the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

It's believed that he got sick shortly after the fight with some rare illness and never fully recovered.

 

I checked out a couple of Roberto Duran fights, which I saw at the time and wished to revisit. This was when he first ventured to 147.

Roberto Duran v Joseph Nsubuga

Round 1: 10-10 Even
Round 2: 10-9 Nsubuga
Round 3: 10-9 Duran
Round 4: 10-8 Duran (scores a knockdown)
The bout is stopped by Nsubuga's corner between the 4th and 5th round

Total through 4 completed rounds: 39-37 Duran


Roberto Duran v Wellington Wheatley

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

Total through 5 completed rounds: 50-44 Duran

Admittedly, despite keeping my ear so close to the ground back then, I had heard of neither one of these opponents when the matches were made. However, I was very impressed with the due diligence of the match-making on these fights because we all knew that Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard were on a collision course and the fact that they found 2 Sugar Ray-ish type fighters to acclimate Duran, I felt was impressive. Both Nsubuga and Wheatley gave a brilliant account of themselves here. Nsubuga's hand speed was impressive and Wheatley's ability to find Duran with that sharp right hand of his made for two good fights. And the fact that Duran overcame these styles really made me a believer that Duran could take Leonard down. But don't take my word for it, watch these fights. Both exciting with some fantastic exchanges. These two were not passengers, they came to fight.

 

I remember these two fights well leading into the Montreal fight with Leonard.

They were Roberto’s short ‘image rehab tour’ after he stunk it up vs. Zeferino Gonzalez coming in pudgy and unmotivated off his win over Carlos Palomino. The Zeferino fight was on primetime ABC network TV, a very large audience, on a card that had Holmes-Shavers II on top and Leonard-Andy Price in a co-feature.

They lined him up for these fights on CBS and NBC on weekend afternoons to try to remind people what a threat he was (Palomino was a brilliant outing but seen by few on the fledgling HBO pay network, which had low subscribership at the time).

 

Love it when @scartissue and @Saintpat kick their knowledge from back in the day. These recollections are always really valuable for those of us who were too young to remember.

 

Nsubuga had built up a 15-1 record on what I’d call the ‘soft underbelly’ of the Euro circuit, an African fighting out of Norway. His best win was a KO of useful American journeyman Steve Michalerya (who would later beat Teddy Mann, Mike Baker and Sean Mannion and lose to a lot of decent guys).

He had some promise but was thrown to the wolves against a motivated Duran. Roberto chewed him up and spit him out, ruining him. Nsubuga look nearly a year off, beat some nondescript opponent and then got KO’d in 1 by Davey Moore. Retired after that.

Wheatley is a bit more of a mystery. His boxrec has him at 7-2-1 when he’s facing Duran but was billed at like 17-2-1 … probably somewhere in between. He came up in Ecuador and really had nothing impressive on his record but was some sort of South American champ.

Wellington fought well vs. Duran and in his next fight won a WBA Latin American belt but never really beat anyone of note nor even fought anyone of note apart from Roberto.

Either guy was probably good enough to get some short of WBA title shot had they had the right backing to resume build a little more, but probably not good enough to win (no matter who the champ might have been when that shot came). Both are basically historic footnotes by being on Duran’s ledger.

 

I remember hearing rumours of him making a comeback in 2019, then covid happened and never heard about it again.

Did he have a wasting away disease?

 

Johnny Bratton v Bobby Dykes

This one popped up in my YouTube and I figured I had a spare few minutes to watch.

Strange one. I’ve seen Bratton before but not Dykes beyond some highlight clips against Sugar Ray Robinson. Of his 23 career defeats in a 150 fight career, Dykes had two career KOs against him - one in 1954 against Ralph Jones, a last round TKO, and this one against Bratton, who wasn’t known as a particularly devastating puncher. In fact, Dykes had gone all 10 rounds with Robinson the year before this and only been on the wrong side of a majority decision.

The first 90 seconds was uneventful and then Bratton caught Dykes by surprise and dropped him. He dropped him again immediately with the follow up and then - bang - peach of a right hand flattened him and the ref had seen enough.

From the way he fought, I’d never have guessed Dykes was a near-90 fight veteran at this point who’d gone the distance with the best fighter in history. Just a bad day at the office. Not to take anything away from Bratton, though, who would win the world welterweight title in his very next fight.

 

Sort of a Nunn-Kalumbay type thing.

 

Yeah, I suppose that’s a pretty fair comparison albeit I don’t think Dykes was at the same level as Kalambay was in relation to Nunn, but he wasn’t a pushover either.

 

Like Maxim-Sheppard, Machen-Johannson and Witherspoon-Bonecrusher II, sometimes they just get caught early and cold.

 

I'm trying to remember...I had a friend that was close to his situation but it was years ago. I want to say some autoimmune disease and he lost a ton of wait. A recent Google doesn't mention much, some say he could have got sick from becoming a vegetarian. I believe it was a disease though. I think he does well in business.

 

Going down an Ernesto Marcel rabbit hole today. Started with his first title shot against Shibata. The first half of the fight was cagey and evenly matched. Marcel was boxing better and dictating the action but Shibatas was landing the cleaner punches and having some success when he forced exchanges. Round 7 onwards Marcel hit his groove and took control of the fight. Some action packed back and forths in the later rounds. Shibata fought well stayed competitive but ultimately was outclassed. The judges disagreed.

Official scores (5 points system)
Yong-Soo Chung 72 - 69
Nobumitsu Inukai 71 - 71
Ryoji Kashiwagi 65 - 71


Shibata-Marcel
1- 10-10
2- 10-9
3- 9-10
4- 10-9
5- 10-10
6- 9-9
7- 9-10
8- 9-10
9- 10-9
10- 9-10
11- 9-10
12- 9-10
13- 9-10
14- 10-9
15- 9-10

141-145 Marcel W

 

Continuing my Roberto Duran fest, I decided to check out his second fight with Esteban DeJesus. I haven't seen it since I saw it live in '74 and at that time I had given Duran every round after the first. Not too different this time but here we go.

Roberto Duran v Esteban DeJesus II (lightweight title)

Round 1: 10-8 DeJesus (scores a knockdown)
Round 2: 10-9 Duran
Round 3: 10-10 Even
Round 4: 10-9 Duran
Round 5: 10-9 Duran
Round 6: 10-9 Duran
Round 7: 10-8 Duran (scores a knockdown)
Round 8: 10-9 Duran
Round 9: 10-9 Duran
Round 10: 10-9 Duran
Round 11: Duran drops and stops DeJesus

Total through 10 completed rounds: 98-91 Duran

As I said, not too different aside from an Even round in the 3rd, although I won't fault anyone if they gave DeJesus another round during those first 5 rounds because he kept it tight up until then. Even afterwards he would still connect on Duran but they started coming fewer and fewer as the heat and pace of the bout took it's toll. DeJesus was such an explosive counter-puncher I am not surprised he decked the wild Duran in their first 2 bouts. By the time their 3rd bout rolled around Duran tempered some of that wild-child in him with some very smart boxing and defense. I don't often agree with Ferdie Pacheco, who was announcing this bout in the version that I saw, but his assessment that it wasn't so much the final couple of punches that took out DeJesus, but that he was spent, was spot on.

 

Funny coincidence I'm doing 1983 Duran right now. Just finished Cuevas about to start Davey Moore. Found a great YouTube channel called vintage boxing with lots of HD 60fps uploads

 

Michael Nunn vs Frank Tate

Stunning performance by Nunn that also makes me a bit sad considering what could have been. I also rewatched Nunn's match against Crawford Ashley the other day and the contrast between that ragged brawl (although I was impressed at the time) and this is staggering. Michael fought like a mix of Pernell Whitaker, Tommy Hearns and SRL. Sure with hindsight we can diminish Tate but at the time he was an unbeaten Olympic gold medalist who was very highly rated and Nunn made him look like he was still fighting three rounders. I feel Tate was ruined by this fight, despite having a solid few years as a contender at LHW ahead of him. Another sadly unfulfilled talent.

An almost perfect demonstration of hitting and not getting hit, elusive while still maintaining an effective offence. Talk about being an ATG for one night only (I always viewed the Kalambay fight as a freak result). From that night on a mix of bad attitude, cocaine and laziness destroyed what could have been a wonderful career, and I say this about a guy who won two world titles and for a brief window was seen as the best fighter in the world!

1 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 9

2 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 9

3 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 9

4 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 9

5 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 9

6 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 9

7 - Nunn 9 vs Tate 10

8 - Nunn 10 vs Tate 8

9 - Nunn wins KO9

Nunn 79 Tate 72