Bad Left Hook Fight of the Month Poll - August 2010

January: Carlos Tamara TKO12 Brian Viloria (25%)

February: Antonio Escalante UD10 Mickey Roman (48%)

March: Andre Dirrell DQ10 Arthur Abraham (48%)

April: Mikkel Kessler UD12 Carl Froch (65%)

May: Yonnhy Perez D12 Abner Mares (30%)

June: Miguel Cotto TKO9 Yuri Foreman (42%)

July: Dmitry Pirog TKO5 Daniel Jacobs (43%)

This month was somewhat of a rarity in terms of the fights this year so far.  The big fights this month were mostly the best fights this month.  No, there weren't any knock-down, drag-out brawls, but chances are, if you tuned in to boxing on a major network this month, you probably didn't leave disappointed.

Devon Alexander UD12 Andriy Kotelnik - While many were disappointed with the result, there wasn't much to be disappointed about by the fight itself.  Alexander kept up an extremely high workrate, but Kotelnik was adept at getting out of the way of most of the shots and landing hard counters.  This led to a good amount of back and forth action, although Alexander's workrateprevailed in the minds of the judges.

Tavoris Cloud UD12 Glen Johnson - This was a battle of two rugged, forward-moving fighters that mostly lived up to expectations.  Johnson did start to show his age some, wearing out at times and throwing arm punches about as often as he was turning his body into the shots, but he kept nearly every round competitive and was able to win four rounds on all three cards.  Cloud won the fight by fighting in spurts, but throwing effective combinations when he did go. Between the two fighters, nearly 1,500 punches were thrown, a huge number for light heavyweights and nearly twice as many as the next week's championship bout between Chad Dawson and Jean Pascal.

Jean Pascal TD11 Chad Dawson - Pascal scored an upset to remember in the most significant bout of the month.  Both men fought decently enough, with Dawson slightly more active and Pascal coming out with hard combinations.  However, Dawson was reluctant to do anything other than defend whenever he came under fire, and failed to follow up on shots regularly, so Pascal built up a decent lead.  Things were just starting to really heat up in the 11th when a clash of heads led to a massive gash, stopping the fight and causing it to go to the cards.

Miguel Vazquez UD12 Ji Hoon Kim - This is about as competitive as a fight can get where you can still call it a domination with a straight face.  Vazquez proved to just be the superior technician and defensive fighter, but it wasn't for Kim's lack of trying.  Both fighters gave it their all for 12 rounds, but in the end Kim's power wasn't enough to be a game changer against the sturdy chinned Vazquez.

Josesito Lopez UD8 Marvin Cordova Jr. -This one was a decent scrap with a lot of back and forth action.  Neither man had nearly enough regard for defense, and thus both fighters were able to land a lot of hard, clean shots.  Frequently, Lopez seemed to be in control, although Cordova was able to come back with his hard, cruder shots to take several of the rounds and make it close.

Tomasz Adamek UD12 Michael Grant - This really wasn't supposed to be much more than preparation to face tall heavyweights for Adamek, but it turned into something much more.  As has been his modus operandi at heavyweight, Adamek tried to stick and move, or at least get into a position to avoid the biggest of Grant's shots.  Still, Grant was able to land his fair share of hard shots, wearing down Adamek and rocking him at one point in the sixth.  In the 12th round, Grant went for broke, and an exhausted Adamek was barely able to survive his onslaught.

Giovani Segura KO8 Ivan Calderon - Usually, Calderon's game is shiftiness, to hit and not get hit, but this time he let himself get dragged into somewhat of a brawl, making for an entertaining fight.  In the early rounds, Calderon was landing the better shots, although Segura was getting to Calderon with his constant pressure.  As the fight wore on, Calderon was able to avoid fewer punches, leading to a lot of exchanges between the tiny, light-hitting Calderon and the power punching Segura.  Finally, Segura cornered Calderon in the 8th and landed a big body shot, sending Calderon to the mat.  While he probably could have gotten up, he knew it was futile at that point, and stayed down for the full 10 count.

Marcos Maidana UD12 DeMarcus Corley - Corley was supposed to be an easy defense of Maidana's interim title.  Maidana might be the biggest pound for pound puncher out there right now, and Corley was brutally knocked out not long ago, so it was a minor upset that this even went the distance.  After a slow initial stanza, Maidana started applying slow pressure on Corley, and even in his degraded state, Corley was able to avoid many of Maidana's shots, land hard and clean counterpunches, and land some lead punches of his own.  In the end, Maidana was able to walk away victorious, in part because he landed the bigger shots, knocking down Corley late and wobbling him several other times, and in part because he was the favorite fighting at home.

Honorable mentions: Marco Antonio Rubio TKO6 Jose Luis Zertuche, Cristobal Arreola UD12 Manuel Quezada, Eloy Perez KO5 Derrick Campos, Christopher Martin SD10 Chris Avalos, Joel Julio UD10 Jamaal Davis.