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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 4671134, member: 289"] I watched tonight’s ESPN card, first on the network, then on PPV. Here were the match-up and stats, (from Boxrec): Nico Ali Walsh #203LW 8-0 (5KO), 6-0 tall with a 74 inch reach. Vs. Danny Rosenberger #180LW 13-9 (4-1) 5-10 ? reach Junto Nakatani #4JBW 24-0 (18) 5-7½ 67” Vs. Andrew Moloney #9JBW 25-2 (16) 5-5 65” Raymond Muratella #40LW 17-0 (14) 5-8 ? Vs. Jeremiah Nakathia (unrated for some reason) 23-2 (19) ? ? Oscar Valdez (unrated for some reason but ESPN has him #1JLW) 30-1 (23) 5-5½ 66” Vs. Adam Lopez #73JLW 16-4 (6-1) 5-8 69½ Devin Haney (has all the belts but Boxrec rated him #3LW behind Sakur Stevenson and Tank Davis -time to get it on!) 29-0 (15) 5-8 71” Vs. Vasyl Lomachenko #5LW 17-2 (11) 5-7 651/2” Walsh was the bigger name being the grandson of Muhammad Ali and had the better record at 8-0 vs. 13-9 But Rosenberger fought more like Ali, with some of Floyd Mayweather added in. His constant foot and head movement totally confused Nico, who was stiff and never moved his head, causing him to absorb some hard shots. He was fortunate Danny didn’t have much power. Danny should have won easily but he had no shot at that and wound up with a ‘split draw’: one judge had it even and the two others had it for either fighter. Isn’t that convenient. Junto Nakatani is a rising star who wants to follow in Naoya Inoue’s footsteps. He’s not that good, (“the Monster would have taken Moloney out early), but he’s very good. He’s tall for a bantam but skilled – good from distance but also able to win the infighting and tie his man up when needed – but he can sure punch. Moloney, who’s twin brother won the WBO Bantam title a week ago in Stockholm, would have been better off facing Inoue and getting KO’d early because he took awful punishment tonight. He was floored in the second round. Then both boxers drew blood with an accidental head but. Until the cornermen miraculously to patch them up, they both looked like their faces had been through a meatgrinder. Nakatani dominated round after round, in total control as the persistent Moloney kept getting inside and then losing the battle there, just as he was from distance. Finally, in the 6th and 7th rounds, the momentum seemed to change as Junto appeared to be tired and his punches lacked their previous force. Moloney seemed to be landing more punches. It was an illusion as Moloney then faded. In the 11th round he was decked again and the ref was close to stopping it. To Moloney’s credit, he kept coming forward and was even blocking punches, although he’d stopped throwing them, using all his energy for defense. His corner was considering not sending him out for the 12th and it would have been better if they hadn’t. Midway through the round, Junot ducked under a punch and threw a left hand that hit with such force the ‘thud ‘ could be heard all over the arena. Moloney went down like a felled tree and lay on the canvas making involuntary movements with his fists while his eyes glazed over. He was down for several minutes until they sat him up, then put him on a stool. He was on his way to the hospital after the fight. I hope he’s OK. You never know. The commentator said “you don’t ‘play’ boxing”. A friend of mine did some boxing while in the service and said he didn’t much like it. Hitting a man’s head, he told me, was like punching a cabbage. Muratella made short work of Nakathila, the ref stopping it in the second round. Raymond moved better and punched straighter and Jeremiah kept his jaw too high. He might as well have been pointing to it. Lopez was game and showed Valdez some movement but, in the words of Andre Ward, “Lopez was hitting Valdez with little brother shots and Valdez was hitting him with big brother shots – more direct with more power. Lopez held up pretty well but it was hard to give him a round. I the 10th round his nose exploded but he kept fighting on, although he fell down on his own twice. He was back on his feet at the final bell, so there’s that. “It’s a tough way to make a living.” Haney-Lomachenko was a high-level fight. Haney was the larger man and had the advantage in reach, but also had to sweat himself down to this weight (this may be his last fight at 135 pounds). He was also the younger man by 11 years. Fights are fought from the ground up and this fight was all about footwork and distance. Haney tried backing up Loma in the early going. He was using his famous jab to set up one shot at a time. But he wasn’t moving his head enough and, after a couple of rounds, Loma timed his jab and responded with combinations. Haney changed strategy and maintained distance through lateral movement. He attacked when got an angle on Loma and won several rounds in a row, (although the rounds in this fight were very competitive, which creates a lot of different views on the outcome). The fight changed again in the 10th round when Loma unleashed a series of combinations which got Haney moving backwards, and holding on when Loma caught up with him. Loma’s hardest shots came early in the 11th. Then, midway through the 11th, he lost his aggressiveness and Haney started to peck away at him. Haney seems the more desperate fighter in the 12th, stood his ground and traded with Loma on at least even terms until the final bell. I graded it 8 rounds for Haney to 4 for Loma, 116-112. That’s what one judge had it and the other two were 115-113, unanimous decision. They flashed the punch count numbers for a nano-second. They did show a punch count for round 11 of 2-20 for Loma, which is ridiculous, even though I agree he won the round. Max Kellerman had it 113-115 for Loma but noted that many rounds were so close it could have gone either way. He said that looks at each round and asks the question ”Who would I rather be? Personally, I wouldn’t want to be either one of them. It seems like it would hurt. [/QUOTE]

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