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Paul's Fight Commentary
My Personal Comments on Fights
November 11, 2000 Lewis vs. Tua vs. Ruiz August 12, 2000 Holyfield vs. Ruiz June 24, 2000 Tyson vs. Savarese June 17, 2000 De La Hoya vs. Mosley June 16, 2000 Golata vs. Norris June 3, 2000 Tua vs. Sullivan May 4, 2000 Lewis vs. Grant
Paul's Comments: Well coming into this fight, I was one of the many who thought that Tua would easily pull off the upset. Tua is an aggressive fighter and Lewis folded when he fought against an aggressive Oliver McCall. I couldn't be more wrong. Lewis fought a near-perfect fight against Tua and has learned to take a big-time punch since McCall I.I really thought Tua would be aggressive and bulldoze right through Lewis. Tua was not aggressive , but when he did hit Lewis clean (in round 6) it didn't seem to effect Lewis at all, so now I doubt whether he could've pressured Lewis at all. I guess Lewis can take a good punch. Lewis was a little more aggressive than I thought he'd be. He could've laid back, jabbed Tua to death and not put himself in any trouble at all. He did this for the most part, but there were glimpses of aggresiveness form him and instead of Tua capitalizing on it, Tua kept his distance. Lewis pounded away almost at will. Lewis is not an exciting fighter to watch but he goes in there and does what he needs to in order to win. Lewis seems to be at the top of his game now and I don't think there is anybody out there that can stop him. Holyfield did come close, but he is getting up there in age so I'm not sure if he can do it again.
Paul's Comments: Whoa, man. Where should I start? I feel kinda sick after a decision like that. I really wanted Holyfield to win the title but not like this. He is my favorite boxer, but I must give credit to John Ruiz for fighting his heart out. I thought he won more rounds than Holy and controled the fight to some extent. In Holy's defense though, Holyfield was never in trouble and almost took Ruiz on several occasions. If the fight was scored as a whole and not round by round I have no doubt in my mind that Holyfield won. Unfortunetley for Holyfield, fights aren't scored like that.
As for the fight itself, it was very boring to watch. Ruiz would come in, jab, then hold. He had a very akward stlye that was difficult for Holyfield to figure out. Holyfield really looked old tonight and almost too slow to capitalize on his opportunity. He was like a time bomb that I kept wating fro to explode, but when it came time to show his stuff, nothing really happened. Ruiz is an opponent that Holyfield should've had no trouble with, but Holyfield didn't fight to his potential. This was the thing that I was worried about before the fight. Holyfield traditionaly fights down to the level of his opponent and he did it once again. He seemed to take rounds 1,2,4 and 5 off completely. In round 3 when Holyfield made his rally and had Ruiz hurt, I thought that the fight was over cause the old Holyfield was back, but then he did nothing with it and fought with almost no energy.
This fight along with the first Lewis fight is really bad for the image of Evander Holyfield. It make him look corrupt. This fight really makes me question his involvement with Don King. Since joining up with King some really questionable things have happend with Holyfield, and you have to wonder if there is a connection. I don't think Holyfield is the one to blame, but I'm sure there are people that will point the finger at him for his 2nd questionable decision in 3 fights. When looking at the career of Holyfield he has really done some great thing and it is a shame that the twilight of his career must be filled with contraversy.
Now for the "dirty" tactics of Evander. I think most of them were in response to Ruiz's constant holding. Ruiz's holding reminded me of Henry Akinwande. I know that there is not place for the elbowing, but it wasn't as bad as Ruiz's trainers made it out to be and I think Richard Steele did a surprisingly good job tonight. It wasn't a perfect ref job, but I expected so much less from Steele that even a mediocere ref job from him would be pleasing. And for the "low blow" that made Ruiz cower in the corner. There was no low blow, the punch was below the belt and by definition that is a low blow, but the punch landed right at the belt and not in the groin. Ruiz was stunned by a Holyfield hook that buckled him. Ruiz used the time in the corner to recover from the hook and not a "low blow."
In conclusion I am torn by the result of this fight. I am glad that Holyfield has the title, but the judges decision, was way off. Both fighters lowered their stock tonight. Holyfield did have some good moments, but he didn't put anything together like he did in his younger days. Ruiz shaky at best and was hurt a few times in the fight, but round by round, his performance was better than Holyfield's and he should be the WBA champion.
Paul's Comments: Well it appears as if the old Mike Tyson is back, but then again this was only Lou Savarese. Tyson was very aggressive and showed a lot of power and speed. I'm not sure what to make of his hitting the referee. It didn't look like the referee tried too hard to break up the bout, but he was clearly in betweeen the two fighters so Tyson should have stopped punching. The referee didn't see it as much of an issue so I don't think this will become a big contraversy. Savarese was intimidated by Tyson from the start of the fight and didn't really have a chance after the knockdown. The post-fight interview was also interesting. To me it showed that Tyson is still a very disturbed individual. He still has his bad temper, and I was really shocked by his comments about eating Lennox Lewis's heart and children. I am still not sure what to make of that. I think at this point, Tyson can beat most fighters in the division, with the exception of Holyfield and Tua.
Paul's Comments: This was really a great fight. I think this was the best fight of the year so far. Both fighters really fought their hearts out and gave it their all. Both also showed great sportsmanship and respect for each other. The major difference in the fight was the speed of Mosley. He was so fast that De La Hoya actually looked slow at times. Mosley really dominated the first round, and I thought the rest of the fight would go like that. De La Hoya couldn't even touch him. But De La Hoya came back and started to get to Mosely in the second and controled the middle rounds. Mosley wasn't as fast as he was in the first, and I thought he was tired. But then it seemed that Mosley's speed magically appeared again as he really took it to De La Hoya in the late rounds. The 12th round was really hard fought by both fighters, but I think the speed of Mosley was the deciding factor. I really respect Oscar for taking this tough fight. He has fought a lot of tough opponents recently and in my opinion this is the first time he lost. I hope they have a rematch that is just as entertaining.
Paul's Comments: I thought this was an unexpectedly close fight. I was expecting Golata to dominate. If he was on his game I was expecting a 1st round knockout. Golata had some nice combos, but he really didn't seem aggressive. When Norris appeared to be hurt, Golata backed off and let Norris get a second-wind. Both fighter didn’t seem to have enough power to knock the other out. The judges could have gone either way with this one. Norris really controlled the tempo of the whole fight, but Golata landed the harder and more effective punches. I was disappointed that one of the judges score the fight 99-91 in favor of Golata. I am not disagreeing with the result, only the wide margin of victory. Overall a good but not great fight.
Paul's Comments: This fight was very quick and was the first time I've seen David Tua in a fight. (I have seen highlights of him, but this is the first time I've seen him in a whole fight. Too bad there wasn't much to see in this one.) I'm not really sure what to make of this fight. There really wasn't enough of it for me to get an impression of Tua. To me it looked like Sullivan took a dive. I thought Tua had him hurt a little, but he never connected with any clean shots. Either Tua has so much power that he can knock someone out with glancing blows and punches to their shoulders, or Sullivan didn't want to fight. I opt for the latter of the two. I am really interested in David Tua. From the little I seen of him tonight, I really like him. He is like a bulldover in the ring and I look forward to seeing him against a top opponent.
Paul's Comments:
This fight was much hyped and lived up to none of my expectations.
I thought Lewis would win this one but I did not expect him to win in two rounds. I really think Grant's lack of experience was his downfall.
For 3 of the 4 knockdowns of the fight Lewis was holding Grant's
head and pulling it into his punches. The referee only warned
Lewis once, however. I really disliked the head-holding tactics
of Lewis in this fight. He has all the physical tools and he does
not need to fight dirty like that. I was really disapointed in
Grant's performance. He showed a lot of heart coming back against
Golata, and I expected more from him. Two things about this fight
that I did like. First, Lewis was very aggressive in the fight. I
was glad to see this for a change. Second, I was glad that he
showed the courage to take this fight instead of an easy title
defense. On the flip sifde though, the titles were split up and
that is bad.
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