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Ace Ring General Danny Garcia Defuses Matthysse, Wins UD12

Published

12 years ago

September 15, 2013

Many smart folks assumed that the Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse bout, with Garcia’s 140 pound crowns up for grabs, would be the fight of the night, offering more drama and controlled violence than the main event. Garcia (age 25; from Philly), holder of the WBA and WBC strap, entered with a 26-0 with 16 KOs mark. The Argentine Matthysse (age 30; holding interim WBC strap) was 34-2 with 1 ND, 32 KOs.

It turned out there was less violence, controlled or otherwise, because Danny Garcia’s ring generalship was superb at the MGM Grand. After two or three rounds, he got his bearings, and knew he could take Lucas’ power, the same Lucas who many fans would knock his head into Jack Nicholson’s lap. Garcia’s combos impressed the judges, and he was helped by the right eye of Lucas, which was closing by round seven. The arbiters saw it 115-111, 114-112, 114-112, for the Philly fighter, who now must get proper respect for winning fights he’s not favored to win.

“I’m the champion of the world,” said Garcia after, with his dad grinning wickedly. “The champion of the world isn’t scared of anyone. If you can make it out Philly you can make it out of anywhere.

“The only way to slow him down was to go down to the body and throw combinations upstairs. I just let my hands go.”

“I only had one eye for half of the fight but, it’s no excuse,” Matthysse said afterwards. “He fought a great fight. He’s a great champion and we knew he wasn’t intimidated by my punching.”

To Jim Gray, Garcia said he wasn’t scared of nobody. He joked that he’d have smacked his dad after his dad whacked his face after a lame round, if he wasn’t his dad. next? He’ll leave that to Al Haymon and Golden Boy, he said.

Lucas went 206-566 to 225-624 for Garcia, whose exemplary chin kept him from suffering the fate of so many Matthysse foes.

In the first, Garcia, coming off a win over Zab Judah, who’d beaten Lucas, was cautious. Lucas landed a decent hook and then later two rights. In the second, a right to the body on Garcia looked like it stung. Lucas landed a left hook that buzzed Garcia a tiny bit late. Garcia’s lateral movement served him well.

In the third, the right to the body had Garcia’s left side red. The Philly kid was a bit busier, after hearing it from his dad. He threw more jabs, and was quicker with power counters. “Are you alright?” Angel asked Danny after the round. “You have to be focused,” he said a few times, and warned his son to protect himself smartly. Lucas only thew 34 punches, for the record.

In the fourth, Danny threw more combos, looked more relaxed. He was warned, again, for low blows. But it looked like he had figured out the Argentine, or thought he had.

In the fifth, they clashed heads but it looked like no cut formed. The ref warned Garcia for going low with 30 seconds left. It was a tight round. In the sixth, Lucas backed Garcia to the ropes; that happened a few times to this point, but Garcia is a calm defender. He blocks and clinches if he needs to. In the seventh, the right eye on Lucas was closing. He landed a few clean shots which Danny took quite well. A hook-right combo scored well for Danny late. In the eighth, the left hook scored on the closed eye.

His corner asked him a few times if he could see and Lucas said yes and we went to the ninth. Garcia right hand scored heavy a couple times and he went to the body with the left.

In the tenth, there was some holding, but then Danny landed a right counter after a left hook to his body. Lucas was busier and likely took that one.

In the 11th, Danny put Lucas down, as he got him tangled in the ropes, for the first time ever. This was after Lucas knocked Danny’s piece out with a right to start the round. This was the round of the fight. In the 12th, a combo by Garcia made the crowd buzz. Danny’s combos were money. A low left made ref Tony Weeks take a point from Danny. They flurried to the end. We went to the cards.

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Michael Woods

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

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

Published

9 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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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 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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