Not every fighter makes you want to watch them and in fact many fighters have found a way to turn a crowd against them. One such fighter was Anthony Dirrell (26-0-1, 22) who was given the opportunity of a life time this past weekend when he met WBC Super Middleweight champion Sakio Bika (32-5-3, 21). Bika, defending his belt for the first time was the betting under-dog, the older man, the more worn man, the slower man and also the lesser skilled man however he was also the determined man and the man who didn't want to give up his title.
We often talk about champions losing their hunger once they win a world title. What we ended up with in this bout however was a champion who was hungry and a challenger who seemed to have filled his stomach with disappointment.
The first round summed up much of the bout as Dirrell, who looked incredibly classy in spurts, did next to nothing. Bika's wasn't clean or effective but he was doing something. On my card you get points for doing something if the other guy is doing next to nothing.
Having basically taken the opening round off Dirrell then had a good second round and a great third round. At the end of the third it seemed obvious that Dirrell had the speed, power and skills to hurt, rock and possibly even stop Bika.
Sadly the momentum that Dirrell had been building was lost in round 4 as he took the round off and spent it trying to box as a south paw. It was frustrating to see someone with genuine natural talent let Bika off the hook but it was hoped that Dirrell would come back hard in round 5 and that's exactly what he did. It was in round 5 that Dirrell had his best round of the fight dropping Bika and coming close to stopping it Bika looking gone before the bell saved him
Amazingly despite looking completely done in round 5 Bika fought back well and took round 6 as he appeared to rock Dirrell. Out of nowhere it was Dirrell who was in trouble and it seemed that the fight suddenly swung in favour of Bika. The most interesting part of round 6 wasn't the fighting in the ring but Dirrell's resigned look after it. It seemed like the American just didn't want to be there anymore.
Despite looking sick of the fight and the rough and tumble style of Bika who was relentless in coming forward even if he was crude and messy Dirrell had some decent moments in round 7. It was a round that was up for grabs with Dirrell not doing much but Bika not landing much.
Round 7 was arguable the last you could have given to Dirrell who began to really just turn off. He was backing up incessantly, posing and looking ready to strike but actually throwing next to nothing. It seemed that either Dirrell didn't want to win or just didn't care about fighting any more. Bika though was too crude to land the bombs that makes a fighter quit, and instead the marauding fighter kept coming forward with little real success.
By the end of round 10 the good work of Dirrell's was long gone and it was hard to to make any case for Dirrell to be winning. At best it was 95-94 to Bika, at worst it may have been a round wider as Dirrell kept doing nothing. What wasn't helping the American was the awful work of his corner team who weren't shouting things such as "box 'im good", they seemed to be out of ideas when it came to firing their man up whilst Dirrell himself looked so uninterested that it was hard to believe he was in a world title fight.
Dirrell did get a break, of sorts, in round 11 as Bika's clumsiness saw him deducted a point for a low blow. Even with the deduction Dirrell didn't do anything to actually win the round resulting in a 9-9 round.
It seemed like Bika was in the lead, it seemed Dirrell's inability to fight like a challenger was costing him and in round 12 it really did cost him as he threw away a close round by be running around the ring with his hands up high. There was no way you could give him the round after he had been such an idiot.
Despite the fact I had it 114-112 to Bika I couldn't feasibly see a way to favour Dirrell and in fact I felt generous even having it that close. One judge having it a draw however wasn't out of the question as the cards came back with scores of 114-112, 113-113 and the frankly ridiculous 110-116 in favour of Dirrell. I had assumed the 113-113 card was "the bad one" until I heard the final card which genuinely made my stomach turn. How a judge had given Dirrell 8 rounds was and is still a mystery to me.
Showing posts with label WBC Super Middleweight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WBC Super Middleweight. Show all posts
Monday, 9 December 2013
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Sakio Bika v Marco Antonio Periban
Over the past few years the Super Middleweight division has been on of the standout weight classes. Sadly politics has once again left it's mark on he sport as Andre Ward, the standout fighter in the division, was recently stripped of his WBC title.
To fill the void left by the WBC's decision to strip Ward we had a bout between 3-time former title challenger Sakio Bika and the unbeaten Mexican Marco Antonio Periban.
The bout started slowly with Periban just doing enough to claim the opening few rounds. Neither man looked good and the action wasn't great as the crowd started to boo.
In the middle rounds Bika started to charge back and out work Periban who seemed to decide that his best option was dance on the outside and throw next to nothing. The strange tactic of Periban's seemed to see him just giving rounds away with the flat out negativity.
It wasn't until round 8 that we eventually had some fireworks. A clash of heads lead to Periban being taken over to the ringside Dr. Immediately after the Dr said he was fine the two men started to land bombs for fun, though the bell unfortunately cut the excitement short.
Going in to the final 4 rounds it was still finely in the balance and either man had a great chance to claim a decision.
Round 9 seemed to show the best boxing of the bout with Periban showing some lovely class but he couldn't keep it up and and Bika did just enough to claim the following 2 rounds and take a slim lead in the final round.
It was in round 12 that the action and excitement picked up as both men went for it. They were both aware the fight was close and both seemed to know that a knockdown would win the bout for them. This saw both men leaving their jaws on the line and unloading on each other in what was genuinely fun to watch action despite the fact both men looked technically awful.
The close nature of the bout left, as many would expect, a tight decision though one that just favoured Bika by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 114-114 to claim a majority decision.
This loss sees Periban falling to 20-1 (13) whilst Bika improves to 32-5-2 (21) and claims a world title in his 4th attempt. I'd be very shocked if he kept the belt for long.
To fill the void left by the WBC's decision to strip Ward we had a bout between 3-time former title challenger Sakio Bika and the unbeaten Mexican Marco Antonio Periban.
The bout started slowly with Periban just doing enough to claim the opening few rounds. Neither man looked good and the action wasn't great as the crowd started to boo.
In the middle rounds Bika started to charge back and out work Periban who seemed to decide that his best option was dance on the outside and throw next to nothing. The strange tactic of Periban's seemed to see him just giving rounds away with the flat out negativity.
It wasn't until round 8 that we eventually had some fireworks. A clash of heads lead to Periban being taken over to the ringside Dr. Immediately after the Dr said he was fine the two men started to land bombs for fun, though the bell unfortunately cut the excitement short.
Going in to the final 4 rounds it was still finely in the balance and either man had a great chance to claim a decision.
Round 9 seemed to show the best boxing of the bout with Periban showing some lovely class but he couldn't keep it up and and Bika did just enough to claim the following 2 rounds and take a slim lead in the final round.
It was in round 12 that the action and excitement picked up as both men went for it. They were both aware the fight was close and both seemed to know that a knockdown would win the bout for them. This saw both men leaving their jaws on the line and unloading on each other in what was genuinely fun to watch action despite the fact both men looked technically awful.
The close nature of the bout left, as many would expect, a tight decision though one that just favoured Bika by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 114-114 to claim a majority decision.
This loss sees Periban falling to 20-1 (13) whilst Bika improves to 32-5-2 (21) and claims a world title in his 4th attempt. I'd be very shocked if he kept the belt for long.
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Andre Ward v Chad Dawson
Often in this sport we are happy to predict that when 2 relatively boring fighters face off, we will end up with a boring fight. Predictions however can be wrong and that's exactly what we saw as Andre Ward (26-0, 14) defended his WBA "super" and WBC "regular" Super Middleweight titles against Chad Dawson (31-2-0-1, 17) in a relatively entertaining bout.
The bout started in the expected manner with neither fighter really doing much at all. To be fair the first 3 rounds were unmemorable with more holding and posing than actual punching. If anything Dawson was perhaps in a slender lead having landed a number of eye catching right hooks in round 2. It wouldn't take long however for Andre Ward's class to pay off.
In round 3 the bout came alive with Andre Ward finding a home for his fast left hook and surprisingly he dropped Dawson with a beautiful single shot. After dropping Dawson, Ward seemed to put his foot on the gas and really started to let his hands go at the end of the round with his left hook tagging Dawson's head time and time again. The following round Ward really turned the screw not only dropping Dawson again but going all out for the stoppage and buckling the legs of Dawson again.
The 2 knockdowns seemed to effectively kill off Dawson's hopes and Ward began to really impose his will on the bout as Dawson struggled to land anything of note. Despite having a reach advantage Dawson was unable to do anything with his jab, his hook's were being neutralised and Dawson was effectively shut down.
After a number of slower rounds Ward again turned up the heat in round 8 as the two men fought up close with Ward ripping a number of hard and clean uppercuts to Dawson's chin. Whilst the two men clashed heads on a number of occasions it was the clean punches that Ward was landing landing that were really catching the eye.
By the start of round 10 Ward really was just beating Dawson up. Dawson was doing very little as Ward did as he pleased landing every shot in the book. Ward just continued to beat up Dawson through out the 10th round and wobbled Dawson before the challenger took a knee. Despite recovering to his feet Dawson looked like he didn't want to continue and Steve Smoger waved the bout off.
This performance really did show how good Ward can be on both the defense and offense. Not only did the "Son Of God" shut down Dawson's offense but he also became the first man to stop Dawson. Sadly however we do need to remember that Dawson was "dragged down" from Light Heavyweight for this bout and as a result he may have been feeling the effects of making the lower weight. The performance was brilliant but it could be considered tainted.
For Dawson, he may write his loss off as a loss at a lower weight however he was simply dominated. He may well return to 175 but I dare say he'll never be the fighter he once was, his confidence will be bust by this loss, he was out sped, out muscled and dropped repeatedly before being forced to quit. It may be a long road back for Dawson mentally.
The bout started in the expected manner with neither fighter really doing much at all. To be fair the first 3 rounds were unmemorable with more holding and posing than actual punching. If anything Dawson was perhaps in a slender lead having landed a number of eye catching right hooks in round 2. It wouldn't take long however for Andre Ward's class to pay off.
In round 3 the bout came alive with Andre Ward finding a home for his fast left hook and surprisingly he dropped Dawson with a beautiful single shot. After dropping Dawson, Ward seemed to put his foot on the gas and really started to let his hands go at the end of the round with his left hook tagging Dawson's head time and time again. The following round Ward really turned the screw not only dropping Dawson again but going all out for the stoppage and buckling the legs of Dawson again.
The 2 knockdowns seemed to effectively kill off Dawson's hopes and Ward began to really impose his will on the bout as Dawson struggled to land anything of note. Despite having a reach advantage Dawson was unable to do anything with his jab, his hook's were being neutralised and Dawson was effectively shut down.
After a number of slower rounds Ward again turned up the heat in round 8 as the two men fought up close with Ward ripping a number of hard and clean uppercuts to Dawson's chin. Whilst the two men clashed heads on a number of occasions it was the clean punches that Ward was landing landing that were really catching the eye.
By the start of round 10 Ward really was just beating Dawson up. Dawson was doing very little as Ward did as he pleased landing every shot in the book. Ward just continued to beat up Dawson through out the 10th round and wobbled Dawson before the challenger took a knee. Despite recovering to his feet Dawson looked like he didn't want to continue and Steve Smoger waved the bout off.
This performance really did show how good Ward can be on both the defense and offense. Not only did the "Son Of God" shut down Dawson's offense but he also became the first man to stop Dawson. Sadly however we do need to remember that Dawson was "dragged down" from Light Heavyweight for this bout and as a result he may have been feeling the effects of making the lower weight. The performance was brilliant but it could be considered tainted.
For Dawson, he may write his loss off as a loss at a lower weight however he was simply dominated. He may well return to 175 but I dare say he'll never be the fighter he once was, his confidence will be bust by this loss, he was out sped, out muscled and dropped repeatedly before being forced to quit. It may be a long road back for Dawson mentally.
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