Bad Left Hook Live Boxing Results and Commentary: Sebastian Sylvester vs. Billy Lyell

So let’s see if he can survive against Sylvester. David Lopez, Charles Whitaker and James Kirkland have all stopped him.

Not too surprising, but Lyell doesn’t necessarily look to be in the best shape. Lyell gets a bit of a chorus of boos, which is odd for Germany.

I guess that with Juergen Braehmer in jail, Sylvester is probably the most popular fighter who is a native German. “The Hurricane” walks out to the Scorpions. Big surprise there.

Lyell comes out looking spry and bouncy. It looks like his plan is to stay active, since there’s literally no chance he wins by knockout. Sylvester really hasn’t thrown anything, and Lyell has been throwing a lot but not landing much of anything. Sylvester is picking everything off with his gloves. Sylvester finally throws a couple punches, but Lyell slips them. Halfway through the round, and Sylvester is finally starting to throw a bit.

Sylvester with some very standard 1-2 combinations, but Lyell picks off the punches. Lyell with a combo that lands, but Sylvester comes right back with a combo of his own that lands. Sebastian seems to have a bit of a mouse developing under his right eye. Sylvester loads up with a hook, but Lyell slips it. Neither guy really landed much that was effective, but Lyell was much more active, so I’m giving the round to him. I wouldn’t complain if you gave it to Sylvester though.

10-9 Lyell

I expect him to pick up the pace soon

They replay the one clean punch Sylvester landed three times between rounds.

Lyell working behind the jab, and Sylvester comes out a bit more active. Sylvester lands a nice straight right from an awkward angle. Lyell pumping out the jab from behind the guard, but Sylvester seems to be splitting his guard now. Lyell with a hook to the body. Lyell with a nice uppercut, but the referee warns him for holding. Lyell seems to have a cut around his nose now.

Sylvester loads up with a big punch that barely lands and the crowd goes crazy. He follows up with another big shot that lands much more cleanly. Lyell doesn’t seem to be phased by Sylvester’s punching, but his own punches just aren’t doing any damage. Sylvester round.

19-19

Jack Loew telling Lyell to double up his jab. Big surprise.

Lyell comes out firing the jab. Lyell throws a shoeshine combination that gets blocked. Sylvester counters with a straight right that snaps Lyell’s head back. Sylvester starting to get into a rhythm now, throwing 1-2 combinations. Lyell still with the higher workrate, but very little is landing and what does land has almost no effect.

The two throw at each other in the middle of the ring, but everything is getting blocked or slipped. Lyell lands a nice right hand that bounces off Sylvester’s head. Lyell with a left to the body. Sylvester with a strong 1-2 that splits the guard. Sylvester’s jab is really getting through when he throws it, but he’s not using it nearly enough.

If you scored rounds on heart and guts, that was Lyell’s round, but since it’s scored on clean, effective punching and the like, it’s Sylvester’s round. Sylvester just has way more talent than Lyell, even though Lyell’s doing more with what he has in the ring.

29-28 Sylvester

Just got a way to watch this. Good fight thus far?

Punch stats so far – Lyell has thrown 20 more punches than Sylvester, but Sylvester has landed 36 to Lyell’s 13.

Lyell with a flurry of arm punches. Sylvester circles back and tries throwing a couple of straight punches. Lyell weaving in and out, but almost everything he throws is an arm punch. Lyell steps on Sylvester’s foot, and the ref properly calls it a slip. Sylvester not really doing much at all this round, while Lyell is constantly throwing punches. Sylvester lands a punch at the very end of the round. Like the first round, I’m giving this to Lyell on activity, but the two punches that Sylvester landed were harder, so you could still give the round to him legitimately.

38-38

Lyell throwing lots of arm punches again, but most of them get blocked. Sylvester with a couple of nice sharp uppercuts to the body. Lyell with a 1-2 right down the pipe that seemed to have a little more on it than usual. Sylvester with another nice left hook to the body, which is becoming his money punch, but their heads clash.

Sylvester abandoning the jab that was working so well for him before, but he’s landing with hooks to the ribcage. Lyell pressing forward and trying to bring the fight to Sylvester, but Sylvester is blocking most of it, and what lands isn’t very strong. Sylvester with another good body shot and Lyell comes back with one of his own. This is almost like watching one of those underdog movies live. Lyell is trying as hard as he can, and he’s outworking his opponent, but his best just isn’t good enough.

Sylvester 48-47

I don’t really know what the guy’s saying but he gets very excited whenever Sylvester does anyting. Also I could swear I keep hearing the word Klitschko which is amusing, what’s he got to do with it?

Lyell starts out throwing lots of jabs again. A few get through, but Sylvester blocks most. Sylvester with a nice uppercut to the body again. Lyell has to land three punches on Sylvester for it to have the same effect as Sylvester landing one. The two trade for a bit, and Sylvester clearly ends up with the better end of the exchange.

Lyell warned for a low blow. Lyell starting to slow down a bit, which means he’s eating a few more punches to the face that he was slipping before. Sylvester seems to get getting stronger, on the other hand.

Sylvester 58-56. I wouldn’t complain if you had it 60-54 though.

Sylvester finally coming out a bit more aggressive, chases Lyell down into a corner, lands a couple of body shots, and then backs off. It would be nice to see him actually try to knock Lyell out, since he must know by now that Lyell can’t hurt him. Lyell just doesn’t have the form to throw hard punches.

Sylvester coming forward without punching, Lyell circling backwards and throwing off jabs and combos. Lyell seems to eb fighting with the perfect gameplan, he just doesn’t have the wherewithall to actually execute on it. His accuracy isn’t good enough and his punches aren’t thrown hard enough. He has to be landing close to only 10% of his punches this fight. If he lands 20 – 25%, he might be leading. Another round where the German landed the more telling shots.

Sylvester 68-65

Threw more in the next round, and took advantage of getting Lyell on the ropes so much, then he could finish this easily.

Lyell comes out and shoots out a few left hooks to the body. They land, but they’re literally just scoring blows – no oomph behind them whatsoever.

Sylvester seems to be taking this round off so far. Doing a lot of circling backwards, but just not throwing punches. Lyell still working behind his jab, and some of the shots are getting through. About a minute and a half left in the round, and Sylvester finally throws a few punches, which Lyell slips.

Sylvester with a decent right cross which lands in glancing fashion, but still snaps Lyell’s head a bit. Lyell doing a good job of keeping Sylvester off of him this round, plus Sylvester just doesn’t seem that interested in using up much energy. Probably Lyell’s best round of the night.

Sylvester 77-75

Punch stats, according to the broadcast:
Lyell: 34-323
Sylvester: 109-361

Seems a bit high on Sylvester to me and maybe low on Lyell, but whatever. Sylvester comes out this round and is throwing punches again. Sylvester with a nice 1-2 that gets Lyell to back off. Lyell seems really tired now. His punches have no snap left on them at all, not that they had much to begin with. Sylvester throwing off a couple of nice jabs, followed by another uppercut to the body. Lyell lands a few head shots in a row that snap Sylvester’s head back a bit. Sylvester comes right back with a few of his own. Sylvester round.

Sylvester 87-84

That’s ridiculous!

Lyell starts out throwing a random combination of punches that doesn’t seem well thought out or to have any effect. Just arm punches for the sake of throwing punches, but they wouldn’t have landed on or hurt me. Sylvester backs Lyell into a corner, Sylvester is coming in to start throwing some hard punches, and the ref waves it off at an odd time while Lyell is throwing. Looks like Jack Leow waved off the fight.

SYLVESTER TKO 10 LYELL

If anyone is going to watch the tennis tomorrow I can highly reccomend that they go over to the SB Nation’s Tennis blog and join in with the open thread which is really good.

Sylvester is hard to look good against. High guard, protects his body well, good accuracy. He’s incredibly boring to watch but quietly effective.

I thought Lyell put up a decent show but you can see what Loew’s thinking – his guy isn’t winning a decision so every punch he takes from that point unnecessary.