the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

It was comprehensively awful, yes. Benvenuti is dreadful to watch.

 

Glad im not the only one who finds Benvenuti extremely boring.

 

Alfredo Marcano TKO 10 Hiroshi Kobayashi

On recommendation from @scartissue . As advertised, a compelling fight with twists and turns along the way. Here's how I had it before I forget.

1. Marcano
2. Marcano
3. Even
4. Kobayashi
5. Marcano
6. Marcano
7. Marcano
8. Kobayashi
9. Even (wow)
10. TKO for Marcano, Kobayashi's corner throws in towel.

88-85 Marcano at the time of the stoppage.

Kobayashi seems so open to be hit by everything here. He's very game but has only nominal power and not much defense. If he's going to beat you, he's going to outwork you.

Marcano has an interesting jab, he sort of leaps forward on his toes as he throws it. Kobayashi is parsimonious with the counters though, so he must feel emboldened. Kobayashi fights in bursts but Marcano is busier and develops a lead.

Then in the eighth round, Kobayashi seems to sense it's getting away from him a bit and he opens up more. He doubles down in the ninth, keeping Marcano on the ropes and shaking him. I didn't think the standing eight in favor of Kobayashi was necessary really, Marcano didn't look that hurt. As it turns out, he was well enough to shoot a quick uppercut to Kobayashi's jaw immediately after, and Kobayashi fell flat on his face. Three knockdowns later in the tenth, his corner rescues him. The ref was incompetent, this should have been stopped after the second knockdown.

Excellent recommendation!

 

Nestor Garza vs. Kozo Ishii

1 Ishii
2 Garza
3 Ishii
4 Garza
5 Garza
6 Ishii
7 Ishii
8 Garza
9 Garza
10 Garza
11 Ishii
12 Garza wins by TKO

105-104 Garza

Great fight this thanks for the suggestion @Young Terror i was willing for Ishii to survive at the end, after a great fight it's always a shame when one fight gets stopped right at the end. But amazing fight with some great exchanges.

 

Floyd Patterson vs Jerry Quarry 1 and 2 were better fights than Griffith vs Benvenuti. And either one of them fights should of won Fight Of The Year in my opinion over Griffith vs Benvenuti.

 

Conor Benn vs Chris Van Heerden

1 Benn
2 Benn wins by TKO

The fight went as expected but Benn finished the fight early and it was impressive, i do like Benn's style he is exciting and a hard hitter. And i certainly find him more entertaining than Eubank Jr, but i do want to see Benn take a step up in class now.

 

Here’s my card and comments from last year after this fight was recommended to me by @scartissue.

Nestor Garza v Kozo Ishii

Scar, I had to watch this one after your write up.

Maybe the last great fight of the 90s (coming as it did in late November 1999) and certainly one of the most unheralded, you don't see this super bantamweight clash mentioned on best-of-the-decade type lists but this was a war from start to finish, a bit like a smaller version of Corrales-Castillo. I personally enjoyed it a lot more than Ayala-Tapia, The Ring's FOTY in 1999.

Our cards are a little different and I checked the judges RBR scores on boxrec and there was plenty of divergence of opinion there too, particularly over the early rounds. My impression was that Garza was starting to wear Ishii down over the last few rounds so while the knockdown in the 12th seemed like it happened suddenly, it was the kind of fight where the accumulation of punishment over the rounds was likely to take its toll on one or other of the fighters eventually, and that sudden impact was on Ishii.

Super bantamweight has had an incredible number of gruelling and memorable fights and this is up there with the best of them.

1 9-10
2 10-9
3 10-9
4 9-10 (brutal stuff)
5 9-10
6 10-9
7 9-10 (Crazy action. This feels like a super bantamweight version of Corrales-Castillo)
8 10-10 (more wildness)
9 10-9 (close)
10 10-9 (close)
11 10-9
(106-104)
12 Garza TKO Ishii
(Garza puts Ishii down early in the round with a left hook and then goes after him until the ref eventually has to intervene)

 

Usyk: 2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
Chisora: 1,4

First round sees Chisora come out very aggressively and just seek to bully Usyk around the ring. Its this kind of fight people always assume will happen now when a smaller moves up to HW, maybe they're right.

Rounds 2, and 3 see Usyk comfortably outboxing Chisora from range. Staying out side of his feet, landing sharp combinations and continually moving away from the power of Chisora. Although Chisora does keep bringing the pressure.

Round 4 is a lot closer, Chisora seems to be a tad more effective with his aggression now and makes Usyk very uncomfortable to nick the round.

Round 5 and 6 is back to normal, Usyk controlling the fight from range, as the smaller man.

After 6 I have Usyk 2 rounds up.

The second half of the fight sees Usyk completely take control. He sits down on his shots, hurts Chisora at times, and looks close to putting him down a few times.

What was a competitive fight has become an absolute masterclass.

118-110

 

Usyk: 1,2,3,4, 7,8,9,10,11,12
Joshua: 5,6

First 4 see Usyk putting on an absolute masterclass of boxing from range and countering. AJ looks like a punching bag and Usyk looks like a P4P king dancing around it landing shots at will.

Round 5 sees a bit of a momentum shift as AJ bites down on his gum shield and punches with Usyk for the first time. He's confident he can take Usyks and it looks like he's right as he forces Usyk to retreat more. In the 6th Usyk seems stunned towards the end of the round as AJ again lands a big right hand.

6 rounds in and I have Usyk 2 up.

From 7 onwards the class disparity seemed to grow round by round. 8 was close I guess but not an AJ round for me. Round 12 saw Usyk really punish AJ against the ropes and almost force the stoppage.

One of my favourite ever master class performances.

Worthy of being P4P number 1 imo.

 

Alvarez: 1,2,3,4*5,6, 7,8,9,10,11,ko
Rhodes

11 years ago. And even though he was reigning champ, this was the first decent opponent that Alaverz faced. Ryan Rhodes had reinvented himself at LMW and had scored a great victory over Jamie Moore. He was a worthy challenger.

The fight starts quite tentative, but Canelo counters on the front foot and puts combos together beautifully so is happy forcing the issue and in round 4 he gets through again and drops Rhodes.

Through 6 rounds Alvarez has won every second of the fight so far and is now 7 points up.

Man Rhodes has nothing for Canelo here. Canelo has better timing, is quicker, more powerful and is pressing the action. Every time Rhodes thinks of countering Canelo gets there first.

Canelo dominates the whole fight, decides in the 12th he wants a ko. And he gets one. This was a big step up in competition and he took it in his stride.

Lol makes me think of the "Peak Ali vs Williams" debate I've been having recently. This is Peak Canelo by that definition as he looks a perfect fighting marvel.

 

You could put a wall-sized HD TV with Nino’s career retrospective in front of me and slap a fresh coat of paint on the adjacent wall and give me a choice and I’d pull up a chair and watch the paint dry.

What an eyesore of a fighter.

 

Alvarez: 1,2,3,4*,ko
Cintron:

Cintron's star had fallen. He had his quit job loss to Margo, his double loss to Martinez and he was folded in half time and time against Molina.

But, he had beaten Angulo recently who was a highly ranked fighter at this point.

Canelo is much more respectful and patient here, he obviously feels wary of Cintrons power. But he slowly breaks him down behind his big counters until a huge right sends Cintron down in the 4th, and he broke his nose with the last punch of the round and I wouldn't have blamed the ref for waving it off at the bell.

The fifth round saw Canelo continue to dish out punishment until the ref had seen enough and decided to wave off the fight.

 

Junior Jones v Jorge Elecier Julio

A fight that a few of you might remember was Junior Jones’s WBA Bantamweight title shot in 1993.

I was looking for an entertaining bantamweight scrap and remembered that this one was spoken about in glowing terms by The Ring magazine at the time so thought I’d give it a go.

Apart from round 5, this was a largely scrappy affair. Julio was a bit crude at times and Jones used his reach to win exchanges. Entertaining in fits and starts but also a frustrating watch.

Jones had a couple of his weaknesses on display in this fight. His chin would let him down significantly the following year but we got a preview of that in this fight in round 5. To his credit, he got back up and fought his way back into the round - you could reasonably make it a 10-9 (as one of the judges did) rather than a 10-8.

The other weak area is that Jones could get a little overexcited, which didn’t make him the most clinical when he had his man hurt. Watching him here reminded me of another fighter of the same era, Tim Littles, who had the same two weaknesses. Jones was a better fighter, though.

I wouldn’t recommend this fight strongly, but it’s a decent enough one to pass the Easter weekend.

Jones v Julio
1 10-9
2 10-9
3 9-10
4 10-9
5 8-10 (Jones down early but battles back well. Best action of the fight)
6 10-9
7 10-9
8 9-10
9 10-9
10 10-9
11 10-8 (Jones puts Julio down early in the round)
12 10-8 (another KD in the closing seconds)

Jones 116-109 Julio

 

Joseph Agbeko v Yonnhy Perez 1

@lufcrazy and @Dynamicpuncher - Luf, this is how I saw this one; D, this is a bantamweight fight well worth your time.

Wow - great fight. Non-stop action from the opening bell with Perez showing a mean left hook and Agbeko a sturdy chin and a continuous pressure attack. I thought Agbeko was starting to get on top in round 10 but then came the twist - a head butt that resulted in Agbeko turning away and Perez putting him down as a result.

The official scoring was surprising to me, not only because it was unanimous but that it was so wide (116-111, 117-110 twice, all for Perez). I could easily see it for Perez and had I made round 10 a 10-8 round then Perez would have been the winner on my card too. He could conceivably have taken rounds 1 and 11 as well, though I had them even. A fair number of the rounds were tight, but it surprised me that the judges obviously saw it mostly Perez’s way when rounds were tight. Maybe they were seeing something at ringside that I wasn’t picking up watching it on TV.

A word on the commentary - I decided to watch this one with the sound on and I forgot how much I enjoy Al Bernstein’s insights. He also had it tighter than the judges (to Perez by two points) although I don’t feel the commentary unduly influenced my scoring.

1 10-10 (fantastic opening round. Agbeko starts fast before Perez fights his way into it and wobbles Agbeko too)
2 9-10 (more scintillating action. Perez landing the more effective punches)
3 10-9 (close, could have gone the other way)
4 9-10 (nip and tuck all the way)
5 10-9 (good combos and head movement from Agbeko)
6 9-10
7 10-9 (good round from Agbeko)
8 9-10
9 10-9 (close, either way kind of round)
10 9-10 (Agbeko winning the round and the a clash of heads and Perez follows up and puts Agbeko down. I couldn’t make it 10-8)
11 10-10 (brilliant action. Agbeko started well, Perez came back - just like the opening round)
12 10-9 (Agbeko just took it but it was fought at a crazy pace)

Agbeko 115-115 Perez

 

If I remember rightly Perez threw at a ridiculous volume of punches, with Agbeko trying to disrupt his rhythm.

Those type of fights always ended up being a bit of what you like best, but as I said I had it a draw