I hate to start another topic so soon. But I just watched a great great boxing match that probably many didn't even see. It is definately a fight of the year candidate between Juan Manuel Lopez and Roger Mtagwa. If anbody gets a chance to see this, Mtagwa needed 1 more round. The 12th round Lopez was visibly looking at the clock barely hanging on. There probably won't be a rematch because Lopez knows he barely got away with his life in this fight.
I didn't catch the fights. I will get em and watch them tomorrow. If Juanma had trouble with Mtagwa then he definitely shouldn't try moving up to fight Vasquez or Caballero! Or any other top tier fighter for that matter. Everyone expected him to have his way with this guy.
He showed a great chin but it was not a good thing. They are building up for a JuanMa/Gamboa fight, and realistically, I think Yuri stops him. He won't be able to take Gamboa's punch. Even though Yuri's footwork is terrible, his punching power is pretty much unmatched in the sport today. In terms of Cabellero, I honestly believe JuanMa could outbox him. He's more likely to be lured into a war with Yuri as opposed to Cabellero.
Well, to Juanma's credit, he took a pounding and he allowed Mtagwa to fight his fight. Juanma could have played it safe and it wouldn't have nearly been this great of a fight. It was a war on the level of a arturo gatti-micky ward fight. But I do agree that Yuri could dominate him. But I'm not sure that it is a given if he can or not. Mtagwa was taking bomb after bomb from Juanma, there is no way that yuri will be able to take that punishment. Mtagwa was fighting unbelievable last night.
Yuri reminds me of a smaller mike tyson. The question with him is could he really take shots like mtagwa was dishing out. It is true that mtagwa doesn't have the same clean puching power as yuri, but his accumulation of punches, to me, is a bigger test than what yuri could deliver.
Is there any bars in Houston that show lots of boxing fights? I'm not talking about jus the big HBO PPV fights. I'm talking fights like this one. I really wanted to catch this card but didn't think anyone would be showing it. Telemundo had a couple good fights as well.
Yuri actually has a really good chin. It's not evident by the fact that he has suffered multifle flash kd's, but the problem is really his footwork. He constantly is off balance because he over commits on so many of his punches. When he was training at Top Rank in Vegas, many guys didn't want to even spar with him because he would leave golf ball sized bumps on their head. The kid has amazing pop and speed. We will have to agree to disagree on Mtagwa being a bigger test then Yuri. I don't even think it's close. If Gamboa hit Juanma with the same punches as Mtagwa hit him with last night, he would have went to sleep real quick. Mtagwa is actually underrated though. Golden Boy was once pretty high on him and considered him a pretty good prospect. I was shocked Juanma got hit like that though as Mtagwa is a one dimensional fighter. It kind of reminded me how Victor Ortiz fought with a terrible game plan in picking up his loss earlier this year.
JuanMa was running for dear life the last few rounds, I've never seen a supposed young P4P great running from a journeyman like that before.
The problem with this is that Mtagwa took a pounding to deliver these shots. Yuri isn't going to be able to fight the same fight Mtagwa fought without getting hit a bunch himself. What I'm saying is that Yuri won't be able to do that because he isn't likely to be as tough as Mtagwa is. Mtagwa is a brawler and he took more shots than humanly possible to get to Juanma's chin. I might be wrong but I seriously doubt that Jaunma will ever fight another fight in his life as great as this one.
Yuri will apply a bunch of pressure to to Juanma. He will pepper him with quick combos to the head and body and move in and out for the first 3 rounds. If he's able to get to Juanma's body consistantly, I see him stopping somewhere from rounds 7 to 9. I actually think his fight with Mtagwa did some serious damage. My guess is that Juanma will be a lot less aggressive against big punchers now and that will cost him.
Amazing fight. Just finished watching it. Juanma looked terrible against this guy. This was one of those fights that takes something out of each fighter. Unfortunately Juan had a lot more to lose. Seemed like Juan underestimated the guy at first, and when he saw his power was doing no damage to Mtagwa, he decided to brawl and exchange. Bad idea. Had Mtagwa had some world class power, Juan would have been knocked out. How anyone would score that fight 115-111 is beyond me. It seems like they always have 1 r****ded judge who gives some bull**** score. At least a draw would have been fine, but Juan did NOT win the fight. Maybe had he boxed more and worked the jab and the body, he could have won a bit more convincingly. They both showed heart, but I don't think Juan will ever be the same.
I know man. I wasn't even going to buy this fight. I'm so glad I did cause I got to see an amazing fight. After the marquez debacle I was souring on boxing and then this fight came along. These are the fights that makes boxing such an unpredictable sport! I only bought it because I wanted to see these two young fights and I got that and a bunch more, haha!
damn I wish i bought it. I thought it would be a boring blowout so I watched WEC 43 instead. I was pissed that I would have to pay 50 bucks for a couple of mismatches.... stupid me.
