the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Mike, I actually scored this sometime back. I had no idea it was taken down. Sorry to mislead you, man.

 

Tomasz Adamek v Paul Briggs 2

Never seen this one before and it's part 1 of a two fight check I was conducting based on a query from @georgecrowcroft about its relative merit in comparison to Franklin/Saad-Lopez 1 amongst the great light heavyweight fights. Let's get to it!

1 8-10 (Briggs puts Adamek down with a stiff jab-into-a-hook. Adamek comes back well over final 30 seconds. Could argue 10-9 Briggs)
2 10-9
3 10-9 (closer round. Briggs started strong before Adamek slowly took control)
4 9-10
5 9-10 (good round from Briggs)
6 9-10 (Adamek was looking like he could be in some trouble but rallied a bit at the end)
7 9-10 (close)
8 10-9 (probably Adamek's best round so far; putting his punches together really well. Briggs looking at sea in this round. He raises his hands at the end but it's bluster. He shipped a lot of shots in that round)
9 9-9 (Adamek gets a point deduction for the second of two low blows called by the ref. No argument with the first low blow - it was straight to the nuts but I don't think it was malicious as so few punches had been thrown to the body, it was likely just a misjudgment. The ref was fair and warned him rather than deducted a point, presumably for that reason. The second low blow that drew the point deduction was landed around the liver area. I think the ref took the point more from Briggs' reaction than anything else. Adamek bosses the round)
10 10-9 (Briggs seemed to have recover from the beating (legal or otherwise) that he took in the previous round. But Adamek still won it.
11 9-10 (tremendous round and could have gone to either man. Briggs started and finished it stronger but Adamek fought well in between - tough to call. The KD from round 1 is still the difference on my card. Anyone's guess on the official cards)
12 10-9 (another terrific round with both fighters running on empty but managing to summon the last bits of energy to take turns battering each other. Adamek eventually prevails and wins the round.)

Adamek 112-116 Briggs

Overall impression in terms of scoring was that Briggs won the first half and Adamek won the second half.

My card ended up wider for Briggs than I realised it would be. In my tally, Adamek lost mainly based on the first round KD that cost him two points and the point deduction in the 9th. But even then, I still had Briggs up by one. Round 11 could have gone either way but I give it marginally to Briggs. Round 8 was also close - again, I gave it to Briggs. If I scored those the other way, I'd have made it a draw.

But I have no arguments with the official cards - an MD to Adamek was fair but I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been called a draw either. Lucky for Adamek that he didn't have me judging it.

Overall impression in terms of the quality of this fight? Bloody marvellous. This was high quality stuff from the start. I really enjoyed a very basic and obvious thing - how both fighters worked off their jabs, particularly Adamek. Briggs had an interesting punch he threw as well. It started off straight like a jab but twisted just enough to turn into a hook. It's the punch that put Adamek down in the first. Over the course of the fight, his straight right became his main weapon though.

The fight was conducted at range with both fighters throwing clean, crisp combinations but very little to the body, though, until the 9th round. Adamek had significant success there (minus the point deduction) and that helped turn things his way over the last few rounds.

The 11th was the standout round and they both left everything in the ring in the 12th, too.

Heck of a fight.

 

Matthew Franklin/Saad Muhammad v Yaqui Lopez 1

Rewatched this to check my recollection of its stature as a great fight based on a question from @georgecrowcroft and its relative merit as one of the great light heavyweight fights. I knew going in that this wasn't a patch on their world title fight from 1980 (the greatest light heavyweight fight of them all) but it is an excellent fight in its own right. But is it any better than Adamek-Briggs 2, for example?

Let's find out.

1 9-10 (Lopez lands some nice combos and controls the round with his jab)
2 10-9 (Franklin/Saad ups his workrate)
3 10-8 (Lopez hurt and looks to be going down but no count is picked up as Saad was expecting so he goes in to finish Lopez but Yacqui survives. I called it 10-8 regardless of the ref's ruling)
4 9-10 (strong comeback round for Lopez)
5 10-9 (close but overall I think Franklin/Saad controlled it)
6 9-10 (momentum swinging both ways in this one. Yaqui is the one controlling the round this time)
7 10-9 (another close one, similar to the 5th. Again, overall I think Saad edged it.)
8 9-10 (everybody has seen the classic round 8 from their rematch but this is almost as good! It's like a preview of what was to come. Lopez hurts Saad for the first time in the fight and batters him in the corner before moving the action to the ropes to extend the pummeling, then Saad hurts Lopez and unloads before Lopez comes back again and then once more each they take turns beating each other. Remarkable stuff.)
9 9-10 (naturally a slower round after the ultraviolence of round 8, but Lopez retains control. Before the start of the 10th, the doctor checks Yaqui's eyes, which are badly cut and swollen)
10 10-9 (Franklin threatening to overwhelm Lopez early but Yaqui finds a way to fire back and discourage Saad, who works the jab on Lopez's eye for the rest of the round)
(95-94)
11 Franklin TKO Lopez (Franklin in full control now and the ref decides enough is enough as another cut opens. He stops the fight with Lopez struggling to see and not throwing as much back as before)

Ok, the good points:
The fight built nicely in momentum from about the third round when Lopez was nearly dropped by Franklin/Saad. From there, both fighters wrestled for the initiative from round to round. This culminated in an amazing (in more ways than one) round 8. That this was the same round that Saad and Lopez would fight arguably the greatest round in history in their rematch is uncanny. And it wasn't that far off the greatness of that round either.

The bad points:
The ending - unfortunately, a very good fight came to an unsatisfactory conclusion. According to reports, a Franklin punch open up another big cut on Lopez (impossible to see this on the film) and the ref immediately waved it off. But it seemed to me that Lopez was already struggling before that happened as he had a badly swollen eye that was possibly affecting his vision. His punch output seemed to slow in the 10th and the 11th in the lead up to the stoppage. Had the fight gone the 12 round distance, I think Saad would have been ahead by at least a point or two, maybe more.

The only other bad point is a relative one - it wasn't Saad-Lopez 2, but I knew that already. Is it a top 10 all-time light heavyweight fight? Probably not quite but it's a damn good one in its own right.

Touché George!

 

Antonio Gomez v Ernesto Marcel I

I sat down to watch this today and felt like applauding afterwards from the masterpiece that was Marcel.

Round 1: 10-9 Marcel
Round 2: 10-9 Marcel
Round 3: 10-9 Marcel
Round 4: 10-9 Marcel
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Marcel
Round 7: 10-9 Marcel
Round 8: 10-9 Marcel
Round 9: 10-8 Marcel (battering)
Round 10: 10-9 Gomez
Round 11: 9-9 Even (Marcel's round but docked a point for use of the head)
Round 12: 10-9 Marcel
Round 13: 10-9 Marcel
Round 14: 10-9 Marcel
Round 15: 10-9 Marcel

Total: 148-136 Marcel (actual scores: 148-144 and 148-141 for Marcel and a shameless 146-146 Even for a majority win for Ernesto Marcel)

To begin, this bout was fought in Venezuela with all 3 Venezuelan judges. The deck was stacked against Marcel to begin with but at least 2 of them showed a shred of honesty as their man was being pummeled. And that's not hyperbole. Pummeled is an apt term. I'm a rather conservative scorer but I scored the 9th as a 2 point round for the battering Marcel was dishing out. I also marked rounds 7, 8, 12, 13 and 14 as rounds that many more liberal judges could have scored as 10-8 rounds. Indeed, in many of these rounds Gomez was draped on those ropes like yesterday's laundry. Gomez was not a bad fighter as his bouts with Sho Saiyjo and Dwight Hawkins proved, but other than stunning Marcel in rounds 5 and 10, he could do nothing with the man in front of him. One other thing to note was seeing Freddie Brown in Marcel's corner. Then I realized this was '72 when Ray Arcel and Brown were down in Panama working with Duran and Alfonso Frazer. But I didn't know they had anything to do with Marcel. Suffice to say Marcel was brilliant in this fight and I hope you guys have a gander at this for no other reason than to see brilliance in action.

 

Scar, I just compared my scorecard with yours and apart from the 5th, which you scored even and I gave to Marcel (although I made a note to say it was close), our cards were identical. I think yours should be 149-136 as Marcel only lost the one point?

But anyway, this was a clinic from Marcel. There's not much footage of him: the Duran fight from 1970 (both fighters were still pretty green at that point), the Kuniaki Shibata 'draw' in which Marcel should have been awarded the win, this one against Gomez and his win over Alexis Arguello, but in each of those last three he looks GREAT.

We rave about Salvador Sanchez - and rightly so in my opinion - but this guy Marcel was a masterful counter puncher who looked smooth but had decent power too. A superb mover with great defense, he was sort of Sanchez before Sanchez. He also had a very short career, though thankfully it ended of his own accord.

I'm sure you'll have seen it but his win over Arguello is extremely impressive. Arguello may not have been the finished article in 1974 but he was still a formidable challenger so watching Marcel figure him out and also show tremendous will to outfight him as well at points where Arguello threatens to take over is really impressive stuff.

As you can tell, I rate Marcel quite highly!

 

Jel, I totally agree with your assessment on Marcel. He is just beautiful to watch. Although I haven't watched the Arguello fight I was lucky enough to see his title bout with Spider Nemoto back in the day (It was part of a double-header along with Duran-Suzuki shown back in '73). And I was amazed back then with his fluid form, boxing skills and sharp punches. As for my score, I actually gave Gomez the 10th (he stunned Marcel and I gave him the round when he kept it tight. Perhaps a bit generous) and don't forget about the point deduction in the 11th. That's how I got to 148.

 

Ah, yeah, my bad - I can see that now! Missed that when I first read your card. I don't remember Gomez stunning Marcel in the 10th but I've only watched it once so I could well have missed it.

The Arguello fight is well worth your time despite there being a missing round and the video quality being pretty terrible at points. Not often you get two divisional greats facing each other at or near their primes. It's a terrific fight and closer than I thought the cards had it - Marcel won it, though, no doubt about it.

 

John Tate v Mike Weaver

Saw this live in '80, but always wanted to check it out again due to the official scorecards being rather close and I never remembered it being that close. Here we go.

Round 1: 10-9 Tate
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Tate
Round 4: 10-9 Tate
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Tate
Round 7: 10-9 Tate
Round 8: 10-9 Tate
Round 9: 10-9 Tate
Round 10: 10-9 Tate
Round 11: 10-9 Tate
Round 12: 10-8 Weaver (no knockdowns but a very dominant round)
Round 13: 10-9 Tate
Round 14: 10-9 Tate (scored this round Even but Weaver docked a point for a low blow)
Round 15: Weaver KO's Tate

Total through 14 completed rounds: 138-129 Tate (actual cards: 138-133, 137-134 and 136-133 all for Tate)

I think I gave Weaver credit for everything, even re-watching the 5th after commentator Keith Jackson said the 5th was a good round for Weaver. I don't like second-guessing myself, but I was really bending over backwards here to see any question on a round. BTW, I came to my same conclusion that the 5th was Even. Anyways, suffice to say that I thought Tate was running away with this. For such a big man, he really was agile, mobile and had a brilliant assortment of punches while Weaver fought a 'I hope to catch him' kind of a fight. This fight was Tate's professional demise, however, as that left hook in the 15th had a cerebral effect on him, which made him fragile thereafter. It happened to Bramble against Rosario and Cuevas against Hearns. The jaw just wasn't there anymore. A pity. He was poised for a Holmes fight and that could have been something.

 

Julio Cesar Chavez v Mario Martinez

Jel, I still have a writeup from the mags at the time on this fight but actually never watched it until today, which seems sacrilegious in boxing circles. But better late than never. Here we go.

Round 1: 10-10 Even
Round 2: 10-9 Chavez
Round 3: 10-9 Chavez
Round 4: 10-9 Martinez
Round 5: 10-9 Chavez
Round 6: 10-9 Chavez
Round 7: 10-9 Chavez
Round 8: 10-9 Chavez
Referee John Thomas stops the bout immediately after the 8th round

Total through 8 completed rounds: 79-74 Chavez (actual scores unknown)

The telecast I watched was entertaining with Armando Muniz and Don Fraser at the mic, but with seconds remaining in the 7th round it switched to a grainy Mexican telecast. Still, it didn't take away from a stirring battle for me. These two absolutely gave it their all with some fabulous exchanges and pure heart. In the 2nd round one could see the difference between the two. Martinez sometimes flailed, whereas Chavez may not have thrown as many shots as Martinez, but he was deadly accurate with what he was throwing. As he would do throughout his career, he would break a man down. The 7th and 8th Martinez tried to turn the tide but Chavez was that pinpoint, but they made for great rounds. Martinez would come again, in fact, I thought he was robbed in his first fight with Azumah Nelson. But this night was Chavez' coronation. Incidentally, Jel, you had it 79-73 and @roughdiamond had it 80-74, so we were all right there in a not too difficult fight to score.

 

I've always been more impressed by Marcel than I have Sanchez and Pedroza. Such a short career, but such a talented fighter. I think he'd likely beat every featherweight ever bar Armstrong, Saddler and Saldivar.

 

Daniel Zaragoza v Carlos Zarate

I always wanted to see this to see what Carlos Zarate had left in the tank. There was some fuel but not like in his heyday. He was competitive in several rounds but Zaragoza was younger, speedier and was winning on workrate, although every so often Zarate would get in a good lead right, just not many. No sense in running a card here. I gave every round to Zaragoza with the exception of the 3rd which I scored even. Also there was a point deduction from Zaragoza in the 7th, which I have no clue why for a score of 89-82 when it was stopped in the 10th for Zaragoza (actual scores 88-81, 88-81 and 87-82 all for the winner). I'll give plaudits to Referee Vince Delgado for pulling Zarate out of there after a jarring lead left from Zaragoza. One might say an early stoppage, but he was starting to come apart at the seams and Carlos didn't complain.

 

Ah didn't think you were misleading me just thought maybe you knew where to find it besides the usual places.

 

In terms of ability, he's a top 10 featherweight, I reckon.

 

Lucas Matthysse v Ruslan Provodnikov

Round 1: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 2: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 3: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 4: 10-9 RP
Round 5: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 6: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 7: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 8: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 9: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 10: 10-9 Lucas M.
Round 11: 10-9 RP
Round 12: 10-9 RP

Total: 117-111 Matthysse (actual scores: 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114 for a majority win for Matthysse)

I saw this fight live and it was the first time I saw either fight. I really thought Matthysse would go so much further when I saw this fight with his superb speedy, ram-rod jab. So I was really taken aback when he lost to Victor Postol in his next fight. Talk about jumping the gun. But one can see a lot of that impressive fighting was due to the fighter in front of him. Ruslan Provodnikov was the junior welterweight division's answer to George Chuvalo. Could eat up punches all day and keep you honest with some fast clubbing punches, but not sharp enough to do the real damage. He had a short career and rightfully so. Man, his corner was brave. At the half-way point I was saying his corner should be pulling him out with that severe left eye cut and the rest of his facial damage. Anyways, I wasn't as generous to Provodnikov as the judges. He was very exciting but one can get a bit complacent watching one fighter rain havoc only for the other fighter to explode. I think we romanticize a bit on that underdog. But I can't forget the other 2 1/2 minutes where Matthysse was beating on Provodnikov. Of course, it's all in the eye of the beholder. But these two gave it their all and if anyone did not see it, I would highly recommend it. One last thing in closing was the referee. I could not believe through 12 rounds he did not stop the action once to bring in the doctor to examine that cut over Provodnikov's left eye. The one time he did stop it, I said to myself, 'OK, finally he's going to have the eye checked.' But no. He stops it to have a piece of tape cut off Matthysse's glove. Perhaps I'm being too critical. Perhaps the Doc was checking between rounds. The version I saw eliminated the one minute rest. But again, an amazing scrap.

 

I've just watched Nigel Benn v Sugar boy Malinga 1

I remember watching it live and thought Malinga won it, but just watching again he won it easily, I scored it 98-94 Malinga, how the referee Paul Thomas scored it for Benn by one round was terrible, and is one of the worst decisions against a visiting fighter.

It was basically a battle of the jabs as Malinga stuck to his game plan and executed it beautifully, with Benn really struggling.