the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

One of the best wins to get better with age, Nelson vs Sanchez. For myself, Nelson's ensuing HOF career takes some of the sting out of watching him beat up Salvador for a good portion of that fight.
Gomez vs this Nelson would be just as watchable as Sanchez vs Gomez, Sanchez vs Nelson, and the Gomez vs Nelson fight we did get

 

he is my “favorite” non Philly fighter. Not sure if that equates to most entertaining.

 

Tony Canzoneri W15 Kid Chocolate

Finally finished this one, and we're lucky to have a bout like this complete on film, given how old it is. I'd never seen either other than highlights so was looking forward to it. Took a couple weeks to get it done though, watching a couple rounds at a time.

1. Canzi
2. Chocolate
3. Canzi
4. Canzi
5. Canzi
6. Chocolate
7. Chocolate
8. Canzi
9. Canzi
10. Canzi
11. Chocolate
12. Canzi
13. Chocolate
14. Chocolate ( great toe-to-toe action)
15. Canzi

144-141 Canzoneri

Good fight, with both showing a low guard and mixing it up at a hard pace. Canzoneri shows a pugnacious, truculent side in leaning in with his hands down, trying to bait Chocolate into leading, then peppering him with his own hard shots. Tony has really good feet. He closes the distance very quickly while throwing short hooks to the body, to elude or prevent altogether the longer-armed Chocolate from getting any head of steam.

For his part, Chocolate neglected the jab mostly, a punch made more difficult I suppose by the constant in and out movement Canzi gave. Or, a more consistent jab could have prevented that movement, whichever view you prefer.

Good skills on display, and two bona-fide greats fighting each other. Chocolate, to his credit, rallied somewhat in the latter stages despite all those short hooks to the body early, as Canzi got a little sloppy as the bout wore on. Canzoneri's more consistent early aggression won the day though, over the more frenetic but sporadic bursts from Chocolate.

 

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Nelson bouncing back from the Sweet Pea loss in style here. Masterful display of infighting and defence imo. Great jab too. So much respect between these two as well, good to see.

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10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9 (40/36)
10 : 9
9 : 10
10 : 9
10 : 9 (79-73)
10 : 9
9 : 10
9 : 10
10 : 9 (

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Not really a close fight, or the closet classic I was hoping for, but a damn fine display of boxing from Nelson. Laporte showed toughness and great stamina, but not much else.

I think this is a pretty good example of Nelson showing his skills on the back-foot, since there were instances where he clearly didn't want to trade and I can only assume that was apart of the game plan.

 

Roberto Duran vs. Pipino Cuevas

Jan 29, 1983, Sports Arena, Los Angeles

Cuevas, 149, back in the ring after 15 months following loss to Roger Stafford (apparently a fight with Donald Curry was canceled when Pipino had to take time off for an injury; surgery I think). If he wins, he is slated to fight winner of Curry-Kirkland Laing (which never came off). Cuevas is 29-8 going in.

Duran, 152, is coming off an upset loss to Laing (1982 upset of the year - ironically, Cuevas-Stafford was ‘81 upset of the year, both by Ring). He’s 74-4 (55) and gets a shot at Davey Moore if he wins.

R1: Cuevas 10-9, some great body work and a couple of nice hooks

R2: Duran 10-9, narrowly, gets of a few combos to outwork Pipino

R3: Duran, 10-9, batters Cuevas ... this is the first glimpse of the savage Duranimal since the first Leonard fight, really

R4: Duran puts Cuevas down twice for stoppage at 2:26.

My card at time of stoppage: Duran 29-28.

This is Duran’s first stoppage since he took out Wellington Wheatley in six in 1980 in his tuneup before the Leonard fight.

 

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McDonnell coming off his 4th round stoppage of an old McGuigan, it looks like a routine title defence for Nelson, which, to be far, is exactly what it was.

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10 : 9
9 : 10
10 : 9
9 : 10
10 : 8 (48/46)
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9 (

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Nelson took over pretty quick here, after a poor 4th, he snapped Jim's head back and dropped him, stealing the momentum and not looking back. After the 4th it was all one-way traffic and Nelson, whilst not setting the world on fire, didn't have any issues. He bashed McDonnell around in the 12th and got a last minute KO.

 

Huck vs Lebedev

1- Lebedev
2- Huck
3- Lebedev
4- Huck
5- Lebedev
6- Lebedev
7- Lebedev
8- Lebedev
9- Lebedev
10- Huck
11- Lebedev
12- Lebedev

117-111 Lebedev

I've not seen this fight for ten years and thought I'd revisit it.

Lebedev was a very clear winner here, he was the Ring General for the full 12 rounds and was a much cleaner more accurate puncher than Huck throughout.

Huck stole some rounds by virtue of winging his over hand right and finding sporadic success, but at no point did Huck look like the number 1 CW in the world. And that's essentially what this fight wanted to find.

It was at this time the ring rankings went all tits up. Adamek had left for HW and Cunningham was apparently the heir apparent (due more to his close fight with Adamek then beating Braithwaite then having an actual strap) but here's the thing. The fight with Cunningham and Hernandez was stopped on a cut, Huck moved up to HW and the rematch between Cunningham and Hernandez was apparently between the top two in the division. All the while Lebedev was sat there like "hey guys remember me" all so they could easily crown a ring champion.

Anyways I digress, Lebedev was clearly the best CW at this time. He'd have eaten USS up (remember he was dropped 3x against Hernandez and was very old very quick at this point)

By 2016 Lebedev really should have been unified WBA/IBF/WBO and ring champ.

The Gassiev fight was close but Murat deserved it.

Back to this fight though, I forgot how dominant Lebedev was here. What a terrible result.

 

Sean O’Grady vs. Hilmer Kenty, April 12, 1981, at Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., for the WBA lightweight championship

O’Grady enters 74-2 (65). Kenty is 20-0 (15) and making the fourth defense of his title. O’Grady weighs 133 to Kenty’s 134 1/2.

Earlier in the day came news that Joe Louis had passed away (RIP Bomber).

1. 10-9 Kenty
2. 10-8 O’Grady (knockdown late in the round)
3. 10-9 O’Grady (by a wide margin)
4. 10-10, even
5. 10-9 O’Grady (O’Grady suffers a bad cut on the corner over his left eye which never stops bleeding the rest of the fight)
6. 10-9 O’Grady
7. 10-9 O’Grady (batters Kenty, who sustains his own cut but it never becomes a factor)
8. 10-8 O’Grady (scores another knockdown
9. 10-9 O’Grady
10. 10-9 Kenty
11. 10-9 O’Grady (great round, both hurt)
12. 10-9 O’Grady
13. 10-9 Kenty
14. 10-9 O’Grady
15. 10-9 O’Grady

My scorecard: O’Grady 147-137. Every round I gave Kenty except for the first was debatable. A couple of the ones I gave O’Grady were close and could have gone the other way.

Official scoring: O’Grady wins UD — 145-141, 146-141, 147-141

O’Grady’s body punching was fierce. He landed solid rights to the body from the outside from start to finish and then worked Kenty over really well to the belly in close.

 

Tony Canzoneri v Kid Chocolate 1

What a gift this fight is to have a complete 15 rounder from boxing's golden age - a fascinating contest and a tough fight to score although I felt Canzoneri won clearly.

Canzoneri never seems to attack in the same way twice. If there wasn't the full fight footage and just highlights or snippets you might be forgiven for thinking Canzoneri fought in one particular style and judge him accordingly but the truth is he could box off the back or front foot, lead with his jab or a hook or a straight right, dance or stand flat footed and trade. His style and his ability to shape shift in the course of just one round would keep most fighters guessing.

Kid Chocolate, in contrast, apart from the relative (to today) low hand position, fights in a style most of us would recognize as 'modern'. He uses his jab to set up attacks and keeps the same stance throughout.

I'm not too wedded to my score and suspect plenty would have scored rounds differently to me. It was close but not so close as to be controversial in my view.

1 10-9 (landed the best punch of the round)
2 9-10 (Chocolate got the better of the exchanges)
3 10-9 (close. The Kid used his jab well but Canzoneri rocked him with another big right)
4 10-9
5 9-10
6 9-10 (close)
7 10-9
8 10-9
9 10-9 (close and difficult to score)
10 9-10 (close again)
11 9-10 (close, tough to score)
12 10-9
13 10-9
14 10-10 (good action)
15 9-10 (close. Letting it all hang out in a terrific final round)

Canzoneri 144-142 Chocolate

 

Jimmy McClarnin v Al Singer

The main point of interest in this one is the first knockdown in round 3. McGovern drops Singer with a right hand but Singer was seemingly on his way over from a left hook which looked to land on the back of the head. Singer lies on the mat with his hand holding the back of his head and barely makes it to his feet. Meanwhile, McClarnin in an apparent celebration performs a front flip followed by a kick just before resuming the fight with Singer, who has made it to his feet by this point.

McClarnin follows up and drops Singer again and Singer stays down while complaining to the ref about punches to the back of his head.

A weird little fight.

1 10-9
2 10-9 (close)
(20-18)
3 McClarnin KO Singer

 

Ketchel vs Papke

I really like Ketchel here and I tell you what's a bit mental, his mauling fighting style for years has been classed as all out aggression but if you gmtransport that style to today, someone firing a pawing jab, leaping with a hook and then smothering his opponents work until a break is called, rinse and repeat up until the point where his leaping hooks are hurting his opponent and a beating ensues, would that style still be classed as all out aggression?

I really don't think it would. Boxers today who smother up close and lands shots from long to mid range are usually called smart technicians.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Ketchel is the smartest of technicians in MW history, I am saying though that the idea someone as old as he was would just get picked off at ease is false.

I mean yeah he squares up sometimes, but so did Carl Froch and he was the number 1 in his division (granted it was only because Andre Ward left for LHW)

But you couldn't accuse Ketchel of being slow, I don't think you can accuse him of wasting too many punches.

A lot of the guys who smother their opponents best work today are usually criticised in terms of, if only they opened up more, if only they had power. Well Ketchel did both.

Conclusion, I like what I see.

 

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Hectic, chaotic affair here. Awesome fight, dreadful decision. I think I had it 9-3 Fenech last time too; awful robbery.

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9 : 10
10 : 9*
10 : 9
10 : 9 (39/37)
10 : 9
9 : 10
10 : 9
10 : 9 (78-74)
9 : 10*
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9 (

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Swing rounds*
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One of the best third rounds I ever saw in this one. Shame I missed the boat with @Saintpat's thread.

Catching Jeff cold early on, Azumah took the first with a crisp counter left hook, and rattled Jeff in the 2nd. After that it didn't really have much affect and Azumah started to succumb to Jeff's pressure.

Damn, Fenech was so good. Even here, 8lbs, 6 years and two broken hands past his best, he's still an absolute animal. Underrated skills too, loved his head-movement and smothering techniques. Showed some brilliant short shots at times and a nice high-guard and crouch style defence. Monster chin, bull-esc chin and a frantic pace to boot. Very hard to beat.

Nelson's defence was really good, very subtle and slippery. Showed some great skills with his back to the ropes, and in the centre of the ring he demonstrated excellent footwork and textbook hooking off the jab. His counters shook up Jeff a bit early on (as mentioned), and just the fact he could keep up with a freak like Fenech is a great feet on its own.

Round 10 was mad. Azumah was picked up and thrown WWE style, the referee ate a flush shot and it was non stop action all the way through.

 

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By far Nelson's best win imo. Reversing that highly controversial decision in the first fight only adds to it.

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10 : 8
10 : 9
10 : 9*
10 : 9 (40/35)
10 : 9
10 : 9
10 : 9 (

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Fenech didn't look right in this one, he wasn't as confident, didn't have the usual mean look on his face and wasn't as aggressive as before. Nelson had him best from the get-go.

Surgical performance from The Professor here. Complete and utter schooling. Showing that iron chin, and displaying his whole skill-set. Especially his counters.

Crisp cross to get that KD in the first. Bogus KD in the 2nd, though. And a beating in the 8th to get the KO.

I don't like Nelson's comments after this one, especially as a Fenech fan.

 

Don’t remember what he said after but I remember the beat down. Plus Fenech not looking the same may have had something to do with fighting an Azumah who did not have malaria.