I watched Monzon vs Jean Claude Bouttier 1 last week. Typical Monzon performance. Start slow and methodical, turn up the heat, deliver a beatdown. He was a machine.
I was thinking about rewatching Juan Jose Estrada vs Jesus Poll. It's a very good fight. Estrada had the style that Doub would take a shine to:
Just watched Lora vs Zaragoza for the first time. At bantamweight, I look at Zaragoza as a decent-but-short-of-elite type, who can make for interesting fights and decent scalps, but not something you'd want as your best win; ala Canizales vs Seabrooks. Whereas I look at Lora as someone who had every aspect to be a great fighter at both BW and SBW. I see him in parody with guys like Pintor or Canizales in terms of head-to-head ability. He's clearly at the peak of his powers in this fight, though. Almost Panamanian in terms of how well he's mixing diverse offense with laughable flexibility in his upper-body. Zaragoza being relatively slow, not having much power and having a high workrate meant he could twist and tie him into knots when Zaragoza tried to mount an offense, but could lace him with nasty, hateful counter-combinations. He worked a serviceable jab when he needed to take a break and showed excellent movement. Another brilliant thing he's doing which is giving me one of those boxing hard-ons that only the best of the best can bring out, is his subtle movement of his left foot. Ugh..... he just half steps with it, feints a jab and then moves back. Zaragoza can't help but try and follow. Before long, he's in a rhythm he doesn't want to be and he doesn't know how to change it. Masterpiece in drawing the lead, even guys like Toney couldn't do that. I'm thinking of where this performance would rank in terms of mid-tier greats churning out all-time great performances. Definitely up there with Galaxy-Moon II and Canizalez-Seabrooks I. Probably a bit behind Harada-Jofre I or Olivares-Rose in terms of who the performance was over, and the level of the fighter who won. Even still, it's an incredible performance. Seriously good work from a man who wouldn't be denied that title.
Rewatched Margarito vs Danny Perez. First time I had watched it since it aired live on Showtime, so obviously I didn't remember much. Marg beat the shit outta Perez.
I just watched Lora vs Sanchez, just finishing off some of the Lora title fights I haven't seen yet. Lora looked very special that night, and he beat the fuck outta Sanchez. Enrique kept coming, but his listless, lack of defence just meant that Lora could nail him with whatever he wanted. The cross and left hook to get the first two knock-downs were brutal.
In honor of the slain girl, let's all go rewatch Verdejo-Nakatani tonight. Let's watch that POS get fucked up.
Watched Matthew Saad Muhammad v Louis Pergaud and Murray Sutherland. Saad was at his peak against Pergaud and possibly passing it against Sutherland but still had way too much for him.
Today I have been mostly perusing large shithouse Arslanbek Makhmudov or something. A big shithouse in the David Price mold. Seems strong and powerful but limited. Classic Ex-Soviet stereotypical big man. In addition I have been forced, by my inner boxing fan, to absorb some rounds of a rather flash trashbag called Florian Marku, another of the endless supply of talentless nightclub bouncer sorts from Albania that consider themselves talented but will inevitably rotate back to some less honourable form of existence once they are exposed in the ring.
One of REED’s Absolute Favorite Boxing Names Ever - Fulgencio Obelmejias. Fuck That “Fully Obel” Bullshit. REED
Rewatched Wilfredo Gomez vs Derrick Holmes. Gomez was the most sadistic bastard to ever step in the ring. Perhaphs no other fighter in history enjoyed hurting his opponents more.
At least TWICE in the first round of that Derrick whatever vs Gomez fight, somebody shouts, in Spanish, for Gomez to do something with "the shoulder"......."el hombro"........I don't know, was it an instruction to target the shoulder and slow the faster man down, or get on his shoulder i.e. close the gap.
"Duran by the way, the Panamanian, a close friend of Gomez". Ray says nothing for the next 30 seconds and immediately changes the subject when he does.
Literally everytime Pacheco said something the opposite happens. "He's made the mistake of not moving around, and that is when you get knocked out by Gomez". Gomez gets fucking rocked...nanoseconds later. Pacheco: "That weight loss is going to be a factor in the later rounds". Later Rounds: "..............................." "Why he stayed on the ground I'll never know, he should have gotten up". The guy had gotten up, about 10 minutes ago, and carried on. Not to be outdone........... Ray Leonard: "Derek is still in a state of shock with this fight. He's not really hurt. But literally he's hurt". Pacheco again: "He shouldn't be punching! He should be........moving! There it is......move and FLICK THAT JAB OUT"
Lol! Gomez started a bit rocky, but once he got warmed up, Holmes just got annihilated. This was the period where Gomez was considered by all as the P4P #1.
OM man Imapassaout... Where did they find these clams? "One more knockdown and it's over, they have not waived the 3 knockdown rule". Goes down for the third time "Oh apparently they HAVE waived the 3 knockdown rule"........ FFS
Holmes would win a title today with some seasoning. Probably be making the 122 easy with the right regimen and the night-before weigh in. With that right hand and todays division where it is..........he'd be a serious contender at least. I mean he showed a lot in that fight- just no brains and experience.
What's sad is, Pacheco was better in the 80s than he was in the 90s. As for Marv Albert... arguably the GOAT in the NBA, but always sucked at calling boxing.
Pacheco was right about one thing.......the "Consumate" nature of Gomez. He reminds me a lot of a much more serious mature Camacho in terms of the overall looseness. He's loose but he's not flitty and jittery. Almost casual but not sloppy.
Yeah well senility won't do much for people who never made any sense to begin with Pacheco is like Ron Borges: he's famous for one thing and one thing ONLY. For Borges, it was calling Holyfield vs Tyson. For Pacheco, it was taking Ali's pulse and wanting him to retire. These guys dine out on that shit for years.