the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Chris, checked it out last night and you're spot-on with your analysis. Van Horn was so strong and unintimidated throughout the contest, but like you said, it didn't seem like Holmes was too bad coming off great efforts in the previous few rounds. But the body shot was like you simply pulled the plug from him. Wouldn't have seen it coming had I not already knew the result.

Round 1: 10-9 Holmes
Round 2: 10-9 Holmes
Round 3: 10-9 Holmes
Round 4: 10-9 Van Horn
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Van Horn
Round 7: 10-9 Holmes
Round 8: 10-9 Holmes
Round 9: 10-9 Holmes
Round 10: 10-10 Even
Round 11: Van Horn stops Holmes

Total (through 10 completed rounds): 98-94 Holmes (actual scores: 96-94 twice for Holmes and 96-94 Van Horn)

 

Canzoneri vs Ross

It's funny actually, in this fight Canzoneri is accused by the commentators of fighting too recklessly given the technical ability of Ross. Its the same way he always fought, and it was enough for him to win plenty of rounds throughout his career.

The huge thing here is he couldn't get Ross out of his rhythm. Ross had an absolute ATG jab and he would regularly follow it up with a straight or a hook. He also wasn't flat footed, he was very fluid on his feet.

However he wasn't a back foot fight, he was more of a boxer puncher who used that jab as a way into his attacks.

More than all that was he had a very tight defence so he didn't leave the openings that Canzoneri required to exploit, and his activity levels behind that jab made it very difficult for Tony to get any thing going.

With Canzoneri's style he will probably always win a highlights contest as almost every punch he lands looks incredible, but Ross really showed here how to negate his best work.

Ross is fantastic, short of waiting for him to grow old and pressuring him into defeat, how do you beat someone like this?

It would take an absolute dedication to pressure fighting to ever beat Ross imo. Or be a better boxer, of which there can't be many at all.

 

Watched a terrific lightweight encounter today from the stacked 135 lb. division of the early 80s. Rockin Robin Blake v Harry Arroyo. Scored on NJ's rounds basis.

Round 1: Arroyo
Round 2: Arroyo
Round 3: Even
Round 4: Arroyo
Round 5: Arroyo
Round 6: Arroyo
Round 7: Blake
Round 8: Blake
Round 9: Even
Round 10: Blake

Total: 5-3-2 Arroyo (actual scores: 6-3-1 twice and 5-4-1 all for Arroyo)

Arroyo just picked off Blake in the first half of the fight with counters and those lead rights of his were spot-on, before Blake turned it on in the second half. It's good to see all the judges were watching the same fight and not some of the ludicrous decisions we see today.

 

Need to rewatch this. Didn't really focus on it the last time as was too tired to take it all in.

 

I recommend it highly.

Canzoneri keeps trying to throw Ross off his rhythm and when he can't do it with ability, he tries to do it with cockiness and arrogance, but Ross has none of it.

Of course, as always, Canzoneri lands some clean highlight reel shots, but by the most part we see Ross constantly using his jab to nullify the work of Canz.

 

Canzoneri vs McLarnin 1

Now this fight is a showcase of Canzoneri's. It demonstrates his biggest flaw, which is not that his style can be offset by a consistent accurate jab, but that by relying on his reflexes and timing he puts his chin in dangerous territory.

Before I go any further, I believe I've nailed down an adequate description of his style. Canzoneri is a hybrid of Eubank, Hamed and Pacquiao. He has the reflex based front foot counter punching of a Hamed type fighter and his feet flit from Eubank carefully placed subtle footwork, to Pacquiaos in your face aggressive footwork, depending on the man in front of him. So that's what I'm going with, a hybrid of Eubank/Naz and Hamed. 3 styles that would not be taught to any young aspiring boxer, but proven at the absolute highest level.

Anyways back to this fight, in round one he gets caught hard by Jimmy and spends the rest of the round trying to shake it off. The remaining rounds show him pick Jimmy apart in a beautiful display of front foot counter punching. How he didn't get the ko ill never know. Even more shocking is that 5 month later Jimmy somehow returns the trick, given how one sided this fight was I can't wait to see what's different about it.

But if you want to see an aggressive Canzoneri, this is the fight for you.

 

Yeah, I enjoyed this one. Canzoneri caught him with some great shots and countered really well, I thought.

Not sure I could find the return match though.

 

Barney Ross v Billy Petrolle 2

One word: schooled.

Of the 18 minutes or so of direct footage from this ten rounder, I reckon Ross won 17 minutes. Petrolle had a bit of success somewhere between the 6th and 8th with some decent enough body attacks but other than that, Ross outboxed him every way that a fighter could be outboxed. Ross's jab morphed into a neat left hook, his defense was impeccable throughout and he stood and traded with Petrolle and came out on top every time. That was a shutout and Ross was bloody marvellous.

I'll leave this with the following quote:
"Did you ever see a dream fighting? Well, I did - that is when Barney didn't have that left glove in front of my face. That boy is a marvel. He's got everything. He'll be lightweight champion until he's as old as I am, if he doesn't grow out of the division."

That was Petrolle after the fight.

 

Canzoneri vs Ambers

I never really gave Ambers much credit as a fighter before today.

I always bought into the narrative that Armstrong was shafted by low blows and Ambers was fortunate that Armstrong concentrated on his WW crown.

But I'm trying to undo some of that preconception I have.

In this fight its apparent that Ambers is very similar stylistically to Canzoneri, but I think he's a bit more back foot and a bit more athletic. It's very clear that he isn't as good as Tony though.

The way Canzoneri drops him in the third, the fight easily could have been a ko victory had it been earlier in the round.

I think Ambers is a bit better than Mandell, but a bit worse than Canzoneri.

 

I need to see more of Lou Ambers. I scored Canzoneri-Ambers 1 145-140 to Canzoneri based on the available footage. I thought Ambers fight well but Canzi had an extra string or two to his bow that he could call on.

I've got Armstrong-Ambers 2 on the watchlist after I've got through Ross-McLarnin 1-3.

 

Gene Tunney vs Harry Greb

This is the first fight between the two greats and it was the American LHW title on the line.

Interestingly enough Kid McPartland was the ref.

I had to stop after round 5 but I'll finish the rest tomorrow.

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

He reminds me a lot of Joe Calzaghe with his non stop punching and exahusting feet movement trying to create wild angles that the opponent can't defend against.

5 seconds into the fight and Greb had landed a wicked two punch combo that burst the nose of Tunney. It was a lead right followed by a left hook, not a combo you see often. Tunney tries to back up behind the jab and counter on the inside with big uppercut, but Greb is too fast of foot and he cuts the ring off expertly, constantly circling and leaping in with 2,3, 4 punch combinations. Dominant first round for Greb.

Greb throws a 3 punch combination, 2 jabs and a left hook but then Tunney ties him up and starts throwing big hooks to the body in the clinch, Greb fights fire with fire and unleashes his own attack which causes Tunney to break from the clinch and go on the retreat again.

Rounds 3 and 4 follow a similar pattern with Tunney looking completely helpless in there. His jab is constantly being slipped and any time he opens up Greb counters with a combination. So far it's all Greb.

Round 5 and Tunney is now having more success with timing the shots of Greb. He lands a solid jab backing Greb up against the ropes where he lands a combination of his own. When Tunney can get his punches off you can really see the size difference, but he can't keep it up for long as Greb manages to spin off the ropes and drive Tunney back himself. Close round but Tunney shades it for me.

I'll finish the rest tomorrow before watching Ambers Armstrong.

 

I didn't score it because I hate scoring partial rounds. But Canzoneri seemed well in control to me.

 

I know this is a joke, but I really hope you miraculously have this footage.

 

Best scorecard ever.

 

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9 : 10
10 : 9
9 : 10*
9 : 10* (37/39)
10 : 9
10 : 9*
9 : 10
9 : 10 (75/77)
10 : 9*
10 : 9*
9 : 10
10 : 9* (

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Never seen this one before, let alone scored it. I like these two though, and love their second fight.

Absolute ball-ache to score. Almost every round was a torrid decision between cleaner, harder punching or sheer volume from the southpaw. I thought Rosario's crisper punching was ever so slightly more effective in a few of the closest rounds. However, Rosario's style clearly didn't like José's.

This fight was a really fun watch, both of these guys have very fun styles, and both of them showed genuinely elite skills.

Rounds 6 and 10 were wicked.