It was a decent night of boxing on HBO.
First up was the Victor Ortiz-Lamont Peterson fight.
This fight started slowly, very, very slowly.
Ortiz won three of the first four rounds on my card, but they were very hard to score. Little action with the exception of the 3rd which Ortiz knocked Peterson down twice and had an easy 10-7 round.
After the 3rd and a 10-7 round and a, seemingly, insurmountable lead on the scorecards Ortiz became comfortable. Too comfortable.
Peterson began gaining confidence starting in the last 30 seconds to a minute of the 4th, a round in which he lost, but showed vast improvement.
It showed in the fact that I had Peterson win the next five straight rounds.
Some think that if you are the aggressor, consistently coming forward and throwing power punches that you are winning the round. I am not one of these people.
Ortiz showed he was the aggressor, but he wasn’t coming forward effectively. Peterson was regularly dodging and ducking with fantastic head movement and danced around the ring beautifully.
When it was all said and done I had thought Peterson did enough to work a draw from the jaws of defeat.
Turns out I was right.
My score: 94-94
Judges scores: 95-93 Peterson, 94-94 twice
The main event of Marcos Maidana-Amir Khan was a great fight. One of the best of the year.
Not only could it be up for fight of the year, but round (Round 10) of the year as well.
Amir Khan simply dominated the first five rounds (including landing a vicious body shot that landed Maidana on the canvas). Superior hand speed championed his attack. Maidana is a fantastic puncher with very heavy hands, but it looked as if he was throwing in slow motion at times.
Maidana did lay the ground work in round 5 for rounds 6 & 7 though by launching uppercut after uppercut through Khan’s defense, or lack thereof. He claimed rounds 6-7 by making Amir a little tentative to exchange because of those dangerous uppercuts that Maidana was unleashing on him.
Khan returned to form in rounds 8-9, dancing around Marcos and beat him to the punch on nearly every exchange. Rounds 8-9 where identical to the first handful of rounds with Khan dominating with his superior hand speed and beating Maidana to the punch consistently.
It all came crashing down in round 10 for Khan. Maidana beat Khan to a pulp. He completely destroyed him with sharp, powerful uppercuts time after time. This didn’t surprise me because Khan had done nothing to protect himself from that particular punch.
What did surprise me though was that Khan never hit the floor. Maidana was beating him from pillar to post for almost the entire round and yet Amir never once went down. Credit where it’s due, most fighters would have tasted the canvas in that round, or at least taken a knee to compose themselves.
I had Maidana take the last three rounds on my scorecard bringing it to 114-111.
Again, I saw what the judges must have seen.
My score: 114-111 Khan
Judges scores: 113-112, 114-111 twice, all for Khan
Final thoughts:
Victor Ortiz has proven himself nothing more than a B+ fighter after this performance. If he went in with nearly any of the top 140lbs fighters he would get schooled.
Amir Khan is lucky, in my opinion, to have escaped the last three rounds. He can’t stop and trade with a man like Maidana with a chin like his. He can mask it if he properly uses his dominating hand speed and head movement.
The moment that man stands in the middle of the ring and exchanges is when everyone goes, “uh oh…”
Don't Kid Yourself (sports edition) 