Not the result I wanted in this fight but a good fight it was. Joel Casamayor TKOd Michael Katsidis in the 10th round of their fight Saturday night. In what appeared in the first round to be an easy night for Casamayor turned out to be a war. Casamayor knocked Katsidis down twice in the first round with the left hands. The first knockdown appeared to be more of a quick left that landed and ended in a flash knockdown. Casamayor who loves to break the rules hit Katsidis while he was down with another hard punch. Moments later Casamayor threw out a right jab and then hit Katsidis with a extremely hard and clean left hand. This time Katsidis looked really hurt. However Katsidis weathered the storm and made it to round 2. In round 2 Katsidis seemed to have gotten his legs back but was still bothered by lefts hands from Casamayor. Honestly Katsidis looked very uncomfortable with southpaws. I had heard he was having a difficult time in sparring with southpaws too. By the third round, Katsidis was more aggressive as Casamayor slowed down. Katsidis began landing more of his punches such as the hard right hands. In round 4 Katsidis caught Casamayor with a 3 punch combination that made Casamayor stumble. In the 6th round, Katsidis caught Casamayor with a hard right hand to the midsection that led to Casamayor retreating. Katsidis landed a right hand and as Casamayor was laying on the ropes he caught another right hand. At this point Casamayor fell completely out of the ring, but got back in to beat the 10 count. In rounds 7 and 8, Casamayor continued to look somewhat fatigued and landed some blows here and there. However those rounds belonged to Katsidis. Round 9 was interesting because Casamayor was deducted a point for a low blow which was helping Katsidis who was becoming slightly ahead on the scorecards. Things were looking good for Katsidis especially after the horrible first round. In round 10 Katsidis raced out to put pressure on Casamayor and as Katsidis was about to throw his punch, Casamayor caught him with a left hook he never saw. Katsidis got on his feet but his legs looked horrible. They appeared to be like jello, but the ref let the fight continue. Katsidis got back in there but after a few more punches from Casamayor, the ref stopped the fight at :30 seconds of the 10th round. I have no arguments about the stoppage but I would have let it continue because Katsidis was still fighting at that time. Not saying he would have lasted but I would have given him a little more time.
For Casamayor this fight was redemption for his terrible performance in November. I am still no Casamayor fan, but he surprised me with his left hand. At 36, it is obvious he has to fight in spurts, but can still take some good punches. He also can still throw a good punch too. As the Ring Magazine Champion, Casamayor is still considered to be the Champion of the Lightweight Division. When asked if he wanted to fight Nate Campbell, Casamayor stated he had beat him in the past and wanted to look forward to big money fights. Casamayor mentioned big money opponents such as Manny Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, and Erik Morales. The funny thing about those three names is none of these guys are true Lightweights. However we all know money talks.
For Katsidis, he fought a great fight and showed the heart of a champion. Sure he got careless and lost but he is young and will bounce back. Hopefully he will learn a little more about control in the ring as well as about southpaws and come back. Honestly I would not be opposed to seeing a rematch of this fight, but I doubt it will ever happen. Entering the tenth round, Katsidis was ahead 84-83 on two cards, while Casamayor was ahead 85-82 on the third card. This is an indication that although Katsidis was knocked down twice in the first round, he still had some control in the fight. So for true boxing we would see a rematch, but since it is for money the rematch will not happen. Oh well, this fight is another example of why I am still a true boxing fan.
1 comment:
Yes I thought I was going to see a dream come true as well. I got so excited when I saw Casamayor go out of the ring. He was not hurt too bad because he got right back in the ring. He is getting older though and luckily he had an overly aggressive fighter in Katsidis who got careless. Katsidis walked right into that left hook and that was it. Casamayor needs to give Nate Campbell a rematch plain and simple. Maybe Nate can put him down for the count.
Post a Comment