In a turgid and unexciting battle highlighted by the vocal chords of Jay Nady, Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6) claimed the IBF Light Middleweight title defeating Ishe Smith (25-6, 11)
The first of 3 title fights on "The One" was marked out as "the one to send fans to sleep" and unfortunately it lived up to that idea.
Surprisingly the fight started brightly with Molina being an aggressive front foot fighter throwing lots of shots with Smith trying to counter things with his left hook. Unfortunately Smith's shots were rarely landing in the early portion and Molina, for all his good work, was unable too land too much clean past the intelligent defense of Smith.
After clearly taking the first 4 rounds Molina's work become scrappier and in fact he started to recieve persistent warnings from the referee who was warning him for leading with the head on a regular basis. The warnings seemed to kill off Molina's work somewhat whilst Smith continued to make the bout ugly. The ugly rounds, which started in rounds 5 or 6, become a consistent which lacked any sort of clean work. Interestingly the ugliness of these rounds seemed to suit Smith who was able to land the few eye catching shots whilst Molina threw a lot but landed little.
By the time we'd reached the championship rounds it was fair to say fan interested in the contest had died. The rounds through the middle had been close but uninteresting. They'd been close due to how awful and messy they'd been and unfortunately they'd completely killed any entertainment value any fans had. In fact it was probably fair to say that fans were using the bout as a toilet break by this point.
With the bout in the balance the two men finally came alive with some clean work in the championship rounds.
The 11th round saw Smith having by far his best round before Molina came back in the final round, clearly winning that one.
With the middle rounds so difficult to score it was no shock to see a split decision rendered with 2 of the judges feeling Molina's work deserved to take the decision in what was a fair decision given the work he put in compared to Smith's lazy and lethargic effort.
If you missed this one, don't bother trying to catch it!
Showing posts with label Ishe Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ishe Smith. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 September 2013
Monday, 25 February 2013
Cornelius Bundrage v Ishe Smith
In the biggest win of his career so far, the talented but yet under-rated Ishe Smith (25-5, 11) claimed the IBF Light Middleweight title as he claimed a split decision over former champion Cornelius "K9" Bundrage (32-5-0-1, 19).
The fight, which started slowly as the styles really clashed, wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination though it was often engaging, even if it was in hope of seeing a clean, solid punch land from either man. Despite the slow pace of much of the fight, the better, classier work came from Smith when the challenger decided to open up against the defending champion.
Despite the slow start the fight finally came alive late on as a tired Bundrage started to come under real pressure from Smith, who wasn't going to be denied in his big chance. Although Smith couldn't put away the champion he appeared to clearly dominate vast swathes of the fight, notably the final 6 rounds after the 6 messy opening rounds.
Whilst many viewers felt that Smith was the clear winner, one judge, Dave Hess, seemed to feel that Bundrage had done just enough to retain his title, an opinion not even shared by Bundrage who admitted that he lost fair and square. Whilst Bundrage admitted he made a tactical mistake not following the game plan, an emotional Smith cried in relief at his crowning glory to a 13 year career.
For Bundrage, who had been champion since dethroning Cory Spinks back in 2010, this is likely the end of the line. Aged 39 (and turning 40 in just a few weeks) there is little to really achieve, in fact in all honesty Bundrage was an over-achiever scoring wins over Walter Wright, Michael Clark, Kassim Ouma, Zaurbek Baysangurov and Cory Spinks (twice) and can hold his head up high after having had an excellent career.
Smith on the other hand may well look to cash in on his title and try to look for fights with either the winner of the upcoming Saul "Canelo" Alvarez v Austin Trout bout or even try to lure Miguel Cotto into a bout. Though it's unlikely Smith would do enough to defend against any of those men.
The fight, which started slowly as the styles really clashed, wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination though it was often engaging, even if it was in hope of seeing a clean, solid punch land from either man. Despite the slow pace of much of the fight, the better, classier work came from Smith when the challenger decided to open up against the defending champion.
Despite the slow start the fight finally came alive late on as a tired Bundrage started to come under real pressure from Smith, who wasn't going to be denied in his big chance. Although Smith couldn't put away the champion he appeared to clearly dominate vast swathes of the fight, notably the final 6 rounds after the 6 messy opening rounds.
Whilst many viewers felt that Smith was the clear winner, one judge, Dave Hess, seemed to feel that Bundrage had done just enough to retain his title, an opinion not even shared by Bundrage who admitted that he lost fair and square. Whilst Bundrage admitted he made a tactical mistake not following the game plan, an emotional Smith cried in relief at his crowning glory to a 13 year career.
For Bundrage, who had been champion since dethroning Cory Spinks back in 2010, this is likely the end of the line. Aged 39 (and turning 40 in just a few weeks) there is little to really achieve, in fact in all honesty Bundrage was an over-achiever scoring wins over Walter Wright, Michael Clark, Kassim Ouma, Zaurbek Baysangurov and Cory Spinks (twice) and can hold his head up high after having had an excellent career.
Smith on the other hand may well look to cash in on his title and try to look for fights with either the winner of the upcoming Saul "Canelo" Alvarez v Austin Trout bout or even try to lure Miguel Cotto into a bout. Though it's unlikely Smith would do enough to defend against any of those men.
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