the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Jel and George, I've been perusing some Daniel Zaragoza fights and I saw you guys mentioning the 2nd fight between he and Paul Banke. I remember when the trilogy took place but for some reason never saw them, despite hearing great things on them. Anyways, awesome fight! Diego Corrales v Jose Luis Castillo type stuff. One of the best I've seen.

Daniel Zaragoza v Paul Banke II

Round 1: 10-9 DZ
Round 2: 10-9 DZ
Round 3: 10-9 Banke
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-9 DZ
Round 6: 10-9 Banke
Round 7: 10-9 DZ
Round 8: 10-9 Banke
Round 9: Zaragoza down twice and ref stops the fight in Banke's favor

Total (through 8 completed rounds): 77-76 Zaragoza (actual scores: 78-74, 79-73 and 78-75 all for Zaragoza)

What a fight! Every round swayed back and forth. Clean punching from both sides and certain rounds like 5 and 6 for instance were off the charts. Great fight.

 

Watched the first fight between Marcos Villasana and Paul Hodkinson just now. Two tough little battlers. Hard luck for Paul. He did such great work throughout but Villasana was like a machine. No use hitting him and he's always in your face. He sort of reminds me of Chango Carmona, both physically and stylistically. Both slow starters, both sharp rather than hard hitters and both were content to whittle the opponent down with a subtle but often used left hook to the liver. No need to run a card here, I had Hoko up 70-64 after 7 completed rounds (actual scores - 69-63, 69-67 and 70-64 all for Hoko) giving Villasana only a share of the 3rd round. But it should be noted that the damage he was inflicting was subtle but pronounced as one could see by Hoko's features at the end. Also, lest I forget to mention, Villasana lost a point in the 8th for a low blow and then dropped a weary Hoko along the ropes before the fight was called. Despite my apparent one-sided score, it was a damn good fight. Now I gotta see the rematch.

 

Jel, after watching this fight did you notice something about the way Lopez threw a straight right? I always looked at this and felt it was thrown sort of uniquely but very effective. Don't know how else to describe it. Wish there was more footage out there on Ernie, but I was curious if you noticed this.

 

I’ve got a good Hoko (Hodkinson) tale.

I was in the UK in the spring of 1992, in between his rematch win over Villasana and his destruction of Stevie Cruz. Was dating a girl who was studying overseas in Manchester so stayed with her a week or so and we traveled around from there on day trips and some overnights.

So one of our trips was to Liverpool, where Hodkinson is from, to do the Beatles tour thing. Before the tour started we grabbed lunch at a place. And when we were leaving there I noticed a men’s clothier shop had a sign that Hodkinson was going to be there with his belt at I think 1 o’clock. Problem was it was just after noon, the shop wasn’t open yet and we had to get over to the tour start.

And right as we’re standing there and I’m explaining who Hoko was, he walks right up with his WBC belt in hand. Nice as could be. The shop owner steps out and says sorry, not open yet, we’ll have to wait. And Paul says no, they’re from America and he’s a big boxing fan and he knows who I am, let’s let him take a couple of pictures blah blah blah. So the guy opens up and lets us in and he posed with me with us holding the belt, thanks us for dropping by and showing support, etc.

As I said, he could not have been a nicer fellow. Wished us well on the tour and we were off. No idea where those photos are now, long gone I’m sure, but left a lasting impression.

 

Pat, your story on Hoko sparked a couple of my own. Once my Dad and I were at a sports banquet and I wanted to get a photo of him with this one fighter we had been watching at that time who was in a roped off area. Well just as we walked up the J**off of hotel security said, "It's 4 o'clock, this is closed." Well, the dude we wanted to get a pic of hears this, gets up, reaches over the stancheons and pulls my Dad towards him for the photo (much to the chagrin of Mr. Security). And he was the nicest kid. It was Vernon Forrest.

Another time we're at the airport after another 2 day sports banquet and the line is literally coming out the doors and down the street. Oh, man, I thought, this is going to take forever just to get to the end of the line. We start our trek, but just as it begins, it ends when another hand reaches out and pulls us into the line ahead of him. It was Boza Edwards, who we had talked to and got photos with the day before. In a nutshell, just like your story with Hoko, I find fighters to be about the nicest, down to earth guys going.

 

Sat down to watch the Hoko-Villasana rematch this morning and after two rounds which I gave to Hoko, I heard the announcer saying at the bell "Round 5". Oh, man, took the wind out of my sails and aborted it. Can't stand watching a partial fight. So, with the stylistic taste in my mouth, I decided to watch a fight each of theirs. The first one was:

Marcos Villasana v Jaime Garza

Poor Jaime. When I saw this matchup I didn't think it was going to be good for him but it would be for the fans (and Villasana). Garza was a Bob Satterfield-type of fighter. He could knock you dead but had a susceptible jaw. And against Villasana who had a great jaw and could pop, this didn't bode well. Indeed, Garza was down once in round 1 & 2 before Villasana lowered the boom in the 5th. I was nice to Garza, giving him the 3rd when he actually boxed well and watched himself, but it was a matter of time. I had a score of 39-35 for Villasana after 4 rounds.

Paul Hodkinson v Goyo Vargas

Oh, man, a closer fight fought I don't think I ever saw. I actually had rounds 1, 2 and 5 even. And let me tell you, Round 3 which I gave to Vargas and rounds 4 & 6 which I gave to Hoko, were razor close. I have rarely seen such clean punching by both combatants. It was beautiful. In the 7th, Vargas switched into another gear and dropped Hoko twice before it was stopped. I had Hoko up 59-58 after 6 rounds. I was a bit kinder to the Mexican than the judges who had it 58-56, 59-55 and 59-56 all for Hoko. But again, this fight was just beautiful to watch. Both fighters with very refined punching just popping away.

 

It may have slip under the radar due to the massive boxing week-end we had, but Robson Conceicao vs Luis Coria was a breathtaking, career shortening war, don't miss it !

 

Just finished Brian Mitchell- Tony Lopez 2. Good scrap which showed the more well-rounded and tidier Mitchell peck away at the more animated, blustering Lopez for most of the fight. Neither had much power to speak of, but both did better when they had their turn on offense, especially Mitchell, whose jab controlled Lopez and basically won him this fight.

1. M
2. M
3. L
4. L
5. M
6. M
7. L
8. M
9. M
10. M
11. Even
12. M

117-112 Mitchell. The Arco Arena crowd didn't even boo, let alone throw any beer. What gives?

Official scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112 all for Mitchell, so mine falls into line with them.

 

I'll be honest with you, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about the way he threw it. What is it that makes it different, do you think?

 

Jel, its probably minor and silly even mentioning it. It's been awhile since I noticed it but I saw it somewhere in his Hedgemon Lewis fights, but I also recall it in his second Jose Napoles fight, which I rewatched today. So here's the thing now that I'm watching it again. When he is throwing a right hand as a set piece I don't notice it when it's part of a combination. However, when he throws a lead right, it sort of comes off his shoulder as an instinctual punch rather than one he is concentrating on throwing to a certain pattern. Again, I don't know why I noticed the difference in his punching pattern, but here is the 2nd Napoles-Lopez fight. In the 7th round he throws this punch at 21:28 of the video and at 21:43. The 21:43 is most noticeable for 2 reasons. 1) It was probably Lopez' best punch of the night. And 2) Napoles immediately countered this blow with the right hand that knocked out Ernie. Again, I don't know why I even noticed this. I think to most it will look like a basic lead right and they might be correct. But the delivery just caught my eye. Blame it on a misspent youth in boxing.

This content is protected

 

That's proper analysis, Scar! I'm out at the moment but will check it out when I'm home to see what you mean.

 

Checked it now - yeah, it's a lead right and maybe a little loose. Looks like Napoles picked up on that as 15 seconds after the first one you mention, he counters it perfectly.

 

Thanks for having a gander, Jel. A loose lead right is an apt description.

 

This content is protected

Penalosa is one of my favourites to watch, and I just love his style. I've heard loads of things about this one before, and never scored (seen it, though) so I figured why not. I'd like to see what our resident scorers think of this one.

This content is protected

10 : 9
9 : 10
9 : 10
10 : 9 (38/38)
9 : 10
10 : 9
9 : 10
9 : 10 (75/77)
10 : 9*
9 : 10
9 : 10*
10 : 9* (

This content is protected

)

One of the more difficult fights I've had to score, but that's what you often get with Gerry's style. His conservative output, ridiculously accurate punching and tendancy to try and steal rounds he was out-worked in mean you have a lot to pay attention to. It's good fun, especially when there's a good amount of action.

Very hard fight to score, as I said. I obviously thought Penalosa won, and I would like to point out, that Penalosa was clearly better in the four scoring criteria of effective aggression, ring generalship, defence and clean punching. Sure, De Leon threw about 900 more punches than him, but also missed most of them. Like, I'm pretty sure he missed 1100 punches in total, but I can't be arsed checking.

Jesus ****, De Leon has such a crazy workrate! This man threw 152 in one round. Literally no world level skills to speak of, but a ****** workrate, and collosal punch.

And this is one of three fights which leads me to believe that nobody short of Wilfredo Gomez (even then, I'm not sure) below featherweight stops prime Penalosa. This guy's defence is spectacular, and his chin has took literally thousands of shots from massive punchers like Juanma Lopez, Jhonny Gonzalez and Ponce De Leon.

The commentary team, comprised of Emmanuel Stewart, Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant, constantly ponder how Ponce De Leon would do vs Rafael Marquez, and Israel Vasquez. I really wish those fights came off, particularly Vasquez. That would be an absolutely brilliant fight.

Edit: turns out I had actually scored it before. First time around I had it 117-111 De Leon.