the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Juan Diaz v Julio Diaz (Juan held WBA and WBO while Julio held IBF lightweight titles)

I always loved a good old-fashioned Baby Bull fight and this was a unification of sorts. Julio was a very sharp hitter, but simply couldn't keep Juan Diaz off of him no matter what he tried (even going southpaw, which I thought he took an even worse hammering). No sense in running a card here. I only gave Julio a share of the 6th before it was stopped between the 8th and 9th rounds due to the battering and a badly swollen left eye. Julio was never hurt, but I think his corner felt, let him live to fight another day. I had Juan leading 80-73 at the time of the stoppage. The judges were far more sympathetic towards Julio's efforts than I was. They had it, 79-73, 78-74 and 77-75 with Juan leading. I thought it was one-way traffic in scoring, but Julio wasn't standing still. He was throwing and landing, but just nothing mattered.

 

This is close but we still should have gotten a Charlie “Choo Choo” Brown vs. Charlie “White Lightning” Brown matchup to settle who gets to keep the name.

Loser has to change his name to Linus.

 

Carlos Ortiz v Battling Torres (jr. welterweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Torres
Round 2: 10-9 Ortiz
Round 3: 10-9 Ortiz
Round 4: 10-9 Torres
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Ortiz
Round 7: 10-9 Torres
Round 8: 10-9 Ortiz
Round 9: 10-9 Ortiz
Round 10: Ortiz KOs Torres

Total through 9 completed rounds: 87-85 Ortiz (actual scores: 88-80, 89-80 and 88-81 all for Ortiz)

Before getting to the scores, let me just say this was a terrific fight. These two landed bombs on one another. I think a lot was made of Ortiz' body work, which by the way was brilliant. However, Torres was up to the task and I found his body shots to be wince-inducing while watching. But damn, Ortiz was so fit those shots seemed to be bouncing off his mid-section. Torres didn't seem to be wavering until the 9th and even then he was fighting back desperately. Regarding the scores, at first I just thought they didn't think as highly of Torres' work as I did until looking a little closer. For instance, the 88-80. A perfect 9 rounds, the fighter would have a score of 90, so clearly Torres won 2 rounds of the completed 9 rounds, and we'll say Ortiz won the other 7. That means the score on a 10 point must system should have ended up with a score of 88-83. The only thing I can come up with was this judge gave Ortiz three 10-8 rounds. The other judges were similar. But believe me, there was nothing here that warranted a 10-8 round. This was tightly contested. That aside, an outstanding fight.

 

Toshiaki Nishioka v Rafael Marquez (super bantamweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Marquez
Round 2: 10-9 Marquez
Round 3: 10-10 Even
Round 4: 10-9 Marquez
Round 5: 10-9 TN
Round 6: 10-10 Even
Round 7: 10-9 Marquez
Round 8: 10-9 TN
Round 9: 10-10 Even
Round 10: 10-9 TN
Round 11: 10-9 TN
Round 12: 10-9 Marquez

Total: 116-115 Marquez (actual scores: 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111 all for Nishioka)

This bout was slow to unfold and was a bit infuriating. I felt for the first half of the fight that there was a bit too much respect for the other and they kept the fight at long range with neither wishing to engage. About the 7th Nishioka seemed to pick things up which resulted in better exchanges from both sides. Every round was close on my card except for the 10th and 11th, which I felt were Nishioka's best rounds, whereas Marquez seemed to win his rounds on my card very closely. I had no problem seeing Nishioka's hand raised, but I would have liked to seen him finish with a flourish after those previous two rounds. I really thought it was a better Draw than anything else. Hard to recommend with the cautious first half, but at least they gave us a better second half.

 

Jose Luis Castillo v Julio Diaz (WBC lightweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Diaz
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Castillo
Round 4: 10-9 Castillo
Round 5: 10-9 Castillo
Round 6: 10-9 Diaz
Round 7: 10-9 Diaz
Round 8: 10-9 Castillo
Round 9: 10-9 Castillo
Round 10: Castillo drops Diaz twice and the fight is stopped by the ref

Total through 9 completed rounds: 87-85 Castillo (actual scores: all 3 judges had it 88-83 for Castillo)

When I saw this matchup I thought this had to be a good one and it absolutely was. Diaz gave it his all until Richard Steele retired him after getting up the second time in the 10th, which was a good stoppage. The fight unfolded with Diaz trying to stay on the outside firing his sharp combos while Castillo rumbled in with his heavy hooks to the body and head. When Diaz could stay on his toes he was good but that is a hard tactic when the other guy is looking for an inside fight. Diaz obliged him many times but he was coming apart at the seams with cuts over both eyes (which his corner controlled very well) and a left eye that was swollen shut. Diaz showed a lot of heart, which made for a good fight, but the ending was slowly becoming apparent.

 

@William Walker , a couple of months back you started a thread on the first fight between Joe Louis and Cesar Brion. I had penciled it in on my ever expanding list of fights to watch and am finally getting to it now. So here we go. Scoring is on the Illinois (probably better to say the Midwest's scoring system since Missouri had also adopted this at the time) 10 point system where winner of a round gets 6 and loser 4, while an Even round is 5-5.

Joe Louis v Cesar Brion I

Round 1: 6-4 Brion
Round 2: 6-4 Louis
Round 3: 5-5 Even
Round 4: 6-4 Brion
Round 5: 6-4 Louis
Round 6: 5-5 Even
Round 7: 6-4 Louis
Round 8: 6-4 Louis
Round 9: 6-4 Brion
Round 10: 6-4 Louis

Total: 52-48 Louis (actual scores: 55-45, 55-45 and 56-44 all for Louis)

I think a bit of Joe Louis nostalgia was employed by the judges here, but nevertheless, I felt he won too, just not as one-sided as they. To clarify, I gotta give Brion credit for the fact he was one of the most least intimidated fighters I've seen. He had no issues taking the fight to Louis. Now this was a creaking Louis and that would have been suicide a few years earlier, but Brion could get away with it here. In fact, I think he missed his chance to pursue pushing Louis to the ropes. When he did, he completely negated Louis' chief weapon. The jab. Perhaps I'm being rough on the judges leaning to Louis. That jab may have looked and sounded a lot better than the grainy images with little audio impact that we were seeing and hearing. To be ringside may change one's view on the fight. But it is what it is. And I venture to say that many in the stadium went home despondent over seeing a once great fighter simply unable to pull that trigger.

 

What's your verdict on the fight scar?

 

William, if you mean, was it a good fight? No, not really. Joe was plodding by this time and really just won it with the jab. Brion tried, but I think the spectre of what once was overshadowed the match.

 

Miguel Cotto v Demarcus Corley (jr. welterweight title)

I recalled seeing this fight many moons back and had to check it out again. What stuck in my head was 'who did Cotto fight that had him buzzed throughout the round?' At first I thought it was Randall Bailey, but then remembered it was Corley. So here we are. You'll need a calculator on this one with how the points were strewn about.

Round 1: 10-8 Cotto (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 9-9 Even (scored for Cotto but 1 point deduction for a low blow)
Round 3: 10-8 Corley (battering)
Round 4: 10-8 Cotto (the ref deducts a point from Corley for a low blow)
Round 5: Cotto drops Corley twice and the ref stops the fight

Total through 4 completed rounds: 37-35 Cotto (actual scores: 38-35, 38-35 and 38-34 all for Cotto)

When I saw the 3rd round again I recalled being stunned that Cotto made it through. He was hurt with about 2:15 still to go in the round. Clearly Corley just wasn't a finisher. The ref was a confusing sort. I would agree with the announcing team that he wasn't very clear to the crowd or the judges on his deductions and his stoppage was way premature. Corley wasn't really touched when he went down the second time in the 5th. He had the wherewithal to take a knee to clear his head and I don't blame he and his corner for raising hell over it. I think Cotto was well on his way to taking it - probably the next round - but give the guy a bit of a chance like he gave Cotto in the 3rd.

 

Humberto 'Chiquita' Gonzalez v Saman Sorjaturong (jr. flyweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Gonzalez
Round 2: 10-8 SS (scores a knockdown)
Round 3: 10-9 Gonzalez
Round 4: 10-9 Gonzalez
Round 5: 10-8 Gonzalez (scores a knockdown)
Round 6: 10-8 Gonzalez (scores a knockdown)
Round 7: SS drops Gonzalez and upon arising the ref stops the contest with Gonzalez bleeding profusely

Total through 6 completed rounds: 58-53 Gonzalez (actual scores: 58-53, 58-54 and 59-53 all for Gonzalez)

'It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings!' Truer words never spoken when it comes to boxing. How fortunes changed from round 6 to 7. To begin; what a fight! Can't believe it's taken me so long to see this. Depending on how one looks at this, referee Lou Fillipo was either poised to stop the fight in Gonzalez' favor at the end of the 6th or he heard the 10 second thump and was simply in position to get between the two combatants when the bell rang. No matter, it only looked like a matter of time before Gonzalez stopped the Thai, which was how it was unfolding. For the most part, Gonzalez maintained a good defense, but when he was on the attack, he had one thing in mind, and it wasn't defense. It was when he was focused on grilling SS's body or head that he was open to a counter-punch and that was exactly what SS pulled out of his hat in the 7th. The cut - that had been opened a couple of rounds earlier - opened so bad when Gonzalez was dropped it literally spurting when he arose. That alone would have stopped it other than how wobbled he was. Great fight and highly recommend.

 

Kid Gavilan vs. Johnny Bratton III

1: Bratton.
2: Gavilan.
3: A massive exchange occurred near the beginning, which is quite simply one of the best exchanges you'll ever see in boxing, across all divisions and eras. If you don't watch the rest of the fight, watch this round at least. Gavilan.
Round 4 missing
5: Bratton.
6: Gavilan.
7: Gavilan.
8: Gavilan inflicted upon Bratton one of the most brutal beatdowns of all time. You must see this magnificent example of dish-out-and-catch. Gavilan.
9: Gavilan.
10: Bratton.
11: Gavilan once again brutally beats Bratton. Gavilan.
12: Another brutal beatdown. Gavilan.
13: Gavilan.
14: Gavilan.
15: A brutal beatdown to finish. Gavilan.

Final score: 11-3 for Gavilan, omitting the 4th, which is missing.

Verdict: Never was this an inactive fight, and rounds 3, 8, 11, 12, & 15 are as action-packed as any round could be, with the last four being just brutal catching sessions for Bratton. However, the mostly one-sided nature of this fight keeps it from being a classic, despite some incredible moments.

 

Juan Manuel Marquez v Mike Alvarado (12 round eliminator)

Round 1: 10-9 JMM
Round 2: 10-9 JMM
Round 3: 10-9 JMM
Round 4: 10-9 JMM
Round 5: 10-9 JMM
Round 6: 10-9 JMM
Round 7: 10-9 JMM
Round 8: 10-8 JMM (scores a knockdown)
Round 9: 10-8 Alvarado (scores a knockdown)
Round 10: 10-9 JMM
Round 11: 10-9 JMM
Round 12: 10-9 JMM

Total: 118-108 Marquez (actual scores: 117-109, 117-109 and 119-108 all for Marquez)

When I saw this fight out there, I immediately thought this was going to be terrific. And it was, but IMO it really didn't start to open up until the 6th round. At the end of the fight the announcing team was on about a great fight and such. They have to add the hyperbole as this was their bread and butter, but again, I was lukewarm on it until the 6th when the exchanges began to heat up. But applause to both fighters and need to mention that JMM was incredible for 40 years old.

 

Myung Woo Yuh v Mario DeMarco I (jr. flyweight title)

George, finally getting around to this. All I can say is, WOW!

Round 1: 10-9 DeMarco
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Yuh
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-9 Yuh
Round 6: 10-9 Yuh
Round 7: 10-9 Yuh
Round 8: 10-10 Even
Round 9: 10-9 Yuh
Round 10: 10-9 DeMarco
Round 11: 10-9 DeMarco
Round 12: 10-9 Yuh
Round 13: 10-9 Yuh
Round 14: 10-9 DeMarco
Round 15: 10-10 Even

Total: 146-143 Yuh (actual scores: 145-140, 146-139 and 146-140 all for Yuh)

Man, you could have dispensed with the ring for this fight. A phone booth was all that was required. Two little gamesters that set a frenetic pace and stayed in the same gear for 15 rounds. I see the WBA's house referee Stanly Christodolou did his usual WBA job of issuing a gazillion cautions but never DQ or even issue a point deduction. Just repeat the same cautions over and over. At least in this case it didn't detract from the product being displayed. George, I see that you, @Jel and @roughdiamond also scored this fight. I gotta say, this was something.

 

Amir Khan v Julio Diaz - 12 rounds

Round 1: 10-9 Khan
Round 2: 10-9 Khan
Round 3: 10-9 Khan
Round 4: 10-8 Diaz (scores a knockdown)
Round 5: 10-9 Khan
Round 6: 10-9 Khan
Round 7: 10-9 Khan
Round 8: 10-9 Diaz
Round 9: 10-9 Khan
Round 10: 10-9 Diaz
Round 11: 10-9 Diaz
Round 12: 10-9 Diaz

Total: 114-113 Khan (actual scores: 114-113, 115-113 and 115-112 all for Khan)

This fight started off with Khan utilizing the ring very well (I won't say he was on his bike, he was just using the ring well) and darting in with a salvo and darting out. Diaz looked a bit robotic at first (he was 33) but slowly got into the fight. After the 4th when Diaz dropped Khan (I think Showtime dropped the ball not having William Shatner doing color commentary so he could scream, "Khaaaaaaan!") the fight perked up as the spectre of Diaz taking out the soft-chinned Khan became very real. I must admit those last 2 rounds I was screaming for Diaz to get stuck in. I felt it was a decent fight overall. One thing I noticed while the fight was going on was adorned to the ring ropes was the banner "Khan Promotions". I thought this doesn't look good for an impartial decision but the cards were all fairly close. The only thing I did notice was the referee separating them at a moment when Diaz had momentum and took his time admonishing Diaz for something irrelevant, which looked like he was burning time to give Khan a breath. But other than that, a decent fight.

 

Sven Ottke v Robin Reid (super middleweight title)

Always wanted to see this one due to what has been written about the decision and the performance of the referee. So here we go.

Round 1: 10-9 Reid
Round 2: 10-9 Reid
Round 3: 10-9 Reid
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 9-9 Scored it for Reid but point deducted for a low blow
Round 7: 10-9 Ottke
Round 8: 10-9 Ottke
Round 9: 10-9 Reid
Round 10: 10-9 Reid
Round 11: 10-9 Reid
Round 12: 10-9 Reid

Total: 117-112 Reid (actual scores: 115-113, 115-113 and 117-112 all for Ottke)

Well...I should just stop right there. The performance of the referee Roger Tillerman was disgraceful, which is perhaps why this was his first and only world title fight. He shackled Reid by cautioning him for absolutely everything (saw this done once before in an amateur fight between Teofilo Stevenson and Jimmy Clark. Clark almost stopped Teo in the 1st round and after that the ref cautioned Clark for everything to the point where Clark was just standing there not punching, he was so inhibited). To say there wasn't a 'deal' would be naive as Ottke wouldn't even have to complain about anything in particular. He would just look at Tillerman and expect a response, which Tillerman obliged. The 6th round low blow was ironic because throughout the 7th round Ottke came in like a Billy goat with no cautions. I laughed in the 12th as Tillerman broke up another clinch and called out 'no holding'. Quite the testimony seeing as how he allowed Ottke to initiate every clinch for 12 rounds. The ref's acting performance aside, it wasn't a good fight at all and the decision was even worse IMO. Ottke's pattern was throw one or two light punches run in with the head and clinch. I felt Reid's harder punching clearly won it from him. Clearly there was a reason Ottke fought his entire career in Germany (except once when he went next door to Vienna). His style wouldn't travel well.