the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Michael Carbajal v Jesus Chong (10 rounds non-title)

Round 1: 10-9 Carbajal
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Carbajal
Round 4: 10-9 Carbajal
Round 5: 10-10 Even
Round 6: 10-9 Chong
Round 7: 10-9 Carbajal
Round 8: 10-8 Carbajal (scores a knockdown)
Round 9: 10-9 Carbajal
Round 10: 10-10 Even

Total: 99-93 Carbajal (actual scores: 97-93, 97-92 and another 97-92 all for Carbajal)

Man, what a fight! I remember when this fight took place, but didn't see it until now. But I thought at the time with some of the guys that were getting title shots that it was odd that Chong could only get a non-title, because I already knew him as a top-class performer. But boxing politics aside, Carbajal was staying sharp by fighting a lot of non-titles, which I admire in a fighter (I hate this once or twice a year schedules fighters have today. There was nothing wrong with a good non-title). Anyways, I loved this fight. Good hard, clean punching for 10 rounds. Chong made such a spirited fight of it against the harder-punching Carbajal. Every round was contested so tightly. It was a pleasure to watch. I will also say if it was a title fight it could have got scary for Carbajal because in that 10th round his left eye really split open and appeared to be hard to control. But regardless, a terrific fight.

 

Alvarado was one of the last great action fighters on HBO his fights with Rios were terrific as were his title losing effort vs Provodnikov who was just too much at the time

 

Ken Buchanan W15 Jim Watt

This was contested for the British lightweight title, in what could be described as a true crossroads bout; Buchanan was not quite a year removed from his infamous loss of the world lightweight crown, and was trying to re-establish himself. Watt was a fresh-faced neophyte, with all of 17 fights under his belt, even though he was the defending British champion in this fight. There was no hint yet that he would go on to win a world title years later and defend it four times himself.

It was an odd, sloppy, uneven thing, but interesting and with the necessary momentum shifts to make it at least a relatively entertaining fight. It was held in an old hall somewhere in Scotland, and was held as after-dinner entertainment for the well-heeled Scots in attendance, dressed up in their tuxes and tails, white linen on the dinner tables at which they were seated. It reminded me of some old turn of the century photos I've seen where bouts were held in austere clubs, in the days before actual fight venues became the norm.

Anyway, the fight. Haven't seen a lot of Watt, and his style is kind of ugly. First, he's a southpaw, so more inclined to be a hot mess right off the bat. Second, he has this way of leaning down and away from things and pawing with his punches that makes him hard to watch. Still, you have to give the guy points for toughness; he has that in spades, and he absorbed good early work from Buchanan to rally to a small lead after ten. Kudos to him for being so relatively inexperienced and not letting the big moment get to him too much. He fought a good, self-contained fight and didn't waver.

After a few rounds of letting the more comfortable, more experienced Buchanan get his own footing, Watt started to climb back in, finding a home for his right jab and starting in the fourth, a short left cross to punctuate things. His shots weren't particularly hard, but they upset Buchanan's rhythm and had him re-setting a lot. For his part, Buchanan seemed to do far better on the inside, where he had good success with uppercuts, snapping Watt's head back. Strangely though, he seemed to not want to be there. He used those opportunities to crank home a couple shots in close as a prelude to setting himself up on the outside again, even though he was being increasingly speared with Watt's southpaw punches, which were coming more and more frequently and with the steam that comes from confidence. I think Buchanan wasted a bit of an opportunity there. As lumped up as Watt's face was getting and seeing how he was controlling the action inside, that's really where he should have been more often I think.

Still, it worked out for Ken. He roared out to an early lead, fell slightly behind heading into the championship rounds, then rallied late to take home a very, very close nod. Difficult thing to score, and I couldn't look askance at anyone saying Watt deserved it. I had it insanely close with a couple even rounds thrown in. This one was tough, I'd be interested to see what others had.

1. Buchanan
2. Buchanan
3. Buchanan
4. Watt
5. Even
6. Watt
7. Watt
8. Buchanan
9. Watt
10. Even
11. Watt
12. Watt
13. Buchanan
14. Buchanan
15. Buchanan

144-143 Buchanan

 

Sal, I checked this out for the first time about 2 years ago. I scored it on the British system used at the time, which was 5 points for the winner of a round and 4 3/4 for the loser. This is what I wrote:

Jim Watt (champion) v Ken Buchanan for the British lightweight title - 5-4 3/4 British scoring in effect

Round 1: Buchanan
Round 2: Buchanan
Round 3: Watt
Round 4: Even
Round 5: Buchanan
Round 6: Watt
Round 7: Even
Round 8: Watt
Round 9: Buchanan
Round 10: Buchanan
Round 11: Watt
Round 12: Even
Round 13: Buchanan
Round 14: Buchanan
Round 15: Buchanan

Total: 74-73 Buchanan or 8-4-3 in rounds (actual score from the referee and sole arbiter: 74 1/4 - 72 1/2 or 10-3-2 in rounds for Buchanan)

Man, where do I start? I don't know why it took me so long to watch this fight. I recall reading about it in Ring back in '73 but just overlooked it until now. My loss, because this was an absolute cracker. I don't know if Buchanan was suffering from a bad case of "I've fought Duran, Laguna and Ortiz" and took him for granted (I don't know about that because he seemed in really good shape), or was it how he just had an issue with southpaws because he could not get out of the way of Watt's sharp right jab and his own jab looked sloppy. I wish I had film of myself the first time I fought a southpaw because it looked very similar to what I felt. A jab from the wrong angle popping me repeatedly in the head. For a finish I had to make it a donnybrook on the inside or get beat. And it appeared that's where Ken did his best work, but never extraordinarily dominant. This has to be a real case of, 'who is this guy?' Watt was a revelation. Never fought 15 rounds. The best guy he ever fought was - arguably - Leonard Tavarez. And he gave the ex-champ all he could handle. I can't say enough about this, except to say, do yourselves a favor and check it out. The film quality is terrific and worth your while. Incidentally, the only other poster that seems to have scored this was @natonic and he had it 9-5-1 in rounds for Ken.

 

The setting reminds me of my trip to England in the early 1990s. I wanted to see a fight card but boxing was ‘out of season’ (I never knew boxing had a season, haha).

I got the schedule from the Boxing News, and the only two cards in my time there (I was there something like a week or 10 days) were a WBO flyweight title fight in Scotland, which I couldn’t get to as it conflicted with other plans, and a card in Hull.

So I called the promoter in Hull and he tells me it’s sold out, it’s a black coat-and-tie affair at a swank hotel. I plead my case that it’s the only card I can see while I’m in the UK and I’m a big boxing fan from America. He says to come along anyway, he’ll leave my name at the door, but it’s strict on the black coat and tie.

So I hop a train to Hull and book a bed and breakfast, figure out the local bus system to get to this out-of-the-way hotel. Then I go to a department store (Tesco’s?) and get a black tie. But the black coats are WAY out of my price range. So I did what any enterprising American would do — bought a nice white dress shirt, put on the black tie and my black leather jacket and went.

Gave the person at the door my name and they waved me right in, someone taking me to the promoter to introduce me. He had a nice chuckle at my ‘black coat’ and proceeded to have the ring announcer introduce me (sitting literally at ringside with the judges and such) as having come all the way from America just to attend this show, haha.

Incidentally, also met Brendan Ingle and Johnny Nelson there, they were great, got pictures with them (long lost alas) and hopped on a bus after with these dressed-up fight fans, who turn out to be basically all in their 20s and pretty much soccer hooligans. They insisted that I go to a pub with them and we had a great time.

 

That's kind of awesome.

 

Here’s the card, took a bit to find it but I’m sure this is it:

https://boxrec.com/en/event/34149

 

Is that dictated by country Saintpat?

 

Wow, we actually differed on quite a few rounds, but it was that kind of fight. And totally agree that Ken looked strangely out of sorts here. Balance was bad, fluidity and rhythm missing.......guess the strange southpaw ways and toughness of Watt have to be credited.

 

Sal, you literally took the words out of my mouth. I was about to reply with the exact same phrase to @Saintpat on his experience. We might not always see the same in judging, but there is something there. LOL!

 

I used to wonder about that myself when I used to subscribe to Boxing News. They would say something like, "This show kicks off the season." And I was sitting there saying, what season?

 

Jorge Arce v Michael Carbajal (jr. flyweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Arce
Round 2: 10-9 Arce
Round 3: 10-9 Arce
Round 4: 10-9 Arce
Round 5: 10-9 Arce
Round 6: 10-8 Carbajal (scores a knockdown)
Round 7: 10-9 Arce
Round 8: 10-9 Arce
Round 9: 10-9 Arce
Round 10: 10-9 Arce
Round 11: Carbajal stops Arce

Total through 10 completed rounds: 98-91 Arce (actual scores: all 3 officials had it 98-91 for Arce)

Regardless of the one-sidedness of the scores, it was still a good fight. You had Arce bombing Carbajal and winning the exchanges but always Carbajal looking to get that one shot in. I was musing aloud that this reminded me of another fight with a similar pattern and I realized it really made me think of the bout between Carlos Palomino and Dave 'Boy' Green. So similar and they both ended in the 11th with the bigger-punching fighter landing the finale. In Arce's case, however, he really should have taken a knee. He could have finished this on his feet with some clever boxing, but sometimes the fighting heart is too much.

 

I think in the UK there is, or at least was, a ‘quiet period’ where there were far fewer cards.

 

Watched Cornelius Boza Edwards v John Verderosa today. Haven't seen it since it was broadcast on CBS live, but just wanted to revisit this. At the time it seemed like CBS was airing hotshots going against Boza. Perhaps wondering if the next hot prospect was going to shine. But Boza went about this endeavor slowly and methodically as he took apart prospect after prospect. And to be specific they were Guy Villegas, Blaine Dickson and John Verderosa. Man, John 'The Heat' Verderosa was like magic to the airwaves, but the way Boza chopped him down appeared to be a boy against a man. You could give the first 2 rounds to 'The Heat' if you like, but there was only one way it was going to end and Boza lowered the boom in the 3rd. What a fighter!

 

I love this fight. Back in the day of tape and DVD trading, I got some other fights and as a throwaway fight to fill up space he put this one on. Made me a Carbajal fan, as his career ended just about when I first got into boxing.