the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Inoue vs Maloney

After being out for a year Inoue comes back in dominant style against a world ranked opponent.

He never really has to get out of second gear here tbh. He drops Maloney in th 6th and stops him in the 7th.

Both knockdowns were pretty sweet.

Has Inoue done enough to be considered a great BW I now ask myself. He's been the best BW in the world for 4 years. He's made 6 defences of that claim and has beaten 5 top ten ranked opponents.

I look at my BW list and I see names like Bud Taylor, Sixto Escobar, Memphis Moore, Joe Lynch, Lionel Rose, Carlos Zarate, Kid Williams, Pete Herman and George Dixon and I have to ask if those guys are all definitely greater than Inoue in this division.

I'm gonna be honest, I'm leaning towards no, right now.

 

Luf, so many people have all kinds of different criteria on whom they would call the greatest. I actually don't even like saying the greatest because of the different connotations attached to the word. I have seen people pick a top 10 by saying things like, "Well, he was the first to do this." That's a great answer. Tell that to Floyd Patterson while Sonny Liston was looking to dismember him. Or another guy that I knew had Tom 'Boom-Boom' Johnson in his top 10 greatest featherweights solely because he had made a number of defenses. That's great if you're simply counting defenses. But what if you were champ - like Johnson - in a weak era?. I've always preferred the eye test. He has to impress the beholder. And in this case, that's you.

 

Sometimes I agree fully with this. Others I just think of Zab Judah and how good he looked before his competition stepped up.


Ideally we have a boxer who looks amazing against the best opponents they can face. And Inoue is ticking those boxes at 118 right now.

Would like to see him against Casimero and Donaire before leaving him.

 

I have exactly the same opinion as u. Imho u don’t have to agree with me Mclellan vs benn although a tragedy at the end of the fight was one helluva barnburner, better than ali Frazier 3 but mainly cus it’s at a slightly lower weight class

 

Robin Blake vs Adolfo Medel

1 Blake 10-8 knockdown
2 Blake
3 Medel
4 Medel
5 Blake
6 Medel
7 Medel
8 Medel
9 Blake
10 Blake

95-94 Blake

Watching this fight after @scartissue recommended it to me. And i have to say thank you for the recommendation, it was a great fight i'd rate it up there as one of the best Lightweight fights i've ever seen.

Blake started off really strong scoring a knockdown, and unlike in the last fight i see of Blake's. He seemed to be sitting down more on his punches, and was landing more effective punches. Medel would lay on the ropes too much and get pounded and outworked.

But after the 2nd round i thought even though Medel would still have a bad habit of laying on ropes too much, Medel seemed to be moving his head better now and was blocking more punches with his gloves. And Medel would let Blake waste his punches, and counter punch with some real solid head snapping shots. Now and again Medel come off the ropes, and attack Blake from a wide range of different angles and also outwork Blake.

For me i just felt like between rounds 3-8 Medel landed the much better punches. You could visibly see Blake's head getting snapped back, and even though Blake would do some good work when Medel was on the ropes. To me they were more arm punches and not real solid shots like Medel was landing.

Going into the last 2 rounds i had Medel slightly ahead, but Blake really showed his bravery and heart in the last 2 rounds. And to me Blake showed he wanted it more, with a non stop punching display for the entire 3 minutes in rounds 9 and 10. And for me that was enough to earn Blake a narrow victory.

A great encounter both men showed alot of heart, but the 1st round knockdown, and Blakes tremendous effort in the last 2 rounds was enough for Blake to earn a well deserved victory.

 

Nikolai Valuev vs Monte Barrett

1 Valuev
2 Valuev
3 Barrett
4 Barrett
5 Valuev
6 Barrett
7 Valuev
8 Valuev 10-8 knockdown
9 Barrett
10 Valuev
11 Valuev wins by TKO

96-93 Valuev

Not much boxing skill in this one but a decent fight to watch for a Valuev fight, Barrett went all out with wide swinging haymakers to try and cut down the big tree down aka Valuev.

The problem was Barrett seemed to gas himself out pretty quickly, after throwing so many wild haymakers. And after a fairly competitive first 6 rounds, where both men traded some pretty big shots. Barrett was running on empty and didn't have much to offer, as Valuev just walked him down with the jab and occasional right hand.

I thought Barrett nicked the 9th round with some hard clean haymakers, but apart from the 9th round. The 2nd half of the fight was all Valuev, and finally Valuev caught up to Barrett in the 11th round. And after Barrett went down twice his corner had seen enough and stopped the fight, although i have to say the referee in my opinion should of stopped it earlier.

Overall a decent performance from Valuev, and a decent effort from Barrett to try and knockout the big giant.

 

I reviewed this last year when I went on a masochistic Valuev kick. I had it 97-92 Valuev.

My final thoughts

Well, as Steward was saying on commentary Barrett executed a bad game plan. Lots of looping shots and overhands, not even really trying to outbox Valuev more like try to outslug him. I thought Barrett did hurt Nikolai very briefly in round 1 but from there on out it was like Barrett wanted to fight an uphill battle. Valuev for his credit was pretty composed and stuck to his slow clubbing shots to wear out Barrett. I still maintain Joe Louis would rip Values face from his head even with the size dispatity

 

Carmen Basilio v Pierre Langlois I

Round 1: Basilio
Round 2: Basilio
Round 3: Langlois
Round 4: Even
Round 5: Basilio
Round 6: Basilio
Round 7: Even
Round 8: Basilio
Round 9: Basilio
Round 10: Langlois

Total: 6-2-2 Basilio (Actual scores: 5-4-1 Basilio, 5-4-1 Langlois and 4-4-2 Even for a Draw)

To begin, a good fight and the only thing I will disagree with you, William, is to say I thought there were several very close rounds and this fight's stylistic makeup can play havoc with the way one scores a bout with shifting momentums constant throughout the bout. Basilio was off-balance and so wide open for a counter and I did think Langlois was going to begin taking advantage of this in the 4th where he began catching Carmen coming in and countering when he could, but then that tailed off. To tell you the truth, I thought Langlois had his greatest success when he forced Basilio to the ropes. It appeared Basilio had no offense when pushed to the ropes. Like he couldn't get his punches moving. I also thought Langlois would have benefitted by using a steady jab rather than a sporadic jab. Still, a good fight. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

 

Burns vs Crawford.

Crawford gone right into the lions den here fighting away from home, and he puts on an absolute masterclass.

I have him pitching a shut out over Burns as he beats him at every range and controls the fight from start to end.

Burns has pockets of success and is game for the whole fight, but Crawford is clearly a class above.

 

Crawford was also a good two weight classes above.

 

Glad you enjoyed it scar. That was pretty unusual Basilio's apparent incompetence at rope fighting.

 

Nigel Benn v Henry Wharton (super middleweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Benn
Round 2: 10-9 Benn
Round 3: 10-10 Even
Round 4: 10-9 Benn
Round 5: 10-9 Wharton**
Round 6: 10-9 Benn
Round 7: 10-10 Even
Round 8: 10-9 Benn
Round 9: 10-9 Wharton
Round 10: 10-9 Wharton
Round 11: 10-9 Benn
Round 12: 10-9 Benn

Total: 117-113 Benn (actual scores: 117-112, 116-113 and 116-114 all for Benn)

**I felt the 5th round was Benn's round but right at the end Wharton hurt him with a left hook and dropped him with a right hand. Benn got up complaining he was hit behind the head and I actually thought so too until I saw the replay. I felt the replay clearly shows him getting hit behind the ear - a legal blow. I scored the round 10-9 for Wharton because of the good work Benn did that round and didn't think Wharton deserved a 10-8 for that. However, it became moot because I read on boxrec that it wasn't scored a knockdown. I let it stand as a 10-9 for Wharton because he did hurt Benn and IMO it was a knockdown.

The fight was decent. Wharton was as strong as an ox but I felt Benn had too much variety in his shots throughout. Again, a decent fight.

 

Strong as an ox and nearly as smart, haha.

 

I remember Tommy Ayers as a blue-chip prospect back in the 80s. I saw a couple of his fights out there and checked them out.

Luis Santana v Tommy Ayers (NABF welterweight title)

Round 1: 10-8 Santana (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 10-9 Santana
Round 3: 10-9 Ayers
Round 4: Ayers drops and stops Santana

Yes, this is the same Santana who had a 3 bout series with Terry Norris where his greatest achievement was laying on his back feigning injury. Santana was the defending NABF champ and he started like a house-a-fire, dropping Ayers in the first. Ayers just needed to settle down as he was no slugger and that's exactly what he was doing with Santana. Where Ayers really shone was staying on the outside boxing and pot-shotting/countering everything Santana did. He finally caught up with him in the 4th in a very entertaining bout.

Tommy Ayers v Billy Mitchem

The less said on this bout the better. I swear, I think the matchmaker ran across the street to the bar and found Mitchem because he certainly had no idea how to fight. The only plaudits I could give him was his heart. But this fight was a part of Ayers comeback after having been out for over 2 years - which I heard was due to drugs - and Mitchem never should have made it out of the 1st round. But he did and it too went 4 rounds. Which was not a glowing tribute to Ayers after hitting this heavy-bag with teeth with everything in his arsenal before the ref intervened. Ayers was to meet his Waterloo in his next bout against Buddy McGirt. But before his substance issue, he was one nice prospect.

 

Crawford vs Gamboa

Never before had I appreciated how good a fight this was, or what challenge Gamboa actually posed on the night.

Gamboa was the better man for most of this fight, Crawford was rescued by his power.

Gamboa had better speed, better accuracy and better timing and controlled the majority of rounds.

The huge difference here though was that Crawford could take Gamboas punches and the reverse wasn't true.

I'd never given even a semblance of credit for this win, but that opinion is forever changed now.

The Gamboa who Crawford beat wasn't shot, he was a fantastic fighter who was just up against a man who wasn't willing to lose.