the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Ricardo Lopez v Zolani Petelo (Jr. Flyweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Lopez
Round 2: 10-8 Lopez (scores a knockdown)
Round 3: 10-9 Lopez
Round 4: 10-9 Lopez
Round 5: 10-9 Lopez
Round 6: 10-9 Lopez
Round 7: 10-9 Petelo
Round 8: Lopez drops Petelo for the count

Total through 7 completed rounds: 69-63 Lopez (actual scores: 68-64, 68-64 and 70-62 all for Lopez)

A brilliant little fight that really showcased Lopez' full arsenal against a good opponent. Petelo came back after being rocked early in the 6th and almost evened that round on my card. And then he gave it his all in the 7th which he took on my card. But despite his stern resistance and seeing both fighters with facial injuries, Petelo finally succumbed, which I think may have been from a delayed reaction from a body shot. But all the fight in him just oozed out where he had nothing left. Good fight that eased Lopez into retirement. A brilliant little performer.

 

Rubin Carter W10 Holly Mims

This was sort of a ho-hum affair, with Mims taking the fight on one day's notice, apparently. He proved to be a crafty spoiler, and one wonders if he might have actually won if he'd had a real training camp for an opponent like that.

I gave Carter every round but the 4th, when Carter lowered his hands along the ropes and squared up. Mims popped in a counter right and Carter went down, held up only by the ropes. Apart from that, the fight featured the typical Carter effort, boring in behind wide, wild power shots and dictating tempo. Mims was occasionally rocked, particularly in the first round, but found solace in a somewhat unlikely place, on the inside. Carter was open for the counter uppercuts inside and Mims kept him respectful enough with that shot. In the middle rounds Mims tried to mount an offense (or defense) of his own by jabbing from a distance, but he was in a very defensive position while doing so, jabbing off the back foot and trying to just stay away. Carter, who always needed room to work to be effective (see his drubbing at the hands of Dick Tiger), dealt with at retreat well enough.

The judges had it far closer than I did. The scores were 6-3-1 (twice) and 7-3. I had it 9-1, though there were a few decently close rounds.

98-91 Carter.

 

Sal, I checked this out a year or two back. Check out the rumor of the fix I heard, for what it's worth.

Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter v Holly Mims (NY rounds scoring)

This is the bout - according to urban myth - where Holly Mims came in as a late sub for the ailing Gomeo Brennan and Carter raised pure hell over having to fight the spoiling Holly Mims. Garden matchmaker Teddy Brenner supposedly had to settle him down by saying, "Rubin, listen to me, YOU...CAN'T...LOSE!" Anyways, take it for what its worth, but I always wanted to see it. NY scoring.

Round 1: Carter
Round 2: Mims
Round 3: Carter
Round 4: Mims (scores a knockdown)
Round 5: Carter
Round 6: Carter
Round 7: Carter
Round 8: Carter
Round 9: Carter
Round 10: Carter

Total: 8-2 Carter (actual scores: 6-3-1 twice and 7-3 all for Carter)

I don't know if it was just me, but I was trying to read Mims body language to see if he was holding back in any way. I did notice after he dropped Carter in the 4th, that in the 5th and 6th he didn't do spit. I'm wondering if he took a scolding from his corner for dropping Carter. I did hear that Mims stated afterwards about the knockdown, "I at least always like to let them know I was there." One of those curious type of bouts that always make you think. I know when I watched Carter's fight with Georgie Benton, I couldn't understand why a cutie like Benton was fighting Carter's fight. Maybe I'm seeing conspiracy everywhere.

 

Honestly, I'm kind of underwhelmed by Carter.

 

Dick Tiger v Don Fullmer (Cleveland's 5-point must system)

Round 1: 5-4 Fullmer
Round 2: 5-4 Fullmer
Round 3: 5-4 Tiger
Round 4: 5-5 Even
Round 5: 5-4 Fullmer
Round 6: 5-4 Tiger
Round 7: 5-5 Even
Round 8: 5-4 Tiger
Round 9: 5-4 Tiger
Round 10: 5-4 Tiger

Total: 47-45 Tiger (actual scores: 48-42, 49-43 and 50-43 all for Tiger)

Clearly I thought more of the effort that Don Fullmer put in than the judges did. I thought he actually fought a brilliant fight with a clear tactic of moving in on Tiger, nailing him with a 2 to 3 punch combo and getting out. This tactic stymied Tiger's efforts over the first half of the fight, albeit in my opinion. Tiger clearly did not appreciate this as he basically wanted to fight, but slowly turned it on down the stretch when he saw this was not brother Gene who would oblige him by engaging every second of the fight. There were the scattered boos in the Cleveland arena, but I enjoyed the tactics as well as the infighting. You can't get a donnybrook every time. Incidentally, this was the final telecast of the long-running fight series, which Dunphy said he had been broadcasting since 1941 beginning on radio. Dunphy thanked all the promoters, writers, officials they had dealt with over the years and it kinda reminded me of Lampley when he was signing off of the equally long-serving HBO series. History repeating itself.

 

Been a long time since I saw Cano. I remember feeling he had beaten Malignaggi. Fairly controversial result at the time yhays not really discussed these days

 

Betulio Gonzalez v Luis Ibarra (flyweight title)

Round 1: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 2: 10-9 Gonzalez
Round 3: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 4: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 5: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 6: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 7: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 8: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 9: 10-10 Even
Round 10: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 11: 10-9 Ibarra
Round 12: 10-10 Even
Round 13: 10-10 Even
Round 14: 10-9 Gonzalez
Round 15: 10-9 Ibarra

Total: 148-140 Ibarra (actual scores: 149-146, 147-143 and another 147-143 all for Ibarra)

I recall when this fight took place and amazed when I heard this kid that I never heard of (and in another era of one champ, no junior champs and no politics would probably have never received a title shot without a lot more hard work) beat Gonzalez I was stunned and thought partiality was involved. But after seeing this I can say unequivocally that this kid simply outworked Gonzalez. I also felt that the judges were too nice to Betulio. To sum it up, I don't give points for stalking, which is what Betulio did for 15 rounds, and he did himself a disservice by throwing one punch at a time for 15. No combos, no real jab, just one punch at a time while the kid was throwing all kinds of leather. In fairness to Gonzalez, the punches he threw were solid and mostly to the body. Perhaps he felt those body shots would tell in the late rounds, but even when he stepped it up in those late rounds, I was still struggling to give him much. He really needed to step on the gas but it continued with one punch at a time. He was just outworked throughout. The only other fight of Ibarra's I saw was his later bout with Juan Herrera. Now that was a good, competitive fight that I highly recommend.

 

Gene Tunney v Jack Dempsey 2

“The Battle of the Long Count”

I watched a very nice full version showing all 10 rounds complete and at actual speed - a joy to watch an old fight the way it should be seen. I remember seeing this in the 1990s when they still had those horrible, sped-up versions, making it virtually unwatchable.

The fight itself was entirely one-sided barring the 7th round and the much-discussed but hugely overstated ‘long count’. Tunney was ready to get up after about 2 seconds, was absolutely clear headed and aware of the referee’s count the entire time. They should rename this fight ‘The storm in a teacup’ as that’s what the ‘controversy’ was.

This was a near-shutout with Tunney winning every round other than the 7th and scoring a knockdown of his own in the 8th.

I’m not sure why a heavyweight championship fight was scheduled for 10 rounds rather than 15, but it wouldn’t have benefitted Dempsey for it to have gone on longer.

 

Danny Williams v Mike Tyson

A good heavyweight scrap between a shot Tyson and a ‘right-time-and-place’ Williams.

In Tyson’s prime, Williams most likely wouldn’t have lasted more than 1 or 2 rounds but this version of Mike had nothing left - there was no fire or intensity, he was slow and ponderous in his movements and Williams, who was never blessed with the greatest chin, was largely able to weather Tyson’s punches and fire back hard.

I was surprised by the number of body shots both men threw, which made a nice change from the usual headhunting you get in heavyweight fights. But it was head punches that finished Tyson off in round 4.

This fight earned Williams a crack at Vitali Klitschko and should have been the last of Tyson’s career but he came back a year later to lose in equally depressing fashion to Kevin McBride.

 

Michael Spinks (c) vs. Murray Sutherland II on April 11, 1982, 15 rounds for the WBA light heavyweight title at Playboy Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ.

Spinks, 19-0 (13), is making his third title defense. He weighs 172. He is from St Louis and fights out of Philadelphia.

Sutherland, 31-6 (28), weighs 173 3/4, which is deceiving because he came in over the 175-pound light heavyweight limit at the same-day morning weigh-in and had to take some weight off to make it on his second try. The challenger from Scotland is making his second attempt at a world belt, having been stopped by Matthew Saad Muhammad about a year before. He won four fights in between and is the USBA champ (or at least he had held it but it’s unclear if he had given it up before this fight as he never defended it).

Spinks and Sutherland met two years before, with Murray going the 10-round distance.

1. Spinks 10-9: Competitive, but Spinks takes it with his jab. Murray tries to roughhouse a bit and maul Michael in close when he gets the opportunity.

2. Sutherland 10-9: Murray is aggressive and relentless for 3 minutes. He doesn’t land a ton of clean shots but he gets through enough with his high workrate. Lands one sharp right and does some good body work. Michael is bleeding inside his mouth by round’s end. Murray has better hand speed than you’d expect.

3. Spinks 10-9: Michael rocks Sutherland with a big right early and controls things with a stiff jab.

4. Spinks 10-9: Chews Murray up with crisp, hard shots in close.

5: Sutherland 10-9: Works for 3 full minutes to out-hustle Spinks. But by round’s end, Murray has a mouse under his right eye and is looking a bit ragged.

6. Spinks 10-9: Michael walks his man down and batters Sutherland around. Lands a big left hook early. Murray lands his best his best shot of the fight, a sizzling right, but it barely registers with Michael.

7. Spinks 10-9: Pace slows. Sutherland does very little. Michael has a couple of flurries to take it.

8. Spinks stops Murray at 1:24. A left hook followed soon after by a right has Murray stumbling around. Michael pounces and Sutherland turns away and staggers into the ropes, bringing an 8-count from referee Zach Clayton, who presumably makes the call that the ropes held Murray up. Spinks unloads, putting Sutherland down with a right. He goes down again from a right and left hook that barely graze him as he falls to his knees.

My card: Spinks 68-65. Official cards: 67-66, 68-65 and 69-66, all for Spinks.

Murray goes on to win the vacant IBF super middle title two years later. Michael basically cleans out the division before moving up to heavyweight and dethroning Larry Holmes.

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