Boxing | Page 16 | Syracusefan.com

Boxing


"The Americans’ struggles are symbolized by a drought: The last U.S. male boxer to win a Olympic gold was Andre Ward in 2004. Claressa Shields was the last U.S. woman boxer to win golds, in 2012 and 2016."

When will American Olympic boxing be worth watching again?

 
I watched the last three fists on the Canelo Alvarez card, while also watching the Georgia-Kentucky game, (where the #1 team in the country escaped with a 13-12 road win)

Caleb Plant took on 28-0, (21K) Trevor McCumby and nearly became knockout #22. Plant went down three times in the early going. Two were ruled as no being knockdowns but it looked to me as if a punch was involved. But instead of covering up or dancing away, Plant moved forward to deny McCumby space to gear up for a big punch. it was all infighting and Plant got the better of it. He also motioned for the crowd, which favored him to get loud. McCumby kept fighting but Plant's tactics seemed to take away his confidence and he got pretty beat up as the bout continued. Plante finally floored him just before the end of the 9th round. The referee stopped it with a few seconds left in the round but McCumby didn't complain and it looked as if continuing the fight into the 10 would simply have forced McCumby to absorb more punishment. It was a fascinating fight.

Erislandy Lara vs. Danny Garcia was not. They just pawed at each other and I found the Georgia game, which was coming down to a decision much more interesting. Nonetheless, I was able to see Garcia going down to one knee, perhaps voluntarily, in the 9th round to end the fight to a chorus of boos.

I remember Edgar Berlanga from his record streak of sixteen 1st round knockouts against has-beens and never-weres to open his professional career. He then had a streak of five straight decision wins over guys I've never heard of. Then he knocked out someone named Padraig McCrory, (the #30 super middleweight in the world). Canelo Alvarez said after the fight that people were complaining that he always fought older fighters so he decided to fight Jaime Munguia, (who he beat in 12 rounds in May) and now Berlanga, who he also beat in 12 rounds. I had thought Berlanga was a paper tiger who would go down easily and he was knocked down in the 3rd round but he stood up to Canelo's attack very well. In the early round, he seemed hesitant to let his right hand go for fear of Canelo's counter shots. But he survived them and returned to his aggressive tactics of his career-beginning streak, going toe-to-toe with Alvarez. from mid-fight on. Both fighters landed many shots but neither really hurt the other. After the fight they were nicked up a bit but otherwise unhurt. Canelo was the busier fighter, especially early, and the more accurate puncher. Per AP, "Alvarez landed 43.3% (201 of 464) of the punches he threw, while Berlanga connected on just 119 of 446 (26.7%). Alvarez also landed 49.1% (133 of 271) of his power punches." Per ESPN, the judges scored it "117-110, 118-109 and 118-109. ESPN scored it a 120-107 shutout." I had it 119-110, with two even rounds and one for Berlanga.

In a sense Berlanga was a winner because he performed well enough to be a contender in multiple decisions, (he's 6-1 with a 75 inch reach and was said to weight 190 pounds at the time of the fight). There'd bene a lot of trash talking both before and during the fight but afterwards, Berlanga told Alvarez that Canelo was hi hero and they hugged each other, which was good to see.
 

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