TONIGHT! Simms v. Alcine, Darchinyan v. Donaire

Darchinyan KO-6, though I think Donaire will be surprisingly competitive

Alcine UD in what should be a good fight

I don't get the idea that Vic Darchinyan is avoided at flyweight. Who's avoiding him? Takefumi Sakata? Bullshit Wonjongkam? He should be considered the No. 1 flyweight in the world. He should also step up in weight and fight a guy like Cristian Mijares or Arce or Munoz or someone.

I hate watching guys walk to the ring to fight Darchinyan. It feels so doom-ish.

Donaire is throwing to start, trying to show no fear. Darchinyan is just feeling him out, letting him throw. Donaire throws a huge left uppercut, which misses. That would've been a blow-up shot. This is electric so far, Darchinyan misses a big left. Both guys are landing OK shots, Donaire controlling the pace so far. Donaire lands a hard left, then gets shoved to the ground. Maybe a mental tactic. Donaire with a straight right to the midsection, right around the sternum.

Donaire is winning this round with a minute left. Darchinyan wants a knockout shot, but he's missing badly on wild throws. They're taking some big shots at each other, and Donaire gets hurt a little bit near the bell. That was his round, though Darchinyan didn't look lost, just beaten.

Donaire 10-9

Darchinyan lands a jab, Donaire comes back with a really sharp jab of his own. Darchinyan seems surprised by how well Donaire is doing, but in truth, Donaire is leaving himself open for an eventual Darchinyan bomb -- there's one, but it's blocked by Donaire, who counters back. He's winning this fight pretty handily, which is obviously not expected.

Darchinyan comes forward with a big flurry, but Donaire blocks all of it and stands his ground. As the bell rings, this is a fight so far where, were this a movie, some dramatic music would play right now, because a gimme fight is becoming a real competition.

Donaire 10-9
Donaire 20-18

Donaire is targeting the body, which was the intention of Darchinyan going into this fight. Nice right from Vic, Donaire feigns a shot. Darchinyan is starting to look more comfortable. Pace is slowing down this round, with Donaire not attacking as much, and Darchinyan unsure as to how to attack, it would appear.

Right then, Vic Darchinyan drills him right on the button. Donaire with a HUGE left, Darchinyan nearly goes down. He's in trouble. Donaire feels it, and Darchinyan is Darchinyan, so he knows he has to fight. Donaire drills him AGAIN. Two HUGE left hooks. Round ends, and Donaire looks outstanding so far. We've got a fuckin' fight.

Donaire 10-9
Donaire 30-27

First half of the round is in Darchinyan's favor, finally. He's a notoriously slow starter, but this is unusually slow even for him, and very strong for Donaire. Darchinyan's eyes are both swelling and his right is bloodied. This is a serious test.

Donaire needs to keep up the pressure. Darchinyan with one of his charging video game straight left hands. Donaire with a counter hook. This is a great gameplan for Donaire, maybe helped by the fact that his brother fought Darchinyan. Nice shot from Darchinyan, Donaire spins around and gets a warning. I think Donaire took this round, too.

Donaire 10-9
Donaire 40-36

Press row has a majority draw -- I have a clean sweep for Donaire. I don't think Darchinyan has won more than a couple of moments so far.

DONAIRE DESTROYS DARCHINYAN WITH A MONSTER COUNTER LEFT HOOK

HOLY SHIT

DARCHINYAN IS OUT

IT'S OVER

NONITO DONAIRE WITH A GARGANTUAN UPSET KNOCKOUT

Darchinyan came in for one of his big looping left uppercuts, and just got DESTROYED. It instantly bloodied Darchinyan's nose and put him flat out. His corner ran in before he could even get it called off by the referee. Darchinyan went down, stumbled up, hit the ropes, and was clearly dazed as all hell. Blank, glazed eyes.

What a shot. Vicious.

Nonito Donaire KO-5

Darchinyan on the stool: "I never got hit that hard in my life." No shit. That must've felt like a brick.

I am legit shocked by this. I thought Nonito would surprise some people, but he beat Darchinyan up and knocked him OUT. Tremendous victory.

Post-fight interview is intriguing. Darchinyan can't turn off his ego. He's in Donaire's face about a rematch. "You respect me? You will fight me again?" He is rambling about not being hurt and not being knocked down or some shit. He's got to be rattled upstairs because it was a kill shot and he was out. No referee on earth would have let that fight continue. It wasn't even the referee calling it -- it was his own corner running into the ring. He was done.

Vic Darchinyan lost points for that interview. A gracious winner in Nonito Donaire, and a pathetic, sore loser in Vic Darchinyan.

Simms comes out right away with two big left hooks, just walking forward and then throwing. Alcine with a big straight right, Simms moves back and avoids it. Pretty slow first half of the opening round, and Alcine is stepping on Simms' feet repeatedly. Two lefts from Simms, body then head. Alcine with a thunderous straight right to the body. Simms comes with a left, no go, and backs off.

Simms' attempted flurries look a little sloppy, like he's worried about Alcine's counter punching. Solid first round.

Alcine 10-9

Second round shows Simms looking sharper, but not terribly effective. Just not as outright sloppy as Alcine looks this round. He's missing punches that he really needs to land. Clinching is becoming an issue.

Alcine is warned for the feet. It happens, for God's sake. Dull round, most exciting moment might have been an inadvertant clash of heads. Alcine might be working against the Simms and the referee, too.

Simms 10-9
19-19

Simms takes a hard left inside, and then a straight right. Both guys are kind of tentative, but Alcine seems to be working more toward, you know, winning the fight. And when Alcine works, he's winning the fight. When he lets Simms do anything, it changes. And Simms isn't doing much by himself.

Simms misses a 1-2, gets caught with a decent counter left to the body. Another round for Alcine. This has been "tactical," if you want to be nice about it. I'd call it lackluster.

Alcine 10-9
Alcine 29-28

This whole broadcast seems decidedly pro-Simms. I am just not the biggest Travis Simms fan, I'll be honest.

Simms does back Alcine down with a left hand. Steve Albert finally just admits, "Styles make fights. These styles are not making for much of a fight."

And they really aren't. Simms is picking it up and throwing some lefts. Both guys warned for rabbit punches before anything can get too exciting. Clinching and cheapshots end the round. This is getting bowling shoe ugly.

Simms 10-9
38-38

This isn't a pretty fight at all, and not every exciting either. It's not even a fun sloppy or dirty fight. It's just been ugly.

Simms catches Alcine with a counter left. Two guys looking to counter punch never, ever makes for a good fight. Just like that dreadful Holt/Arnaoutis fight on Shobox earlier this year.

Crowd is booing at the end of the round. This is a nothing fight between two guys that finally get a shot to headline a major show and show their stuff, maybe even claim a throne at 154, and they're not showing the world anything.

Simms 10-9
Simms 48-47

40 seconds into the round, Alcine loses a point for punching on the break. Ehhh. Michael Ortega is making himself the star, though the fighters aren't exactly putting in Oscar-worthy performances.

Alcine with some body work, the first time in rounds he's done anything worth a damn or pressed the action. NOW we get some action. Good trade near the ropes. Simms is clinching a ton. A TON. Ortega now gets on Simms' ass for holding and hitting.

Alcine with two hooks to the body, bell rings, and that was almost a decent round. What an improvement!

9-9 round with the point deduction for Alcine
Simms 57-56

This fight is shit. At the halfway point, I feel I can fairly say that.

Alcine with a nice left to the face. So much holding. This fight is more annoying than anything else. I mean, yeah, it sucks, but it's just frustrating to watch.

Alcine with a nice shot, but Simms mounts a comeback, if you want to qualify this as a fight that can have comebacks. Simms takes over momentarily, then Alcine gets a crappy flurry in. Two nice lefts from Simms. They're starting to open things up. All the holding is coming from Simms. TAKE A POINT FROM HIM. TAKE A GODDAMN POINT.

Yeah, they're beginning to really trade now. Simms holds AGAIN. What the fuck? Best round of the fight is this one right here, even with all the holding. Simms gets another fucking warning. TAKE THE POINT. Fair is fair.

Alcine 10-9
66-66

The Alcine corner is really on his case. "No respect for this fucking guy!"

Alcine is working behind his jab to start the round, but then we get more goddamn wrestling. Michael Ortega has got to take a point. This is getting blatant.

TAKE A POINT. Criminy fucking gods already. What the hell is this? Now they BOTH get warned to watch their heads. What the fuck is Ortega doing? Simms lands a nice counter punch, then when Alcine comes back a little, he headlocks him. FINALLY, Ortega takes a point away from Travis Simms. Jesus Christ. Simms whines, which he's spent most of his career doing. He's bitched more than he's fought, and this is just another night in the story of Travis Simms.

You can't even score these rounds properly. The whole damn fight is flailing, strange moments of attempted action, and then a hold. Simms pops Alcine with a left. This is an ugly fucking fight and neither guy is going to make any fans with this.

9-9 round, thought Simms won it (to be fair) but the point was deducted
75-75 through eight rounds

Alcine makes an immediate charge, then gets fucking clinched. Simms is ahead 76-74 on all the press row cards. Bernstein is acting like Simms has dominated this fight.

Simms gets "knocked down" -- I don't like Simms, but that was a slip. That's the first time he's ever been knocked down. I really thought that was a slip. That changes the fight.

Everything -- EVERYTHING -- about this fight has sucked. And more clinching.

Alcine charges again, Simms tries to counter, and we wind up with nothing as usual. Is there a way for too fighters to be TOO evenly matched? Because I think this could be an argument for that theory.

Alcine 10-8 since that was an official knockdown
Alcine 85-83

Let's see the replay. Well, he did slip. But there was a punch. He tripped on his own, but there was a punch. It's kind of a 50-50 call there, but Ortega wasn't WRONG.

Simms switches to orthodox. Then goes right back to southpaw. So that was overwhelmingly fun, huh?

There are moments of this fight where there looks like there might be action. Then there's a hold, or Simms moves away. So you wind up with nothing going on even if there could be an actual fight. This isn't "sweet science," this is shitty fighting.

Steve Albert: "...not an exciting fight."

No shit, Steve. Lampley and Merchant and Hurrld would be all over this garbage. Neither guy has done anything for the 154-pound division tonight.

Simms 10-9
Alcine 94-93

Alcine opens up, but Simms slips. That one was very obvious, and Ortega calls it correctly.

I just can't wait to see what the fuck the scorecards wind up being for this debacle.

Same ol' shit in the 11th round.

Simms 10-9
103-103 through 11, so on my card it's a 12th round decision

One more time: This has been a terrible fight. These guys don't like each other, and they're really showing it with all this brutal clinching.

Alcine pops Simms with a jab right after Simms switches to orthodox. Risky move for a fight that might very well be a 12th round decision on any card.

First half of the round goes to Alcine, in my view, but Al thinks it's Simms. Al has a real hard-on for Travis Simms. I guess, in contrast, I have a hard-off.

Simms stays righty and doesn't get much accomplished. Alcine should have used his jab this entire round. Just more fucking holding. Left hook from Simms, and we're at 30 seconds to go.

Alcine wins the round, and on my card, the fight. The ugly ass, boring fight, that even the hometown crowd of Travis Simms boos.

Alcine 10-9
Alcine 113-112

Let me say this: No matter what the scores are or how much I might disagree with them, let's NOT see a rematch. Ever. This emotionally-charged, disrespect-fueled fight saw the two warriors engage in VICIOUS clinching, BRUTAL foot-stepping, and THUNDEROUS incidental headbutting.

114-111
115-110
116-109

Unanimous decision for Joachim Alcine

Wow. No doubt it was a tough fight to score, but I'm almost shocked that Alcine won a 116-109 card, or even 115-110.

Simms doesn't show any more disrespect Alcine, complaining about hurting his hand in the second round. Oh wait, nope, he still calls Alcine a glorified sparring partner. Travis Simms is so full of his own shit. This isn't Bernard Hopkins. I'll say more about this in a bit.