The Review & Preview - #2
The White Towel, Erin Blanchfield & Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury.
Morning all!
Good old boxing…
Never fails does it?
I have rewatched Wood vs Lara five times and I am still captivated by the whole thing.
The ending was what I predicted but I thought it would be earlier, Wood was brilliant for large periods of the fight.
I had him up by three rounds heading into the second half of the fight and although I thought he would slow down due to his weight cut, you can’t take away from the discipline he showed in those opening rounds.
Then came the mistake.
And, that’s all it takes against someone like Mauricio Lara. One mistake.
He lulls you into a false sense of security and then steals your soul.
The left hook was perfect and would knock out 99% of featherweights on the planet and I am astonished Leigh Wood even made it to his feet.
And that leads us to the biggest talking point of the weekend…
Did Ben Davison make the correct decision?
In short, yes he did.
The decision to throw the white towel has divided the boxing community but it’s one that Leigh Wood and his family will be thankful for this morning.
I think the temptation to allow Wood to ‘ride out’ the ten seconds left remaining in the round and recover in the corner for a minute are consequence of how well he was performing.
Not many truly believed he would win so when he was performing so well, they wanted to give him every chance to win.
I get that but boxing is the most brutal game of all and check below the damage Mauricio Lara can inflict in ten seconds (Courtesy of boxer Nathan Heaney)
I believe Ben Davison was aware of this and instead of criticism, he deserves credit.
That was the biggest night of Leigh Wood’s career, in front of his home crowd and with his world title on the line, the emotional decision would have been to allow him to continue, to go out on his shield like Rocky in the movies.
However, this isn't a movie.
Because of Ben Davison’s actions and quick thinking, Leigh Wood still has a career and a huge rematch with Mauricio Lara on the horizon.
Well done, Ben.
I was going to make ‘notes from the undercard’ as a separate section but it wasn’t even worth it.
More on that debate in a few weeks!
But to round up, Dalton Smith looked poor by his own standards, his future opponent Sam Maxwell also picked up a decision victory to set up their clash in April.
Gamal Yafai suffered yet another shock defeat and although I would never push a boxer into retirement, I hope his brothers have a good word with him in the coming days/weeks.
All in all, rubbish undercard.
Over in the states, Luis Nery and Azat Hovhannisyan gave us an early contender for fight of the year.
An all action 12 year round war, I skipped over this fight on last week’s newsletter and paid the price for that.
If you have a spare hour this week, go back and watch this fight, it was brilliant from start to finish including a call out of the Japense monster, Naoyo Inoue.
GIVE US THAT FIGHT.
NEW BLOOD AT FLYWEIGHT
Boxing did dominate the weekend but I was BLOWN AWAY by the performance of Erin Blanchfield against Jessica Andrade in the UFC.
As I mentioned in last week’s final word newsletter, I fully expect Erin Blanchfield to hold a UFC world title one day, but I did not expect her to run through someone as good as Jessica Andrade in the way she did.
Andrade is no joke.
A former world title holder and in very good form but Blanchfield made her look like a novice.
Her submission threat was always going to be a factor but it was the way she dominated Andrade on the feet that really impressed me (and everyone else).
She has struggled with the likes of JJ Aldrich on the feet but whatever she is doing over in New York is clearly working because she is improving with every fight.
She held her own on the feet, broke the will of Andrade, then choked her out.
She goes by the name ‘Cold Blooded’ and that’s exactly what she is.
At 23 and now going to be a top 5 ranked flyweight, Erin Blanchfield will get a shot at a title and although it sounds crazy, is she the biggest danger Valentina Shevchenko has ever faced?
The main thing is she won’t be intimdated and a lot of the flyweight division have been intimidatd by Shevchenko and rightly so, she is a beast but it is refreshing to see a young, hungry fighter like Blanchfield setting her sights on the champion.
Keep an eye on Shevchenko vs Grasso in two weeks time but the women’s flyweight division has just caught fire!
Looking ahead
I don’t know how this has happened but here I am talking about a boxing match between Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury.
Yes, I did write that.
When this is all stripped back its two novice boxers with big followings going at it, I am fine with that.
Everything else around it takes the p**s, however.
£19.95 to watch it on BT Sport PPV.
WBC threatning to rank Jake Paul if he comes through.
The PPV aspect, I understand. I am not stupid, this is a business and these two men make a lot of money.
I understand it but I don’t agree with it and to be honest, I can’t understand why anyone would buy it.
But the WBC being involved, I just refuse to accept.
They have tarnished their own reputation in recent years but this is just shameless.
Whether Paul ends up ranked at #50, #10 or #1, it sets a precdent that with enough money and a big enough following, you can walk into boxing and be viewed as world class by a governing body.
The fight itself I think will be a close one.
I think both men are limited and their skillsets will ultimately cancel eachother out.
I don’t see a knockout but I do see a lot of nervous energy and something a little bit predictable on the scorecards.
More about that on Friday.
Once again, thank you for all the feedback since we began The Combat Club.
Please continue to share, like and comment and let me know if there is anything you would like to see more of.
The offcial picks section of the newsletter is in the works, I want to launch it with all the relevant tools to allow us to track all of our official picks!
See you all on Wednesday.