land just one serious one in return, and when Ali lands a couple of combos, the round looks sealed. But as the bell approaches, Ali is backed into the corner, and Chuvlao scores a superb combination and then assaults the body; round is even and Chuvalo has made his case, forcing Ali to solve or avoid Chuvalo when he goes stationary. Ali wins the second clearly, landing many hurtful punches, the right looks dialled in.

The third is very close - Chuvalo dominates the first two minutes with some untidy but strong work followed by some pretty decent punching, but Ali looks imperious in the final forty seconds and lands every punch there is - jab, hook, straight, uppercut. I thought it nicked things for him.

A heavy jab wins Ali the fourth. Chuvalo rather guilty of following and when he comes on strong in the final seconds, Ali just ties him.

Fifth is a great round of action, as Chuvalo might hurt Ali nearer the end of the round - so hard to tell with him. Either way, Ali ends up with his back to his own corner beckoning Chuvalo in, which is ostensibly what Chuvalo is after. Ali ends up just about out-hitting him with straight punches and Chuvalo ends up backing out.

Ali beats the **** out of Chuvalo in the sixth, and probably he would have stopped most other fighters of the era in this round, so at the half way point I have Ali dominant, 5-0-1. It's worth stressing that he could reasonably be scored round 1, and the commentator dude seems to think he should have won the second. 4-2 is the best I could possibly see for Chuvalo.

A desperately tired Chuvalo rallies beautifully in the seventh, mauling and battering Ali in a neutral corner after prodding with his left hook for the first 90 seconds. It's a great rally that wins him the round despite Ali's attempt to steal the round - he looked slow and tired. In the eighth though, he was back to his best, flicking out a stinging jab, landing a pair of one-twos near the end of the round, and unusually landing (not for the first time) a lead left-uppercut. This is a dominant performance.

Chuvalo had a great round on offence in the ninth, but Ali made it close with a tough comeback in the last minute. Chuvalo gets hit with the first eleven punches Ali throws at the beginning of the tenth, all jabs, and that's a really horrible precedent. He coughed and roughed his way back into it, but Ali jabbed his way to the round in the final minute.

They split the last two very exciting rounds on my card.

Good fight, very clear win for Ali. I wonder what Chuvalo was saying to Ali in the final round? Some version of "you never knocked me down, Ray", perhaps.

ALI:2,3,4,5,6,8,10,12
CHUVALO:7,9,11,
EVEN:1,

8-3-1

 

JUAN MANUEL MARQUEZ TKO10 JULIAN WHEELER

MARQUEZ:2,3,5,6,(10)
WHEELER:1,4,7,8,9

"I would suggest we have that classic confrontation, the puncher, Marquez, against the boxer, Wheeler" Reckon the genius commentary team, but it was actually punching that kept Marquez in the fight as he repeatedly hurt a much rangier opponent who proved an awkard, grabby, difficult opponent for a novice Marquez.

The tenth round stoppage was ludicrous, although a proper referee might have repeatedly warned Wheeler for holding and then DQ'd him (in the unlikely event he continued to do so, which he might have), but the TKO was bull**** - AND it was rendered with five seconds remaining of the fight.

The referee was generally horrible. Larry Rozadilla interrupted the action when Marquez had his man hurt, missed not on but two valid knockdowns (one for each fighter), failed to enforce rules on holding and combed his hair like a tosspot.

Supposedly behind on two out of three cards going into the tenth, Marquez may, or may not have won by virtue of the probable 10-8 round he was enjoying at the time of the terrible stoppage.

I had it 5-4 to Wheeler at that time.

Interesting little fight in Marquez's development if you're interested in this fighter coming up (not lora).

 

:twisted:

 

Timothy Bradley SD12 Juan Manuel Marquez

Very close opening round, desperately close, probably a drawn round in an earlier era, I think maybe Bradley just barely barely nicked it based upon the jab to the body early and a couple of sniping jabs late. He also, as Jim Watt says in commentary, does a good job of making Marquez lead, and on the occasions he does so himself, is sensible about it.

Second extremely close and they're fighting in very distinct arenas. A) Sniping from the outside by Bradley with Marquez trying to counter B) Flailing inside with Bradley using size to hold and walk Marquez C) Mid range exchanges when Marquez scores the counter and Bradley wants to immediately react.

In A), Bradley is doing the better stuff. His jab isn't dominant, but it is fast and has variety and he's scoring with enough punches to make a "little lead" in the round's scoring which ramps up the pressure on Marquez. Of course the Mexican is patient enough to wait it out, but at this range, Bradley is favoured. B) Is uglier with neither one doing really good work yet, and Bradley's superior size and strength helping to neutralise Marquez's general superiority at this range. Nothing meaningful has happened here yet IMO. C) it's very close but Marquez isn't as fast as Bradley and that's letting Bradley in on equal terms, the right hand on the bell to end round two winning him that round probably. Both opening rounds would have been scored 10-10 in a different era IMO.

Bradley showed outstanding judging awareness throughout this fight, really good to see that form a professional. Whenever Marquez landed anything eye-catching he looked to dispute that thirty seconds with his own good work.

Three extremely close, almost impossible to separate them. I'd go for Marquez based on the right hand in the last ten seconds. Bradley earning the generalship points all over the place though, he controls this fight. I think he'd have been smarting after round three, knowing he had control of the fight but was unable to land enough punches to make it matter.

A third in, and Bradley's strategy, to dominate minimal exchanges that he controls and peck, is working. Marquez lands a beautiful counter left uppercut, one of the great punches in boxing all time, but Bradley just lands a bit more. Marquez does land a nice counter-right in the final seconds to make the round, like all the others, close, but it's a Bradley round and the round that defines the first third of the fight. Bradley using superior speed and freshness to take control and be the general against one of the great ring generals of the Pacquiao-Mayweather era. Impressive.

Fifth - sensational boxing from Bradley. So good to see. I feel horrible for Marquez. Never seen him miss so much in any round ever.

Sixth - Marquez steals it on aggression, a counter left to the heart, and a lead right hand. But very little in it again. At the half way point, you could legitimately score it 2-2-2, but Bradley nicked those close first two rounds IMO. If you want to argue a close scorecard over six, you have to score even rounds which is basically not in the rules the fight was governed under AND not give the Marquez rounds as even, and they were very close too.

Seven - Bradley jabs his way to an excruciatingly close round. A lot of his punches are half-landed but still, Marquez lands only three or four meaningful punches (all left hands).

Eight - Bradley is brilliant in this round, which he loses! It's a bit mad to say that, but what I mean is that it should be a Marquez round all over - Bradley is missing a bit and Marquez lands a couple of lefts early doors that give him a lead - but with superb judge awareness and generalship he makes it so close and arguable. Very fine mobility, footwork, and very clever at making himself look busy and aggressive. Despite the fact that he spends much of the round on the move, he manages to make himself look aggressive with output, understands the value of punches that aren't landed. Marquez shades it, in the end, with two right hands in the final twenty seconds I think. It was a "must win" round for him and he won it.

Nine - Good round - and another for Marquez, so he's done two in a row at last. It's suddenly looking close for me, 5-4 Bradley. Bradley starts well here, landing a double left hook much loved by the Sky commentary team, but the double Marquez lands in answer, body head, seems to go unnoticed. IMO the commentary team are more hypnotised by Bradley's excellent performance than Marquez, who I thought out-punched Bradley in another low-output round, stealing the round in the last twenty seconds or so.

Ten - Bradley steadies the ship with two right-hands, one of which appears to hurt Marquez. In such a low out-put fight, hurting a guy is akin to a bye for that round. Shame, a Marquez round here puts the cat among the pigeons, but he can't salvage it, even with the decent left he lands in the final thirty seconds. I now have Marquez needing 11 and 12 to draw the fight.

Eleven - Bradley looks tired and Marquez outlands him, the round is still devilishly close, and I had it up for grabs again after Marquez took a lead, but he closed stronger. Throwing a lot of punches and a lot of them hard, but Bradley is right there with him for landed shots. You can see that the "natural" way of things is for Bradley to win these rounds in this round though. Marquez needs to really really put himself in the firing line to dominate a minute. But he does so here to good affect. A Marquez twelfth would be a draw on my card.

Twelfth - first minute, Bradley is moving okay, but he's not so quick away from the puncehs and Marquez takes advantage landing a decent pair of shots to shade the early action IMO, although Bradley lands what sounds like a good punch on the outside of the camera-view too. Almost nothing in it.

Second minute, at the very opening of the second minute Marquez lands a good right hand on Bradley going away, it's not a great punch, but it's a good one - might be the key punch in the round. Bradley walks it off, jabs to the body, Marquez attacks messily and lands another very decent right hand in a tangle. Based on the action in prior rounds, hard to see how Bradley now wins this round. Some posing from Bradley but he lands a cuffing one-two at 1:20 to draw closer. They swap jabs, the swap missed jabs, Marquez misses a big left swing.

Third minute, Bradley needs a big minute to take this round. Marquez half-lands a long-right and half-lands a right to the body. Marquez fighting hard in the last minute but nearly gets dropped by a counter-hook! Makes the round very close, but Marquez nicks the round based on the first 2:50.

So, astonishingly I have this fight a draw. Bradley out-thought Marquez, looked the better general by far, but he threw so little that Marquez was allowed to land key-punches at key-moments to steal key-rounds. It doesn't "feel" right, but I have examined it carefully and can't now argue with my own scoring. No problem with a Bradley win, but this is much closer than I thought watching live ****faced.

MARQUEZ:3,6,8,9,11,12
BRADLEY: 1,2,4,5,7,10,

 

Yeah, clear win I reckon.

 

Daniel Zaragoza D12 Hector Acero-Sanchez

A fifty year old (possibly) Zaragoza turns drunken brawler for his first fight with WBC super-bantam beltholder Hector Sanchez. Bizarre fight, untidy and unprofessional looking, Sanchez doing well early with meaty-sounding pot-shotting right hands that Sanchez doesn't seem really to notice. Althought he does fall over in the first.

It seems early that Sanchez is going to outwork Zaragoza with a combination of decent movement and slightly less **** punches, but when Zargoza corners him it's a bit alarming, huge meathouse broadsides going into the pit of the stomach and the top of the head. Still, Zaragoza is cut early and slow looking Sanchez feels like the favourite early, but I have him well behind after four after being dropped heavily by a hail-mary Zaragoza swing in a round he looked to be winning before getting hurt.

Worse, after boxing back well in the fifth, he lands two headbutts in reasonably quick succession (unintentional I reckon), and when Zaragoza walks away complaining, Sanchez BLATS him in the back of the head, point away, even round

Sanchez kinda starts to sort himself out a bit in the second half of the fight, but he's still just shipping too many punches. And those punches are huge, hard blows, always. So he can't win these rounds by my eye. Zaragoza is throwing more and landing more. He has a good eighth after they basically call him a d1ckhead in the corner, and adds the ninth but Zaragoza meathooks his way narrowly to the tenth.

I make it 6-5-1 for Zaragoza, plus the knockdown...something approaching a robbery here maybe? Certainly by punchstats, Zaragoza landed more at a higher rate although he threw less, something approaching a robbery here? I would like to see the rematch, which Zaragoza won, but I can't find it anywhere :|

ZARAGOZA:2,3,4*,6,7,10,
SANCHEZ:1,8,9,11,12
EVEN: 5,


Official MD scorecards (with Sanchez winning the odd card out!!) booed by the crowd, which they followed up with a persistent "bull****!" chant.

 

Erik Morales UD12 Carlos Hernandez

This was always my favourite Morales fight, and probably the reason I prefer him to Barrera. Watching it now, it feels a little one sided, but there are some wonderful moments.

First round is boring but when Morales drops Hernandez at the end of the first it's just like lighting the touchpaper, and they're off to war, both of them hands down baiting machismo madness, and Hernandez gets the absolute **** beaten out of him in the final forty seconds.

A clash of heads in the fourth opened a nasty cut in Morales' left eyebrow and perhaps threw him off his rhythm as Hernandez dominated that round. Ominously, Morales was still able to land plenty using that beautiful establishing footwork both inside and out. The way he controls the action even against an opponent this aggressive is pretty clear. But Hernandez earned his round with heart-fuelled, driving attacks. Not a round he could have lost and held onto hopes of winning the fight.

Morales has a sprightly fifth, and looks to be hitting top gear, feinting a wide hook before driving an uppercut up the middle; with a few seconds remaining, he slipped a jab and then countered with an right-hand uppercut reminiscent of James Toney. Lovely stuff. Hernandez needs more punches walking in.

Hernandez banks himself a couple of the middle rounds with persistent aggression and some good shortarm punching, though Morales stopped a run on the cards with a spate of one-twos in the ninth.

The twelfth was perhaps not everything you would have hoped for, Morales looked generally p1ssed off with the whole thing by that point and ready for bed. His whining to the referee about various infringements by Hernandez was lowpoint, his uppercut, which he didn't deploy quite enough, the high point.


MORALES:1,2,3,5,6,9,10,11,
HERNANDEZ:4,7,8,12

So 8-4 Morales in a really entertaining exciting s**** in which Hernandez certainly played a very major part.