The 'what fights did you watch today?' thread

Just watched Martinez vs Barker.

Gave Barker 4 rds, maybe 5. Thought Martinez was much quicker than Barker but he had poor defence. Think Barker could win a world title he has talent.

 

Luis Concepcion

Vs Roberto Carlos Leyva: The Panamanian puncher bombards his southpaw opponent from both stances, mixing his shots well. As he was in the one other fight I've seen of him against Marquez (barring his savage K.O of Vargas), way too open and careless. Overjoyed at finally pushing Concepcion back against the ropes, Leyva swings wildy, gets caught with a peach of a counter right and goes down heavily. Heavily.

Vs Denkaosan Kaovichit: The Thai veteran has mixed in decent circles. Concepcion swung right through him. Impressive.

Vs Eric Ortiz: Fair play to Ortiz for staying up. He gets stopped by the best, and here it's no exception, but he really shipped some big shots here. Concepcion got hit a lot again, when he throws he only thinks about what he is doing, and there's little head/lateral movement following his barrages, which are constant, so he gets hit on the constant.

Vs Wilfrido Valdez: I know nothing of this bloke, but he looked fragile from the first time I set eyes on him. He falls over loads, gets hit a few times, and it's stopped. His legs dipped numerous times and it genuinely looked like a stiff breeze could take him over. Crap opponent.

Vs Manuel Vargas: Thought I'd give this brutal K.O another look, but I forgot Vargas hit his head on the ropes, don't like to see that. Still, one of the best one-punch kayos of the year so far.

Hope he beats Marquez next time round and Segura Vs Concepcion gets made :deal Guaranteed FOTY material!

 

:happy

Oh, and calling Valdez ''fragile'' is understatement of the year.

 

I'm taking recommendations off you young whipper snappers :good

And is he known for it then? :rofl I just looked at him, looked at the duration of the vid' and went :roll:

Lo and behold atsch

 

I had started this post and had to get rid of it, because I was being too fair to poor Willy.

I was gonna say, ''to be fair he only gets taken out by BIG hitters'', in reality he just gets taken out a few seconds quicker by big hitters. I think he got stopped by a winless guy before he fought El Nica too. Decimated by Seda(who I'm really liking, Narvaez made him look worse than he is) and Segura as well. For all we know he could be very good, but he's ridiculously vulnerable.

 

And ridiculously matched as well by the sounds of it!

 

Wilfred Benitez vs Bruce Curry I

Rounds scoring: 6-4 Benitez
Points scoring (10 point must): 94-93 Curry

Excellent fight. Going by the 10 point must system, this fight goes to Curry and I really don't think I could see it any other way under that point scoring criteria. Benitez came back from an awful start to dominate the second half of the fight, but 3 knockdowns in a 10 round bout is always going to be a huge deficit to overcome, and I thought the young man benefited greatly from the rounds scoring system in place during this fight. I still can't believe Benitez made it out of round 4, or 5 for that matter. Those were some huge knockdowns scored by Curry, and Benitez was really badly hurt in the 4th and 5 th rounds (down twice in 4, once in 5). It's a miracle that Benitez was even able to recover after the beating he took - nearly falling out of the ring at one point - to come back and arguably win the last 5 rounds.

Great fight, superb effort from Curry to give the seasoned youngster a huge challenge, but going by the rounds scoring criteria, Wilfred was the deserving winner.

 

Yep, Curry won that fight no doubt.

As I say, watch Bruce Vs Monroe Brooks, savagery!

 

Should that fight have changed my perception of Benitez? Because I feel it kinda did.

Wouldn't have thought the guy that looked so good vs Cervantes would come within like a punch of getting knocked out by Bruce Curry.

 

Bruce Curry was a solid ten stone fighter, who would have sporadic success throughout his career but would have a good run at the end, past his best, as he won the WBC Light Welterweight title.

If you already knew that (and I imagine you do, you do your research) that this fight, against long-standing contender Monroe Brooks, just after the Benitez fight (they fought again but I ain't seen the 2nd Benitez fight) is a corker :good

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaFhZ4BZCgw[/ame]

Brooks was a tough and willing fighter who was rarely in anything less than a good fight. The above, is certainly very good :yep

Benitez was not great at the weight though to be fair. I recently heard a rumour (and it seems I was way late to the game) that the PR officials paid off Cervantes and the board to lie that Wilfredo made 140, when it fact he was a Welter and couldn't make the weight.

Take that as you will, but whilst Benitez was one of the greatest talents of all time, and has certain achievements that facilitate his standing as a consensus ATG, he was lackadaisical at times and didn't have much longevity. Weirdest I've ever seen him at later on though, against Davey Moore atsch

But Cervantes and Palomino remain mind blowing performances :deal

 

Just checked, the 2nd fight is widely available, so I'll take a look at that when I get the chance.

 

Not seen the Brooks/Curry fight, and I've not heard of it either, so cheers for posting it up. Curry's alright proven to me that he's one double hard SOB, so it'll be a pleasure to watch him again, especially if it's in another exciting bout.

That's an interesting suggestion regarding Benitez. What do you make of it? I suppose some of his weaker performances might just indicate that he was having trouble in regards to making the weight at times, or like you say he was simply a bit lazy and care-free. I hear he wasn't the smartest of young men (despite his immense ring IQ), so I could see complacency being a factor in some of his deficiencies, like what happened against Curry. Still, he's a superb fighter and a joy to see in action.

:good

 

Extremely lazy with regards to training, one of the worst I've heard of. Obviously that's a knock on him as a fighter when you take everything into account, but I imagine he felt he could rest on his amazing natural gifts.

And he could, most of the time :yep

On the Curry-Brooks fight, well this will only cement that opinion further, amazing fight!!!

 

Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Vs Suriyan Sor Rungvisai

Wonjongkam 113-115 Rungvisai

(6 rounds to SSR, 4 to Pong, 2 even*)

*Just to clear up any potential confusion here, that mandatory point deduction that the WBC employ came into effect in the 8th, where Pong caused the head clash and got cut, but was rewarded for it by getting Rungvisai a point deducted. In protest, rather than score it 10-8 or 10-9 to Pong as I'd imagine the judges did, I scored it 9-9. If not for that ridiculous rule Suriyan would have won a split decision, instead of the unanimous decision loss he did suffer - an injustice in my opinion.

This fight was really great, an absolute corker that I didn't anticipate it to be at all. Dissimilar to the other Rungvisai fight I've watched where he fought Tomas Rojas(controlled first half, got controlled second half), this was back and forth for the duration, plenty of rounds that could've swung in either direction.

The main problem for Pong was that he couldn't counter at all, no matter how great an effort he made. Rungvisai nullified that aspect so brilliantly, standing on the outside with his hands low, he was countering the counter-puncher, dodging a jab by slipping to the left and firing a lead right hand up the middle and then being out of range again at insane speed. Pong kept trying to make SRR(yes?:yep) lead, and even when he managed it, it was all to no avail, because he just wasn't given the opportunity to launch anything in response. What I loved about Rungvisai's work was, when he went on the offense, he would rattle off two or three shots, then he'd step around Pong's lead(right) foot, and push him away, so Pong couldn't respond to anything thrown at him, as the opponent was basically behind him when he managed to steady himself.

It's clear though that SRR is severely lacking in defensive nouse, because in both fights I've seen of his, he's been so good that he's forced the opponent into bull-rushing, but they've actually been successful in doing so. Crazy really, that the excellent boxers both Rojas and Pong are could only take rounds off him by reverting to their last resort. He's a bit panicky when faced with it, he backs away with his chin up and his hands down, which makes him pretty easy to clip whilst retreating desperately, which also wears him down a bit over the course too, that's what over-zealous movement does to you(think Acosta when he fought Rios).

Pong having to do that though was mad, he's clearly not one for closing range down, as his method of doing so was essentially running at Suriyan while throwing punches that lacked any sort of power because he couldn't set himself. A lot of rounds he won were only because he didn't allow Rungvisai to throw anything back rather than anything he did being special, Suriyan has a great left hook as the adversary is advancing, but you cannot give him the round when he lands three of them and Pong drowns him in a flood of inaccurate leather for the rest unfortunately.

That only made the fight better though, because the championship rounds were insane. Both having to endure a cacophany of body blows to that point, Suriyan was completely worn out from his constant in-and-out movement, and Pong worn out from being consistently caught and desperately flinging out combinations, so they both went toe to toe and pummeled each other. I wouldn't begrudge anyone picking either man as the winner of rounds 10 or 11, such was the ferocity of the action. The 12th was much slower by comparison, with Pong trying to see the final bell.

Great fight all in all, even though you wouldn't think so due to the blend of styles. Safe to say that I am now a MASSIVE Rungvisai fan, a 21(22 now) year old giving absolute hell(and technically defeating) a fighter of Wonjongkam's calibre at that stage in their career is more than admirable. Rungvisai has a style that boxer-types hate, with his feinting and glove-rotating before jumping in with a beautiful right hand and skirting out of range again. When I first read about this I assumed Pong was complacent, I am very happy to admit that I assumed wrong.



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzMUfEsyClI[/ame]



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxr4x5DmJeo&feature=related[/ame]

 

Pacquiao vs Morales II (87-84)

Well, that was sad. Quite a good fight, Morales showed great heart to come forward and fight when he looked as if he could barely move (that one moment at the end of Round 9 aside, of course). Good win for Pacquiao though.