HBO Boxing After Dark, 8/7/10

Neither fight was great, but damn they were certainly very good.

I will summarize my thoughts on the Glen Johnson-Tavoris Cloud fight first, I mean it was the first televised fight, anyway…

 Johnson-Cloud

Rd 1, 10-9 Johnson

Rd 2, 10-9 Johnson, close, back and forth round, Johnson has very heavy hands, Cloud started strong, Johnson took over 2^nd half of the round

Rd 3, 10-9 Johnson, not really sure why Cloud isn’t using his speed advantage and chooses to slug out inside with a much more experienced Johnson, Johnson worked the ring, beat Cloud inside

Rd 4, 10-9 Cloud, finally Cloud uses his speed and fights on the outside more to set up his punches

Rd 5, 10-9 Cloud, slow start, Cloud dominates the last 40 seconds, amazing Johnson stayed on his feet while being punished the whole time.

Rd 6, 10-9 Johnson, Cloud came out fast, then Johnson settled down and easily won the last 2 minutes of the round

Rd 7, 10-9 Johnson, slow round, but more solid work from Johnson

Rd 8, 10-9 Cloud, barrage of punches from Cloud hurts Johnson, but Johnson lands several solid shots to stop the onslaught, then Cloud throws several more good shots in the last 10 seconds

Rd 9, 10-9 Johnson, easily won by Johnson, he threw NOTHING of consequence, but threw so much that Cloud hardly even threw any punches

Rd 10, 10-9 Johnson, Johnson seemed to have the better round, more solid work, in my opinion, and he opened a cut up over Clouds left eye with under a minute left in the round

Rd 11, 10-9 Cloud, big round from Cloud, tons of solid punches/combinations throughout the entire round, Johnson had nothing

Rd 12, 10-9 Johnson, another very even round, gave it to Johnson on better work during the middle of the round

116-112 for Glen Johnson, my scorecard
Judges all score the bout 116-112 for Tavoris Cloud

A little surprising to me. Glen Johnson had a more solid fight with Tavoris Cloud having more spectacular type power punches.

The decision doesn’t surprise me though as there were at least 4 rounds that could have been scored either way.

It was a good, not great fight, on a 1-10 scale I’d have it at a 7.

Both fighters being interviewed by Max Kellerman and each saying that they are the one that really won the fight, in addition to both sounding like they are a little short of a 70 IQ.

And now onto the “main event of the evening…” (I said it in my best Michael Buffer impression)

Devon Alexander – Andriy Kotelnik

Rd 1, 10-9 Alexander, anytime you through twice as many punches as the other guy in the ring you win the round, that stays true here, Alexander was waaaay too busy for Kotelnik

Rd 2, 10-9 Alexander, Kotelnik lands a hard shot, Alexander responds with 6 unanswered, Kotelnik lands a hard shot, Alexander responds with 5 unanswered..that’s how you lose rounds.

Rd 3, 10-9 Alexander, Fantastic round from Alexander, he just throws so many damn punches it’s hard for Kotelnik to land more than 1 punch at a time.

Rd 4, 10-9 Alexander, closer round, cut over Alexander’s right eye now, Kotelnik is extremely accurate and is closing in a little more

Rd 5, 10-9 Kotelnik, easily Kotelnik’s best round, solid, accurate work, cut open and bleeding over Alexander’s right eye, his demeanor in the ring has changed, seems a little less confident

Rd 6, 10-9 Kotelnik, nicely followed up his last round, good solid work, Alexander seems to throw punches just for the sake of throwing punches, little to no accuracy the last 2 rounds

Rd 7, 10-9 Alexander, He got a little swagger back this round, still not much of anything on his punches though, Kotelnik still had a good round, just didn’t do enough to pull it out

Rd 8, 10-9 Alexander, very, very close round, Alexander just landed more during the exchanges than Kotelnik, but Kotelnik still had a very good round

Rd 9, 10-9 Alexander, despite another clash of heads and a large stream of blood Alexander still had a strong round

Rd 10, 10-9 Kotelnik, Alexander was busy as usual, but laded many less punches than Kotelnik did, Kotelnik was incredibly accurate as well

Rd 11, 10-9 Kotelnik, yet again Alexander throws punches like a fiend, but Kotelnik is MUCH more accurate and it’s showing, if this was someone with more power Alexander would have at least tasted the canvass once in this fight.

Rd 12, 10-9 Kotelnik, awesome round, Kotelnik landed the harder, more effective shots, especially the last minute

115-113 for Alexander, on my card
Judges score the fight, 116-112

My card wasn’t far off, but don’t kid yourself (love how I just got that in there!), this fight was not something Alexander is going to throw on his career highlight reel. Kotelnik has very little power and it hurt him in this fight. If this was someone with even 30% more power, he might have tasted the canvass.

Alexander, in his interview with Max Kellerman, says, “I just want to say happy birthday to my mom, who is one year older and one year younger…”

Wow, that was scary and hard to listen to.

Alexander says he wants Timothy Bradley and unlike the last time he called him out (after the Urango fight) I think it would be an incredible matchup.

Both men throw punches in bunches and although there isn’t much on the punches you never know what can happen in a flurry.

Hopefully their respective sides can get together and hammer this thing out.