And what were your impressions? (and when did you watch them?) Mine were (from late June and July): Chiquita Gonzalez v. Melchor Cobb Castro: Castro gave him serious problems before he got tired. Didn't score carefully but I thought this one was closer than the judges did; seemed like it could have gone either way. Greg Page v. Gerrie Coetzee: Was impressed by Coetzee early on--fast start and he looked strong, powerful and well-coordinated. Page eventually figured him out and showed surprising power in hurting and then stopping him. Marco Antonio Barrera v. Naseem Hamed: MAB schooled him. Great example of how a fundamentally sound boxer can overcome various physical disadvantages by jabbing and staying tight. First half of the fight was way more competitive than I had remembered though, and MAB didn't actually beat him up like I had remembered (Hamed kept getting caught while off-balance, which made for bad optics). Another ridiculous Foreman commentary performance. Muangchai Kittikasen v. Jung Koo-Chang: Very good, high-action fight. Lots of rough stuff. Pacquiao - Marquez I: Very interesting fight. Pacquiao completely one-punch and one-dimensional, but JMM had poor head movement and it seemed like he wasn't ready for Pac's speed. Marquez was lucky that the fight wasn't waved off in the first round (would have been a bad but completely understandable stoppage). Enjoyed watching him outthink Pacquiao later on with his slipping and countering, but he still didn't do enough to overcome the early deficit imo.
Usyk-Gassiev. Usyk is magical and Gassiev just didn't have the extra dimension people were hoping to see/fooling themselves into seeing. Munguia-Smith. Mugnuia is about as beastly as it gets at the poundage and Smith is better than I thought. Duran-Barkley. Barkley picked a knife fight with the wrong hombre. Took a certain code and applied to a man who knew the code better than him. It was very close but my God Duran earned it. "That man got too much heart." Avelar-Cardona. Never take a puncher lightly. Avelar was warned in the ring befor the finishing punch and he didn't heed those warnings. Two minutes of unconsciousness was the punishment. Spinks-Brisbane. Hey.
Mayweather vs McGregor: The hype for this one was incredible, Floyd had me worried for the first few rounds but not much happened, just a few light shots from Conor, in the fourth Floyd started charging in and Conor began to unravel, after that it was just a case of Floyd pot shoting Conor with straight rights to the body and head, Floyd had far sharper punches than Conor and wore him down easily. Canelo v GGG: Canelo was out boxing GGG in the first few rounds landing fast combos and GGG couldn`t deal with the speed, but then got his jab going and exploited his reach, his work rate was too much for Saul he displayed a brilliant chin at times as did GGG as Canelo went on to land several shots, I felt it was a lot closer than everyone said afterwards. Parker vs AJ: Simply a jabbing contest with AJ not able to land the right hand because of Parker negative and very quick, AJ began to tire and looked rattled everytime Joe got inside but the ref wouldn`t allow any inside fighting, some decent offensive work here but a little disappointing because Parker was so negative. Loma v Linares: Loma was easily out boxing Linares and constantly pumping the jab but then made the mistake and coming in with his head too centraal and got caught by a solid right, Linares did some good work after that but Loma began to take control against and finished Linares with a vicious hook to the body. Jeff Horn vs Crawford Horn landed a few in the first round but then Crawford took over, he was far too evasive and was landed hard shots all the time, Horn was tough but ran out of ideas and was easily overpowered at the end.
Parker-Joshua: Another fight that Joshua needed to round out his experience. His first dozen or so opponents practically fell over. Parker was overmatched but did pretty well. Frazier-Quarry: Quarry could have been a champion in any era other than the one he was in... and if he didn't have fragile skin. Frazier just too good. Palomino-Muniz 1: Tough fight for Palomino but he hung in and battled back in the championship rounds like a true champion. Napoles-Lopez 2: Napoles dominated and finished poor Ernie with a picture-perfect uppercut that laid him out without Lopez even threatening to beat the count. Leonard-Hearns 1: A fight with more pendulum swings than an old grandfather clock. A classic.
Briscoe Auntofermo. Wrong man got the decision Benitez Palomino Tighter than I remembered Franklin Johnson 2 Just love this fight Mancini Kim Incredible brutal old fashioned style fight Henry Hank Dick Tiger Tiger won handily but Hank made a fight of it
Briscoe-Antuofermo should have been on my list too (watched it after you started the thread). I had Briscoe winning 6-3-1.
