the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

No need to be sorry mate.

It is Eusebio Pedroza vs Ruben Olivares.

One of my biggest bug bears with modern boxing is the frequent use of clinching by the biggest man. The ability to fight on the inside seems to have completely disappeared in the HW division.

The exchanges with Olivares and Pedroza on the ropes, slipping, parrying and countering just don't seem to occur at HW because the men just clinch instead.

The last bit of good infighting from the top of my head in a HW title fight is probably Stiverne in the rematch v Arreola but I've not seen that for ages so I could be remembering it wrong.

 

Fight 50: Tiger v Foster

1: 9-10
2: 9-10
3: 9-10
4: tko

Past the half way point in my list now.

This is a complete and utter domination. Didn't realise before watching this fight that Foster was quite a big favourite as well.

The range of Foster combined with his timing left Tiger with literally no chance.

What else can I say? Brutal 1 punch ko as well.

 

Unless I'm getting confused again I believe Whyte v Chisora displayed some decent infighting, in that they didn't clinch everytime they got in close, but I could be off. I tend to agree with you though, infighting at the heavier weights seems to be a lost art.

 

That did have good infighting, but I said HW title fights. The men at the top of the division seem unable and unwilling to engage inside.

 

Fight 51 - Gibbons v McFarland

Last of the fights I watched this past week.

Now I am totally against overruling decisions, especially those where I've been unable to watch the fight in full myself.

However, I am going to say the highlights of footage available show Gibbons being the far superior boxer to me and I'd even go as far as to say they show him schooling McFarland.

He is quicker to the punch at range and vastly superior inside.

Of course he is fighting a natural LW but still, if you wanna see pod footage of Gibbons, ignore the NWS results and watch this footage.

His style is probably my favourite. A light punching man being a defensive wizard in the pocket. I always admire it most, a bit like Byrd at HW but at a much higher level.

Still, would I ask him to try those tactics against Golovkin? I would not.

 

Fight 52: Bivins v Chritsoforidis

It's hard finding good footage of Jimmy Bivin, at least for a none collector like me.

I've read the reports on this fight and Chritsoforidis is adamant he won this fight.

To me, on the 7 minutes of footage it looks quite dominant. Bivins totally oujabs him with ease and gets off better shots inside as well.

Shame I'll never see him outbox Charles or splatter Moore, but if this is the best I'll see I'm still more than happy appreciating his greatness.

 

MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA 114 | 113 JUNIOR JONES II

 

MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA 115 | 112 ERIK MORALES I

 

MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA 117 | 110 NASEEM HAMED

 

Fight 53: Bettina vs Conn.

Strange one is Bill Conn. Unless you watch him get starched by Louis it's difficult finding good performances by him.

This is one of them though. He demonstrates fantastic hand and foot speed at range and his timing often leaves Bettina being countered before he even throws a punch.

However his willingness to fight back up close is also present here and you can see him at times trying to Duke it out rather than spin away. That's fine when you're fighting Bettina, obviously not fine when he's fighting Joe Louis.

I wonder at times if he made life more difficult for himself than he had to do.

A massively under rated fighter for me.

 

Fight 54: Qawi vs Spinks.

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

140:144

Great tactical fight this. Certainly not a brawl for it all though.

Spinks seems well in charge even though some rounds the pressure of Qawi was more impressive, this could be down to the bias of Leonard though.

The knockdown was none existent but I have to give it.

Ultimately Spinks had a far superior game plan. By using mainly jabbing and movement he didn't present that many opportunities for Qawi to counter him. This led to a lot of exchanges were Qawi was missing and Spinks was scoring from range.

Qawi didn't have that same fire in his belly as the night he destroyed Saad.

Most interestingly was that Spinks didn't take any warming up rounds, he started off from the first bell fighting a perfect game plan.

But disappointing given the hype of the fight that it had the tepid pace it did.

To take the heart of a great man like Qawi shows incredible talent on he part of Spinks.

Not many in history would beat this fighter.

 

Fight 55: Griffith vs Rodriguez

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

139- 146

These men could fight 100 times and it would always be close. You have the quick aggressive spoiler against the punch perfect boxer mover and a lot of it comes down to what you like best at any given time.

I don't like watching Griffith because of his untidy work up close clinching, hitting, holding it seems all very lazy to me, especially or someone with his abilities.

Rodriguez on the other hand always looks impeccable with his accurate well timed punches.

I don't think Rodriguez ever gets the better of Grffith up close and I don't think Emile ever gets the better at range.

Punch for punch you have to conclude LMR is the superior man. But in the context of a fight Griffith is able to do that extra something that wins him the rounds.

This time though LMR got the nod, although a poll of ringside observers gave the fight to Griffith. Ironically a reverse of what would happen in the third fight.

Going 1-3 in this series seems harsh on LMR given how punch perfect he looks at times. But all 4 fights were very close imo.

 

Fight 56: Griffith vs Rodriguez 4

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

143-141

The fight started off with Griffith sweeping he early rounds do to a higher paced attack which resulted in LMR being cut and struggling to keep Griffith off him.

Round 5 saw a shift in momentum and LMR was beating Griffith to the punch at range and then catching him on his way in. LMR racked managed to even it on my card going into the 10th.

The 10th and 11th saw some hard counters landed by each man as they exchanged rounds.

Then Griffith won it for me with his big finish. Sweeping the 12th, 13th and 14th rounds leaving LMR needing a knockout to win on my card.

Best fight of the 4 for me, didn't follow the usual jab and grab routine due to the early cut and the way both men actively looked for the finishing punch.

 

Fight 57: Walker vs Milligan

Such limited footage but it is clear that Walker has quick hands, top level power and very good accuracy as he rarely missed a shot.

Given his raw strength and the above attributes I don't think anyone ever at MW or below has an easy time with him.

 

Fight 58: Lopez vs Sanchez

1: 10-9
2: 10-8
3: 10-9
4: 10-8
5: tko

Punch perfect display in this unification fight.

Lopez really does show it all here. Thudding jab, great defence, lazer right hand, top notch combo punching.

Kinda got the sense that the finish was inevitable from the first bell.

This was against a prime title holder who'd never been down before as well.