the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Dan Azeez D8 Hrvoje Sep

Werid, freakish fight this, Azeez wins the first round trying to push Sep around, landing the harder punches to the body, matching his superior quality with an aggressive fighter's need to attack and winning the exchanges and leads accordingly. But in the second, Sep just starts banging him in the face with an orthodox right hand. Sep still looks competent but the only real difference is he has given himself some room, so he's done the opposite of what might have been expected, he's increased the range but somehow he's started out-landing and out-hitting an always too static Azeez. Good first four rounds and I have the Croatian "opponent" emerging 3-1 up. I do think Azeez won the fifth, but he certainly didn't stop any rot, it was a debatable, tough round to score where It thought the work Azeez did with the jab just about bought him the round despite the decent rights thrown by Sep. Pretty much the reverse happened in the fifth while Buddy McGirt literally begged Azeez to up the pressure from the corner. This left Azeez needing the seventh and eight for me for the draw. The seventh was the best round he fought, he was busy, direct, and tried to throw upon being hit as opposed to thinking about whaAt he did wrong. Sep still hit him, but was clearly outhit over three minutes for the first time since the first.

Strange then (like the whole affair) that he let that momentum go in the eighth. Azeez opened with a good jab, but he got hit in return by right hands or pal left hooks, and Azeez went back to thinking rather than insta-punching. Azeez looks like he's waiting for a bus with some of these punches. It's low quality, there is wrestling from Sep who looks tired - but where is Azeez's engine? He should be at work for his career here. Instead, it's very hard to find a win for him on the cards and I'd argue that Sep sneaked it. What a strange fighter Azeez has been. Gone in the head I'd guess.

Sep:2,3,4,6,8.
Azeez:1,5,7.

 

Liam Paro UD12 Subriel Matias

Bit of a shock this - big shock for DAZN and Eddie Hearn who just signed him up. Matias has been sold big time as the bogeyman of the 140lb division and relentlessly so by DAZN, Paro showed him what is up though. He did this, in the beginning, with the jab, it's always so silly writing that - it must get said 100 times a day in different gyms all over the world about spars, smokers, fights, but it's very difficult to get a pressure fighter with power under control with the jab, that's the truth. Paro though had a couple of advantages early: Matias is a slow starter; his jab is of the southpaw variety and perhaps Matias wasn't quite as prepared for that as he should be - and he has ice in his veins. Paro was totally unrattled. He kept busy with that lead, mixing a decent jab, nothing hairy, in with a prod that disrupted the guard, gathered some points and opened Matias up to the body with his trailing hand then his lead hand. There is nothing earth-shattering in this but he was consistent and tempered. He dominated the first half of the third with this strategic quilt but Matias did come on strong in the second half of the round - you would score a share under a civilised scoring system. As it is, I tend to go with the most meaningful punches in this situation regardless of overall control or volume, and Matias landed the most significant blows of the round, so I gave him the close third. But this does not represent a solution for Matias, he hasn't solved his opponent, he's just landed some hard shots in a close round that Paro held the whip hand in, mostly.

What the third did reveal was another aspect of Paro's plan, to hit him back, hit him bard when Matias hits him hard, trusting to his superior technique. I think parrow turned a little narrower in the opening of the fourth, a very cleaver way of giving Matias a different look without changing much - he narrowed up bis punching, too, for spells, one-one-two across a very narrow range, he also began holding in this round. A word about the referee: he was biased to Matias. It's often said but Paro really did beat his opponent and the referee both. He aggressively pursued Paro for use of the head (wrongly), warned him aggressively for hitting round the back of the head (wrongly) and took a point form him in the seventh for excessive holding (Defendable but unusual). Also, whenever he seperated them, he only pushed back Paro - that is such a tell, I always think, when the referee only manhandles (part of his job) one of the fighters, he often shows bias against that fighter, though not always of course. His name is Luis Pabon. 3-1 up after 4, Paro really put himself in control by also winning the fifth before Matias won his first definitive round of the fight, the sixth. He didn't get there until the final twenty seconds though, where an uppercut seemed to disturb Paro who seemed momentarily defensive and for the remainder of the round, disorganised. He came out for the seventh giving ground and trying to circle, allowing Matias to build that momentum, but he soon put a stop to Matias's progress with the jab - Paro returned to the naked strategy of the first, giving added ground. It won him the first minute of the round, then the drunk referee took away a point. DAZN commentary, to their great credit, called it out in favour of the visiting fighter, named it "disgusting" - a portion of his strategic solution removed from him by bad officiating, hurt from the sixth, Paro lost the remainder of the round and sees a two point round go against him in a round he was probably set to bank.

Paro responded with narrow, busy shots again in the eighth, giving ground more incrementally, stepping in with uppercuts before quickly exiting, looking for, boxing aggressively off a heavy backfoot stance two-handed at range. Clear round for Paro until the final twenty seconds where Paro was sent on the run by bodyshots - I thought Paro had just enough in the bank. He looked fragile at the beginning of the eighth though, Matias for the first time really walked him down with the earmuffs before getting inside and doing very menaingful work, which disturbed rather than hurt Paro but it's strange - despite Paro dominating the first eight the writing felt on the wall here. That's because the pattern has finally been changed in Matias's favour and partly also because the point deduction means that Paro's lead on the cards isn't that significant post the ninth - I have Paro one point up only after the ninth with the momentum behind Matias.

That's why 10-12 have ended up being my favourite rounds of the year so far outside of the Usyk-Fury fight.

Paro swept them on my card and re-watching them is a deep joy. Paro can't hold so he forages, moving, boxing right-handed, stepping in for two punches, then stepping out. He also showed more head-movement than he had, excessive in some spots, just to give Matias something else to look at. Matias tried to flurry in close but Paro often found his way to Matias's right ear with a cuffing, unpleasant shot and just showed more activity generally. He consistently found reasons for the judges to score the fight for him, a minute at a time. Paro exposed Matias in these three rounds, not in the internet sense of the word, but in a real, strategic sense. When Paro got hit, like he did at the end of the tenth, he immediately goes back to the right-handed jab-boxing that kept him out of trouble in rounds one and two. Wow, great discipline, I love it so much.

Paro:1,2,4,5,8,10,11,12.
Matias:3,6,7*,9.

*BS point deduction against Paro for holding.

115-112 Paro

A very instructive fight.