Bad Left Hook Fight of the Month Poll: July 2009

Past winners:

• January 2009: Antonio Margarito v. Shane Mosley (53%)
• February 2009: Juan Manuel Marquez v. Juan Diaz (93%)
• March 2009: Ricardo Cordoba v. Bernard Dunne (81%)
• April 2009: Carl Froch v. Jermain Taylor (49%)
• May 2009: Carlos Abregu vs. Irving Garcia (35%)
• June 2009: Marcos Maidana vs. Victor Ortiz (45%)

This month, the highest profile fights weren't necessarily the best fights, but there were still some solid scraps that happened. A few of the bouts that promised to be good on paper didn't quite live up to the hype, but some unsung fights that seemed like foregone conclusions ended up being exciting and well contested bouts. The candidates are (in order of occurrence):

Selcuk Aydin vs. Jackson Bonsu: Two punchers without much reach who don't know how to back down squared off against each other. Not too much there by way of setting up shots, but both guys were able to land their fair share of bombs. Unfortunately, the legal stream for this one was atrocious, meaning US viewers missed pretty big chunksa of the fight, and what we could see was too scrambled to get more than a general idea of what was going on. At the end, Aydin was able to outclass Bonsu with his Arthur Abraham-esque style, scoring a 9th round knockout after scoring two previous knockdowns, with Bonsu winning most of the rounds when he wasn't knocked down.

Joseph Agbeko vs. Vic Darchinyan: So it wasn't the fight of the year candidate that one might have hoped on paper, but the bout did have its fair share of entertaining spots. Still, it was much more of a one-sided beatdown than the final scorecards indicated.

Cristobal Cruz vs. Jorge Solis: It wasn't pretty, but it sure was entertaining. Between the two fighters, a total of six points were deducted for various low blow, rabbit punching, tackling and leading with the head infractions, and I think there might have even been a noogie thrown in there for good measure. Still, there was a ton of back and forth action, with Cruz pulling his usual schtick of throwing 100+ punches a round, while Solis played the matador and was nailing tons of clean counters as Cruz was coming in. Both fighters seemed hurt multiple times, and whenever one guy took over the momentum, the other would storm right back to make sure they wouldn't keep it. At the end of the day, Cruz was able to retain his title, even though Solis had been a very heavy favorite before the fight.

Nathan Cleverly vs. Danny McIntosh: This one was a demolition, but it was an entertaining demolition, with Cleverly bombing away on McIntosh all night and scoring four knockdowns. Moment of the afternoon came after McIntosh was knocked down, and he actually did a kip up to pop back to his feet. Maybe not the best move in the world, however, as he was knocked down again later in the round.

Eddie Hyland vs. Oisan Fagan: According to reports, there were tons of momentum swings in this fight where both fighters stood toe to toe, never backing down from the other, as the best tribute to Arturo Gatti this month. Hyland had control of most of the fight, but Fagan was able to work his way back into it in the middle rounds, and in the 12th, did his darndest to try knocking Hyland out, pinning him against the ropes until Hyland opened fire and pushed him back out to the middle of the ring.

Tyrone Harris vs. Marvin Quintero: Quintero, a Mexican pressure fighter, kept trying to apply that pressure to Harris, but Harris had the answer, landing clean counters over and over again. Harris finally broke down Quintero, landing a barrage of shots that forced the referee to step in and score the upset for Harris.