The 'what fights did you watch today?' thread

yes mate, id did notice that left hook, specially leading with it. i also like the way that, even tho he was being pushed back by the bigger man he wouldnt get caught on the ropes, he'd always fight back before he got there. looking foward to seeing some more of him

 

Been sorting some of my old tapes I'd found and watched Alexander Zolkin-Tony Tubbs I, Gary Mason-Hughroy Currie and Holyfield-Qawi I.

The Tubbs fight was better than I remembered. Perhaps through a comparison with most heavyweight fights today. Mason too seemed better than I'd thought.

RIP Gary.

 

I always say this, but Holyfield's decision over Qawi 1. is one of the best things i've ever seen a young fighter do. Evander was 'green' and Qawi could be a beast at times, he always came to fight and was underrated.

 

I rewatched last weekends fight between Omar Narvaez and Cesar Seda, which is one of the weekends best preformances, the champ was excellent.

In his advanced years, Narvaez has still retained the abilities that allowed him to reach the summit of the 115lbs division. He's never been the most entertaining fighters(though you wouldn't think it based off this fight), he is reliant on his adept defensive capabilities, using his feet and reflexes, while coming in quickly, landing his right hook and straight left, before retreating quickly. All this he was able to do against the younger ''Junito'', who had significant advantages in both height and reach, while looking more like a fighter in his mid-20's rather than mid-30's.

After seemingly taking an age to get the usual pre-fight introductions out of the way, the bell sounded for what would be the beginning of an unexpectedly entertaining contest. Seda began encouragingly, he used his massive reach to keep Narvaez at range, ensuring the champion struggled to get off. Making use of the contrasting height, the taller Seda launched long overhand lefts to keep Omar honest. The champion was effective in blocking shots and getting close, only to find that the challenger would slide away when there was any possible danger incoming and then feed Narvaez a stream of lead left hands to further keep him at bay.

The second formed a similar pattern to the opener, with Seda now growing even more comfortable, incorporating an effective right hook to the body in between his left hands. It was noticeable that Narvaez still had no answer to the size difference he was presented with, and one wondered would he be able to formulate one. Seda's 1-2 was working wonders at range, and his right hook when the distance was closed made Narvaez think twice about advancing recklessly. ''El Huracan'' did, however, make an adjustment that began to make Seda's work become more ragged, turning his body sideways as he came in to make a smaller target for Seda's left.

Round three was where Narvaez finally began to get the measure of the increasingly wild Cesar, showing all the intricacies that have made his defence one of the best of this generation. He was now easily evading Seda's shots, varying between blocking and parrying punches or slipping punches with upper-body movement at mid-range. Coming inside while crouched, Narvaez was finding a home for his assaults to the body. When Seda did appear to have success with body blows, he was warned by a stern referee who wasn't accepting anything so much as borderline.

Omar kept up this success in the fourth, weaving his way through anything Seda attempted to land and punishing him with pinpoint left hands from his southpaw stance. Seda was now failing in his objective to keep Narvaez at a distance, which was imperative if he were to continue to have success. Narvaez had now found his rhythm and was landing his straight left and right hook with regularity, at times he was even forcing Seda to come forward, peppering him with blows on the outside when he chose to linger there.

Seda's alarming lack of head movement was now being highlighted as he continuously failed to dodge Narvaez' punches. Coming in with his elusive defensive moves and throwing unpredictable lunging counters Narvaez was now started to assume control, his body work beginning to pile up and wear Seda down. Out of nowhere Cesar landed an enormous right hook to the body, noticeably damaging the champion. After following this shot up with a combination to the head of Narvaez, they both began to exchange hellacious blows for the remainder of the fifth round, before the referee called time to deduct a point from Seda, likely due to a punch straying low.

El Huracan began to embarrass the Puerto Rican over the course of the sixth and seventh rounds, making Seda look like a novice such was the ease in which he was making him miss. The closest Seda could come to landing was the when hitting Argentinian's shoulders during his evasive moves, all the while absorbing whatever left and right hands Narvaez could conjure up flush to the face. Narvaez was now putting on a clinic of how to box against the taller man, getting under Seda's punches and switching his attacks from head to body all in one combination. The champion's nimble feet were reminiscent of a ballerina, the similarities halted however when blows began to cascade upon Seda's head.

Seda now appeared weary, the fight was starting to follow a repetitive pattern over the eight, ninth and tenth rounds. Seda began to throw punches in bunches, but with nothing behind them, merely slapping Narvaez' gloves and then running away. In the ninth Seda was badly hurt for the first time, a looping left hand exploding on his temple, sending him reeling into the ropes as Narvaez continued to throw left hands in an attempt to get Seda out of there. In amongst Narvaez reckless attacks in an attempt to end proceedings Seda landed a huge left hand in desperation, not quite enough to steal the round for him, but enough to make Narvaez realise he was still in with a fighter refusing to give up. This was illustrated in the tenth, where the clearly fatigued challenger started aggressively, trying to find some way in which to turn things around. Alas, he was unsuccessful, as Narvaez went back to what allowed him to control matters with relative ease, his excellent defensive capabilities still present as he continued to creep inside and batter poor Seda with slashing lefts.

The eleventh was rather uneventful in comparison to the previous stanzas. Narvaez was now aware of his insurmountable lead, and began to coast on the outside, bouncing around, throwing left hands only when Seda was open to them with right hooks to the body being slotted in on the inside before peeling away in order to take away whatever steam Seda had left.

The effort made by the challenger in the final round was monumental, as he desperately tried to land the one blow that would allow him to wrest the title from Omar's tight grasp. Narvaez' defence had vanished, he no longer weaved his head to avoid attacks and simply lingered on the outside without doing anything but absorbing punishment. Seda needed a come from behind KO, and he was doing everything in his power to get one, pasting Narvaez with violent one-two's along the ropes. Narvaez moved like he was trapped in quicksand, unable to avoid anything, whenever Seda was in range he would land. Unfortunately for Cesar, although he was able to sweep the round, it wasn't enough for him to bring the title back to Puerto Rico, losing by scores of 117-110(twice and 115-112).

Both combatants can certainly walk away from this bout knowing it could be the precursor for better things. Narvaez, after making his 19th successful defence, can look towards fights with the divisions other formidable champions. Bouts with any of the trio of other ''world'' champions in the division, Cristian Mijares, Tomas Rojas and Hugo Cazares are certainly all intriguing propositions if they were to come about. For Seda, once he gets over the initial disappointment of defeat, the experience of such a high-level contest will serve him well. He without doubt has all the physical gifts to be a real player in a division stacked with talent, it's the mental aspect of his game that needs improvement as he unravelled when presented with a fighter he could not land at will on. This, however, comes with time, and at his age, he has a lot of it. Who knows, maybe in the near future we will ponder Seda's chances against the elite at 115lbs, until then his rebuilding process will almost be as interesting as Narvaez' championship exploits.

 

Berto-Ortiz.

**** me did Ortiz come to fight. Very determined performence from him. Great fight.

 

Ali vs Bugner 1

Brave performance by a 22 year old Bugner who even caused Ali some problems on a way to defeat. Stuck to his gameplan well and was simply undone by Ali's accuracy.

Will watch the second fight later this evening.

 

Just watched Froch vs Abraham then Paul Ingle vs Junior Jones

 

Saman Sorjaturong vs. Humberto Gonzalez

 

Donaire vs Sidorenko

Nonito looked immense. Sidorenko is no joke, he's a quality fighter who gave hell to just about everyone he fought. You don't take the 0's of Agbeko and Poonsawat without being pretty darn good, which is what makes Donaire's demolition of him pretty special in my book. Donaire looked huge compared to Sid, it has to be said, and it pretty much looked like the sheer weight behind Donaire's punches were knocking Sidorenko to the ground, as opposed to them simply 'hitting the spot'. Despite the size difference, it was a cracking performance from Nonito, he looked sharp as a razor, and it's definetely a top 3 win for him, adding to a resume which is arguably lacking in depth.

Tony Demarco vs Anges Adjaho

Most disgraceful quit job I have seen in a while. Adjaho is a disgrace. Decent scrap that looked like it was going somewhere before the *** out on Adjaho's part. And people think Andre Dirrell is a coward........

 

Later on I'm going to watch:

Schmeling

vs

Sharkey
Stribling
Louis

Should be good.

 

The only thing I hate about old fights is the poor quality that you usually have to watch them in. It makes it hard to watch them sometimes pre 1960s.

 

Ditto.

It's what has always put me off watching older fights but I feel I'm educated enough(if I may say so) on a lot of modern fighters and want to learn more about the older guys. It'll be interesting to see if I can pick up on certain tendancies Max makes in spite of quality of the DVD I'll be watching.

 

love the two/three Thai businessmen going wild in the crowd at ringside :yep

 

Yes definitley, Sometimes I grin and bare it just to watch some historical matchups. Ive been watching fights post 1980 religiously for years now myself, I try to broaden my knowledge of boxing every now and then with an old fight. I watched the entire Zale-Graziano trilogy a while back, it was very entertaining.

 

Great scrap :deal

The lil' ****er had some dynamite in his right hand