Dec 13 2009
HBO Boxing After Dark – Ortiz, Malignaggi, And Klitschko Win
Last night was a tough one for my DVR. With UFC 107, HBO Boxing After Dark, and a Showtime boxing card all going on at right around the same time, my DVR nearly quit with me trying to figure out how I could watch or record all three. One of them had to lose out and it was the Showtime card in which Timothy Bradley beat Lamont Peterson and Vic Darchinyan knocked out Tomas Rojas. Tim Starks from The Queensberry Rules has the lowdown on those fights.
As it was, the HBO show wasn’t much. Victor Ortiz looked decent in beating Antonio Diaz. He looked fast and knocked Diaz down with a short shot in the 3rd. It was a retaliation shot as Diaz hit him with a good punch, but took a better one back. Ortiz opened up a cut over Diaz’s left eye and the fight was stopped after the 6th round. Ortiz did what he had to do in his first fight after refusing to continue his last fight with Marcos Maidana, but he’s got some work to do to get back into the same light that he was before the TKO loss.
Paulie Malignaggi beat Juan Diaz in the rematch to their August fight in which Diaz won a unanimous decision in a fight I scored a draw, but others scored for Malignaggi. The problem wasn’t necessarily just that Diaz had won, it was the scores in which the judges saw the fight. The judges had it 116-112, 115-113, 118-110 all for Diaz and it was predicted by Malignaggi since the fight was in Diaz’s hometown of Houston.
Well, Paulie doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. He beat Diaz decisively and Diaz couldn’t replicate the last fight in which he was able to get inside and slam clean shots, even though Malignaggi was quicker. In this fight, Malignaggi was not only quicker, but he was in control for most of the fight. He dictated where it was going, but I can see those who scored it more closely than others because Diaz did land cleaner shots on the inside at times, he just didn’t do it as consistently as he did in August. Malignaggi had Diaz hurt at one point, and rather than go for the kill, he decided to make faces at him and taunt him. It’s no wonder that he only has 5 knockouts.
In a fight that I wouldn’t show anyone who has any interest in boxing, Vitali Klitschko beat Kevin Johnson by unanimous decision. All you need to know about this fight is that Klitschko landed more punches than Johnson threw. That’s all you need to know
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I caught the program at the end of the second fight.. then I had to sit through the Johnson/Klitschko. That was a hard, awkward fight to watch only because my mind was telling me to change the channel but something else with hope said that maybe ..just maybe Johnson will get active.. that was one of the worse fights I witnessed ever..
I don’t blame you for sticking around. I had a feeling that nothing was going to happen because it was on tape, and if any Klitschko ever loses I think it will be big news and we’d hear about it before hand.