Decisions, decisions...
I didn't watch the Barrera/Marquez fight. I watched Mormeck/Bell earlier in the day and a shitload of basketball, and by the night time I'd realized that I just didn't feel like Barrera/Marquez was worthy of $50 PPV money.
Based on what I'm reading, I feel justified. Had someone been dramatically knocked out, I would have regretted missing it, but that wasn't going to happen, and it didn't. According to the scorecards, Marquez won a convincing unanimous decision, although Barrera and many observers seem to think that he won the fight and that the decision was a sham. He claims that he was repeatedly hit low. Meanwhile, he lost a point for hitting Marquez while he down on the canvas after a slip, a slip that based on the replays I've seen should have been ruled a knockout. That was a two-point swing for Marco right there. After the fight, Marquez offered Barrera an immediate rematch. Here's hoping he doesn't take it, and Marquez goes on to fight Pacquiao instead.
One of the undercard fights resulted in a hotly disputed decision as well, as Demetrius Hopkins, nephew of Bernard, won a lopsided unanimous decision over "Contender" finalist Steve Forbes that almost everyone is writing today was a grave injustice.
And then let us turn to the Mormeck/Bell fight earlier in the day. I'm not going to write too much about this bout, because I'm eagerly awaiting Madsear's ringside account, but let me just tell you this if you didn't happen to see it - it was a bizarre affair, a fight that in its first half was shaping up as FOY material, and in the second half turned into something resembling a vaudeville show. Mormeck dominated the slugfest that was the first seven rounds of the fight, but then as he lost steam in the late rounds he ran from Bell - and when I say "he ran" I do not mean it euphemistically. He did not get on his bicycle a la Sugar Ray Leonard - at times he literally turned his back and scurried all the way across the ring, leaving Bell watching him and shaking his head. A more dramatic project of evasion I have never seen - Oscar fought Tito toe-to-toe in the late rounds of their bout compared to this display. In the end, the Frenchman escaped on his feet, and was awarded the UD, which he certainly had earned. But I tell you people, wins like these are marred for me - the sight of the ultimately victorious warrior turning tail to protect a points-lead is always a little lame. I also think that had the fight been scored in the ole U.S. of A., Mormeck might have come out with a loss, or at the very least a draw. When you try and protect a lead by running in a Stateside fight, you are practically begging the judges to steal it from you. Ask Oscar about that one.
Based on what I'm reading, I feel justified. Had someone been dramatically knocked out, I would have regretted missing it, but that wasn't going to happen, and it didn't. According to the scorecards, Marquez won a convincing unanimous decision, although Barrera and many observers seem to think that he won the fight and that the decision was a sham. He claims that he was repeatedly hit low. Meanwhile, he lost a point for hitting Marquez while he down on the canvas after a slip, a slip that based on the replays I've seen should have been ruled a knockout. That was a two-point swing for Marco right there. After the fight, Marquez offered Barrera an immediate rematch. Here's hoping he doesn't take it, and Marquez goes on to fight Pacquiao instead.
One of the undercard fights resulted in a hotly disputed decision as well, as Demetrius Hopkins, nephew of Bernard, won a lopsided unanimous decision over "Contender" finalist Steve Forbes that almost everyone is writing today was a grave injustice.
And then let us turn to the Mormeck/Bell fight earlier in the day. I'm not going to write too much about this bout, because I'm eagerly awaiting Madsear's ringside account, but let me just tell you this if you didn't happen to see it - it was a bizarre affair, a fight that in its first half was shaping up as FOY material, and in the second half turned into something resembling a vaudeville show. Mormeck dominated the slugfest that was the first seven rounds of the fight, but then as he lost steam in the late rounds he ran from Bell - and when I say "he ran" I do not mean it euphemistically. He did not get on his bicycle a la Sugar Ray Leonard - at times he literally turned his back and scurried all the way across the ring, leaving Bell watching him and shaking his head. A more dramatic project of evasion I have never seen - Oscar fought Tito toe-to-toe in the late rounds of their bout compared to this display. In the end, the Frenchman escaped on his feet, and was awarded the UD, which he certainly had earned. But I tell you people, wins like these are marred for me - the sight of the ultimately victorious warrior turning tail to protect a points-lead is always a little lame. I also think that had the fight been scored in the ole U.S. of A., Mormeck might have come out with a loss, or at the very least a draw. When you try and protect a lead by running in a Stateside fight, you are practically begging the judges to steal it from you. Ask Oscar about that one.
2 Comments:
You missed a great fight. It was action packed, dramatic, and had two of the classiest fighters you will ever see. If Nady hadn't inexcusibly missed the obvious knockdown I had Barrera winning, as it was ruled, I thought Marquez won narrowly. The missed knockdown was compounded by a point being taken away from Barrera for a late punch. This, too was Nady's fault, as he was grossly out of position and never told Marco to stop. One of the worst freeze jobs by a ref I ever recall seeing. Never want to see Nady ref a big fight again.
Very difficult fight to score, I think there were fully 7 or 8 rounds which could have gone either way. The scorecards were in no way indicative of the fights competitiveness, although again, the Marquez victory was certainly no injustice.
Be that as it may, this fight was nothing less than excellent. This was a high contact, highly skilled fight the likes of which I haven't seen the quality of in quite some time. Two evenly matched warriors and the obvious fight of the year thus far. There will be fights with more contact, more blood, and knockouts, but none which have fighters of such incredible quality.
I can't wait for the rematch. So rare to have two truly great fighters going at it. Barrera is a little faded, but he still just oozes class.
You missed out on this one.
Oh, and that Hopkins-Forbes fight was pretty blatantly bad judging. Could have possibly found 7 rounds to give Hopkins if you were extremely generous, but again, the margins were onerous. The Ponce de Leon fight had similarly lopsided scoring for a fight that too, was much more competitive. very strange scoring. Hopkins just doesn't have the fluidity and athleticism that his uncle does. Don't think he'll ever make it big.
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