Articles

Dyah Davis Gets Robbed By Judges In California

Published

10 years ago

February 6, 2011

All reporters had Davis (r) winning. The judges said otherwise. Egregiously poor judging is one of the sports' biggest problems. (Chris Farina/Top Rank)MAYWOOD, CA-Mexico’s Francisco Sierra escaped with a strange majority draw against Florida’s Dyah Davis, who seemed to have won the fight easily on Saturday at the Maywood Activity Center.

Davis (18-2-1) seemed to clearly be cruising toward a win over Sierra (23-3-1) but the judges saw otherwise in the 10-round super middleweight fight. It was Top Rank’s first card in Maywood in years and was televised by Fox.

Davis opened up the first round with some quick right leads and solid defense as Sierra fired punches that missed the mark. In the next round Sierra connected with a right hand that seemed to convince Davis to stay away and hold whenever possible.

Body shots proved useful for Davis who landed more than a few in the third round as Sierra missed badly with right hand bombs. A clean right hand to the head punctuated the round for Davis.

Sierra’s poor balance and telegraphed punches allowed Davis to dictate most of the mid rounds of the fight. In the seventh three vicious counter left hooks connected and nearly dropped the Mexican boxer.

Though Sierra was a constant aggressor he missed wildly and was tagged often by Davis’s counter left hooks. After 10 rounds it seemed like an easy victory for the Floridian. Big surprise. Two judges Barry Druxman and Marty Denkin scored it 95-95 while Fritz Werner scored it 98-92 for Davis. The fight was ruled a majority draw to the surprise of media row. No reporter had it close. All scored it for Davis.

Other bouts

Andy Ruiz’s speed constantly surprises opponents after they see him walk into the ring. He looks soft but there is nothing soft about the Mexicali heavyweight who stopped Kelsey Arnold (4-7-2) by third round technical knockout.

Ruiz (8-0, 6 KOs) looked like he was going to annihilate Arnold in the first round as he connected with several vicious rights and lefts to the chin. But Arnold absorbed the shots well.

In the second round a left jab dropped Arnold but referee David Mendoza ruled it a slip or something. It was a weird ruling.

Ruiz poured in the punches in deliberate and calculated fashion with little return from Arnold. After repeated blows to the body and head the referee stopped the fight at 2:19 of the third round for a technical knockout victory for the Mexican heavyweight.?
The heavyweight is trained by Freddie Roach and continues to improve and show that surprising hand speed for someone of his girth. He also shows pretty good defense and a decent chin.

Oscar Meza (21-4, 17 KOs) floored Ohio’s Leo Martinez (15-15, 7 KOs) in the seventh round and proceeded to simply out-strength the willing fighter for most of the eight round lightweight bout. Martinez fought hard despite sustaining some big shots and landed a few of his own. But he just didn’t have the firepower to keep Meza honest. The judges scored it 80-72, 78-73, 79-72 for Meza. One judge overlooked the knockdown or else it would have been 80-71.

Santa Ana’s Jose Roman (9-0, 7 KOs) floored Johnny Frazier (3-5-2) in the first round but there was little action after that for the next five rounds. Roman was the more accurate puncher when he did punch and Frazier tried to counter so the fight was mostly two boxers seldom firing punches. Two judges scored it 59-54 twice and 60-53 for Roman.

Brazil’s Patrick Teixeira (9-0, 7 KOs) escaped with a gift split decision against Idaho’s clever counter-punching David Lopez (3-4-3) after six rounds of a junior middleweight contest between southpaws.

Lopez was only given one round on two judges’ score cards and that was the difference in the fight. The Idaho southpaw definitely won at least two rounds including some head snapping blows at the end of round four and five. Teixeira kept the pressure on Lopez and probably saved the fight for him but it looked closer than the scorecards revealed. The crowd felt Lopez won the battle.

Whittier’s Raymond “Bad Boy” Chacon won his pro debut against Mexico’s Manuel Machorro (0-3) after four rounds of a junior featherweight bout. All three judges scored it 40-36 for Chacon who was the aggressor all four rounds. Machorro had trouble releasing any punches.

NOTE: Davis' promoter Lou Dibella took offense to the Sierra-Davis decision on Twitter after the fight. “FoxSports tonight. My boy Dyah Davis easily beat Francisco Sierra. Had it clear 8-2. One judge agreed; two had draw. Bleeping disgrace. No boxing match insignificant to those fighting. We accept blatant robberies, but they affect kids lives. Unacceptable systemic corruption.”

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David A. Avila

Articles

2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

5 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Articles

Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

5 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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Articles

2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

5 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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