the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Leon Spinks vs Jesse Burnett

1 Spinks
2 Spinks
3 Spinks
4 Burnett
5 Burnett
6 Burnett
7 Burnett
8 Burnett
9 Spinks
10 Burnett
11 Burnett
12 Spinks

115-113 Burnett

Good scrap this a very underrated Cruiserweight fight from the 80s.

I felt like Burnett was very hard done by in this one just like he was against John Conteh, the first 3 rounds Spinks won by coming out like a whirlwind. Banging away at Burnett on the ropes with a head and body attack, Spinks clearly won the early rounds on his workrate and aggression.

After the 3rd round though the fight shifted momentum quite dramatically, as Burnett hurt Spinks with a right hand in the 4th. And from then on Burnett controlled the fight outboxing Spinks and landing the cleaner effective punching, Spinks's earlier aggression was no longer effective as Burnett picked him apart with sharp punches, and occasionally backing up Spinks towards the ropes.

I did feel Burnett did slightly tired after 8 rounds, and wasn't quite as effective as he was in the middle rounds. And allowed Spinks to maybe steal a round or two based on his workrate, and allowing Spinks to back him up on the ropes, But Burnett was still landing the cleaner more effective punches, Spinks gave it all he had in the 12th round and i gave him that round on sheer effort and workrate. But for me Burnett mostly outboxed Spinks and landed the better cleaner harder shots, which is surprising considering Spinks had 20 pound weight advantage.

Overall a good fight with a good contrast in styles, Burnett gave me Norton vibes the way he held that right hand. Spinks was the aggressor but i felt it was mostly ineffective after the 3rd round, and for me Burnett clearly won by outboxing the bigger man and landing the more effective punches.

 

D, this was my card from 2 years ago. Check it out. We had it exactly the same. So what fight were the officials watching? Here is what I wrote:

Leon Spinks v Jesse Burnett

Round 1: 10-9 Spinks
Round 2: 10-9 Spinks
Round 3: 10-9 Spinks
Round 4: 10-9 Burnett
Round 5: 10-9 Burnett
Round 6: 10-9 Burnett
Round 7: 10-9 Burnett
Round 8: 10-9 Burnett
Round 9: 10-9 Spinks
Round 10: 10-9 Burnett
Round 11: 10-9 Burnett
Round 12: 10-9 Spinks

Total: 115-113 Burnett (actual scores 116-113, 117-112 and 116-114 all for Spinks)

At the time I first saw this I screamed highway robbery. Now I see it calmly and only have Burnett ahead by two points, which may be controversial, but maybe not a robbery. Still, I thought Burnett deserved it with his pinpoint punching over Leon's greater - but not so precise - workrate.

 

I think anywhere from 116-112/115-113 for Burnett is the right score, I just don't see how Spinks got the decision especially 117-112.

Jesse Burnett lost alot of close decisions, I haven't seen that many of his fights. But hes definitely alot better than his record suggests.

The Conteh decision was even worse that was a highway robbery.

 

Rolando Navarrete - Bazooka Limon 1

This bout was for the Filipino's WBA super featherweight strap. It took place 40 years ago today and I was inspired to re-watch it by an @IntentionalButt post noting that this was the anniversary of the fight.

Round 1 - Limon
Round 2 - Navarrete
Round 3 - Even
Round 4 - Navarrete
Round 5 - Navarrete
Round 6 - Limon
Round 7 - Navarrete
Round 8 - Limon
Round 9 - Limon
Round 10 - Navarrete
Round 11 - Navarrete
Round 12 - Navarrete stopped at 3:08 of the 12 in a round he was winning.

My score 106-104 Navarrete, actual scores 107-104, 106-104 and 107-103 all for Navarrete.

This was a typical fight between two members of the Boza-Edwards, Chacon, Choi, Limon, Navarrete quinumvirate. There were a lot of action-filled, back and forth, hard to score rounds. It made for great viewing.

During round one Tim Ryan noted that CBS had shown Arguello-Ganigan the week before and Mancini-Frias the week before that. There was so much freely televised, daytime, weekend boxing back then. Good times.

 

Fogger, scored this a bit ago. We had the same score, just came to our conclusions a little differently. Terrific fight.

Rolando Navarrete v Bazooka Limon (jr. lightweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Limon
Round 2: 10-9 Limon
Round 3: 10-9 Navarette
Round 4: 10-10 Even
Round 5: 10-9 Navarette
Round 6: 10-9 Navarette
Round 7: 10-9 Navarette
Round 8: 10-9 Limon
Round 9: 10-9 Limon
Round 10: 10-9 Navarette
Round 11: 10-9 Navarette
Round 12: Limon stops Navarette

Total (through 11 completed rounds): 106-104 Navarette

Great fight. Some of the rounds are close due to Limon throwing a lot of wild leather and Rolando - with a slower workrate - countering beautifully. Sometimes it became a fine line.

 

It was a terrific fight. One of many this era brought us.

 

D, regarding Conteh-Burnett, this is how I had it on the British scoring of the day (10-9 1/2)

John Conteh v Jesse Burnett

Round 1: Burnett (scored a knockdown)
Round 2: Burnett
Round 3: Conteh
Round 4: Even
Round 5: Conteh
Round 6: Conteh
Round 7: Burnett
Round 8: Burnett (scored a knockdown)
Round 9: Conteh
Round 10: Burnett

Total: 98-96 1/2 for Burnett (or 96-93 if the 10 point scoring was in effect) Referee Gibbs had it a 98 1/2 - 98 1/2 Draw

Burnett was a hard-luck fighter who could run hot and cold. He had some great scalps in his career over Victor Galindez, Yaqui Lopez, Bossman Jones, Tony Mundine, Lonnie Bennett and Windmill White. But he should have also had the scalps of John Conteh and Leon Spinks to brag about.

 

I’d love to see Burnett-James Scott. Was the 11th fight for each, in Miami.

This is pre-prison Scott.

Scott took a majority decision.

 

Bobby Chacon v Art Frias

Round 1: 10-8 Frias (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Chacon
Round 4: 10-9 Chacon
Round 5: 10-9 Chacon
Round 6: 10-9 Chacon
Round 7: Chacon drops and stops Frias

Total through 6 completed rounds: 58-56 Chacon (actual scores not known)

To tell you the truth, although this fight has been out there for some time, I truly wasn't interested in it. I was a big Chacon fan and I saw the slow deterioration in him from featherweight to lightweight. Beginning with skill level to non-existent defense to fighting on heart alone and that really kills me. Moreover, I saw his bout after this one against Rafael Solis and, although he won, he was, figuratively speaking, throwing punches like a girl. But I did come across a post on this thread from @Jel who raved about the fight and figured I would finally break down and watch it. Although Jel's card does not resemble mine (so many close rounds), he was on the money as usual on what a terrific fight it was. If you want to see a good old-fashioned donnybrook, go no further.

 

I was intrigued when I found this bout out there. The Floyd Patterson comeback.

Floyd Patterson v Charley 'Devil' Green (NY rounds scoring basis)

Won't run a card here because outside of an Even round in the 1st, I gave the remaining 8 rounds to the more active Patterson. But the story doesn't end there. Don't know if Green was normally a dirty fighter but he certainly was in this bout. There was an enormous amount of head-butting, heeling, hitting on the break, but nothing worse than the rabbit punching he did in the 1st round. He hit Floyd with about 3 consecutive hard rabbit-punches and as Floyd was going down he actually tomahawk-chopped Floyd on the back of the head with his left. I was stunned that ref Tony Perez simply cautioned him for something so intentional as that. I would have immediately penalized him for that. Of course, on the rounds scoring basis all they would have done is take the round away and give it to Floyd, whether he won it or not. In the 4th, right at the end, Green actually buckled Floyd's knees momentarily before they went at it after the bell before Perez got between them. Green actually tried to reach around Perez to hit Floyd. In the post-fight Floyd was truly sorry about that saying he simply did not hear the bell. But despite picking up a bad cut in the 5th over the left eye, Floyd had it on my card 8-0-1 through 9 rounds before nailing Green with a left hook to the body in the 10th which took him out. An interesting fight and still stunned that Green incurred no penalizations from Perez, while Floyd, as always, was a gentleman throughout.

 

Zack Padilla W12 Carlos "Bolillo" Gonzales

I had read terrific things about the amount of punches put forth in this bout, and had never seen it. The Punchstat machine very literally exploded that day, it was said. Was anxious to have a look.

Honestly, it was a good, but not great fight. Punches galore, though the numbers reflected after the rounds seemed higher than what you remembered being thrown at the time. There were no real swings in momentum, no knockdowns, no one was ever hurt; it was a well-fought professional fight, and an enjoyable one, but not anything amazing.

I was far more generous to Gonzales than Gil Clancy was. He had it all Padilla after the third, whereas I only saw the tide irrevocably turn after the seventh. A case could of course be made for a wider score, but I just felt that Gonzales' shots in the sixth and seventh still had zip and purpose and he was making Padilla dance to his tune more than the inverse so to speak. Here we go.....

1. Gonzales
2. Gonzales
3. Gonzales
4. Padilla
5. Padilla
6. Even
7. Gonzales (at this point, Clancy had Padilla running away with it)
8. Padilla
9. Padilla
10. Padilla
11. Padilla
12. Padilla

116-113 Padilla. It was a matter of Padilla's busy workrate and unfailingly accurate left hooks inside as well as having Gonzales with his own inexperience going deep into fights that made the difference. Zack stayed sharp and Gonzales got a little worn and tired late, even though he kept up a big punch output.

 

Mike McCallum vs. Randall Yonker, scheduled for 15 rounds for the interim WBC light heavyweight title in Las Vegas in April, 1994.

Yonker was to challenge Australian Jeff Harding but Harding got injured in training so they put this together as a placeholder until he was back in action.

This was on a super-large Don King card that had everybody from Christy Martin to Rockin’ Rodney Moore to Julian Jackson to Orlin Norris to Gianfranco Rossi to Gerald McClellan and a cast of thousands, and probably the most interesting and competitive matchup of the lot as most were one-sided house fighter vs. opponent type fights.

McCallum has notched a few wins since losing to James Toney in their rematch at middleweight. Yonker is a rugged guy who would probably at least have had a fighting chance against Harding, who was more his type.

I won’t go round by round. McCallum dominated the first two rounds with an array of body and head punches while Yonker didn’t get off. In the third Yonker may have had a case for edging it with some sharp counter left hooks and good body work, but McCallum hurt him at the end with a right hand.

The Body Snatcher doubled down on the body work in four and five and began to really rake Yonker over in the fifth, finally putting him down with a shot to the breadbasket to punctuate a flurry and then overwhelming him to force a stoppage.

Not a fight necessarily worth revisiting but I remembered Mike’s body punches and saw a thread about them that made me go back and give it a gander. If you want a body punching clinic, give it a look-see.

 

Buster Douglas vs Mike Williams

1 Williams
2 Douglas
3 Douglas 10-7 2 knockdowns
4 Douglas
5 Douglas
6 Williams
7 Douglas wins by TKO

58-54 Douglas

One of the most dominant displays with the jab you'll ever see, 3 knockdowns with the jab alone. Rocked numerous times with the jab alone, this should be top 10 best jabbing displays ever from Douglas, apart from a few lazy moments in the 6th round from Douglas. This was a fine performance from Douglas arguably his best outside of the Tyson win.

Looking at this performance and the winning streak Douglas was on prior to the Tyson fight, it boggles the mind a bit that people thought Douglas would be such a push over.

 

Nigel Benn vs Michael Watson - Commonwealth and British MW Title - 5/28/89

Round 1: 10-9 Benn. Watson isn't intimidated by Benn but definitely a Benn round.
Round 2: 10-9 Watson. Very close but Watson's defense was solid that round so he landed cleaner shots.
Round 3: 10-9 Watson. Watson fighting a smart fight.
Round 4: 10-9 Watson. great round
Round 5: 10-9 Watson. Benn may not be bothered by Watson's punches, but they are definitely scoring
Round 6: Weird ending. Benn appeared to get thumbed in the eye or something, took a standing 8, and was then knocked out/possibly corner stopped it?

Watson KO 6 Benn.

My card entering the last round: 49-46 Watson.

 

Frankie Warren v Clarence Coleman (USBA jr. welterweight title)

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

Total: 117-113 Warren (actual scores: 116-112 x 3 all for Warren)

First of all, I always love finding a Frankie Warren fight out there. Always enjoyed his style and hope to find his bout with Ronnie Shields out there some day. Saw it the first time around and want to see it again. But I digress, his opponent here was Clarence Coleman who put up stern resistance but was outgunned by the unceaseless punching of Warren. I don't agree with Ferdie Pacheco on much, but this time I would agree when he said this was not the same Frankie Warren. Warren's style simply burns out fast, but I still enjoy seeing him swap leather.