Holyfield robbed of win over sleepwalking Valuev
by SC on Dec 20, 2008 6:03 PM EST
in Post-Fight Analysis
15 comments
Merry Christmas, Nikolai Valuev. The judges in Switzerland have a gift for you.
Valuev retained his WBA title on scores of 116-112, 115-114, and 114-114, giving him a majority decision win over 46-year old Evander Holyfield in an atrocious fight that joins the running for Worst Fight of 2008.
If you add up the whole package, including the scoring, it's hard to argue against its place as winner of that award.
I'm trying to come up with the right words, but there really aren't any. Holyfield was robbed of his spot as the oldest man to win a world heavyweight title. By the 11th round, with Holyfield so comfortably ahead in my view, I was thinking of how I was going to compare Holyfield's win over Valuev to 45-year old George Foreman's knockout of Michael Moorer.
I think I would've said something to the effect of Holyfield taking his place in the record books, but not even coming close to replacing the memory of that big right hand that knocked Moorer out years ago.
Now, I'm left trying to discuss -- again -- shameful judging and another pathetic fight by the heavyweights. I'm also left wrestling with my feelings about Evander Holyfield.
In that regard, I can say only this. I am no fan of the old champion and surefire Hall of Famer fighting on at his age. He showed us nothing tonight that would put him in the top 20 at heavyweight, and along with that, I can no longer justify ranking Nikolai Valuev in the top ten, and I don't care what belt he holds.
But as much as I dislike Holyfield fighting on, I like incompetent or biased judging even less. It taints the sport, it makes everyone look bad, and it makes us as fans feel like idiots for bothering to watch. For the record, I scored the fight 117-111 for Holyfield, and I don't think there's any way you could have scored it for Valuev.
This was without question the worst performance of Valuev's career. He sleepwalked through the entire fight, showing zero aggression, had nothing on any of his punches, never came CLOSE to hurting Holyfield, and was outlanded. Holyfield landed all of the best punches in the fight, and that's pretty bad considering Evander mostly circled and rushed and fought in short bursts.
Still, as unattractive and unappealing as that style is, doesn't it beat the hell out of standing in the middle of the ring and looking at the other guy? That's all Valuev did.
This was the worst of boxing. A horrible fight, a laughable "champion," a bad challenger, atrocious judging, and you know what else? They sold out the building, and everyone made their money.
They robbed Evander Holyfield of a win. Not a win that meant much to his legacy in realistic terms, and not a win that was going to propel him back into the elite ranks of the sport. Not a pretty win. Not a good win. But a win. He trained, he worked hard, he showed up in shape, he did what he could do given the circumstances, and the other guy stood there and watched him do it. And they robbed the poor bastard.
What a sorry day for the sport of boxing.
More:
MaxBoxing.com's Thomas Gerbasi rips the judging, too
Steve Cofield of Yahoo! Sports had it 116-112 for Holyfield
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Preach it brotha. This fight deserves all of the ire we can muster.
by Matt Miller on Dec 20, 2008 6:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
This was the worst of boxing. A horrible fight, a laughable “champion,” a bad challenger, atrocious judging, and you know what else? They sold out the building, and everyone made their money.
What gets to me is that the fans who paid to see this and were heavily invested in the fight saw in my opinion the worst judging of the entire year. How many fans there will not come back and see another boxing fight?
by Zocalo on Dec 20, 2008 6:10 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
"This is all gonna end badly"…
that is what I said at the start of the fight… well it became prophetic.
by Zocalo on Dec 20, 2008 6:14 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Nice… the boxing page on yahoo has it headline…
Highway robbery.
by Zocalo on Dec 20, 2008 6:20 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Scott I think you're gonna have to redo your 2008 award list.
Watching Manny Pacquiao fight live--great...
Watching Manny Pacquiao shadow boxing on the roof of an abandoned building--priceless
by CRAZEDANG1280 on Dec 20, 2008 9:30 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I have just found one of worst articles on boxing for the year… thanks to Martin Rogers of Yahoo! Sports
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ro-evander122008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Yahoo! Sports scored it 116-112 for Valuev, primarily on account of Holyfield’s remorseless reluctance to throw leather in the second half of the contest.
However, age began to catch up with Holyfield as the fight wore on, and by opening up and starting to throw some right hands, Valuev totally dominated the closing rounds.
Really? Holyfield was reluctant? He was dominated? Really?
by Zocalo on Dec 21, 2008 3:12 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Zocalo
Look at the picture above. You see Holyfield push that thing away… who would not be dominated with those three feet high body hair. HAHAHA
They should just strip him off his title and allow him never to fight again. That was just brutal for our eyes alone.
Watching Manny Pacquiao fight live--great...
Watching Manny Pacquiao shadow boxing on the roof of an abandoned building--priceless
by CRAZEDANG1280 on Dec 21, 2008 9:06 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
actually
Outside of his atrocious score and the ignored fact that none of the punches Valuev threw seemed to land (and Holyfield was still landing the better shots even when Valuev was, ahem, "active"), the rest of the article is pretty dead-on.
"I decided to become a basketball fan this year and it’s not working out so well because the Wizards SUUUCK. So then I shifted to hockey. That’s pretty fun except there are a lot of flashing lights and horns and shit at the game."
by SC on Dec 21, 2008 12:17 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Gutted
Not seen it yet but from the round-by-round and the rest of the net this stunk. Dont think i need to see it either. Feel for Evander in this one.
Mainstream is brought to you ..
Underground you got to go there...
by dinkman on Dec 21, 2008 7:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
In a title fight
you have to do enough to take away the title and that may have been the judges thought process. While Evander may have fought th better fight, did he do enough to justify being the new heavyweight camp? Usually in close title fights wont the title holder get the decision in a close fight?
by ryanwk628 on Dec 21, 2008 2:18 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I HATE this line of thinking
You win a round, you won the round. I don’t care who “holds a title.” How does that idea work?
“Well, Valuev didn’t land a single meaningful punch in this round, but Holyfield only landed a couple, and Valuev just stood there, but he holds a ridiculous title belt so 10-9 Valuev…”
Do you just give every round that isn’t a total domination to the “champion”? It’s an absurd idea to give a defending titleholder an advantage like that. It’d be like Major League Baseball deciding that since the Phillies won the World Series this year, they aren’t allowed to be beaten by less than four runs in 2009.
If you win, you win. Status as one of boxing’s many bogus “champions” should not influence that in the least. It’s carny boxing talk bullshit, and the sooner we never hear this line about “you really have to beat the champion!” (Oscar used it once to defend the Mayweather loss), the better. Holyfield deserved the win because he was better than Valuev. So yes, since these are the two All-Stars the WBA decided were fit to fight for their version of the world title, Evander did enough to justify being the new heavyweight “champ.”
"I decided to become a basketball fan this year and it’s not working out so well because the Wizards SUUUCK. So then I shifted to hockey. That’s pretty fun except there are a lot of flashing lights and horns and shit at the game."
by SC on Dec 21, 2008 2:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
and
If it comes off like I’m “yelling at you,” I don’t mean to. I realize this is an idea a lot of people cling to. I think they’re all wrong and that the idea is ridiculous.
"I decided to become a basketball fan this year and it’s not working out so well because the Wizards SUUUCK. So then I shifted to hockey. That’s pretty fun except there are a lot of flashing lights and horns and shit at the game."
by SC on Dec 21, 2008 2:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
If Holyfield wins, which he did, fine he wins. He wins the title and maybe could of giving him a dicision to perhaps take his career for a walk. They’re acting like he’s going to keep the title and never give it up. Atleast if he won the title, that was posibly something he wanted to accomplish for a last time. Now, it’s like they are giving him more encouragement to continue. Just sad.
Watching Manny Pacquiao fight live--great...
Watching Manny Pacquiao shadow boxing on the roof of an abandoned building--priceless
by CRAZEDANG1280 on Dec 21, 2008 9:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
haha its fine
and i dont agree with that line of thinking, Im trying to show how the judges could see it as they did.
If you want to get into baseball, its less spotting runs and closer to saying “tie goes to the runner.” In baseball good teams get more calls and a bigger strike zone. There was a lot of complaint about this when the Rays played the Sox in October.
The idea behind this logic is that the title holder has to “defend” his title, and the challenger has to take it away – therefore the responsibility is on the challenger to take the belt from the champ – not the champs job to pound the challenger and demonstrate why hes the champ.
by ryanwk628 on Dec 21, 2008 11:37 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
which is silly, I hope we can agree there
What is this, pro wrestling? Champ retains on a DQ! Champ don’t gotta beat you! A legion of Bobby the Brains running around with this defense.
"I decided to become a basketball fan this year and it’s not working out so well because the Wizards SUUUCK. So then I shifted to hockey. That’s pretty fun except there are a lot of flashing lights and horns and shit at the game."
by SC on Dec 22, 2008 12:05 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
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