the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Yeah bang on, you're bang on about that. That makes me feel a lot better about the robbery shout tbh.

 

I've never seen the Ottke fight. I scored Tarver-Johnson one for Johnson.

 

Chad Dawson UD12 Glen Johnson 1

Dawson boxes brilliant in the opening two rounds, fast hand, fluid punching, great accuracy but the second Johnson starts to track him down the fight is flipped on its back and Johnson starts to win close rounds. What is a technical mis-match becomes a fascinating fight based upon Johnson's work-rate and bloody-mindedness.

A careless final minute sees Johnson edge the fifth on my card for a narrow lead. It is Johnson that flips the fight on its back this time though with superb mobile boxing in the seventh and eighth. Winning rounds against Johnson is often just a matter of out-throwing him, but, that's difficult, you need great or or great feet to get it done. Dawson shows the feet here. It's am impressive rally after his swallowing some hurtful punches.

I have Johnson two rounds ahead with two remaining after ten, but it's worth noting that the press, commentary team and judges all have Dawson ahead, even after his nearly being stopped in the tenth. I may be off here. The 5th, 6th and 9th are probably the rounds that would be controversial on my card. The fifth and ninth, certainly, could have gone either way.

Johnson wins the last two. Is there anyone better than Johnson in 11 and 12 of very hard fights?

DAWSON:1,2,7,8,
JOHNON:3,4,5,6,9,10,11,

So I have it 8-4 Johnson with both close rounds to Johnson, so I could see a draw. My scores are the exact opposite of all three judges who had it 8-4 Dawson. I scored it honestly but am a little uncomfortable with my card. Not a robbery, but I think Johnson should have got the nod based upon what I saw.

Crowd did not like the decision.

 

Chad Dawson UD12 Glen Johnson II

What beautiful trunks! Glen Johnson is wearing the nicest pair of trunks I ever did see. I definitely haven't seen this fight before. I would have remembered these. A very thick waist band, they fall to just below his knee with a black badge detail on the trim and the inside of the left thigh. Black details also separate the solid yellow legs from the white groin. If I owned these beautiful trunks I would wear them every day.

Dawson's trunks are nearly as wonderful. They are black with white badges on the knee, and BAD CHAD emblazened on his waistband in orange. The front is also in orange but it's more a swimming-trunk effect, not as nice as Johnson's deeper fall. Still, they're really nice.

HBO's commentary team like Dawson's trunks better, so much in fact that they all clearly want to tug them down and suck off Dawson after the fight, apart from the great Emmanuel Steward. Steward is easily led on air however, and you can imagine him getting in on the fun after.

Dawson does win the first round to be fair, but it's hardly "the most brilliant round he's ever fought" as Jim Lampley claims. Good bodywork from Dawson though, helps him bank the opening rounds as per the first fight.

After four, I have it four-zip, but the HBO commentary is really annoying. I don't normally get annoyed by commentary but holy ****. Apparently Johnson is being "outclassed", "might tire down the straight himself" and "looks confused". In actual fact he's landed a handful fewer punches than Dawson and tends to do better later in every fight he's in.

"You know looking at Chad Dawson's hair...he's never shaved shapes into his hair before. I think just being in his home town, Chad Dawson wants to do something to draw attention to himself." - Max Kellerman.

Between rounds 7 and 8, Lampley appear to get picked up either on twitter or by his own production team and apologises on air for a mistake setting off his co-commentator's confessions.

LAMPLEY: Lucian Bute is in the 168lb division, that's correct, i was wrong to feature him as a light-heavyweight.
KELLERMAN: Earlier tonight I said Kirkland was out for two years, it's not it's six months.
STEWARD: I called Bute a cruiserweight.
LAMPLEY: You mean we're not perfect?

Anyway, that madness aside, Dawson is boxing beautifully. Moving really well, placing his shots, not wasting a lot, in total control. Johnson is not getting anywhere with his pressure and appears to be having difficulties taking the openings that seem to the naked eye to be available. On the other hand, there is such a deficit in speed maybe he's just gone before Johnson can get it. 6-2 Johnson after eight, he needs all the remaining for a draw on my card.

Good bodywork through the tenth by Dawson, he's been hitting the body well and often in this fight. He's just winning these rounds by default now. It's a one-sided, dominant performance, the best I've seen Dawson ever.

DAWSON:1,2,3,4,6,8,9,10,11
JOHNSON:5,7,12

9-3 Dawson.

 

HENRY MASKE UD12 CHARLES WILLIAMS

Maske is only 19-0 coming into this fight and Charles hadn't been beaten in seven years, dropping a wide decision to Marvin Johnson. Then again, he's been out for a spell with a broken hand and this is his first fight back.

Weird fight. Maske looks there to be hit, but he's tall, very capable at nullifying his man up close and seems to avoid the most direct of Williams's rather frantic attentions in the first two. He does well hitting left hand against Williams as he comes in, timing him well.

That goes well for the first four, certainly. There's what looks like a huge tunnel up the middle to Maske's unprotected jaw that he fills with punches every time Charles tries to rush him, and because Charls is fighting ultra-aggressively, it's working really well. Given that Williams had a point deducted for a supposed headbutt at the end of the fourth, Maske's lead is already close to unassailable.

Williams does start to work back though, getting through with roughouse combination as Maske apparently starts to tire. Maske shows decent punch resistance in a chopping, tough fight.

Williams is capable of excellence, like the uppercut through the middle that won him the tenth, but generally the herky-jerky open-stanced Maske ate his lunch. He doesn't have traditional fluidity, the German, but he finds punches well, sort of like a weird prototype Calzaghe in that he sacrifices something in order that he might remain in punching position, in his case traditional technique, probably some power, certainly any sense of rhythm. But it pays off because he finds ways to get shots over that he shouldn't really be able to score with or that disturb and perturb Williams, damaging his gameplan and approach.

Not pretty but certainly affective.

MASKE:1,2,3,4*,5,6,9,11,
WILLIAMS:7,8,10,12

116-111 Maske

*point deduction for Williams.

 

Henry Maske UD12 Graciano Rocchigiani I

Loads of fun to score this, as the two look physically identical on film, are both soutpaws and some dumb f*ck let them wear identical shorts. Magic.

Rocky has an excellent left hand, really nice uppercuts and on the inside it makes Maske very uncomfortable. His habit of drawing his man inside and holding is backfiring badly at the moment (good) and you could show this film to a lot of fighters who are going to take on men who are holding I think and have it be of benefit. I'll probably be annoyingly saying "like Rocchigiani against Maske" on the forum for the next six years whenever I talk about a fighter that holds in a fantasy match up.

It brings Rocky the first round very clearly and probably shades the second. Maske is throwing a lot of punches, but Rocchigiani is disciplined with his high guard. This is harder than Maske likes to work I think, I think in the second he already didn't draw Rocky in a couple of times when he would have liked to but is feared of that uppercut.

Maske pulls it back to even after four in what's becoming a fascinating encounter. Rocky just wants to walk in but he's getting hit now, meanwhile Maske is moving more than he wants to, punching more than he might, resting less than i've seen him - so will Maske be stronger later as is his fashion? Or has Rocky changed up his fight pattern?

I have it all even after 8, though these rounds are very close. Rocky is throwing less inside, Maske's activity starts to count for more because of this, although he's not landing anything really definitive. Rocchigiani's body attack is good and there's a sense that Rocky can win this fight if he can turn it up.

Sure enough, he has Rocchigiani in bad trouble after a right hook catches him flush at the ropes. He was close to being stopped, I think, but me managed to fuddle his way through to the close of the ninth before coming roaring back in the tenth, showing great heart in out-landing and out-fighting his persistent foe. His stance looks generally more closed than it did for Williams and he's needed that because Rocky was breaching him from the first and his high guard and strength has served him extremely well where Williams was just out-hit. All square going into the 11th.

Maske nicked it. He really has an elite engine. In 10 and 11 he just clearly outworked Rocky to take those rounds in a fight where he's had to punch more, move more and suck up more bodyshots. He has one of the better engines i've seen at this weight.

However, he gets blasted in the twelfth and manhandled around the ring like a rag doll. He has a good chin to swallow what Rocky followed up the original hurtful shots with but he was lucky to get out of this round. He was also dropped, and very lucky to have an apparent KD ruled a slip/push. He was bundled across the ring and down a bit, but only because he had had his legs smashed out from under him.

Regardless, I scored the 12th 10-8. So I have it even in rounds but I have Rocchigiani taking the fight based upon his dominance in the twelfth

MASKE:3,4,7,8,10,11,
ROCCHIGIANI:1,2,5,6,9,12*

*10-8 round.

114-113 Rocchigiani.

No robbery but Rocky can count himself a little unlucky IMO.

 

JOSE TORRES UD15 EDDIE COTTON

This one was Ring FOTY for 1966.

Both interesting guys. Cotton has that old school stance with the jaw behind the lead shoulder, shuffling around, making his jab look longer than it really is. Torres, he's just beautiful to watch, slipping so many jabs with those bobs and weaves and sliding in and out but he looks kind of toothless until he lets that left hook go when he looks like he's out to kill. That punch is the difference-maker early, bringing him the first three on the cards - in the fourth he beats him up with the right.

But Cotton, magnificent b@s**** that he is, refuses to go away. Instead he comes inside, nudges up on the champ and just starts to pick out these short blows, not always with a lot of steam on them, but they are nipping, troubling punches. Torres looks a little befuddled when they fight like this though he is loath to back down. By out-throwing the champ he just starts to slide the rounds out from under him, and when Torres aggressively opens the eighth to stop the rot on my card, it felt urgent and important. It might also suggest that any rounds left to their own devices will drift to the challenger. I have it 5-3 Torres at the end of eight.

7-5 after twelve I think it's the Torres aggression that holds the fight in the balance. Cotton has dialled in his jab a bit but still likes to come close where they fight it out in accordance with Cotton's whims unless Torres has opportunity, will and energy to take the round by the scruff and force landed exchanges. By landing the harder punches consistently he is taking the best of this fight by my reckoning.

Cotton had Torres in a small modicum of trouble in the thirteen, but I thought Torres boxed back extremely well in the fourteenth, utilising his superior speed to bank the crucial round.

It was lovely to see fighters allowed to fight inside. Where the misappropriation that infighting was boring came from I just don't know. It's so obviously not true. This is the opposite of holding, they just fire so many punches.

Wonderful fight, Torres finished with more energy as you would expect. Although at thirty years old he was the then oldest champ - at forty, Cotton was the oldest contender.

TORRES:1,2,3,4,8,9,12,14,15
COTTON:5,6,7,10,11,13,

9-6 Torres.

 

Old Hopkins-Calzaghe as good I reckon.

And he was 40 for Tarver.