the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Does anyone know what Whitaker and Nelson weighed on fight night for their fight, and their respective tenures at 135 and 130?

There doesn't seem to be any sort of size advantage for Whitaker here. They look pretty much the same size IMO. Sort of like a smaller version of Crawford-Porter.

 

Pernell 135 and Azumah 134.

Sweet Pea had been a pretty consistent 134 1/2 for his previous few defenses. Azumah had been 130 in his pervious fight and pretty much 129 during his short stay at junior lightweight, making featherweight before that.

 

I mean once they got in the ring, not at the weigh in.

 

Still on a Freddie Pendleton kick. Today it's:

James Page v Freddie Pendleton (WBA welterweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Page
Round 2: 10-9 Page
Round 3: 10-9 Pendleton
Round 4: 10-9 Page
Round 5: 10-9 Page
Round 6: 10-9 Page
Round 7: 10-9 Page
Round 8: 10-9 Page
Round 9: 10-10 Even
Round 10: 10-9 Page
Round 11: Page drops Pendleton twice and the ref calls it off

Total through 10 completed rounds: 99-92 Page (actual scores: 99-92, 98-92 and 100-89 all for Page)

To be fair, Freddie Pendleton had no business fighting at this weight. It truly looked like a boy against a man. Nevertheless, Freddie still managed to hurt Page twice, in rounds 3 & 9. But regardless, Freddie took a hammering from his larger opponent. But hang on a minute, let's talk about James Page and his career. Now I want you all to envision this for a minute. James Page fought in and was immersed in the era of Oscar DeLaHoya, Shane Mosley, Felix Trinidad, Ike Quartey Pernell Whitaker, Vernon Forrest and Oba Carr. And do you know he never fought one of them. That's right, whole career and he either avoided them or his manager and/or promoter couldn't get them to the dotted line. His biggest names were Pendleton, Six-heads Lewis and Jose Luis Lopez. It boggles the mind how every one of this golden era could be side-stepped. What a waste.

 

Page was always worth a watch.

 

One thing I love about Pendleton, he doesn't do it every time but he does it enough, he comes out and throws a HUGE right hand to start fights. He ended Sammy Fuentes in a few seconds and I think he got Vince Phillips in a little trouble with it as well.

 

I know what you mean. It was a killer right if you weren't expecting it. One of those shots that could get him out of trouble at any time during a fight also. Enjoying this Pendleton stuff right now. I have 2 more of Freddie's on tap that I need to check out.

 

Pat, he really was. And having said that, I am doubly mystified on how he completely missed/neglected or was frozen out of the whole ODLH-Trinidad-Mosley-Quartey-Whitaker era while he was right in the thick of it. Was the issue him, his management or poor promoters? It just seems highly improbable with his style that an HBO or a Showtime wouldn't also want to see him against the big boys. What a mystery.

 

Here are a couple of abbreviated fights I was checking out this morning over a hot cup of Joe:

Frankie Randall v Rodney Moore (jr. welterweight title)

Nothing scintillating about this bout other than to say, although outgunned, Rockin Rodney Moore never stopped trying. Dropped in the 1st and absorbed a steady diet of Randall's rib-benders until hurt and stopped in the 7th. I had it 60-53 - the same as all 3 judges - through 6 completed rounds for Randall.

Roger Mayweather v Freddie Pendleton (10 rounds)

Like @Pepsi Dioxide said about Freddie, he always attempted to take out his opponent with a fast screamer of a right hand when the bell rang for round 1. He actually did it several times in this bout at the start of a couple of rounds, but Roger had a real ring awareness about him. Probably developed always trying to protect that jaw. This is what I liked about him. He had a pronounced deficit in the chin department, but his awareness, defense, jab and straight right made him a fighter I always liked to watch because you never knew if he'd get clocked or come through his bout on his other attributes. Against Freddie, I gave Roger every round except for a share of the 1st for a 50-46 score for Roger through 5 completed rounds. He was boxing beautifully until he was simply caught in the 6th with a right hand. His problem here was that he didn't fall and got hung up on the ropes like laundry and Freddie pounced on him ending the fight. This was the fight that really made Freddie and went from an opponent to a real danger-man.

 

OK with Page, I'm not 100% on this but here it goes. He won the vacant WBA title and was with King so he was being featured on King cards if I recall right. Page was only on the scene as champion for a short period of time, he did get the fight (and was dropped several times) with the dangerous Jose Luis Lopez, who he ended up beating. Now Quartey during Pages reign was mostly on HBO and was targeting a fight with ODLH (well, there were several other fights Quartet had lined up but they kept falling through) for big money which he got in 99. Quartey then took the Vargas fight after this and then basically retired for 6 years.

Trinidad was also if I'm remembering this right was having some contract disputes with King around 97-98 as well, this was resolved and King got Trinidad a high profile fight with Whitaker and then the mega fight with ODLH in 99/2000.

Whitaker was almost at the end of the line by 97 after losing a close some say disputed decision to DeLaHoya. In fact Whitaker beat Pestrayev one sidedly (the guy who Page would win the vacant title off of) to get a No1 contender spot but he was busted for a failed drug test and suspension after this and didn't fight again until the Trinidad fight.

Now onto Page, he won the title and started making defenses, but if I'm remembering this right and maybe I'm not, there were rumours of Page being involved with drugs at the time, then Page got stripped for failing to show up to a fight, then he was stopped by Six Heads Lewis, then he went to jail for robbing banks. So his title reign was really not very long late 98-99ish though he was very active for a period defending his title in that year. If he had built up another year or two of defenses I could see him being in demand for bigger fights, but that wasn't meant to be.

 

I remember quite a buzz about him after his exciting win over Lopez, but shortly thereafter he got in trouble with the law. Not sure if he was incarcerated right then or not, but I think it did have the net effect of derailing his career.

 

PD, thanks to you and @salsanchezfan for your help on that dilemma. I didn't remember anything about Page's other-world activities, which kept him out of the big money matches. Glad you guys remembered. The nearest comparison I could come up with would be like someone saying they were light heavyweight champ in the late 70s, yet, somehow never meeting Saad Muhammad, Galindez, Conteh, Johnson, Mustafa Muhammad, Qawi, Lopez, Rossman or Burnett along the way.

 

Ezzard Charles vs. Coley Wallace:

1. Charles.
2. Even.
3. Charles.
4. Charles.
5. Charles.
6. Charles.
7. Even.
8. Charles drops Wallace once.
9. Charles.
10. Charles drops Wallace twice, and the second time Wallace stays down.

Final score: 8-0-2 for Charles.

Verdict: An admirable performance by Charles from the perspective that it was pretty aggressive and almost clinch-free. They seemed a good match-up for four rounds, but Charles was clearly not in the mood to let it be close, and thus won handily. Not a horrid fight, but undistinguished.

 

Rounding out my Freddie Pendleton-fest, I lighted upon his bout with Jorge Paez, which was highly enjoyable.

Freddie Pendleton v Jorge Paez (IBF lightweight title)

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

Total: 118-110 Pendleton (actual scores: 116-110, 116-110 and 116-111 all for Pendleton)

Don't look at my score or the scores of the judges and think this was one-sided for Freddie. It certainly was not. Every round was highly competitive and entertaining. Freddie threw beautiful short, hard combos behind his speedy jab while Paez - with his height deficit - threw jolting rights and lefts, but mostly in ones, which is why the scores were a bit lop-sided. When he could followup after one of the jolts he looked great but it was clearly difficult to do so. These two treated each other with disdain throughout I might add. Between Freddie's punches after the bell and Paez' suggestive pelvic thrusts, it kept the audience hanging on. I absolutely loved the jolting shots from both combatants throughout - the kind that makes you yell, 'Ohhh!' - and recommend this as one fun fight.

 

Just saw this post. Yep, you remember it right!


..........at least as far as I remember.