Friday Night Fights and Shobox Open Thread

Actual boxing.

If anyone watched Fight Night Club last night you should erase that from your mind. They got a small ring for two big heavyweights and one section was busted when one went against the ropes.

Mario Solis, Doug Fischer, and B-Hop are a trio from hell.

This female ring announcer (Amy Hayes) iwas awkward and horrible.

The only saving grace was Charles Huerta getting clocked in less than a minute in the main event and knocked out.

They should scrap this thing altogether because the broadcast is beyond amateurish.

Looking forward to a decent FNF main event tonight.

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/9824190/Brazil-police:-Gatti-hanged-himself-with-bag-strap

If I was a boxer named Cayo, I’d make the announcers intentionally mispronounce my name like KO.

Slightly more on topic – not sure how much I’ll be able to RBR this one. Now that my girlfriend’s trial ended, I might have other commitments on Friday nights, especially near dinner time.

I didn’t catch the Chagaev fight until the 3rd round, but I had him pretty much winning rounds from that point on. I don’t believe he’s been on TV other than that.

He’s in the studio tonight. Very appropriate, considering Rossy is fighting.

Interesting facts about Rossy.

Spent time with Shaolin monks in China?

That’s a little nutty.

He doesn’t move like someone who was a college football player and not a boxer.

Abbreviated RBR – nothing too detailed.

Mostly a feeling out round. Nobody landed any particularly good shots, but Rossy’s workrate was a lot higher. Drumond was spending more time focusing on the body, but didn’t do much of anything at all for the first minute and a half.

Rossy 10-9

Drumond starts out a bit more aggressive this round, and lands a nice hook, but Rossy lands a big body shot and that stops Drumond’s momentum. Both guys mostly trying to jab and box a bit on the outside. When they get inside, Drumond seems to be doing better. Rossy, as a late replacement, already seems to be slowing a bit. Nice right hook to the body, followed by an uppercut, by Rossy. Drumond’s doing a lot of chasing without really throwing punches. Drumond’s going to need to pick up the pace if he wants to win this one.

Rossy 20-18

Drumond starts the round more active again, and lands a nice little combo. Rossy lunges in and misses. Rossy lands a couple decent right hands. Outside fo the very beginning of the round, Rossy is almost doubling Drumond’s workrate. Despite being the much bigger man, Rossy has better head and body movement than Drumond, and has been able to laterally move to keep Drumond out of his comfort zone.

Drumond launches a couple shots against the ropes, but neither one comes close to landing. Rossy isn’t throwing anything hard, but at least he’s landing.

Rossy 30-27

According to Joe, Drumond’s only averaging 35 punches a round so far, Rossy 51.

Drumond gets Rossy stuck in a corner, but by the time he finally unloads, Rossy is gone. Rossy is really deceptively quick, and watching him, I think he’s probably actually better than Witherspoon, who I’ve never been high on. He reminds me a little too much of a better moving Jason Estrada though. it would be nice to see him actually throw a hard punch. Drumond just never seems to have gotten unhinged, and he’s not really throwing much. When he does it’s one jab at a time. It’s making the rounds pretty easy to score in Rossy’s favor.

Note to Drumond: You’re not in Costa Rica. You’re not going to get a hometown decision. Try to actually hurt your opponent. He’s been knocked out twice before.

Rossy 40-36

Just joined up, coming over from the Royals blog, Royals Review. Today’s complete lack of action for us at the MLB trade deadline made me decide to watch something besides baseball tonight. I love boxing, but I don’t know too much about it. I thought hanging out here would help with that.

So did Rossy agree to this fight on short notice? Is his conditioning ok? He’s winning so far.

Drumond comes out, backs up Rossy and tries to take his head off, but Rossy ducks out of the way and Drumond hits all air.

Chambers says Rossy is very improved from when they fought each other. I hadn’t seen Rossy since then, and I have to say I agree. Rossy doesn’t look significantly worse than a guy like Ibragimov at the moment.

Rossy’s finally starting to throw some harder punches. Teddy keeps harping about his lack of confidence, and I think he’s spot on here. He just doesn’t trust himself enough to turn his body into his punches so that if he misses he might be left out of position. Still, that might have been Rossy’s strongest round of the night, and Drumond still isn’t doing much.

50-45 Rossy.

Almost a minute before any punches land this round. When they do, Rossy lands a nice little three punch combo.

Drumond is reminding me of Juan Urango in the Andre Berto fight. Lots of stalking, but no throwing, like he’s almost confused that his opponent isn’t just standing in front of him and trading.

It’s almost pathetic that this guy kept pace with titleholder Chagaev, but Rossy is dominating him. Probably more of a testament to how bad Chagaev had become after his sickness, if anything. Wlad’s win over Chagaev probably drops in stock a bit after this one.

Rossy 60-54.

Both guys start the round by throwing about 5 jabs, but Drumond’s land a bit better. Rossy just circling and circling, but Drumond can’t seem to throw without setting his feet, and it’s killing him in this fight.

Not a whole lot of punches being thrown by either guy now. Mostly Rossy doing a lot of circling and occasionally potshotting.

Rossy 70-63, but I almost didn’t want to give that round to either guy. Just a dreadful round.

Are the Braves retarded?

Anyway…

Waits until the 8th round to start attacking?

Pretty much a repeat of Round 7, only Drumond was a bit more active, FINALLY, towards the end of the round. Rossy is clearly tired. If Drumond has the energy left, he should go for broke in the last two rounds. Drumond round though, barely. His best shots missed, but he landed a couple of decent ones.

Rossy 79-73

i thought they started at 9

That’s a pretty nasty punch

Teddy’s scorecard is identical to mine.

Drumond finally gets aggressive, and nails Rossy with an obvious low blow.

Drumond rushes in aggressively, but mostly misses. Rossy finally unloads and nails Drumond with a huge uppercut that hurts him. Drumond is wobbly, but Rossy seems to have gassed himself out, and doesn’t really follow up. Now Rossy is finally winging shots, which might just leave him out of position in the 10th round. Big round for Rossy.

89-82 Rossy.

Could have had the knockout maybe if he’d pushed himself a little harder in round 9.

Eh. Rossy plays it safe. Drumond isn’t trying to take Rossy’s head off either. The urgency just isn’t there.

Anyway, Rossy should be cruising to a wide UD. He slowed down a lot late, but he was a late replacement. I was impressed by what I saw in the earlier rounds, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him facing some top 20 types again.

kinda looks like the old giant wrestler El Gigante from the old wcw

that belt looks like something i used to make with cardboard boxes

99-91
99-91
99-91

DERRIC ROSSY UD

Shot in the back by muggers. Can’t get any more cowardly than that.

Great fighter, great career.

A lot of feeling out int he first few minutes. Cayo, as usual, is holding his hands way down, and Diaz isn’t having many problems finding him. Cayo comes back with a nice quick combo, which hopefully is a flash of things to come. Overall, Diaz threw more and landed more, even though Cayo probably landed the best punch of the round, Diaz takes it in my book.

Diaz 10-9

Cayo comes out a bit more aggressive this round. Diaz with a nice straight jab, but Cayo counters him with a nice uppercut. Diaz’s jab can’t miss Cayo’s face.

Cayo keeps throwing a little hook combo, but has been missing with it. Diaz jumps in and lands a nice 1-2. Cayo swings wildly, leaving him way out of position. If he keeps doing that, expect Diaz to find him at some point later in the fight. Cayo has the physical advantage, but Diaz is the MUCH smarter fighter. Diaz ducks under a wild swing and counters with a nice quick left, although Cayo’s right simultaneously lands. Diaz with a coupld of decent shots to the body. Cayo with a big right hand to Diaz’s head to close out the round. This one is shaping up to turn interesting, if both guys can keep the rate up. Close round, but I’m still giving the edge to Diaz

20-18 Diaz

It sounds like the last punch by Cayo might have hurt Diaz more than I thought, but the feed cut out. Cayo now picking up the workrate. He should at least consider throwing a punch to the body. Diaz with a couple of big attempts that miss.

Cayo with a nice tricky feint that opens up a left straight. Cayo jumps in and glances with a decent combo. Diaz goes to the body, but Cayo jumps back. If that keeps happening, Diaz will be able to follow it up with a shot to the head that could hurt him.

Cayo throwing a lot of punches, but very little is landing. Diaz seems a bit more cautious now. Both guys turn southpaw. Cayo lands a good right hand, then throws a couple jabs. Cayo kept up the workrate that round and landed some decent shots. Diaz landed a few of his own, but just didn’t have the aggression, and was having more trouble actually landing than in the first two rounds. Cayo round.

29-28 Diaz

Cayo with a nice short left. Diaz misses up top and Cayo finally somes back with a good body shot down low. Cayo’s handspeed is becoming more and more apparent as Diaz is throwing less. Cayo’s reacting to what Diaz is doing, yet still landing first.

Teddy’s scorecard is exactly the opposite of mine. That’s more like usual.

Diaz bomes in with a lunging left hook, but he misses and Cayo is able to land as he’s falling in. Cayo with a nice left hand over the top. Cayo with a good hook to the head, and then pushes Cayo down. Ruled not a knockdown, but Cayo might have actually been hurt. Cayo comes out looking like a drunken monkey. Nice 1-2 by Cayo. Close round, but I’ll give the edge to Diaz based on seeming to hurt Cayo.

39-37 Diaz

Both guys throwing but neither guy landing early in the round. Diaz throws, and Cayo triples up on his punches and is able to land one of them. Cayo with a nice shot over the top, but Diaz backs him up with three shots to the body.

Cayo catches Diaz as he jumps in, but Diaz still lands a punch to the body. EDiaz doing some good work when they’re clinching, but as they break Cayo comes right back with some nice body shots. Cayo with a nice little upercut that snaps Diaz’s head back. Big right hook that connects for Cayo. Diaz comes back with some good punches to the body.

Every round in this fight has been tough to score, the antithesis of the last fight. I gave this round to Cayo, but I could see someone scoring every round for one fighter or the other for the whole fight. Every round has been that close in my eyes so far.

48-47 Diaz

Mush like last round, this one starts with sound and fury, signifying nothing. Cayo finally lands one over the top about 30 seconds in. Diaz trying to keep Cayo off of him with the jab. Cayo throws a big 6 punch combo with doesn’t do much damage but looks good. Diaz comes back with some good body punching, but Cayo comes right back with some flashy head punching. Head shots are more reliable to score than body shots with the judges, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the judges have Cayo in front at this point, since Diaz’s best work has been to the body all night long.

Cayo throws a barrage of punches, once again landing not too much but looking good. Diaz with a nice combo where he lands 4 shots, and now Cayo is clinching. He breaks out of it and throws 5 or 6 punches to Diaz Diaz tries to steal the round at the end, but doesn’t land anything.

Cayo kept the aggression up that round. This one has the oppoesite problem, as Diaz landed the best shots in my opinion, but Cayo’s shots weren’t half bad either. I’m giving this one to Cayo in another close round.

57-57

Cayo lands a BIG right hand to Diaz’s temple that seems to momentarily stun him. Diaz bounces right back, throwing some 1-2s. They get on the inside, where you would think Diaz should have the advantage, but Cayo is holding his own there. Diaz’s punches seem to be slowing down a bit. Cayo with a bunch of punches, and the two guys are straight up trading in the middle of the ring. Unfortunately there isn’t enough mustard on any of the punches to make you think either guy might be in danger.

Diaz comes in and is starting to cliunch more now. Diaz wih a good 6 punch combo. Cayo comes right back with his own combo, finished up by landing a nice right hand. Diaz comes forward and throws one, but Cayo counters and lands. Diaz lunges in with a right that leaves him out of position, but Cayo doesn’t capitalize.

Every round seems about as close as can be. Nobody’s getting hurt. Almost every round, the guy who throws the better punches either has the lower workrate or the worse connect percentage. Just a tough one to call all the way around. Cayo takes this one by a tick, but just a tick.

67-66 Cayo

Cayo is doing a lot of circling and jabbing from the outside now. Cayo with a nice quick left hook that finds the target. Diaz doing more stalking than throwing now, and when he throws, it’s on;ly one or two punches at a time.

Diaz is doing a whole lot of missing now. Cayo has picked something up where he can make Diaz miss, and late in the fight, the greener fighter just seems a lot fresher. Diaz jumps in, clinches, but does some body work while in the clinch. Diaz tries to throw a few shots up to , but doesn’t really land. Cayo comes back with a quick three punch combo that does conntect. Diaz jumps in, and Cayo CLOCKS Diaz with a left hook that stops Diaz dead in his tracks, and then the bell rings.

Clearest round of the fight so far, and the strongest Cayo round of the night.

77-75 Cayo

Lots of hooks and uppercuts. Looks like he can hang in this weight class.

Looks like he’s showboating a little too.

and make my pick look excellent if he unloads on diaz here.

Cayo back to circling, but now he’s mixing in right hands with those jabs. Diaz throwing right back, not backing down at all and lands a couple of shots of his own. Diaz lunges in with a few shots, but they badly miss as Cayo is backpedaling. Cayo also swinging with some big shots that just hit air. Diaz with some nice work on the inside. Cayo pops back outside and lands a good 1-2 straight combo, switching stance mid-combo. Diaz and Cayo exchange, but Diaz only gets off 3 shots while Cayo gets off 8, and thus Cayo lands more. Diaz comes in and focuses on the body. Both fighters exchange uppercuts, and they end up back ont he outside.

Diaz now trying to throw a bunch more punches, but they’re just not connecting.

Lots of good back and forth action, I just wish there was a bit more umph behind both guys’ punches. A little closer than the last round, but another Cayo round. He just seems a lot more fresh at this point, and Diaz is getting desparate and trying to hit a home run.

87-84 cayo

Diaz comes in and does some more good work to the body. Diaz seems intend on making something happen, but he needs to start throwing up top if he wants to pull it off in the last round. Diaz is just beating Cayo to the body over and over, but when he does go up top, Cayo just isn’t there anymore.

Cayo lunges in for a left, but Diaz catches him with a bigger shot while he’s coming in. Cayo with a couple of shots right back. Throwing some quick punches with the intent of keeping Diaz off of him more than anything. Cayo is backpedaling some now. He’s acting like someone who thinks he has the fight int he bag. Diaz coming forward and landing some more good shots to the body, but Cayo comes back over the top. The wood pieces clack, and Diaz goes all out, trying to score the KO, but Cayo is able to avoid most of the shots while up against the ropes. Diaz round, but I think Cayo took the fight.

96-94 Cayo. Teddy has it wider for Cayo than I do.

Per the punchstats, Cayo landed 289 to Diaz’s 233. I still think punchstats undercount body punches though, and Diaz was focusing mostly on the body.

97-93
96-94
98-92

VICTOR CAYO BY UNANIMOUS DECISION

Those are the rumors though. Wlad says he’d rather take on Chambers than Povetkin, both of whom are his mandatories.