the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Raul Perez UD12 Miguel Lora

Perez is so quick for being so lanky. He really looked the complete fighter for a while. In this, his definitive outing, he grabbed ring centre immediate. Lora is also quick though and looking to circle very wide, foraging when Perez gets speculative while occasionally holding h is ground.

Lora's strategy prevents Perez from getting his jab working, but it's at the cost to his own offence, early at least. Lora's attempts to dip and flash are warming though, and he has Perez swinging. A couple of those swings land hard to the body though, and bizarrely he's doing the better work inside when they come together. Lora's dazzling footwork goes unappreciated by the crowd and I have him two down after two. Second was close.

You can't really underestimate Lora's problem here. He's forced to move outside and try to spring attacks on an opponent who is used to meeting men coming in. Perez meanwhile is just stalking and calmly deploying a body-attack and taking free shots at a retreating opponent's head. Probably nicks the third, but there is a lot of missing on both sides and in a more civilised era that round would be scored even.

The fourth is a wonderful round of boxing. Lora really has taken Perez's jab from him. He's forced to walk a tightrope though; he's winning the round into the final minute where a couple of slips at middle-long sees Perez land some hard punches, including a cuffing left, which drew a nod from Lora. What a difficult task.

This is some wonderful stuff. It's not that close on paper, I have Perez 4-1 up after five, but it's lovely boxing, parrying, mobility, a horrible clash of styles and advantages running against Lora and him trying to find a way to solve this awful puzzle. Borderline great fight.

Lora sets fire to the ring in the sixth and I thought just about shaded an excellent, exciting round. No more moving for him, he's in the pocket against a superior body-puncher. Takes the seventh too with some dazzling mid-range stuff, has his man buzzed for about 3 seconds, too. This is something of a rally now. But taking the last minute of the round off to perch on the ropes was not wisdom and would have cost him any other round he won.

Lora comes close to evening it up in 8 but succumbs to relentless pressure as the round winds down and ships some hard shots. Winning three in a row very close is a tall order at this level and I wonder if those thirty seconds might not be the ones that cost him. Perez is two rounds from home with four remaining and Lora looks tired.

Perez wins the huge ninth despite a certain timidity born of Lora's determination to counter every attack. It's enough. Lora is getting hit now with punches he was going away from in the first half of the fight. I can see no way back for Lora now. He needs 10,11 and 12 for a draw on my card.

It's gone for him by my card after the 10th, but Lora is so brave in starting another war in the 11th. He can't sustain it though. Pressure and pace have told. He gave ground too early and got knocked about a bit towards the round's end.

PEREZ:1,2,4,5,8,9,10,11,12.
LORA:3,6,7.

So I have this a wide 9-3 to Perez, which feels wrong but is probably about right.

Borderline great fight.

 

Raul Perez UD12 Gaby Canizales

Mr.Miyagi singing the US national anthem pretty badly. No ****.

Gaby has a great first, lead rights, and a wonderful sneak left to the body. Absolutely not buying into the idea that he has to get inside to win the fight. Very fine head movement.

Great performance from Gaby. Keeping intelligent pressure on, just outside the scoring zone, moving his head, looking for that lead right, exchanging inside when he gets there, but he doesn't push for it. Perez doesn't have a jab anything like good enough for his reach advantage. I have it 2-2 after four tension soaked rounds. The momentum, such as it is (these rounds are close) is with Perez.

The tension is out of the fight after six though; Perez has adapted. His defensive body positioning is excellent and he's following some of his punches all the way in to the pocket. Gaby just has many fewer counterpunching opportunities. It's not quite over as a contest, but Gaby is certainly being handed his hat. Great right hands from Perez in the sixth and seventh.

Emmanuel Stewards begging Gaby to throw right hands in the corner, as he did in the first two. Be interesting to see if he, too, can adapt.

Ooooo, he made it close, and predominantly with the right hand, just as Emmanuel implored him to. But Perez sneaks the round. He's a nightmare really. Huge range, very tall, good defence v the left hook, hardly vulnerable to the right, quick-handed, it's good stuff. He does it all at a very steady, inarguable pace, too. Good general with the attributes to support it.

Technical and physical mis-match.

Too wide to be named a great fight, it's still fascinating to watch Perez at his best.

PEREZ:3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
GABY CANIZALES:1,2,

 

Miguel Lora UD12 Alberto Davila 1

Lora coasts and showboats his way through this victory over Davila, in an uninspiring fight characterised by missing. Lora puts his foot on the gas a bit in the middle rounds and does enough to win it for me.

Davila's persistence is admirable but he brings little else to the table; rematch unnecessary I would say.

LORA:2,4,6,7,8,10,11,12.
DAVILA:1,3,5,9.

 

Miguel Lora UD12 Alberto Davila 2

Interesting to hear the commentary booth chat about how rare it was to have fighters who were unbeaten after 25 fights (Lora). Not anymore bud.

Lora looks sleepy again, and despite his showboating he gets hammered in the first two rounds. Davila vowed to work harder in this fight, i'm not sure that's happening yet but he's certainly more alive to Lora's shortcomings; i'd say he's benefited from reviewing the first fight.

Sure awake in the third though; great left hand, hooks and uppercuts. In fact he has it all his own way until the final seconds of the fifth when Davila landed and apparently startling right hand just above the ear. Fair play to Davila, he's creaking but he's not for going away. Speaking of going away, it feels like Lora's going away with this match, but I have them all square after six.

Commentary is absurdly biased in favour of Davila, who is bleeding like a stuck pig from his right eye; they do good work in the corner to get it under control but Lora takes great delight in re-opening it...he's running away with this fight through ten.

Lots of madness in this fight. Lora's corner has sugar-water rather than just water, illegal, there was some sort of white powder removed from a package in Lora's corner (also probably sugar) and some mad spectator walks by the ring and throws the towel in (ostensibly from Davila's corner) and temporarily draws the fight to an end.

Overall, a good contest, the first half of the fight borderline great, too one-sided after the sixth.

LORA:3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
DAVILA:1,2,5,

 

Jorge Lujan UD15 Alberto Davila

Despite the absence of a KO, I'd argue that this is Lujan's masterpiece. Early he's jabbing but he turns it into that lovely disguised left hook. Just at bay, feinting with hands and feet, finding a lovely straight right early born of these affects. Davila is a persistent fifteen round fighter though, so Lujan knows he has to be careful.

These rounds are hard to score, close, Davila looking to box under, Lujan looking to come over the top. He lands a lovely improvised uppercut in 2, but I think Davila just about outlanded him with a series of clever two-piece combos, something of which would tend to get home. Davila is also, impressively, winning the battle of the jabs.

Beautiful left hook from Lujan changes the pace of the fight a little bit; Davila is now going away in small increments, Lujan stalking. Davila also cut again. Blistering, sudden left hook. The KD not scored by the referee.

Lujan is very square, compensates with very high hands, and it allows him to toss over that straight right hand like a jab. He is perched over his lead leg in the orthodox fashion but he moves in and out of that square stance; a lovely additional layer of feint and punching potential if you're good enough to do it. Lujan is. These guys are staging a lovely technical match, sans-clinch. Davila back in the stalkers role in five. As a rule, whoever is pressuring is winning these rounds.

That gets spun on its head in the sixth and seventh as Lujan gives ground gradually, welcoems the ropes and the corners, but outpunches his man, poking him with a straight right and setting him up for the occasional left hook, staying busy without overworking, exchanging inside but not getting left behind. It's gorgeous strategy and by the end of the eighth it has bought him a handy 5-3 lead. That lead is eroded by Davila's excellent pressure though and I have them all square after ten.

Sometimes Lujan stoops in when he punches, down and around, but when he does it he's able to through either hand with equal authority; so there's a sort of in-built feint that means he gets away with what is an inadvisable move. It poaches him the eleventh.

Couple of teak tough guys here.

More absurdly biased commentary in favour of Davila; boxing really did love him. To be fair, he was splendid in his persistence and has some engine. Matched by Lujan's, or nearly.

0 clinches in this absorbing fight which is borderline great.

Lujan:1,4*,6,7,8,11,12,13,14.
Davila:2,3,5,9,10,15.

9-6 LUJAN
*Davila down, KD not scored by the ref.

 

Fighting Harada UD15 Alan Rudkin:

Rudkin was pretty dashing, wasn't he? Pretty elegant. Harada starts finding him with that right hand though, mainly to the body, and it feels like a swelling disaster. Awful, too, the way he sweeps that counter-left hook across, not always with deadly form but a real dissuasion to leading at a guy who is bringing pressure. That said, Rudkin is right there with him, absolutely zero dog in this fighter, he just gets out-threshed. Consistently out-threshed in the first two. Works well of the jab in the third though, and arguably, arguably wins that round, although it's very close. In fact, I think he puts Harada to sleep a bit with that jab. Rudkin is brave inside, trying to match, generally getting shaded, but he's doing the better work outside in the fourth.

This is a close, well contested fight.

The basic pattern seems to be that Harada will do well early before Rudkin boxes and punches his way back into the round. Generally, the recipient is decided by one or two quality punches landed by either fighter. Harada is busier and that gives him an edge through six for me but all the rounds after the second were close.

Seventh is thrilling. Harada runs across the ring at bell and they just out and out fight for a few seconds before Rudkin establishes that precious distance. His problem is that Harada is so sudden and pouncing from outside that he is able to score well, whereas inside Harada edges things, usually. The swap vicious body blows in this round. Harada wins it clear (first clear round for either fighter since the second) and it leads to an unfair lead given how close the rounds are.

Harada is all but out of sight for me after 10, winning an ugly round dominated by infighting with neither man landing anything conclusive. 7-3 with a KD is basically game over.

Every time I think Rudkin has won a round clean, Harada finds a right hand to put it in doubt. I thought he had the 14th in the bag, but Harada arguably edged it with a swarm towards the very end. It's disheartening, because Rudkin is fighting very bravely, has given up on the jab and is just fighting Harada at his own game, and nearly, nearly finding a way. In the end though, I was only able to give him five rounds after a poor fifteenth trickled away from the Japanese via some outstanding Rudkin heart. Don't feel great about it.

Rudkin: 3,4,9,12,15
Harada: 1*,2,5,6,7,8,10,11,13,14,

*Rudkin flashed.

So I have it 10-5 Harada. However, I've never scored a fight with so many close rounds. Close ones are scored above in bold, these were rounds where an argument exists for either fighter but where i've favoured one or the other for whatever reason. If Rudkin gets the nod in all of these rounds, he'd win the contest 10-5! On the other hand, I scored him only one clear round, the last, so you could equally reasonably argue for 14-1 Harada.

Good fight, but not a great one, with Harada winning, basically, because he was busier.