the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Felix Trinidad (23-0 19 KOs) vs Yori Boy Campas (56-0 50 KOs)

Now before I get into this one, I see often the debate of boxing is dying there are no good fights etc etc. Now my take is that there are good fights pretty often but the issue is that inactivity and a reluctance for some marquee matchups are putting boxing in a bad state right now. Why do I bring this up? Let me set up this fight

Trinidad is making the 4th defense of his IBF title he won 15 months prior (that's 5 fights in 15 months)
Before Campas he beat

Hector Camacho(43-2) UD
Anthony Stephens(19-5-2) KO10
Luis Garcia(24-2) KO1
IBF champ Maucie Blocker (34-3) KO2

And he would fight again after this 3 months later scoring a KO8 over 32-0 Oba Carr. I mean can you imagine Spence, Crawford, Fury, Usyk whoever going to bat like that?

Also let's talk about the card and how it puts everycard from recent memory to shame

Julio Cesar Chavez vs Meldrick Taylor 2
Trinidad vs Campas
Gabriel Ruelas vs Jesse James Leija
Vincent Pettway vs Gianfranco Rosi
Frankie Randall vs Juan Martin Coggi
Ricardo Lopez vs Surachi Saengmorakot
Giovanni Parisi vs Freddie Pendleton

Besides Parisi vs Pendleton (10 rounder) every fight is a title fight. Go look at other PPVs from the last few years and find me a better card.....

Anyway

Round 1
Campas presses forward throwing power shots, Trinidad is trying to figure out his groove and distance. Close fun round
10-9 Trinidad(close)

Round 2
Campas drops Trinidad hard but Tito bounces back up pretty quick, Campas lands some more power shots and wobbles Trinidad but Trinidad starting to gets his power shots in as well
10-8 Campas

Round 3
Trinidad gets docked a point for a low blow, but he does better this round
10-8 Camp as

Round 4
Trinidad hurts Campas and goes around the ring blasting him, end happens as Campas is out on the ropes and Richard Steele stops the fight at the exact right time!

Trinidad KO4

Fun and short fight, I recommend.

Edited for grammar because my spellcheck doesn't like "Campas"

 

Hagler vs Duran. 12-2-1 in favor of Hagler. 11th was a draw. Hagler clearly dominated Duran in rounds 6-12th and then 14th and 15th. Like most fights from the past that are deemed close, they usually aren't and this is one of those fights.

 

Duran vs Barkley. 114-113 Duran. Duran won rounds 1, 4 and 9-12. Barkley won 2, 3, and 5-8.

The knockdown in the 11th is what won Duran the fight. Even after all these years, I always have it as a draw if that knockdown didn't occur but it did, and it's a testament to Duran's brilliance that he was able to take over the second half of the fight the way he did. Might be the best fight of the 80's. Also, a great fight to show someone what a good chin looks like because both Duran and Barkley displayed that, especially the former.

 

Sal, when I saw you watched this fight I thought I would check it out.

Julio Cesar Chavez v Tony Martin

Round 1: 10-9 Martin
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Chavez
Round 4: 10-9 Chavez
Round 5: 10-8 Chavez (Martin docked a point for a low blow)
Round 6: 10-9 Martin
Round 7: 10-10 Even
Round 8: 10-9 Chavez
Round 9: 10-9 Chavez
Round 10: 10-9 Chavez

Total: 98-93 Chavez (actual scores: 98-91, 97-92 and another 97-92 all for Chavez)

Although both fighters were a bit long in the tooth, they still provided a fair amount of action. I had it a bit wider than you, Sal, but I can see your score too. A number of close ones here. The 10th round was about the best, as they threw every bit of ordnance that they had in the arsenal and they looked like it at the end. Enjoyable fight.

 

I was rooting for Martin after seeing him as a staple on Tuesday night fights and was happy seeing him get a shot at Chavez. But Chavez even at this stage was better. I need to watch this one again (haven't seen it since I watched it live) and score it

 

Finally got to scoring this one. It's every bit as great a fight as I remember. It takes two to make a great fight, and despite his relative inexperience, Nelson fought bravely and well. Superlative effort on his part, and I always found it refreshing and strange that Sanchez wasn't openly derided for having that kind of difficulty with such an unknown at the time. On the contrary, his cool under fire, conditioning, and professionalism were lauded. It makes sense now of course, knowing what we know about Nelson in the rear view mirror. I think they knew at the time the effort was not that of a typical 13-fight newbie. I always looked at it that way too. This isn't a black mark on Sanchez in any way as far as I'm concerned. It's actually a nice scalp, even considering Nelson's career arc.

Anyway, as to the actual fight........Nelson knows he has nothing to lose and simply walks straight at Sanchez behind a high guard. He wings everything hard and he intends to make a statement. Sanchez for his part is countering pretty nicely actually, particularly with the left hook, but Nelson is just so busy.

In the third, Sanchez begins to find range with is jab, and it helps matters immensely. For at least brief stretches now he can keep his opponent at his preferred range and begin raking him to the head and body. Jab, right hand to the body, left hook. Over and over again. Sanchez realizes he's going to have to break this kid down, this is no whitewash thing. Reminds me a lot of Arguello-Mancini in this way.

After six, I have it even, and in the seventh Sanchez again finds Nelson with a huge hook and Azumah staggers backward. A follow-up flurry deposits him on his seat but God bless the little rooster.......he's right back up and charges at Sanchez as if insulted by the slight.

The eighth is also Sanchez's as he almost drops Nelson again and Azumah takes that stanza to right himself and clear his head. Sanchez seems in control now.

But of course the hallmark of a great fight is momentum shifts. Nelson rallies impressively and takes the next three to put the issue very much in doubt. Sanchez never betrays any real worry, though I could have sworn he got buzzed by a left hook toward the end of the 11th round. He never stops incrementally taking down the threat in front of him, seemingly completely confident that things will work out. He never even breathes through his mouth the entire time, while Nelson is gasping for air like a Channel swimmer. Nelson was always a bull of a featherweight and junior-lightweight and typically walked through opponents, but I never got the impression he was stronger than Sanchez here. It's like the Ghanan was hitting at a brick wall and hoping the clock would run out before his legs did.

Finally, the fifteenth round showed a nearly spent Nelson pinned against the ropes, and Sanchez's left hook flying. A two-fisted attack sends him stumbling backward and down in a corner. He rises bravely but he's cooked. A series of vicious hooks sends his legs wobbling in different directions and Tony Perez stops it at the right time.

Beautiful fight.

1. Nelson
2. Nelson
3. Sanchez
4. Sanchez
5. Nelson
6. Sanchez
7. Sanchez (10-8)
8. Sanchez
9. Nelson
10. Nelson
11. Nelson
12. Sanchez
13. Nelson
14. Sanchez

Fight is stopped in favor of Sanchez in the final round.

133-132 Sanchez at the time of the stoppage.

 

Sammy Serrano v Julio 'Diablito' Valdez (jr. lightweight title)

Round 1: 10-8 Serrano (scores a 'knockdown')
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Valdez
Round 4: 10-9 Serrano
Round 5: 10-9 Serrano
Round 6: 10-9 Serrano
Round 7: 10-9 Valdez
Round 8: 10-9 Serrano
Round 9: 10-9 Serrano
Round 10: 10-9 Serrano
Round 11: 10-9 Valdez (film started almost 1/2 through the round)
Round 12: 9-9 Even (scored for Valdez but he lost a point for what I will call rough-housing)
Round 13: 10-9 Valdez
Round 14: 10-8 Valdez (Serrano docked a point for hitting after the bell)
Round 15: 10-9 Valdez

Total: 142-141 Serrano (actual scores: 150-135, 146-138 and 147-143 all for Serrano)

Man, what a weird fight to score. Nothing overly exciting here except for the fact that these two hated each other and their extra-curricular activities kept me interested. Where to begin? Let's start with the first round knockdown. It was a partial punch but about 80% push. Really evident in slo-mo. The 11th round was partial but I saw enough to render a score. From 11 to 15 Valdez turned to mugging Serrano and I felt he was taking those rounds because Serrano did little. Rozadilla took a point from Valdez but it wasn't anything Serrano wasn't doing either. One could see that in the 14th when Sammy nailed Valdez well after the bell. Don't turn off the vid when the final bell rings because these two went at it twice after the bell. I really have to take referee Larry Rozadilla to task. I've always felt California officials were among the fairest I've seen, but a quick look at Rozadilla's resume shows he really became a WBA house referee. He and Stanley Christodoulou became interchangeable in the fact that they were going to take care of the WBA champ. I think Rozadilla's score reflects this. It looks like he tallied it up before the fight even started. If he gave Serrano a 150 - a perfect score - then what happened to the point deduction in the 14th round? And one also has to notice that he was an official for 7 or 8 of Serrano's title defenses. Talk about blatant. Suffice to say, Valdez' style wasn't pretty, but he was doing the fighting. I had Serrano the winner, but just.

Incidentally, two things i should mention about Cosell calling the fight. he stated that he heard Valdez was docked 2 points in the 12th, but researching this I only found 1 point deducted. Also, I sort of chuckled when Cosell stated in the 11th that Serrano was bruising up under his left eye. I thought to myself, 'No s**t! You didn't notice that he entered the ring with that bruise.'

 

Good account. Thanks for the detailed exposition to go with the score. Interesting we both likened it to Arguello-Mancini in different veins.

 

While far from an ATG or a favorite of mine at the time, I’ve come to respect Serrano more over the years. Tough and crafty.

 

Pat, I would agree with you on certain things. He was a very good pure boxer and very fast. His drawbacks to his legacy would be a poor chin, not much of a punch and one of the most inauspicious title reigns I've seen. 15 title defenses over two reigns and the WBA clearly loved him by taking on all of those "No. 1 contenders" of theirs. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Just a bunch of no-hopers who were from WBA friendly countries (South Korea, South Africa, Venezuela, South America, etc.). Man, I remember at the time I had never even heard of some of the fighters he was defending against. And back then I really held my ear to the ground on any hotshot or prospect coming up. He had a handful of decent challengers like Valdez - who had recently beaten Alfredo Escalera, which was a huge upset at the time - and Lionel Hernandez (twice), but how many more title shots was the WBA going to give Hernandez? I think this was his 4th. Compare Serrano's opponents with Arguello's opponents at the same time with the WBC title. he was putting it on the line against Bobby Chacon, Bazooka Limon, Alfredo Escalera, Rolando Navarette and Ruben Castillo. Quite the difference. But again, I'll give Serrano his props with his boxing ability. I just expected more from him after the way he manhandled Villaflor to win the title.

 

Oh Arguello has a much better resume. Such was the state of the WBA at the time, and I can’t fault a guy for fighting the organization whose title he held ranked (and mandated).

Losing to Marcel by split in Panama is a nice loss, beating Villaflor as you noted was a good win and Hernandez was quality.

The upset loss to Uehara (avenged) hurt his standing/perception at the time but he won it right back and kept defending.

Sammy was a quality guy. Probably not ever the best guy in the division but one of them for a long time. That’s a decent legacy.

 

Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Devin Haney

1 Loma
2 Haney
3 Loma
4 Haney
5 Loma
6 Haney
7 Loma
8 Loma
9 Haney
10 Loma
11 Loma
12 Haney

115-113 Lomachenko

 

Devin Haney v Vasily Lomachenko (lightweight title)

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

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

Despite my score, this fight still had a feel of a very even fight at the end. I would have been good with a draw. There were sooooo many close rounds.

 

It was a close fight but i still think Lomachenko clearly won in a close fight, i could possibly see a draw. But i can't really see how you can give Haney 7 rounds or 8 rounds like one judge had it.

 

Watching live but somewhat distracted I thought Haney nipped it. I thought his bodywork was excellent and I'm not sure Loma landed any bodyshots the entire fight. I do understand that one can focus on one thing too much and score based on that, however.

I might score it again, but also don't mind being on the minority end of a scorecard here and then, though this seems like the first in a while where a lot are calling a robbery and I think that guy won legit.