the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

All those NABF light heavyweight champs were ducking a defense vs. Bunny Johnson anyway.

 

But what if the fight only lasted one round? Those you don't need to score

 

Simon Brown v Maurice Blocker (unified welterweight title)

Round 1: 10-10 Even
Round 2: 10-10 Even
Round 3: 10-9 Brown
Round 4: 10-9 Blocker
Round 5: 10-9 Brown
Round 6: 10-9 Blocker
Round 7: 10-9 Blocker
Round 8: 10-9 Blocker
Round 9: 10-9 Blocker
Round 10: Brown drops and stops Blocker

Total through 9 completed rounds: 88-85 Blocker (actual scores: 87-85, 86-85 and another 86-85 all for Blocker)

Despite my score, never at any time did I feel Blocker was winning, but mainly evading. He fought smart knowing after several rounds of trading with Brown that that tactic would be a lost cause, so he stayed on the bike throwing sharp combos. But the dude just appeared so fragile that even though we know the results, there seemed to be an inevitability about this. Decent enough fight with some good exchanges.

 

We disagree on one round, the seventh. Dev did land the more eye catching stuff in general, but Munguia was a little more consistent and landed the two best single shots of the frame. Like you say, it's a 10-10 round in other years but in this year I shade the round and fight to Jaime.

My current FOTY.

 

Knockout ending aside, I think you’re presenting a good example of how people get upset about the scoring of a fight when they don’t actually score it themselves.

I can have the impression that one guy is going to win, that it seems inevitable, while the other fighter is quietly, surely piling up points and edging some rounds and the scorecard (while accurate) doesn’t match my impression.

I think that happens a lot and people react as if a fight was a robbery — but a careful, round-by-round analysis and scoring shows that maybe it wasn’t quite how they thought they saw it. I noticed a few people (both high-profile former boxers on social media and general fans) who raised hell over the verdict originally say when they went back and watched Loma-Haney (especially without commentary, which I will get to), they thought Haney won or that it could have gone either way — even Loma’s decisive late round (was it the 11th?) was much closer than they realized … but some want to hang one of the judges over it.

And commentary most definitely influences people. You watch Whitaker-Ramirez I and listen to the announcers and you think it’s a shutout … and then they say at end of a round where they did nothing but pile praise on Whitaker, almost as an aside, that JLL probably won it, lol. But actually watch it and you see Sweet Pea turning his back and literally running away and maybe a judge (one like me) isn’t going to reward that. I thought JLL won, narrowly, but the announce team made up its mind in the first four rounds and didn’t bother to pay attention that the tenor of the fight shifted. I think that also happens a lot.

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

Chucho Castillo KO14 Ruben Olivares

I really like taut tactical battles that still feature a good amount of punching. Whitaker-McGirt 1 is one of these, as was Randall-Chavez 1. Espadas-Betulio Gonzalez was beautiful that way too. This fight was terrific, and showed both in good form and at their best weight. This was the second of three fights the two would have. Seen the first some time ago, and wanted to see how different this one might be.

Good tactical phonebooth warfare. Castillo is exceptionally tough to stand up to the bombs of such a renowned puncher as Olivares. He does a good job of staying a bit inside of Ruben's big shots; Olivares has freakishly long arms for his height and it takes a bit of doing to get the proper arc on his punches. If you stay at range you're toast, you have to either get on your bike and box like crazy or get inside and try to take the play away. Seeing as Olivares is a masterful boxer as well and cuts the ring well, the latter seems the most realistic if more dangerous tack. Castillo takes his lumps here and delivers everything back that he might take and then some.

Olivares is cut in the first from a butt, and while it probably did hamper his focus somewhat, he still fought bravely and well. Castillo for his part was very sharp and stayed in the pocket.

In the ninth, with Castillo beginning to surge, Olivares tried desperately to hammer his way back into the fight, pinning Castillo against the ropes and swinging away. Castillo stayed calm here though, and returned fire. The final minute of the round was one long exchange, just beautiful. Olivares tried to capitalize on his last-minute success in the ninth, but Chucho neutralized well by sticking close and just kept his hands moving. He blocked a number of hooks throughout with his right hand and delivered his own, and matched Ruben punch for punch when it came to body blows. A short synopsis of this fight is that Castillo was indeed a bit fortunate with the cut on Olivares, he fought a determined, resolute fight and was able to outdo the champion at his own game. Difficult to score, as often there was precious little between them. Neither man bent, it was the cut that ultimately made judging moot, thank God.

Regrettably, the 14th is missing except for the final seconds, but that's okay. I get the idea.

1. Even
2. Olivares
3. Castillo
4. Olivares
5. Castillo
6. Olivares
7. Castillo
9. Castillo
9. Castillo
10. Even
11. Olivares
12. Castillo
13. Olivares
14. Referee stops contest as the 14th round ends due to Olivares' cut.

125-124 Castillo at the time of the stoppage.

 

Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs Jamie Muniga

1 Derevyanchenko
2 Muniga
3 Derevyanchenko
4 Muniga
5 Derevyanchenko
6 Muniga
7 Derevyanchenko
8 Derevyanchenko
9 Derevyanchenko
10 Derevyanchenko
11 Muniga
12 Muniga 10-8 Knockdown

114-113 Derevyanchenko

Muniga had the strong finish but overall i felt Derevyanchenko had too much of a lead, i much preferred Derevyanchenko's defense, jab, clean punching, and backing up the bigger man.

Yes in the end it became closer but i still think Derevyanchenko was very unlucky not to win this fight.

Overall though a cracking fight a FOTY candidate.

 

We had the same score although i think you made a mistake with your 115-114 scorecard unless i misread your RBR.

1 Derevyanchenko
2 Muniga
3 Derevyanchenko
4 Muniga
5 Derevyanchenko
6 Muniga
7 Derevyanchenko
8 Derevyanchenko
9 Derevyanchenko
10 Derevyanchenko
11 Muniga
12 Muniga 10-8 Knockdown

114-113 Derevyanchenko

 

Checked out a couple of Razor Ruddock fights I hadn't seen in awhile. Here we go.

Razor Ruddock v Michael Dokes

Razor was very composed in this bout and the bout was close. Dokes was still fighting nicely in the 4th but it was just one of those things with that left hook/uppercut of Razor's. A real game changer. And when he hurt him, that was it. Dokes was out before he hit the canvas. I gave Dokes a share of the 2nd and the rest to Razor for a score of 30-28. Quite a brutal ending.

Razor Ruddock v Tommy Morrison

Round 1: 10-8 Razor (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 10-8 Morrison (scores a standing 8 count)
Round 3: 10-9 Morrison
Round 4: 10-9 Morrison
Round 5: 10-9 Razor
Round 6: Morrison drops Razor and gave him another standing 8 count before it was stopped

Total through 5 completed rounds: 47-46 Morrison

Another brutal fight but Razor was sloppy in close and Morrison was getting off with uppercuts and the knockdown Morrison scored in the 6th was a highlight knockdown for the ages.

 

Neither of these guys was a piece of cake. Both had their vulnerabilities, which made them must-see, but they could turn a fight on a dime with their power shots (both left hands, delivered differently).

I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss this win for Morrison as if Ruddock was some broken-down husk. He was still dangerous and the Duke did his job.

 

Antonio Cervantes v Shinichi Kadota (jr. welterweight title) (Japan's 5 point system in effect)

Round 1: 5-3 Cervantes (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 5-2 Cervantes (scores a knockdown and the ref appears to dock Kadota a point for a blatant head butt)
Round 3: 5-3 Cervantes (scores a knockdown)
Round 4: 5-3 Cervantes (scores a knockdown)
Round 5: 5-3 Cervantes (scores a knockdown)
Round 6: 5-4 Cervantes
Round 7: 5-4 Cervantes
Round 8: Cervantes drops Kadota 3 times and the bout is stopped

Total through 7 completed rounds: 35-22 Cervantes (actual scores: 35-23, 35-24 and 35-25 all for Cervantes)

I imagine one would look at this and say it was one-sided. And on points it was. But Kadota continued trying to make a fight of it in the inside. I saw him fight years ago against Juan Collado and he gave Collado a body-pasting for 10 rounds, so I knew he was good on the inside. But Cervantes kept catching the awkward southpaw with a counter which kept piling up the knockdowns. He finally turned up the heat in the 8th to finish the job. Incidentally, I don't know if the other officials took a point off Kadota for the 2nd round headbutt, but it sure looked like the referee deducted that point, so I followed suit, and it was blatant.