the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Nah, I'm not much of a card-keeper. I felt Jimenez did the better work early on, obviously, but so many rounds were difficult to score on the grounds of them being so close due to different reasons. I could certainly see a substantial point-swing on the cards depending on how you scored certain rounds. I just generally felt Jimenez got narrowly the better of it all in all.

 

Watched Pedroza-Lockridge II today. I was dismayed to see the youtub version I saw was missing round one, but in my opinion it wouldn't have mattered in determining the victor.

I had Pedroza up 9-5 in rounds 2 through 15. It was a much different fight than their first one, which saw Pedroza doing very little in the first half of the fight and then staging a furious rally in the championship rounds to take the split decision. In the rematch he did the beter work early, determined to leave nothing to guess at in the end. Then, oddly, Lockridge started coming on a bit starting in round nine, punching more and landing more solidly, all the while keeping Pedroza against the ropes.

Pedroza won two of the last three on my card though, pulling away finally. Good scrap, very interesting. Particularly in comparison with their first fight.

 

Hearns-Leonard II. I didn't keep an official score card because I forgot, but I definitely felt that the decision should have gone to Tommy.

 

Watched Pongsaklek Wonjongkam vs Naito IV -
Naito - 6 rounds
Pongsaklek - 5 rounds

1 round even....

 

Watching Ali-Shavers again, as it has been awhile.

Round 1-Ali outworks him. Shavers lands two good right hands, but is otherwise outjabbed and outworked. Ali's Round, clear.

Round 2-Ali starts to round with a sustained flurry the looks pretty, but this round is dictated by Shavers landing numerous huge right hands that shake the champ. Shavers Round, clear.

Round 3- I am conflicted on this round. Ali lands many, many flicking pitty pat jabs in this frame, and gets numerous flurries off. That said, one left hook at the end of a final flurry is the only power punch that clearly scores for Ali. Shavers landed multiple hard body shots, and a couple grazing right hands upstairs. Ali outworked Shavers 3 to 1, outlanded him 2 to 1, but Shavers did all the damage. Pressed, I'll give it to the fighter who did more fighting rather than score even. Ali Round, close.

Round 4- This round amused me in that Ali started to pierce Shavers guard with more power punches, and Shavers managed to outjab Ali. A razor thin round till the last 40 seconds, Shavers lands a good left hook and two thunderous right hands to clearly grab the stanza. Shavers Round, close.

Round 5-Ali starts the round on his toes, and for the first minute, soundly outboxes Earnie. He spends the rest of the round looking like vintage Ali, oddly, and clearly takes it. Shavers lands nothing of consequence. This is the first round that Ali can say he clearly took, without any doubt.

Through 5, I have it 3-2 for Ali, because he's scored more and thrown 3 or 4 times as many punches. But I could easily see 3-2 for Shavers, and his blows are the ones causing hurt.

Round 6- Wow. Weird round. Ali completely gives it away. Throws no punches. Astonishingly, neither does Shavers! He punches with no steam the entire round, and outworks Ali with shots that are so soft and arm variety they can't have caused pain. Clear Shavers round, but one with zero damage dealt. Shavers Round, clear.

Round 7- A great round, the most entertaining round so far, ironically following one of the worst rounds I have ever seen. Ali throws more, they land about equally, but I like the thudding power in Shavers shots. I give him the edge in a close round for the clear effect his punches have, even though he was briefly wobbled by a counter hook himself. Shavers , close.

Round 8- Ali takes another one off. An awful decision. Shavers again cant get much done against the overly defensive champion, but he wins the round because he exuded 80% of the effort. What punches Ali threw, he did land, but he was backed up all round and didnt throw nearly enough. Shavers round, clear.

Round 9- This round looked to me like a Shavers round, but it seemed razor thin, so I watched it again. Upon doing so, it was an Ali round. Many of what looked like Earnies big connects actually missed, and though Ali threw 3 or 4 flurries in the round, for the first time in the fight, a majority of the punches in each flurry scored. The slow motion replay seemed to confirm this new analysis: It showed Ali flurrying 21 punches, landing 9, and Shavers misses a huge counter that looked like it landed in real time. Ali round, close.

Round 10- Shavers opens with a huge right hand to the chest that is very showy. He tries to wade forward and gets clipped with a counter hook for his trouble. Ali then gets on his toes and tries to play his younger self, throwing the jab that had been absent since round 5 and getting off good combos. It seems to me like he sensed he really needed a good round and committed to having one. Shavers keeps pressuring and landing hard right hands, and Ali counters by getting space and successfully jabbing and moving for 10-15 seconds. With just under a minute left, Shavers walks into a left hook and is seriously buzzed. This is in my mind the difference in the round-Both landed great shots, Ali didn't budge, Shavers clearly did. Ali round, clear.

Through 10, its even, but Ali was seriously letting the fight go till he made a stand in 9 and 10.

Round 11- Ali boxing really well, now actually working. He has his best round since the 5th. Outside of a hard left hook and huge right hand at the one minute remaining mark, Shavers has no moments, and spends the round get outmaneuvered and hit. Ali round, clear.

Round 12- A very close round, following the pattern of the fight: Ali lands good jabs, and does his work in flurries, interspersed with huge single connects by Shavers. I give this to Ali, he outworked him and got some good power hits himself. Ali Round, close.

Round 13- Shavers opens the round by hurting Ali worse than he's been since the second. Ali outboxes Shavers in spells throughout the round, but Earnie keeps breaking his rhythm with big right hands that clearly shake Ali each time. Shavers round, clear.

Round 14- Ali is wilting, it seems. He looks almost gassed. But he's still finding Shavers easy to hit, and when he lets his hands go, he lands multiple hard shots. Shavers, however, can't seem to miss with his big right hand either, he just isnt throwing it very often. Ali slips, could have been a knockdown, but I would have made the same call as the ref. Shavers is beginning to let the right hand go to devastating effect. He shakes Ali again in this round. Shavers round, clear.

Round 15- Shavers wants a knockout and comes out really banging. The right hand has been there for Shavers all night, and he finally seems content to let it go in the last round and a half. He may have stopped Ali had he had this mindset from the second on. Ali is fighting back and landing, but most of the round is carried by Shavers huge blows. Soon before the round ends, however, Ali hurts Shavers BADLY. As in, 20 more seconds in the fight, he puts him away. He spends the rest of the round landing blow after blow. This is the definition of stealing a round. Ali, close.

I had it to Ali, 9-6. It was a close, competitive fight, but the arguments that Shavers was robbed are arguments I now find weak. He just didn't do enough for me.

 

Just watched Bowe-Holyfield 1

I scored it 117-112, though I was being generous to Holyfield calling one or 2 of those rounds draws.

I'd be interested in hearing what you classic people scored the fight as (I know it's wasn't a close one or anything, just looking for pointers on how to score fights properly).

 

Last night I watched Galindez-Eddie Gregory. I must like to punish myself, because these two have styles that just make me yawn, but I watched it for educational purposes.

It was a generally slow-paced fight, but there were good moments. I was struck by how little work Gregory did in the first few rounds, and how much Galindez seemed to lose his sharp edge as the rounds progressed.

I scored it 142-141 for Galindez, taking into consideration the two points the ref erroneously took from Gregory in round 13.

I thought Galindez looked bad, and Gregory should have worked harder.

 

Just watched for the first time Walter McGowan vs Salvatore Burruni II. What a performance by the quicksilver wee Scot it was! Seriously it is probably the best display I have seen of a Scottish boxer in the ring.

McGowan vaguely reminded me of Harold Johnson. Both men were quite upright pure technicians with solid fundamentals. McGowan to me was the more versatile and dynamic, favouring an approach of controlling the distance rather than purely countering, whereas Johnson was much more in favour of blocking and slipping to set up his counters, McGowan would change angle and distance to set up shots.

McGowan also seemed to be more varied as he would mix in sharp punches with his jab and used his jab in a few different ways. Johnson, on the other hand, tended to lack imagination at times and generally stuck rigidly to his jab.

Although I would say Johnson was slightly tighter defensively and had the superior offence, although McGowan could put his shots together well when he wanted to.

OK, to the actual bout.

McGowan started as he meant to continue as he kept his left jab pumping to keep the countering Burruni unable to get himself set for his counters, as he changed angle behind the jab McGowan would put together nice combinations of 1-2s and 1-2-left hooks. Superb stuff.

In the fourth Burruni had slightly more success as he was able to land some hard counters but McGowan backed well with sharp right hand leads and left hooks. This pattern continued as Burruni was able to land a few good counters but generally McGowan kept control of the bout with left jab and his very own counters, allowing Wee Walter to stay in the role of ring general.

Burruni's best success came in the sixth where the pace of the bout dropped and Burruni was able to set his feet better and land some hard counters. McGowan, however, came back well in the next few rounds as he picked some superb shots with his right hand as he kept Burruni off-balance with that snappy left jab, however McGowan was cut in the eight, with a grazing left hook, badly!

Burruni upped it in the ninth sensing he could finish it on cuts, as he boobed behind a snappy left jab and put together some nice combinations on the slightly more vulnerable (at this point) McGowan.

Again responding admirably in the next round McGowan regained control by using feints which completly unsettled Burruni's rhythm and allowed McGowan to pick off the Italian almost at will. This continued until the final bell as McGowan used superb lateral movement and changes in angles to land on the Italian and weathered a very bad cut in the last two rounds to come home as champion.

An entrancing performance by the superb wee Scot who was only 23 at the time, to Burruni's 33. (and 89 fights of Burruni to McGowans 25.)

McGowan: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,10,11,12,13,14,15
Burruni: 6,9
Total: 148-137 McGowan (13-2)

 

Good action fight that. I think I had it fairly wide to Hafey a sort of 6-4 sort of decision but fairly clear.

 

Alan Minter vs. Vito Antuofermo

Minter: 1,2,3,7,8,9,12,13,15
Antuofermo: 4,5,6,10,11,14(10-8),

This fight really evolved in stages with each men taking turns fighting the other mans fight. In the early rounds, Minter was completely dominant behind his jab and straight left hand. He absolutely picked Vito apart and landed some great punches down the middle. In the 4th-6th, Vito upped his pace, made the fight rougher, started fouling more, and scoring more. The 4th was close, but the 5th and 6th were clearly for Vito, as he mauled and outworked Minter. Minter then discovered that he could counter Vito's rushes, and lit him up coming inside in the 7th and 8th. In the 9th, a slightly cowed champion stood at distance trying to counterpunch, and Minter was able to reestablish his jab and straight left hand. Shocked Vito wasnt cut from the clean punches he took through 9.
In the 10th, Vito just decides "**** Alan's jab" and starts marching through his straight punches and counters and really starts firing his right hand hard, and lands some of his best punches of the fight. Minter is flustered, and almost complete comes undone in the 11th, as Vito mauls,outfights, and blasts him with hard rights. Minter responds in the 12th by letting his hands go as hard as he can, and though he still gets beat on in typical Vito style, Minter lands the harder, cleaner, and more effective shots in the 12th, hurting the champion late.
In the 13th, Minter actually goes to moving his feet and turning Vito, and has a good round boxing behind his jab. Vito gets more and more desperate in the 14th, and thus opens himself up to some wicked shots, but as he bulls forward, a right puts Minter off balance and Vito's forward momentum continues to roll, and he bumrushes Minter over for a flash knockdown.
The 15th is characterize by Minters decision to put his right hook after his 1-2, and he absolutely lights Vito up with this combination all round.

My score-9-6 in rounds to Minter, 143-141. He wins by split decision, and its well earned. It was relatively tight, but I thought Alan did indeed take the title from the champion.

 

Just watched Pernell Whitaker vs Buddy McGirt I

I thought Whitaker controlled the fight and was in a better rhythm landing the cleaner shots and being more active. McGirt had his moments in the middle of the rounds and started winning the last few rounds due to Pea showboating and getting lax but Pea at that point already had it in the bag. I think some of the rounds were close but Whitaker definitely controlled the fight. Merchant called the fight violent chess. A solid tactical battle. I think round 9 was the toughest to score as I almost had McGirt winning it due to the clean right hands he was landing but Pea did do some work so I re-evaluated it and ended up scoring that round a 10-10 round.

Whitaker: 1,2,3,6,7,8,10
McGirt: 4,5,11,12
Even: 9

Whitaker 116-113

Whitaker won by UD (115-113, 115-113, 117-111)

What are some other great Pea fights to watch? Some of his other best fights you'd recommend.

 

That was McGirt's last great effort. I had Pea winning that one 114-113.

You might look at Whitaker's fight with Vasquez for the latter's 154-pound title. He gets a little bruised up in that one and is at a serious size and strength deficit, but manages to make his own presence felt.

 

Most of Hafey's fights are good to watch.

I watched Bobby Chacon vs Danny Lopez today, and with those two in the ring it could not fail to delight.

It is one of Chacon's more disciplined performances as he moves around well and counters with superb long precise right hands and left hooks on the more open Lopez. Lopez is constantly going forward behind a jab and a straight right looking to bring in uppercuts but Chacon does a good job of making him miss with his head movement and sliding away before unleasing some lovely combo's of his own.

Chacon is in charge but every so often Lopez manages to pin him to the ropes with a few combo's but cannot really land the hurtful shots to finish Chacon, and finally the attrition of Chacon's right hands catch up with Lopez and the ref has to save him after a blistering Chacon rally in the ninth.

Chacon:1,2,3,5,7,8
Lopez: 4,6
Total: 78-74 Chacon (6-2)