Julio Cesar Chavez Junior VS Brian Vera: A Rust Coloured Affair With A Shocked Audience In UD For Chavez

Jim Lampley: ". . . the build up for which has been dominated all week by the absurd, almost comical, situation surrounding Chavez' inability to make weight. A fight originally contracted to take place at 162 pounds has been negotiated upward three times until yesterday they weighed in at 173 or less for tonight's event. . ."


Round 1: As expected, it looks like they're in two different weight classes, like they bloody well should be. Junior is the one moving around and Vera, the significantly smaller of two pressure fighters, doing the chasing. Chavez is looking slow of hand. Chavez lands a good right to the body and left to the head. They sound like belting shots. Vera is amused, like usual. He's here for a fight, like usual. Very good head movement is on display for Vera and good lateral movement by Junior. Vera really does seem significantly quicker with his hands. Some very wide hooks by both men toward the end of the round. Vera's having a good time though, smiling.  I give it to Vera. Chavez is uncharacteristically hesitant. Vera, 1-0.

Round 2: Vera comes charging out of the gates as soon as the bell sounds. Again, I can only say Junior's hands look very, very slow. Vera is the one moving forward here throughout most of the round still. I'm very surprised by this. I give this one to Vera as I score it live. You could argue Chavez's punches have heavier impact-they probably do, but Vera certainly outscored him, by my observation. 2-0, Vera.

Round 3: Again, bell rings, Vera comes rushing in. He likes this. A lot. Vera is just flatly out-hustling Chavez Junior. He's the only one jabbing also, for the most part. Boy, Chavez looks awful to me. He slips in a hard hook but he just doesn't seem to have his usual steam. Big right cross by Chavez. Vera takes it well. Again, the hardest shots, Chavez, but so few that Vera, to me, simply outworked him clearly. 3-0, Vera, for me.

Round 4: Again, Vera rushes out at the bell. Chavez really seems rusty. Very rusty. This is the worst I've seen him look in some time. Since before he stepped up in opposition. Even in his wide, wide points loss to Martinez he looked infinitely sharper and more game. Chavez gets Vera with his one solitary hard left hook, but, like the other rounds, Vera's the one putting them together. Vera, 4-0.

Round 5: Chavez lands a heavy left hook, Vera a heavy right hand. Vera still seems wholly undeterred by Chavez's one at a time pot-shotting. Chavez is starting to wake up a bit now though. A big right by Chavez. He's starting to see that it's slipped away from him, I think. Chavez complains of low blows, the referee warns for them. I didn't see the low blows. I think Chavez's shots may have been enough to take this round, this time. I give this one to him. 4-1, Vera.

Round 6: Chavez wobbles Vera with a right right hand. He lands another, and a left hook. That clearly had Vera stung but Vera comes back, flailing away. I think that was the first time in the fight that Vera was concerned by Chavez's power at all. Chavez is turning the tide in a big way in this round. He lands a good counter straight right. Chavez is able to land that counter left hook to the head about whenever he wants it. Most of the fight it's just been a matter of not throwing it. What surprises me is that he, of all fighters, isn't committing to any real body work. But, just the same, Chavez takes that round clearly. 4-2, Vera.

Round 7: Chavez is finding a home for power shots with the straight right and left hook to the head. These punches are always there when he throws them. He's starting to go to the body finally. Good straight one-two from Chavez. Vera twists and turns his way in but he's getting clocked hard. Big overhand right by Vera. Left hook to the body by Chavez, multiple shots by Vera. Vera is still muscling forward and landing. Chavez getting tagged hard. Vera seriously wobbled by a left hook at the tail end of the round! Chavez must take it for me, but Vera had almost snatched it at the end. That counter left really probably won Junior the round. Great shot. 4-3, Vera.

Round 8: I love how Vera is still stalking Chavez. But that's not to say I'd instruct him to do so, were I in his corner. I just love Vera for being Vera. He eats a big right and flurries on Chavez, bravely. Good uppercut by Vera. Vera's mixing up his harder shots with his "point-scorers" smartly. He eats another big one though. Vera is still throwing combos on Chavez. Vera wants it inside, throwing those uppercuts. I love this guy! Again, Chavez with a big shot, Vera throws a mess of shots and lands his own big uppercut. Chavez trying to tag that body. It's hard going for him. Vera, for me. He's just not letting go of this one. I think he can win this. Chavez can't keep up the pace. 5-3, Vera.

Round 9: I think Vera just hurt Chavez with an overhand right. Surprising. Chavez complains about low blows. Again. He seems to want the ref to fight some of this fight for him. Chavez tries to get Vera on the ropes to slam his body. Vera says no, he doesn't want to be there and Chavez can't do anything to keep him there either. Chavez really wants the ref to help him with the body shots. I don't think the ref is on the payroll. Vera is spurred on by all of this as he tees off. Big right hand by Chavez and Vera takes another good one soon after and seems to not care at all. Vera seems to care even less about Chavez's complaints than he does that Chavez has shown he can hurt him. Vera, 6-3, on my card.

Round 10: Another good counter left by a seemingly exhausted Chavez. Vera showing no respect and throwing punches in bunches still. Big body shot by Chavez. But he's letting Vera all over him. Good right hand by Chavez. Vera has been smiling at him in this round but I know he's felt some of these. He's still far more energetic than Chavez. Chavez is trying to muscle it but he just doesn't seem to have much left. Vera is clowning! Wow. I call it to Chavez Junior on that round. 6-4, Vera. Let's see what the judges say.

They have it a UD for Junior. His career is saved, and not from any help of himself, with everything in his favour.

The translator for Chavez says Chavez is complaining about dirty fighting and fractured hand. "20 headbutts" he says. Wow. Just wow. The crowd is booing.


Quotes:
Jim Lampley: "8 rounds to 2? That score is preposterous."

(For the record, that judge is listed as 98-92, Marty Denkin-Really Marty? Really?)

Spotlight on a robbery: Lance Whitaker VS Andrey Fedosov

Recently, I had the chance to catch up on a past fight of interest. Last week, I watched NBC Sports' live presentation with hot, American prospect Bryant "By-By" Jennings taking on cool but rugged prospect from Russia, Andrey Fedosov.  Two good, young heavyweights, duking it out on a good card that I didn't have to pay extra to watch. Good stuff. After a couple close rounds, Bryant laid down the very long arm of the law (big reach on Bryant) with his right uppercut/left hook combination and did enough damage to Fedosov's eye to cause a surprise stoppage by retirement in the corner. A good performance for Mr. Jennings, yet again. But I read many boxing forums and have been seeing a gross underrating of a tough, inside-fighting puncher in Mr. Fedosov, whose career as a prospect really cooled off after a "loss" to an aged Lance Whitaker. Now, no disrespect to Mr. Whitaker, but when people see that a prospect drops one to an older Whitaker, one whose career had really been on the decline, people tend to dismiss the fighter on the losing end with good reason, if they've not seen the action involved.

I've been reading about how Fedosov wasn't much because, hey, he lost to an old Lance Whitaker! I've read that Jennings did not have an impressive showing, considering that his opponent had this "hiccup" in his career. Did Fedosov lose by the famed "one punch can change everything" method? No, it was by decision! Fedosov is just not that good, I read. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Fedosov may not be a "world beater". That's fine to say that. I don't think so either. But I found a nice, perfectly clear copy of this Whitaker match, which I hadn't seen before. And I watched it thoroughly, much to my chagrin. I watched it with baffled disgust, round after round, as I tried to reconcile what I was seeing, the reality of it, with the scorecards I'd read on Boxrec.com. What a nightmare for Mr. Fedosov. What an abuse of honest, hardworking fighters, what actually happened that night, on June 12, almost three years exactly before clashing with Jennings, 2010, in Hollywood, California.

I've seen a lot of robberies in boxing - decades' worth, in fact. This fight ended in one of the worst I've ever seen. I've always been hesitant to call a fight a robbery. I don't call close fights robberies. A lot of fans make that mistake. This, however, was an unmistakable robbery to any person who understands the action they're watching. I had this fight scored 11 rounds to 1 for Andrey Fedosov. Let me repeat that. I scored ELEVEN of TWELVE rounds for Andrey Fedosov. Furthermore, the one round I scored for Whitaker, that was a close round. And though it doesn't say so, currently, on Boxrec, Fedosov scored a knockdown in the fifth round, via big left hook.

So, the first five rounds included a knockdown and were all very, very clear for Fedosov. By the first round you could give Whitaker, the sixth, which I gave him, there's already the equivalent of a half-a-fight lead in scoring for Fedosov. I don't think the crowd is always right, but I will say that the crowd began to audibly shout "Bull-shit! Bull-shit! Bull-shit!" after the cards were read. Make no mistake. This fight was not competitive. The commentators seem to think "pushing out a jab" with consistency when it's not hitting anything but air or gloves is ample reason to call it competitive, but I have eyes. So, I will not. Whitaker lightly pushed his glove out to touch Fedosov's gloves (or just air in front of Fedosov) all through the fight, and seemed to actually get credit for throwing a punch and scoring with it when he did so. Many of these weren't even thrown punches, let alone landed ones. Lightly pushing out your glove is not punching. Touching a glove that way is certainly not a scoring blow either. Any judge who was even slightly competent would see that. This was an insane decision. If this had been two big names, with two big fan bases, you could see a riot from these cards at the billed "Pandemonium at the Palladium".

I'm sick to my stomach after watching this match. Fedosov's career was derailed by this, a brazen robbery. There was no way this was a Whitaker victory. There was no way this was a draw. There is no card of any quality whatsoever that can come up with anything other than a wide Fedosov victory. Yet, Judges Marty Denkin and Raul Caiz Junior somehow came up with a win for Whitaker. Judge Tom Taylor seemingly didn't elect to drink from the same trough leading up to the match, bless him, with his 115-112 card for Fedosov. Not by any stretch should it have been close. This was an easy fight to score, ladies and gentlemen. I haven't seen every Andrey Fedosov fight. I don't know what his record should be. But I do know he didn't lose to Lance Whitaker.

If you get a chance to watch this match and you think I'm exaggerating, please watch that fight. It's out there to find, if you're interested. Fedosov dominated Whitaker and Jennings just beat a very solid man in the tough Russian. Credit to Fedosov for his poise against the giant Whitaker and continuing his career without letting it dishearten him into retirement that he was blatantly cheated and credit to Bryant Jennings for getting the 'W' this last weekend. Jennings is a genuinely class professional and I would love to see Fedosov in there on American television once more against someone like Vyacheslav Glazkov. NBC Sports, please have these men back on the air. Or ESPN, Friday Night Fights, Magomed Abdusalamov and Andrey Fedosov, a killer clash for the fans is there for the taking.


Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing



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