After a clash of heads in the fifth a cut opened to the right of Gallardo’s nose. Despite the streaming blood Juaquin moved forward impervious to the streaming plasma. In the sixth Lopez’ skillful motion for allowed an easy assault on the one-dimensional forward moving Gallardo opening up a cut on the Californian’s left eye.

Their heads met again in the seventh causing more cuts on both fighter’s faces, one on Gallardo’s forehead and one on Lopez’ nose. By the end of this brawling round Gallardo’s face was fully red. and completely obscured. Early in the eighth Lopez tried to again assert in technical dominance and skillful boxing but by the round’s end the fight had descended into a wild action-filled scrap.

The fight’s best round was a rugged a ninth which brought applause from the crowd and led ESPN2 announcer Joe Tessitore to exclaim that “they came to fight tonight.” Video above.

The ninth, however, was much like the fight itself: gamely one-sided and clear evidence of Lopez’ dominance. Lopez scored a unanimous decision 98-92, 98-92, and 97-93.

Post from: EveryJoe

Patrick Lopez Outlasts the Bleeding Juaquin Gallardo

In Saturday’s Ricky Hatton-Juan Lazcano undercard match Brooklyn junior welterweight proved that you can’t hit what you can’t see. The problem wasn’t the head speed of his opponent South African Lovemore N’Dou; N’Dou was relatively stationary. No, the problem was Malignaggi’s recently implanted 18-inch-long hair extensions.

In the first round of the IBF junior welterweight title bout The Magic Man more resembled a Komondor dog (pictured to the right) than a boxer. His long twisted fake locks escaped their weak rubber band-hold less than a minute into the fight. Paulie spent the next two minutes fighting through his heavily-obscuring hair. While the bush league Versus Network went to commercial the fight’s essential storyline played out as his corner wrapped the extensions in sturdy athletic tape.

The tape held the hair admirably until the eighth when the Milli Vanilli-style braids escaped their soft polycotton blend captor. The referee then inexplicably stopped the fight allowing Paulie to regroup and have his hair re-taped. The fight wouldn’t have been halted for a cut or abrasion so why did it stop for hair?

Before the ninth started, and while Versus again went to commercial, The Magic Man’s corner sheared off the hair with heavy-duty scissors. It couldn’t have happened too soon. I felt Malignaggi had dropped the previous two rounds because of his sartorial distractions. After the fight he stated that he had also broken his hand around that time.

Considering N’Dou’s late round domination I reasoned that Lovemore had done enough to win the fight, scoring it 115-113. One of the three judges agreed with me while the other too scored it 116-112 and 116-113 for The Magic Man.

Regardless the 27-year-old American dodged a major self-inflicted bullet in Manchester. It is unimaginable that any fighter would think it was a good idea to get hair extensions before a fight. It is even a dumber decision than Mike Tyson choice to get a facial tattoo less than a week before facing Clifford Etienne.

All week Malignaggi has been asking Ricky Hatton for a fight. Hatton must now be licking his chops to face Paulie given The Magic Man’s unprofessional and juvenile approach as well as his asinine disrespect for his own body and the sport of boxing. He’s definitely not Juan Lazcano who proved in the main event to be a disciplined tough warrior that gave Ricky everything he could handle.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Magic Man’s Fake Hair Nearly Makes His IBF Title Disappear

In the main event of an entertaining mid-day Saturday pair of junior welterweight bouts Ricky Hatton outlasted Juan Lazcano by a wide margin.

55,000 screaming Mancunians poured into Eastlands, the home stadium of Manchester City FC, to see their favorite son outperform and out-brawl Lazcano. Hatton was hurt twice by Lazcano — in the 8th and in the 10th — but his near-constant pressure and successful stream of body punches and left hooks proved too much for the American.

The rugged fight was characterized by frequent close-quarter brawling and excellent action. The decidedly pro-American Versus network announcing team seemed eager to label the fight as a disappointing Hatton performance, a low energy and un-sharp effort, and a sign of his imminent decline. They accused Hatton of unduly influencing the referee and thought the judges (except the American) were out of line in their scorecards. (The American had it 118-110, the Briton scored it 120-110, and the Australian gave Hatton a 120-108 shut out.)

I saw it 119-109 giving Lazcano only the 10th. I thought Hatton looked excellent but not dominating against a very skilled opponent. Sure, Ricky’s face found its way into a lot of good punches but that was to be expected. I thought his work rate was terrific especially in the frigid 52-degree Manchester night air. I don’t think there was much decline or an indication of any diminished skills. Hatton is still the best 140-pound fighter in the world, one of boxing’s best draws, and still a good old-fashioned fun-to-watch scrapper.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Ricky Hatton Gets Back on the Winning Track