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· Umberto Eco Subscribes
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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Shamelessly stolen from ESB, consider this thread as us paying homage to Ishy.

Let's do this.
 

· Umberto Eco Subscribes
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7,466 Posts
Discussion Starter · #2 ·
At the request of @ScouseLeader (have I done that right?)...........

Alisher Rahimov vs Sergio Thompson

First off the two separate ring announcers was a weird way to do things. Why not just get one bi-lingual guy to do the job? Anyhow..........

10-9
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9-10

116-112 to Rahimov.

Decent fight for the most part, with the majority of the rounds being relatively easy to score(12th and 10th and some other round I gave to Thompson I think are the ones I found debatable if I remember rightly, been a few hours since I watched it). I was going to make one of my rather monotonous essays but I'll just C&P most of the notes I took down while watching instead.

Both of them were pretty porous defensively, Thompson more so than Rahimov. The Russian had a relatively tight guard, but as a result he left himself vulnerable to the body. Something which Thompson really took advantage of in the rounds that he took. Thompson though, he was open for EVERYTHING. He kept his hands up but he wasn't using them to defend himself, seeing as everything Rahimov threw went past them.

Luckily for Thompson, Rahimov consistently squared himself up when going on the attack and thus nullified almost all of his clean work to a degree. Either Thompson is extremely tough or Alisher really let himself down by not taking his man out relatively early, because he was landing A LOT of flush shots, the majority of which being nowhere near as effective as they should've been.

Early on I thought it appeared as tough Thompson could gradually take over. Rahimov often stays in the same place after throwing while Sergio was landing his left to the body and then spinning away quite well. I thought he could've made better use of that, he had a far superior array of angles but never really utilised them. He contributed to his own downfall really. He also kept on standing inside trying to free up room for his left hook down low, and as a result continued to ship plenty of punishment up the middle, primarily from right uppercuts. There were plenty of exchanges, 90% of which Rahimov came out on top of. He was far more compact when throwing, he was landing 2/3 hooks in the time it took one of Thompson's wide, looping haymakers to come into his range.

Thompson tired a bit around the midway point, his work rate dropped and he presented nowhere near as many angles, and in general was far slower/sluggish. Rahimov slowed a tad himself in the 8th, as he mostly followed Thompson, who in turn increased his own output and consistently threw hooks to the body from both hands. Hence he began to take a few more rounds for himself around this point.

In short Rahimov benefitted from being the busier and more compact puncher. Thompson's straight punches are pretty ineffective, and his left hook to the body aside he displayed a VERY limited arsenal in this one. Due to being so defensively poor, once his movement became restricted Rahimov was able to really rack up the rounds.
 

· Sucka Free Baws
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2,553 Posts
As Captain Hook once said; Good form (Pab)

I scored the fight 117-111 Rahimov, and I agree with most of the points you made regarding the bout. The main issue for Rahimov was that he smothered his own work by getting too close to Thompson, he couldn't get the correct leverage on his shots which was a big shame because Yeyo was very open and some good connections might have made it an early night. I think you can tell by watching Rahimov that he'd have trouble with a classy boxer who can control the range and stop him from unleashing his shots up close (but who'd have thought it would be Motherfucking Ji Hoon Kim?)

Whilst the commentators over-exaggerated it, I do think that the hand injury hindered Thompson, he looked hesitant to throw his right after it seemed he hurt it early on and I think he could have pushed harder had it not been injured. Could he have won though? I doubt it, Rahimov was just too quick on the inside and blocked far too efficiently for Yeyo to get through. Maybe throwing the right over Rahimov's jab would have worked for Thompson but I reckons Rahimov was too quick.
 

· Umberto Eco Subscribes
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Discussion Starter · #4 ·
What're you doing editing old posts and expecting me to see them you knobber? At least tag me in it like laa.

I didn't particularly rate Thompson's straight punches anyways, obviously it makes him more predictable if he's unable to throw it but for me his left to the body was his only effective shot anyways. Both his jab and right and he pushed out and never really followed through with, and with Rahimov's already rather sturdy guard he wasn't really getting through anyways.

I didn't find either particularly impressive. Rahimov was busy and had a bit of savvy up close with the uppercut, but that aside he wasn't great at closing down range(although he didn't have to be in this fight, as Sergio wasn't a good mover), continually squared himself up while throwing, and as you said he smothered his own work. Good fight though, albeit not of especially high quality.
 

· Sucka Free Baws
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I don't get this tagging malarky.

Yeah, Thompson had a good left to the body but he just couldn't get it going regularly. I still feel he should have made more of an effort to slow Rahimov down, he's not exactly young, and despite his good engine he looked a bit worn later on. Thompson allowed himself to be controlled though.

Yeah, twas an interesting fight with a few exciting elements but one watch is enough for me:yep
 

· Umberto Eco Subscribes
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Discussion Starter · #6 ·
Put someone's username after an @. For example:
@Lunny

And now Lunny will know that he's been mentioned in this thread, the legend.

When you told me to watch it I was expecting more to be honest, normally when it's yourself that suggests something I expect a bout that's either A) difficult to score, B) exciting and/or tactically intriguing, or C) both. Rather than the alright, not so technically impressive fight that was handy enough to score which I did get.:yep
 

· Sucka Free Baws
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Yeah, I only really recommended it cos I watched it recently and it wasn't an awful fight. I think the fact that it was pretty exciting and moderately aesthetically pleasing glossed over the low skill level and intrigue.

I'll recommend summat better next time.
 

· Registered
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Put someone's username after an @. For example:
@Lunny

And now Lunny will know that he's been mentioned in this thread, the legend.

When you told me to watch it I was expecting more to be honest, normally when it's yourself that suggests something I expect a bout that's either A) difficult to score, B) exciting and/or tactically intriguing, or C) both. Rather than the alright, not so technically impressive fight that was handy enough to score which I did get.:yep
 

· Sucka Free Baws
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Sumbu Kalambay vs Mike McCallum

Wow, did not expect this kind of performance from Kalambay. What the fuck were those judges smoking? To have it so close is pretty disgraceful. I had it 117-111 Kalambay and I even thought I was being generous to Mike, who only won one round clearly in my opinion. I'd go as far to say that Kalambay schooled the unbeaten veteran, so why the judges scored it so close, I have no clue.

I've never seen McCallum so outclassed in a ring outside of the Jones Jr fight. He just didn't seem to have a the foggiest clue of how to deal with the slickness of Kalambay. Mike just couldn't get off any of his famed body work, or any decent work on the inside because of Kalambay's constant foot movement. Even when Mike did get in close, Kalambay slipped shots with magnificent poise and anticipation and used some nimble foot movements to stay off the ropes where McCallum could corner and hurt him. It was such a genius defensive performance from the defending champion. When he wasn't evading almost all of McCallums big punches, Kalambay was zipping round the ring firing off a very sharp and accurate jab, which regularly found it's target and allowed Kalambay to set up follow up punches to keep McCallum off him. The way Kalambay blended defense and attack so effortlessly, to bamboozle McCallum with his movement and then fire back almost instantaneously with sharp jabs and stinging right hands to not only score points but even hurt the Iron chinned jamaican is incredibly commendable. McCallum just seemed clueless, not his usual assured and thought out self, really seemed out of his depth here when presented with something he hadn't witnessed before in Kalambay. Excellent all round showing from the man fighting at home. I suppose having that fart Lou Duva in his corner didn't help McCallum much either :yep

Cheers for the recommendation Flea :good
 

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@ScouseLeader no worries mate, watch their second fight and score that, much more competitive with many hard to score rounds, one of the greatest technical battles I've ever seen :good
 

· Sucka Free Baws
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^^^^ I took your advice Flea Man :yep

Sumbu Kalambay vs Mike McCallum II

Yep, a much more closely contested battle than the first encounter between these 2 excellent technicians. This time the decision was nowhere near as clear cut, and like Flea Man says there were a lot of close rounds in the contest. I had it 115-113 Kalambay by the end of it. The commentators on Eurosport seemed to see the fight in 2 halves; The first half where McCallum controlled the action, leading strongly with his jab and working the body well against a Kalambay who struggled to find his rythm and get that snappy jab going & The second half where Kalambay seemed to edge out McCallum in most of the rounds as the Jamaican noticeably slowed down and 'Patricio' got his attack going. I saw it in a vaguely similar way, but ended up splitting most of the middle rounds which proved increasingly difficult to score as the tide of the fight changed erraticly in each fighters favour. I felt that Kalambay nicking a few of the early rounds when McCallum seemed to be at his best, coupled with his resurgence in stealing the later rounds allowed him to edge out the decision, but it could definitely have gone either way.

A real technical battle this. And it's intriguing to see the differences between the 2 fighters efforts when they had fought a couple of years earlier in Italy. Kalambay doesn't seem as sharp or assured the second time round, particularly in the early going. Possibly this is due to the shocking defeat he suffered at the hands of Michael Nunn when he was caught cold after 88 seconds, or maybe simply because McCallum put in a better shift than his dissapointing showing the first time round. Mike was much more aggresive and refused to let Kalambay find his range in the early goings, but he eventually tired (he was mid thirties to his credit!) it seemed and Kalambay was allowed to exert that great atheticism to land his jab consistently and sway the action in his favour. Hard to pick flaws in either guy though, great performance from both.
 

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@ScouseLeader great analysis mate, agree. Many swing rounds, 115-113 is fair either way, some close mid-to-late rounds with McCallum punching and Sumbu slipping and countering that make you think what actually happened in that exchange and what was more significant and you can stretch 116-112 either way as well (I have before)

Watched it a few times, slightly different each time but I felt Sumbu nicked it. Considering his performances between Nunn and this he really turned it on. Mike, not common for him, started quick and made up any deficit before it happened.

Glad you enjoyed 'em mate, very good era of middles the post-Leonard W12 Hagler lot.
 

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Watched Monzon/Benvenuti I and Griffith/Benvenuti I also, both terrific bouts, and were both fights of the year.
Is that the one where Griffith twats Nino big time with the right hand? Only seen a few rounds of that (about five tours I think) is it fully available? Or am I thinking of the 2nd anyway?
 
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