I still say Bika’s draw against Beyer is more significant than any win on Manfredo’s record.

It just looks odd to see Steve Forbes and Marco Antonio Rubio on Brewers resume. I mean jeez… Rubio is a legit middleweight at 6’2 and well Forbes is a like a midget.

I’m going Bundrage TKO in the late rounds, and Bika UD. I like Grady Brewer but he’s 37 and has had injury problems. K9’s activity looks good to me.

UD for Bika… I say 116-111

I like a KO for Bundrage…

I got love the rare Thursday night televised boxing event.

Obviously K9 is going to have to close that distance to do what I expect him to do, but I don’t know if Grady’s rustiness and knee will allow him to control distance as he wants to. If he can he can make life miserable for K9 tonight.

This is an IBO eliminator. Hey, why not? Whatever. Grady’s got no knee brace like Jesus Chavez has used.

Bundrage making Brewer move around the ring, maybe looking to test that knee by turning him repeatedly. Bundrage is the guy stalking, trying to stick the jab in. Bundrage misses a wild left. Bundrage with a sloppy lead right. Tie-up and scrapping, but they’re broken up. Brewer with a little left as he slips Bundrage’s advances.

Right hand from Brewer. Winnable round for both with 40 seconds to go. Chopping right from K9. Bundrage is almost leaving his feet with those goofy little jab attempts. Awkward first round overall. Not a pretty matchup if it plays out like this.

Bundrage 10-9

Bundrage lunges with the right and misses. Grady tries to counter with a big overhand right and can’t find it. Bundrage is holding his hands very low. His left is well below his waist, almost totally straight down.

K9 continues trying to move Brewer around, stalking but not getting exactly aggressive, and Brewer is finding no openings because he’s stuck looking for a chance to throw at Bundrage. Some mean inside fighting as they club each other during a clinch. Another lackluster round, and Grady Brewer is going to have to figure something out before he finds himself way behind.

Bundrage 10-9
Bundrage 20-18

Hey we miss about five seconds. Good job, Versus.

Brewer now starts letting his hands go, but winds up coming in too far to catch K9 square. Brewer with some big shots while Bundrage tries to tie him up. Bundrage appears to be a bit bewildered if I am to believe his facial expressions. Brewer laid back for two rounds and now he seems to want to make this a fight.

Brewer charges again, but again neither connects and they wind up more colliding than anything. And it happens again. I won’t lie — this is a shit ugly fight. Wally Matthews calls it “a middleweight John Ruiz fight” and the boo birds are coming out.

Bundrage hit, maybe shoved, and the referee calls it a knockdown. They think it’s a shove, I really didn’t. Looked like Brewer really clipped him with an overhand right. K9 did not argue.

Brewer tries that right again, throws an uppercut, and ends the round looking for something big.

Brewer 10-8
28-28

K9’s corner isn’t arguing either. They’re all over him. Adult language watch.

Short right, and K9 sort of wound up on the end of an inadvertant elbow shove. It happens.

Stiff jab from Brewer. I think he’s feeling confident. Bundrage really does look lackadaisacal and almost half-asleep. Brewer continually tries to catch K9 with hard overhand rights when he comes in, but usually he’s just a half second too slow to find it.

This performance is what I’m sure many have noticed about Bundrage before. He doesn’t seem…I don’t know, what’s the word I want here? Into his fights? Nothing seems natural for him? He seems overly calculated and like he’s over-thinking.

Referee is warning them for holding and grappling, threatening to take points. “Y’all not listenin’!”

Brewer has a system here. Winging overhand right, uppercut misses, then he tries a lazy looping left hook. Otherwise he’ll jab, then duck his shoulder down into Bundrage’s midsection and clinch up.

Brewer 10-9
Brewer 38-37

Bundrage looking a bit better this round, and then about halfway in, they take a point from Grady Brewer for holding. Well… jeez.

Brewer with an overhand right, round is again winnable with about a minute left, at least if Brewer makes it interesting with some big shots. I’m fast losing interest in this fight, to be honest. Brewer warned about kidney punching. Round finishes with more holding and clinching.

Bleh.

Bundrage 10-9
-1 for Brewer
Bundrage 47-46

Eddie Claudio after the round: “What’s wrong with you guys?!”

OK what the hell is this now? “Your turn — 1 point, holding!”

So that’s a point off from Bundrage. This is hideous. He told them to punch out and they were sort of trying. Honestly at some point Eddie’s going to have to accept that this is a shitty style matchup and the fight’s going to suck no matter how many points he takes away.

This is one of the sloppiest, ugliest fights of the year, and there’s been some junk. It’s not that they aren’t trying or that they suck, it’s just that neither guy can figure out what the hell to do against the other man.

Bundrage 10-9
-1 for Bundrage
Bundrage 66-65

Seems to me that I might hold off on hyping the Contender premier during this fight. “Tune in to see the five-round fights between the guys that might someday have a fight like this one!”

As Nick Charles takes a crap on this fight, I eat soup and wait for something good to happen, though I know it won’t. One of them is going to have to feel desperate.

Brewer takes this round, in my estimation, but unloading a bit in the final few seconds. It’s not like Bundrage did anything so special that it couldn’t be stolen.

Brewer 10-9
65-65

Y’know, I’m sitting here watching this junk, and all I’ve got to look forward to is a Peter Manfredo fight. Yeesh.

The boo birds are out again, even though they’re still trying. And I do hate being so harsh on this because both fighters are good guys, they work hard, they’re getting a chance for a decent fight here, and they’re not capitalizing because they just don’t work together.

Bundrage with a flurry that drives Brewer to the ropes. This could end up being one fugly draw.

Bundrage ends the round with a couple more shots.

Bundrage 10-9
Bundrage 75-74

This is pretty decent soup.

Brewer with a big overhand right, and I think he thinks he’s hurt Bundrage, and he may well have. K9 is firing back, but that one got his attention. And then they tie up, break, and we go back to a couple of guys that don’t want to lead the dance.

Scores for this mess are going to be all over the place, I fear.

One lady in Providence is psyched. THERE YOU GO!!!!

“Main event is HUGE…”

C’mon, Nick. Don’t fib on us.

Bundrage with some power shots to close the round.

Brewer 10-9
84-84

Brewer lands a couple nice punches. There he lunges with the right again. YAHH! God.

It’s too late for either of these guys to get any better than this.

With 50 seconds left, Bundrage starts unloading a bit and catching Brewer, meaning we’re back to even in this round. Oh jesus.

Bundrage gets a point taken for hitting on the break. Come on, Eddie. A little late for that one. And now they just start throwing leather.

Brewer 10-9
-1 for Bundrage
Brewer 94-92

Horrible, horrible fight. I don’t care who wins because neither of them deserved to.

Punch stats show Bundrage landing about 60 more punches, but in reality all 60 of those punches can probably be docked for being sloppy, ugly, weak shots.

94-91 Brewer
95-90 Bundrage
93-92 Brewer

GRADY BREWER VIA SPLIT DECISION

http://nbcam.org/

He throws “the super middleweight champion” around quite a bit.

Manfredo has never lost in this building. It means nothing, but maybe you believe in crap like that. I don’t know.

So I guess the winner of this will be THE SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION

What’d he pay for that hack job, 14 bucks?

Apparently Manfredo’s dad told him if he doesn’t win, he should probably retire. Wally: “Not the first time he’s told him that.”

Bika immediately looks much stronger than Manfredo, catching him a couple times. Left to the body from Bika. Manfredo looks…pudgy. Maybe it’s just because Bika is chiseled. Manfredo with a left, but it came just after a harder shot from Bika. Bika with a long, straight right, just short. Manfredo gets drilled. And drilled again! Bika is throwing hard, heavy shots.

Bika is popping him with good stuff, and Manfredo is sort of just standing there. He’s not quick enough. Uppercut and a right from Bika. Manfredo is doing what he can to block, but his hand speed is not just hurting him offensively but defensively as well. He can’t get his hands off fast enough, or up fast enough.

Great opening round for Sakio Bika.

Bika 10-9

Bika is catching Manfredo coming in every time, and now he’s caught Manfredo flat-footed and tentative, stinging him with big punches. Manfredo calls him on, which is just machismo. He has to know he’s losing badly.

Bika unloading and drilling Manfredo, hurts him with a right. He’s throwing nice, controlled power shots. Manfredo is waiting, and when he doesn’t wait, he gets hit first. He’s just not good enough. Period. And it’s not close.

Whoa, wait.

Manfredo pushes Bika, and they’re ruling it a knockdown. Bika is FURIOUS. Bika refuses to give the ref his gloves. Oh man.

That was a horrible call by Rick Gonzales, too.

WICKED left hook from Bika, and he’s fighting angry as hell. This is getting mean-spirited.

There’s no way I’m giving Manfredo a 10-8 round. Period. Bika kicked his ass some more and got a terrible call. I’ll give him the 10, but that’s it.

Replay shows it being what it is — a bullshit, terrible, hometown call. Manfredo touched the mat too for that matter.

Manfredo 10-9
19-19

Bika is fighting really angry. Really, really angry. His shots are coming hard now, and I mean really hard. Manfredo drilled, and Bika is UNLOADING! Manfredo’s badly hurt!

Someone has to do something. Manfredo goes out of the ring on a shove, but the fucking ropes were holding him up. Whatever, this is messy.

BIKA REFUSES TO STOP PUNCHING, JUST BEATING MANFREDO MERCILESSLY. Rick Gonzales is looking in, and this looks like the Calzaghe-Manfredo stoppage except these shots are heavy.

Uppercut, left hook, and he’s getting killed in there. Holy shit. THE ROPES ARE FUCKING HOLDING HIM UP. This is stupid!

FINALLY, RICK GONZALES STOPS THE FIGHT.

They’re throwing shit at Bika like he did anything wrong. Grow up, you bums, and wonder why your town is never going to get anything better than a Peter Manfredo fight.

Sakio Bika TKO-3

That fight was messed up in so many ways.

Good on him.

Yeah, they just announced something about throwing things into the ring.

Manfredo 34/89
Bika 81/217

When DO you think it shoulda been stopped, Peter? When you were literally out cold, or would you prefer to be one of these tough warriors with a brain bleed? The point got made.

Is it an invincibility thing that makes fighters not accept that fights need to be stopped BEFORE they get badly hurt, when it’s clear that’s the only thing left to happen?

Starting in the fourth round, telling me “what a fight this was.” Good thing we saw Brewer-Bundrage.

Just atrocious."

I love you, Wally Matthews.

Looks like this was the best fight of the night.

There were some bombs in this one.

This was absolutely fight of the night, great finish, and big props to William Gill, who fought his heart out before he simply ran out of gas. Shame he couldn’t finish that final ten seconds. Tough guy.

Damn it… I didn’t see the fight…

Just by your SC description it sounded wicked…

I am going to have to check out the replay of the event.

Anyways thanks for the recap…