Fights You Watched Today

I find myself watching really random, obscure fights nowadays.

I just watched Johnny Bredahl vs Rafael Caban.

Bredahl is kind of underrated as a technician, and I found this a nice little boxing clinic.

You can see from watching Bredahl that Mikkel Kessler modeled his style after Johnny:

 

Watching Whitaker-Hurtado, and the best moment so far has easily been Foreman referring to Willie Pep as King Henry the Eighth in the ring and the wedding ring.

 

Watched :

Penalosa vs. Gonzalez
Penalosa vs. Vorapin II

 

Fuckin well done soldier

 

Actually, I can't recall Penalosa vs Vorpin. Unless that's the Thai who he was cut against who's name is like Po-something?

 

It's Ratanachai - same dude who went 12 with M. Johnson. The rematch happened after Penalosa's fight with Jhonny.

 

Antonio Cervantes beating Esteban DeJesus. I'm not posting this in the scorecard thread as the version I saw on YT was missing three rounds.

I thought Cervantes was sublime here - he made DeJesus look ordinary and hit him repeatedly with perfectly timed counters. Of the available rounds, I scored it 11-1 Cervantes and that also included 3 KDs (in the 1st, 12th and 15th).

I'm currently putting together a top 10 fighters of the 1970s list and Cervantes has to be a contender. At his best around this time I do think he would have been a serious problem for Duran.

 

I dont think there's a version with all 15 rounds on it

While I've never watched it on YT, I had Cervantes-DeJesus on VHS and have seen it many times. The version I had on VHS was also missing 2-3 rounds, and its probably the exact same version that's on YT.

And yes, Kid Pambele was superb and easily top 10, if not top 5, of the 70s.

 

I watching Eddie Perkins today, and I'm enthralled. Never saw him before, only read about a couple of his fights. I've always known he was a good fighter, but never this good. I'd actually say he's one of the very best ever at 140, and closer to an ATG than a non-great.

 

I've only seen his fight with Paolo Rosi, and based on that, he was a very good technician, but hard to handicap him against the other junior welter weight greats on that performance only.

Unless there's others you've seen?

 

Yeah, a ten rounders when he's 37, and a short clip in a loss when he's younger.



Obviously, he has a resume as deep as the ocean, and there's three full fifteen round fights vs Loi, which are extremely rare but out there. I've heard he was hard done by in the loss and the draw, and that the 'KD's were complete and utter bollocks.

He reminds me quite a lot of Buddy McGirt, actually. Tough as nails, brilliant technician, did it the hard way, and relient on the left.

 

Just watched Cervantes vs Frazier II (Going on a 140lbs binge, Eddie's got me thinking all about new match ups) and I was very, very impressed. Cervantes is one of those guys who I always brushed over. He was outstanding here. Brilliant jab, knew exactly how to set up his right, use his height as well as showing a good defence and massive, explosive power. Frazier impressed me too, which made this win even more impressive. Frazier shows some great head-movement, an explosive offensive with a good feint game. He also showed a massive heart. Cervantes kept things at range, and lined up his massive right hand. When he landed, he took no time in jumping on his man with brutal, long, fluid combinations.

Brilliant performance. Watching the Locche rematch next, as well as a few Locche and Frazier fights later today.

 

I was surprised at the amount of success DeJesus had after reading how brilliant Cervantes' performance had been.

 

He definitely landed on Cervantes but Cervantes always seemed to throw something better back at him.

 

A difference of 4.5 inches in height and 5 inches in reach. A small Lightweight who was already starting to slide vs a big Lt. Welter square in his prime. Reminded me of Monzon/Napoles a little bit.

 

Yeah I haven't rated that win highly, although I can't remember DeJesus having much success. Will rewatch this week.

 

Meldrick Taylor-JCC

I find Taylor interesting, he had BLAZING hand speed, he shared a gym with Pea and came out of the Olympics with him but amazingly he never really improved his defense. He was so fast but threw shots with no regard to anything incoming.

 

Watched Saad vs. Lopez II after reading about it in the scorecard section. There's a really high quality copy on Youtube. Was definitely worth another look. Amazing fight.

Also watched Dorin vs. Balbi. I'd forgotten how awful Lederman's scoring was for that fight. Somehow, he gave almost every round to Balbi which was ridiculous.

 

What success???

 

Ironbar uploaded Esparrgoza vs Young Kyun Park today. It was already on YT via an Asian channel, but still be worth a rewatch. I quite like Park:

 

Not nearly as big a size disparity as Monzon-Napoles.

 

Monzon had 4 inches in height and 4 inches in reach on Napoles, so the disparity there is actually smaller. The weight difference was bigger, though, that’s true.

 

DeJesus landed a lot of clean shots no doubt.

 

Watchin Antonio Cermeno vs Yuichi Kasai 1. Cermeno was a very good fighter, and I previously uploaded a few of his fights - against Jesus Salud and his rematch with Kasai.

He was almost like a hybrid of Bernando Pinango and Antonio Cervantes. Not nearly as good as the latter, but probably a bit better than the former.

 

Just rewatched Rosendo Alvarez vs Songkram Porpaoin. My second time viewing it.

Rosendo Alvarez was one helluva fighter. The best Alvarez in boxing history. *Wink wink*

 

Cermeno was a bad ass

 

Gotta be one of the more underrated fighters of the 90s.

 

Watched Camacho-Rosario. Hector showed more heart in that fight than I remembered and he won it fair and square.

Watched Simon Brown vs. Tyrone Trice II. Simon was on that night.

 

Camacho-Rosario is the type of fight that's totally acceptable to have either winning 7-5, or have it a draw.

I think I agree though. I believe Hector did deserve to edge it.

And yeah, Brown beat the fuck outta Trice in the rematch - I just uploaded it last week.

 

Rewatched Bruce Curry-Monroe Brooks yesterday. Great fight, a skillful slugfest. They were really loading up on their shots and swinging for the fences, but not mindlessly bombing away.

There’s still a lot of fights from the 1970s I need to watch but it was one of the best from the decade I thought. Saad’s first fight with Marvin Johnson is probably my favorite non-world title fight, but this one isn’t too far behind.

Reality Provided the Knockout Blow to Boxer Who Fought on Heart Alone : For Curry, Ending Was Tragic

I didn’t know that Bruce had a mental breakdown in the mid 80s and was always kind of nuts to begin with. Anyone know what happened with him afterwards?