the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Thanks fellas!

(This is the best thread on this or any other boxing forum IMO, good call.)

 

Brian Neilsen v Dickie Ryan I

Round 1: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 2: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 3: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 4: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 5: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 6: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 7: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 8: 10-9 Neilsen
Round 9: 10-8 Ryan (Neilsen receives a standing 8-count)
Round 10: Ryan stops Neilsen

Total through 9 completed rounds: 88-82 Neilsen (scores unknown)

What a strange fight. I remember when this fight was made. Two guys with inflated records being matched together. Think of Lamar Clark taking on Butterbean. I thought of them as two barn-stormers. Anyway, the fight wasn't that bad. Two journeyman type flailing away. In the 4th, 5th and 6th, one could see that Ryan was about to quit. Don't know what they said in the corner to coax him out but they did and he continued to try - and to be honest, he wasn't a bad banger, just lacking in fundamentals and conditioning. Then the ball dropped out of nowhere in the 9th as Neilsen's equilibrium was gone to start the 9th, without being hit. Only clinching for 3 minutes saved him but everytime they were separated he was ready to fall over. The Danish ref - who was poor - gave him a standing 8 that round to save him. Man, it was laughable listening to Pepe Correa plead with Neilsen that he only has 3 minutes. Somehow he convinced him to come out for the 10th - because Neilsen wanted to quit between rounds - but Ryan finished the job with the ref finally taking action and saving the wavering Neilsen. Again, a strange fight, but I enjoyed it because they came to bang. One other thing about the ref. He gave Neilsen a lot of Danish latitude. I laughed when he allowed Neilsen to rush Ryan even before the bell for the 10th. Crazy fight.

 

Carmen Basilio v Al Andrews

Man, what a fight! I totally loved it. The only thing that bugged me was a few rounds where the audio was off. The sound of that leather hitting flesh is like wind-chimes to my ears and it was missed for a couple of rounds. Despite his overall record, Al Andrews was one tough customer who held a high guard but really didn't duck or dodge anything. Basilio at this time was really just coming into his world class era and was not going to be denied with this tough kid in front of him, which made for a terrific fight. The 7th was wild. With Basilio's right eye sliced open that round he drops Andrews twice and batters him at the end of the round. What was also amazing was the crowd. While I was enjoying the hell out of this, every so often if the fighters backed off to regroup or just to get a momentary breath of air in the smoke-filled arena, you could hear some mingled boos over the film. The expectations of the live gate audience back then were very high compared to today, in what they considered a good fight. They were there to be entertained, full stop.

But I digress. No sense running a card here. I had Basilio winning 10-0 on the rounds basis scoring in NY (actual scores: 10-0, 10-0 and 9-1 all for Basilio). But if you look at those scores and think this was some one-sided contest, don't you believe it.

 

Glad you got to this one @scartissue! I recently covered it as well. It was indeed a slam banger! I'll be getting to the Carmine Fiore fight soon and that runs in the same vein as this bout.

 

Leon Spinks vs. Scott LeDoux, schedule for 10 rounds, heavyweights, on Oct. 22, 1977, at Aladdin Theater in Las Vegas.

Spinks, the 1976 Olympic light heavyweight gold medalist, is 5-0 with 5 KOs. He weighs 194 pounds.

LeDoux is 21-6-1 and weighs 224.

Scoring in Nevada at this time is on the five-point must system.

1 — Spinks 5-4: Leon comes out aggressively with clean shots to head and works the body.

2 — Spinks 5-4 (c): They trade low blows early as things get rough and the veteran LeDoux also manages to bang away with his elbow a time or two. LeDoux is more aggressive and smothering than in the first round but Leon rallies late to edge it.

3 — LeDoux 5-4: Scott takes the initiative and leads more to take a round with several good exchanges.

4 — Spinks 5-4: Combinations vs. LeDoux’s single shots.

5 — Even 5-5: LeDoux rocks Spinks with a right midway through the round and follows up well, but Leon closes strong with a series of rights.

6 — LeDoux 5-4: Big rally in the middle of the round for Scott.

7 — Spinks 5-4: LeDoux lands a big right with about a minute left but doesn’t follow it up well. Spinks had a big start behind his jab and landed a lot of clean combinations so I gave it to him.

8 — Spinks 5-4: Lots of combinations, they go toe to toe in a great action round.

9 — LeDoux 5-4: Scott’s best round … for about 2 minutes. Lots of thudding shots, especially to the body. Leon again finishes stronger.

10 — Spinks 5-4: LeDoux is busy but he’s flailing away in close and not really accomplishing much. Leon finds a home for his left hook and lands several clean shots. His combinations take it.

Score: Spinks 47-45

Official scores: 46-45 LeDoux, 47-45 Spinks, 46-46 — the result is a draw.

This is a good action fight, a bit sloppy but they don’t really take a break. Glad this was posted so I could finally see it.

Of note: On the undercard, two of Spinks’ fellow Olympians won — Michael Spinks by decision over Gary Summerhays and John Tate by KO 3 over Lou Esa.

 

Glad you covered it Saintpat! I haven't seen the fight but it sounds pretty entertaining.

 

Definitely worth a watch. It’s a bit dark which makes it hard to tell for sure how solid some of the in-close stuff landed.

In my mind Leon won fairly clearly but there are a lot of contested rounds and I can see how someone could get to a draw.

 

Maurice Harris (18-12-2vs Sergei Lakhovich (16-0 9 KOs)
Sergei riding high undefeated coming off a decision win over 16-0 Friday Ahunayna. Harris is the proverbial spoiler. Harris started out 5-6-1 3 KOs and was KOd by future Roy Jones opponent Richard Frazier who I believe was the postal worker who people gave a lot of grief about to Jones at the time. But he starts putting out decent performances mixed in with his losses. Beats unbeaten 18-0 Olympian David Izon, beats 6-0 prospect Terrell Nelson, loses a disputable decision to Larry Holmes on a TNF main event, stops tough Sam Hampton in 4, beats tough fringe contender Jimmy Thunder by KO, beats Jeremy Williams. He also loses in a slugfest to Derrick Jefferson, loses to Chris Byrd and an embarrassing 1 round KO to Henry Akinwande


Round 1 Harris 10-9
Round 2 Harris 10-9
Round 3 Harris 10-9(close)
Round 4 Lyhakovich 10-9
Round 5 Harris 10-9
ARound 6 Harris 10-9
Round 7 Lyakhovich 10-9 (close)
Round 8 Harris 10-9
Round 9 Harris KO

Harris when he was on, could box beautifully. His main problems were I believe no amateur experience, taking fights on short notice, and having his chin cracked very early in his career. He also could sleep walk through rounds as he did here a couple of times, but man if only Steward could of gotten him early he probably would of had a much different career.

 

I forgot he won a one night tournament (which should of gone on his record) beating unbeaten Gerald Nobles, Israel Garcia and Tony Thompson

 

Aaron Pryor KO6 Gaetan Hart

This is the one Pryor effort that's filmed that I hadn't seen yet, so decided to look at it.

Not much of a fight. Hart is very game, but hopelessly outclassed. Slower, less powerful, stand-up, ready-to-be-hit style.......bad mix when you're fighting an unpredictable whirlwind like Pryor. He goes down twice in the second and Pryor sees he can win as he pleases, taking his foot off the gas a bit in the fourth and fifth before putting Hart down a third time in the sixth and ending it with a follow-up flurry after that. The stoppage was good.

Pryor won every round so no point in a scorecard but he'd have been a nightmare to fight. So little in the way of patterns with him. Everything is an invention, so there's nothing to plan on other than getting hit from weird angles.

 

Marco Antonio Barrera v Jesse Magana (Super bantamweight title)

Never saw this bout and needed to remedy it. Loved watching the Baby face assassin at work and this was quite good for about 5 rounds or so. They were evenly matched on the physical side and exchanges were fast and crisp between the two. It's just that for everything that Magana did, MAB did it a little better. After midway in the bout Barrera picked up even more steam and it was slowly eroding away at Magana's resolve. Knockdowns in the 8th and 10th followed and after the 10th round knockdown ref Robert Byrd quite rightly simply waved it over. I had MAB winning every round for a 90-80 score after 9 (actual scores: 90-80, 90-80 and 90-83 all for MAB).

 

I don't know if you can find it, but shortly after this Magana fought and lost to a boxer named Marius Frias. Frias was 6'0 or 6'1 and 122 pounds!

 

That’s insane!

 

Oh, man, must've looked like a super bantam version of Tommy Hearns.

 

He was freakish, but I did see him KO Magana and fight a very close fight with Victor Rabanales. The tape of this guy exists somewhere @Jel