the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Hector Camacho UD12 Jose Luis Ramirez

Interesting to hear Leonard lauding Camacho's handspeed in commentary despite being presented with a negative comparison. He's certainly too quick for Ramirez in these opening minutes, landing hooks and a soutpaw left to put the round beyond doubt. I suppose the question going in was how Ramirez would do late. Camacho looks in control of himself and he's not overworking despite the juicy openings presented to him. "Do it very nicely, and slow" is the lover's guide advice for Ramirez between rounds. Not sure that's enough.

Camacho is not dialled in yet. He hasn't found the range and when Ramirez retreats on rails he gets away with it. He's moving well though, and when he chooses to stand and wait on Ramirez he has that southpaw left or a series of rights for his man. Following, and looking to jab, Ramirez looks a full class behind right now.

An axe-fall of a left-hand drops Ramirez in the third; Camacho rushes him but when Rmairez fires back, he cools. Ramirez looks like he has himself in hand, Camacho works crisply in accordance with his fight plan. Ramirez bleeding from the nose but steadies the ship in the fourth; still, it's 4-0.

Camacho sticks and moves his way to the fifth; he is taking more steps than he would like though, getting moved on through the ring a fair bit. Still, after dropping a dull sixth, Ramirez basically needs a KO to win. He triples the jab in the opening seconds of the seventh as if to underline Ramirez's predicament. Right lead uppercut later on is nice, too. It's dangerously close to "doing what he likes." Nice combination punching...you wonder again about the Ramirez chin. You wonder, too, how two men the same weight can have such a vast difference in handspeed.

I'm not really watching this fight any more. But that was some performance.

CAMACHO:1,2,3*,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
RAMIREZ:

*Ramirez down.

 

I love that fight.

 

Hector Camacho UD12 Edwin Rosario

Rosario's quicker footwork should make this a closer affair. Camacho is as quick as we've seen him and he's using his quickness to score to the body, with single shots, jabs, right hands, all while moving away and occasionally holding his ground. Two swift left-hands to the head seal the round.

Rosario is trying to drop the right, he is organised and right on his man, but Camacho is just a little too quick and unpredictable. Still, he's not dong much in this round which is very much up for grabs. Probably a good one two just past a minute remaining puts Camacho in the box seat. Every time he lands that trailing left, Rosario looks put out. Then, oof, the fourth round is close. I think that Rosario just took it with the right hands. He's getting his right foot outside Comacho's left foot consistently for the first time and it's paying real dividends. His quicker pressure is telling.

Comacho starts the fourth in a rush, but Rosario counterpunches well off the ropes and they go back to stalking and moving. Rosario is trying to throw the right hand for the main, eschewing the jab and tring to time the right hand to Camacho's jab. A stiff right cuts Camacho above the left eye. Rosario is doing really well with that right hand, he has it dialled again. All square after four.

Camacho starts the fifth well, but a horrible left hook leaves him on rubber legs. Rosrio brings the pressure right handed, Comacho loses the round big - one could even argue it 10-8 but I don't quite see it that way. The sixth is a huge round. Camacho opens throwing jabs he know won't land, trying to keep Rosario out. He moves well and lands some body-punches and despite drawing a warning for low-blows, this is enough to take the crucial round, but he's probably lucky not to lose a point after landing low in the wake of two warnings for holding and hitting.

This is masterful from Camacho, moving well, stinging well, but he's fighting a high-energy style - it will be interesting to see what happens late. Here, we have him dialled in to the body, moving lightly, counter-punching and attacking when a big opportunity presents itself. It's the quickness that's the difference. More of the same in the eighth, but Comacho looks a little tired now, more ready to rest, there's more happening inside. This results in another warning from Mercante to Camacho, and I really think he should have had a point docked in this round. Ninth is another big one.

Camacho starts aggressively and rocks Rosario with quick punches. Rosario is still there, waiting for him, but Camacho is too clever and fast, staying that proverbial step ahead, smart enough to tie up and smother when Rosario closes. There's tension, because of what happening in 3-5, but Camacho is walking it really.

The fight comes back to life in the eleventh. Camacho opens as sharply as he had throughout most of the fight, and although Rosario has some success to the body it feels like the fight is going to trickle out to a Camacho decision but at :46 remaining, Rosario lands a hard left hand that gives Comacho that scared look once more. There's not enough time for him to make it count but it bring him the round.

Clearly (and not unreasonably) at the end of the line, Camacho drops the twelfth to a surging Rosario who has his own problems in terms of engine, and fails to close the show.

CAMACHO:1,2,6,7,8,9,10,
ROSARIO:3,4,5,11,12

Comach 7-5, 115-113. But he should have had a point deducted for 114-113 IMO.

 

Esteban De Jesus UD15 Guts Ishimatsu

DeJesus bosses the first with the occasional aggressive rush, a highlight a nice uppercut he lands underneath, another a straight right as Guts moves straight back. Good improvisation. This fight has a pedestrian reputation, but it's actually quite intriguing. DeJesus is trying to create opportunities for free hits, hard lashing punches, that he likes to throw when Guts is moving back. SO he tries to feint or jab him back, pushing him to the ropes where Guts tries ungainly defensive moves on the ropes. This all leaves Guts looking a little lost...DeJesus does a lot of missing, but he's often the only one throwing. So he's dominating. This fight film is weird. I've never seen a fight film with so many cuts. Director thinks he's ****ing Martin Scorsese.

DeJesus is mixing his attack well, head and body (especially the jab to the body), left and right...but it still feels a bit like a high-level spar for all the intrigue. I fear the intrigue will be sapped if Guts can't change it up. 4-0.

6-0. DeJesus is getting to work more and more on the inside, when he gets in. Bad day at the office for Guts. And DeJesus has a huge seventh, a sweet uppercut splitting the guard of Guts leading to an absolute barrage of punches, many ppercuts among them. DeJesus has a fine uppercut. I think he thought he had Guts stopped here, but this guy is tough (you don't get a nickname like that...). He returns to ring-centre and takes his beating like a man, but what the hell is his fight plan? Whatever it is, it just birthed three minutes of hell. I don't think I can recommend this fight, but anyone interested enough to read this far might want to see it anyway - assuming you don't, it's worth catching this round.

Weirdly, this beating seems to focus Guts, who has just about his best round of the fight. He still loses it big, as DeJesus corners him and beats the **** out of him in the final 10 seconds. Guts now needs a KO on my card.

DeJesus switches to teh back foot, up on his toes, looking to jab in the tenth and it delivers a genuinely closer round, but it's still gotta go to DeJesus. Maybe Guts ate some bad figs?

DeJesus showed some very impressive, thudding fluidity in the closing rounds. He must be knackered with all the punches he's thrown. Guts just cutting about the ring like he's not got a care in the world with a face like pudding.

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

Pretty astonishing stuff. Not a great fight, but how many 15 round shut outs have you seen? Chings.

 

Esteban DeJesus UD 10 Roberto Duran

Some say Duran didn't train properly for DeJesus. At this stage in his career, i find that difficult to believe, but if it ws so, more fool him.

DeJesus sat him down firmly, with a beautifully flighted left hook only seconds in. Duran looked a little numb behind this punch and DeJesus caught him twice more with that hook in the first. His approach to boxing is very simple but very very hard to put into practice. Basically he punches whenever there is an opportunity whatever the punch might be. This leads him to throw lead right hands at Roberto Duran, but his judgement is wonderful. It's a little passive if he doesn't have the skill gap in his favour to create those punching opportunities, but it's working for him here.

Finding openings for his left left hook up and down in the beginning of the third underline his technical gifts which are many; he punches properly, for the most part, and returns to the jab when there's nothing doing. The fourth was decided in the last ten seconds where DeJesus rattled Duran with a left hook once more. Huge fifth coming up with 3-1 to DeJesus the score.

I've never seen anyone have this type of success with lead rights and lead left hooks against Duran. It's crazy. If he sees the opening, he just fires the punch. He's not too fluid at the moment and he isn't stiTching many together, but he is landing hard punches.

It's also a bit mad to see DeJesus so relaxed inside. He's not really dominating there, but he's also not feeling the danger in the way you would expect. Also bizarre is to see Duran forced back by punches in the seventh. He must know he's losing at this point...further to that, Duran had a great eighth, nailing and hurting DeJesus, but the Puerto Rican remains calm and remembers his defence. It primes the fight for a great ninth and tenth.

Duran edges the ninth with hard punches and careful aggression. DeJesus takes the tenth with some great beltline work and the occasional stiff punch upstairs.

DeJesus edges it for me, clearly. Duran didn't look his best in that fight - DeJesus did.

DEJESUS:1,3,4,6,7,10.
DURAN:2,8,9.
EVEN:5

6-3-1 DeJesus.

 

Vilomar Fernandez MD10 Alexis Arguello

Arguello was in the middle of his super-featherweight title run so presumably bang in the middle of his prime for this one. Fernandez, on the other hand, had been crushed by Duran the year before. Fernandez opens so aggressively he almost falls over; he looks much the smaller man and the softer man. His resting footwork is so weird, he looks like he's fighting a ghost. Very close first with Fernandez occasionally surging in to land decent body punches, and one clipping counter upstairs, Arguello landing three single bodyshots of note and the 1 of a 1-2.

Fernandez kind of jobs out for round two haha he looks funny. Nothing wrong with his punching though, he's happy to slug with Arguello for a spell - but he has slower hands. They both land middling punches early, but Fernandez lands a nice left hook, and then later a right hand to the hip with a minute gone. But oops - Arguello drives him to nearly the same spot on the ropes and lands some good boydshots now. Still, Arguello is missing a fair bit, he looks a little unsure about the hopping Fernandez, even though he's closing on him well when Fernandez circles. Great one-two Fernandez, with a lovely left hook! His hands look faster now, flurry to the body - he's just about edging in front with the bodywork here.

It's like the ****ing twilight zone this page of this thread...everyone is beating ATG fighters with very simple strategy.

There it is, Fernandez opens the third by landing two lead rights and two left hooks - now that shouldn't be happening and I can't really understand why it is. I guess it's that old Arguello weakness. He's being moved around the ring and although his footwork is equal to it, he's a little bit "mired" by his own positioning. Fernandez just keeps moving him on, but often he's moving him on to punches. Lots of changes of direction, ducking...couldn't do this over 15 I don't think but yeah, over ten you can see it. Arguello wants to "reset and wait" a moment and I understand why, he's not getting it his own way here at all. Quite simply, he's outlanding the great man, and the crowd loves it.

Arguello should throw way more jabs than he is. Inexplicable that he is throwing so few jabs. Fernandez is just consistently getting away from him and then landing. He's not landing great punches, but he's landing them, and he looks far busier. At the moment I can't understand how this comes out an MD? But there's a long way to go.

Fernandez mostly lands a triple jab left hook combo midway through the fifth. Right hand bomb in the following minute. Another. A left hook. Straight right. Hahahahaha. Straight right. This is not close.

Arguello catches him with a beautiful right hand in the sixth though and has him in trouble along the ropes. For a moment it looked like Fernandez might go - that would have done the job down at featherweight. The seventh is pretty quiet though, until the last minute when they pretty much split it.

Arguello gestures to Fernandez to fight in the eighth. Fernandez isn't having it Arguello needs to stop with that and get in there because he could still win this on my card. Haha, Fernandez doing the Ali shuffle, gets clipped, comes back with fire of his own.

Jesus, I can't separate them across the seventh, eighth and ninth, which means Fernandez "draws" his way to a win on the cards for me. Weird. Weird fight all round.

Arguello looks really bad issing in the tenth, but he's probably bringing enough pressure to win the round until Fernandez catches him with a nice left-hook come uppercut. If I didnt' know better I'd say Arguello then loses his temper and pours it on - probably could have done with some wildness a little earlier.

Fernandez:2,3,4,5,
Arguello:1,6,10
Even:7,8,9,

With all the even rounds i've scored, I can't actually say an MD is unreasonable. But in the end, I had it 4-3-3 Fernandez. A weird one to drop.