the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Mosley vs John John Molina

Mosley looks a lot better in this fight, nowhere near as nervous as the Holiday fight.

He moves around the ring a lot better and is more patient with his shots. But his defence is still non existent other than hoping he can move his head quicker than the opposition can punch.

Very quick, very explosive and very powerful, but here's the problem with Shane as a LW. Unless he can physically overwhelm you he won't win, imo. He is too drained to do 15 hard rounds and he's too hittable to have much success against many of the greats of the division. I mean he doesn't pressure relentlessly, he fights like and on and out fighter, but gets hit on the way in and the way out lol.

I'm can't wait to rewatch the fight with Oscar because I've no idea how someone with Oscars style loses to someone with Shane's style.

Don't get me wrong, I've watched the fight loads of times over the years, but since rewatching all these LW fighters, from a prediction viewpoint, I just don't get it.

 

Just wanna point out, I've been a bit overly critical of De La Hoya and Mosley in my last few posts.

Both are undoubtedly, imo, great fighters. Both were P4P superstars and multiple divisional champions.

Both would crack the top 20 WW and LW lists for me, just that both fall short, imho, of top ten.

So when I say things like, they don't cut it, I'm talking about they don't cut it to make my top ten.

But both are greats.

 

De La Hoya vs Mosley

Felt bad for my earlier posts so thought I'd give this a rewatch and enjoy two P4P greats at their best.

I gave Mosley the first, Oscar was far too tentative and didn't really do anything other than follow Mosley about.

Rounds 2-6 I gave to Oscar, he had that jab going, dictated the pace and showed he really was a superior technician to Mosley

Rounds 7-12 Oscar faded, and actually this fight makes me believe he always would have lost to Floyd, he gave his jab up half way through here I think his peak, movement and speed is always going to befuddle him. But anyways Mosley is able to beat him to the punch, finish strong and take home the W.

I had it 115-113 for Mosley, but in no way close enough to give the fight to Oscar. Found it pretty easy to score tbh... Oscar showed he had the style to beat Mosley, but Mosley has superior speed and workrate and prime for prime is always going to give him fits.

They might not make a top ten on any or l of my lists, but they would be strong contenders for a top 15 spot on every division they won championships in imo.

 

Yes sir, you aren't lying, this is a good fight. I like how we see Zarate come back from getting blasted after Martinez switches up on him, to, in a relatively short period of time, solve that particular puzzle his opponent presented him with and from there go out and take the title away from the champion, which must've pleased that set of fans who subscribe to that notion. No "I thought i did enough to win the fight..." mentality or appearance here. Carlos eventually just was beating Martinez up, down, left, etc

 

Genaro Hernandez vs Floyd Mayweather

This fight is Floyd's coming out party. He has a bit of hype about him and he's in against the number 1 fighter in the division.

Floyd throws very few meaningful jabs. He loves the left hook, sometimes doubling it up, mixing it in with the straight right. But it's his feet and his upper body movement. He goes from out of range to punching range so quickly.

He leaps in with the hook, slips and slides anything coming back at him, lands a 3 punch combo and leaps out again. It's a thing of beauty tbh.

In round one Floyd looks so tiny, Hernandez literally tries walking right through him, but a few well timed hooks and straights put a stop to that.

By round 5 Hernandez is feeling the affect of the punches and Floyd now uses his jab a lot more to push him back, to open his guard and he really takes it Hernandez.

Floyd's arsenal here is brilliant BTW, he throws great jabs and straights to the body, uppercuts sitting the guard, hooks round the guard, straights through the guard.

During the last two round he mixes it up inside with Hernandez, rolling constantly to take the sting off any punches and firing back with big power shots of his own, James Toney style.

The stoppage is mercyful. Hernandez can't land any meaningful punches and can't avoid or block any thing coming at him.

What a great showing.

 

Jiro Watanabe W12 Payao Poontarat (first fight)

I'd never seen either of these two before, and frankly, it didn't go well. This was just an ugly fight. Very little clean punching, lots of discord with the attempted blending of two rather classical styles marred by one of them being a damn southpaw.

1. Even
2. P
3. P
4. P
5. P
6. W
7. W
8. W
9.W
10. W
11. P
12. W

115-114 Watanabe

The Japanese did a decent job of pulling this one out of the fire when it looked like Poontarat was running away with it a bit, at least on my card. Sloppy, uneven thing that was not a pleasant watch, that's for sure.

 

Mayweather vs Manfredy.

The fight is all about Manfredy trying in vain to get inside and Floyd keeping him at range with those long arms.

It is the same thing up until Angel walks into a counter, Floyd hurts him and jumps on him.

Very good first defence this.

 

Mayweather vs Gregorio Vargas.

I'd forgotten about this brief period in the history of Mayweather.

He looked flawless in his title winning effort and he then defended against a highly ranked challenger in Manfredy.

But he did miself no favours in 99, he faced poor opposition in his 3 title defences, had a fall out with his dad and brought in some rapper to be his manager.

He'd just turned down a HBO contract, and couldn't sell out his ticket allocation so a quarter had to be given away.

And then to compound matters, he starts 2000 by stepping up competition by facing Gregorio Vargas and he breaks his hand early on. Meaning we see a defensive display of pot shotting for 12 boring rounds as Mayweather refuses to take any chances.

At this time Corrales was picking up a belt and cutting a swathe through the division with brutal dominance.

This fight is easy to score. Every round is Mayweather, it just isn't easy to watch.

Mayweather does eventually get that HBO contract and starts it with the all action afair against the over matched Augustus.

Setting us up nicely for the huge unification fight between Floyd and Corrales.

 

Mayweather vs Corrales

Wow

 

Michael Spinks vs. Marvin Johnson

March 28, 1981, at Resorts International in Atlantic City, N.J.

Spinks, 15-0 (10) is ranked No. 1 and Johnson, 27-4 (18) is No. 2 per commentary and introductions but they didn’t identify the ranking organization ... presumably WBA since the winner advanced to challenge Eddie Mustafa Muhammad for his WBA crown.

Spinks scales 176, Johnson 174.

Spinks is two fights removed from stopping Yaqui Lopez. Johnson has been in a series of wars with Matthew Saad Muhammad, Victor Galindez and Mustafa Muhammad over the previous 24 months.

Round 1: 10-9 Johnson — Pops comes out fast, winging power punches from the start. He connects with some solid lefts and works Spinks’ body really well when he puts Michael on the ropes. Spinks lands some short, snappy counters but not enough.

Round 2: 10-9 Johnson — Johnson continues with his aggressive assault, timing his left well and hooking to the body with his right. Spinks starts to get his jab on track and also lands some good punches of his own but Johnson’s workrate takes it.

Round 3: 10-9 Johnson — Marvin pours it on but Spinks is starting to dig in and land some powerful counters of his own. Still, Marvin continues to display the offense that kept him at or near the top of the Division for so long.

Round 4: Johnson keeps coming and he isn’t wasting any time or energy on trying to score points; all power shots and still landing at a good rate. Spinks lands a right to the body that halts Johnson in his tracks and visibly slows him. A few moments later Spinks lands a sizzling left uppercut and throws up his hands as the ref counts out Johnson at 1:22 of the round.

Damned good action fight and Spinks coming out party as a true force in the division. He goes on to beat Mustafa Muhammad to begin his title run, while Pops regroups and has another run of his own when he takes the vacant WBA belt with a win over Leslie Stewart in 1986.

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BTW, this was ABC with Howard Cosell solo on the call. Funny moment during introductions when the ring announcer introduces both of them as being from Philadelphia, haha.

 

Here's one I wanted to look at. The 1982 Larry Holmes v Gerry Cooney fight. Here we go.

Round 1: 10-9 Holmes
Round 2: 10-8 Holmes (scores a knockdown)
Round 3: 10-9 Cooney
Round 4: 10-9 Cooney
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Holmes
Round 7: 10-10 Even
Round 8: 10-9 Cooney
Round 9: 9-8 Holmes (I scored this round for Cooney but he lost a point for a low blow and another point for I don't know what)
Round 10: 10-9 Cooney
Round 11: 10-8 Holmes (Cooney lost an additional point for another low-blow)
Round 12: 10-9 Holmes
Round 13: Holmes stops Cooney late in the round

Total (through 12 completed rounds): 115-111 Holmes

Official scores were something like 113-111 (twice) and 115-109 all for Holmes. I didn't think Cooney did too bad but really started to come apart at the seams over those last couple of rounds.

 

I’m about to do Holmes-Witherspoon, haha. And try to do Holmes-Weaver before the weekend is up.

 

Larry Holmes (c) vs. Tim Witherspoon

May 20, 1983, at Dunes Hotel and Casino Outdoor Arena in Las Vegas, 12 rounds for Holmes’ WBC heavyweight championship

Holmes comes in 42-0 (30) weighing 213, while Witherspoon is 15-0 (11) and 219 1/2. Both stand 6-foot-3. This is Holmes’ 15th defense (!). The Easton Assassin is 33 years old; Terrible Tim is 25.

Round 1: Holmes 10-9 (close, could be even)
Round 2: Holmes 10-9 (again, close and possibly even)
Round 3: Witherspoon 10-9 (body work takes the round)
Round 4: Holmes 10-9 (the champion goes flat-footed, closes the distance and establishes his jab)
Round 5: Holmes 10-9 (a couple of nice combinations)
Round 6: Holmes 10-9 (that jab)
Round 7: Holmes 10-9 (close, could go either way, great exchanges)
Round 8: Witherspoon 10-9 (‘Spoon starts to get busy)
Round 9: Witherspoon 10-9 (an all-time heavyweight round as Terrible Tim hurts Holmes, who storms back late)
Round 10: Holmes 10-9 (on his toes boxing)
Round 11: Holmes 10-9
Round 12: Holmes 10-9
My card: Holmes 117-111

Outcome: Holmes regains by split decision. Official cares are 118-111, 115-113, 114-115

Witherspoon’s cross-arm defense gave Holmes trouble and he had a couple of rounds where he landed big punches (the seventh and ninth, which I split between the fighters on my card) but Holmes works a full 3 minutes every round and Witherspoon goes too long without punching in so many of these rounds (before the seventh his corner is begging him to let his hands go). There’s stretches where Holmes throws like 8 jabs over 30-45 seconds and lands 2 cleanly and another one or two partially ... but Witherspoon doesn’t even throw a punch in that span. It happens too often.

Great fight, very competitive, and that’s another point I want to make: a fighter can win every round (say 120-108 in a 12-round fight) and it can be a razor-close fight ... but if he wins every round by the thinnest of margins then he wins by a wide margin on the cards. A lot of people don’t get that. As a judge you can’t say ‘well I gave Fighter A the last round and it was pretty close but I thought he deserved it, so I’m going to give this round to Fighter B even though I thought Fighter A edged it too.’ Not how it works.

Fun fight and I can see how people might score it closer, but to me it’s a stretch to give it to Witherspoon.

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