I genuinely felt that Haney won. Admittedly I didn’t score it but I did start to think that Loma was getting himself back in with a chance on the scorecards and was cheering him on in the twelfth round which I thought Haney won and sealed the deal for him. Will watch again and score properly
Now Haney's repulsive fans, because deep down they know full well their massive weight bully hype job got badly exposed and lost to a past prime old tiny little blown up 126 pounder ''hype job,'' who he weighed at least 20lbs more than after they pulled that little stunt with the weigh in, on a deck that was heavily stacked in their boy's favour and couldn't have been more set up for him to win, are running with the you got to really beat the champ to take their title off them. Weird because if you take a look around here none of them they were saying that after Kovalev vs Ward I when they all had Ward winning and you'll never hear a peep out of them about that regarding JLC vs Floyd I which they obviously had Floyd winning too. Strange that eh?
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I found his analysis of the first round particularly edifying. There seems to be this consensus that Haney clearly won Rd 1, yet it was not nearly as definitive to me at the time or at any point thereafter. Can you make a case that Haney won the round? Certainly . Alternatively, could you make an argument for Lomachenko? I thought then (and still think) the answer is "yes." This breakdown confirms as much.
Yes it's ridiculous I'm not sure what fight these people were watching. Have you ever seen a supposed slick fighter, the new Floyd according to many of his fans, with supposedly one of the best jabs in the game, let alone one with such a huge size and reach advantage too fall short with so many jabs, shots and swing and miss so often and so widely? Even a lot of the shots they think landed or landed clean didn't land or didn't land clean thanks to Loma's far superior slickess and defence and just far superior skill set The only reason the fight was competitive is because of the ridiculous physical advantages Haney holds over him and Loma being 35 y/o and past his prime and everyone knows that because it couldn't be anymore obvious. I think a lot of these people were swayed by the commentary or they score fights based on other factors than what's actually happening in the ring. They actually think Ward and Bradley wanted Loma to win and were heavily biased in favour of him This is what what down. They were very biased for Haney from the get-go and clearly wanted him to win, especially Ward, and they were calling every shot Haney landed or even ones he didn't and hooting and hollering or becoming animated whenever he did. However, when Loma landed just as good or better shots there was complete silence from Ward even though he clearly saw them too. I even mentioned this numerous times during the RBR in real time because it was happening so often. Ward was really trying to create an impression Haney was winning and in control of a lot of these rounds when he wasn't. But I think it dawned on them at one point they were doing a terrible job of hiding their bias and Bradley at least started being more fair. But it wasn't a fight of two halves. Loma was having plenty of success in the first half too.
Another funny thing I've noticed with 99% of the Haney fans is that not a single one of them has mentioned his size advantage even though it was obscene. No mention whatsoever from them. They just completely ignore it like it wasn't a factor in the fight And ever so coincidentally we haven't heard a single peep from any of them about the weigh in being pushed forward 12 hours (to 36 hours before the fight) or the fact that all three judges were American. Isn't that strange, especially considering they kicked up a big stink on social media regarding the judges having to be from neutral countries for his fights against Kambosos in Australia and how utterly unfair it would be if they weren't. FTR they were all neutral for both fights Hmm.. “I knew my team had done a great job making sure we had neutral judges.'' --Devin Haney Had they moved the weigh in back 12 hours or even just a couple so Haney didn't have time to rehydrate properly and healthily and blow way back up to his usual massive fight weight the outrage would've been deafening from them and there would've been dozens of videos about and thousands of comments on social media about how unfair it was and how the powers that be were conspiring to rob Haney and stack the deck in Loma's favour.
Your last point is absolutely critical....it wasn't a fight of two halves A narrative, perhaps influenced by the Loma-Lopez fight, emerged very early on that Haney was essentially sweeping all of the early rounds. Indeed, at the time, I distinctly remember thinking, Lomachenko is doing some good work finding his groove/rhythm very early in this fight. I am not necessarily taking issue with folks who believe that Haney won more rounds than he lost in the early going, but I do reject the notion Lomachenko's late fight heroics were simply not enough to overcome this supposedly gargantuan hole he'd dug for himself over the first half of the fight.
When I watched it I felt like Haney eeked out a close decision. I did not score the fight while watching it because it ruins it for me. Scoring a fight isn't the same as watching it for pleasure and is nowhere near as enjoyable. How many that responded actually really scored it using the proper criteria. I think most folks just "watch" the fight. That's not the same as scoring it. I was shocked when I heard that Loma threw and landed more according to punch stats, but punch stats don't really tell the story of the fight. Either way I thought it was a close fight and as usual cries of robbery are misplaced.