This is an interesting fight from the recent Golden Boy Live card. Jamal Harris was brought in as an opponent for a young prospect. Harris is 42, Espadas is 23 and was a Mexican National Champion. The fight starts out as I'm sure you'd imagine such a fight going, but around the second half of the second round things get VERY interesting:
Old man teaches boxercise just a few cities from me. Not bad for a boxercise instructor eh? Kid is gonna need to step his game up if he's letting 42 year olds geriatrics work him like that, getting gassed in the process. Does not bode well for him.
See, I don't think anything is wrong with Espadas. He's as good as any prospect his age who doesn't have gigantic 1-shot power, or super speed. What happened here was, Harris wasn't as shitty as he was likely told. Harris effectively neutralized pretty much every offensive weapon Espadas had including his speed and combination punching. He did that with timing. Gassed? Sure he gassed a bit, I bet he didn't expect the old man to crack him to the body as much as he did. It's not every day a 23 year-old Mexican prospect gets tired, I don't think he just "ran out of gas"...the old man shook him up more than he thought.
Definitely. Calling Harris a geriatric was more tongue in cheek. I'm not discounting the guy in anyway, just poking fun at his age. He knew how to stand and use his jab. Like Paulie said, he has solid skills or style or whatever. Not out of this world, but enough to give a young prospect a lesson or three. I hate to bring up that tired stand up discussion of 'old school stance', but I think it's a prime example of how just knowing the simple basics of how to stand, position your head off center and use your jab will make up for that disparity in age and physical attributes. Fundamental boxing beating the advantages that come with youth, like speed and reflexes.
Well, leave us not simply name it "fundamentals"...Harris did a lot of shit wrong and at times tried to be too fancy for his own good. But he did a good job of asserting the advantages he found he had as the fight went on. And for a good few moments, the kid was at a loss for how to deal with it.
Give boxercise credit for tiring the kid out. In the first round, Espadas had a lot of success by throwing flurries at Harris against the rope or in the middle of the ring... so he continued to try and do that for the rest of the fight. Harris went on the offensive and began pushing the kid back against the ropes instead of working the middle, and whenever Espadas would try a flurry, Harris would just hop back while Espadas began spamming quick punches in the air hoping to hit Harris. Do that a couple of times and get hit with a few body punches, it'll exhaust ya.
Agree to disagree about agreeing. I think we are agreeing. Harris did enough right, and Espada did enough wrong. I do disagree about nothing being wrong with Espada though.
He's a good little fighter for being a baby in the game. I didn't say nothing wrong at all, but for where he is he's fine. There's a reason promoters pick guys like Harris for kids like this...they're expected to lost, but test them. I just think Harris turned out to be better than his people thought he'd be. They had no real way of knowing that years away from the game, and keeping in shape as an occupation, would turn into him being something of a crafty veteran who actually enjoys fighting.
Well i'm probably biased. That's one of my guilty pleasures is seeing fights where vets/journeymen smack around the highly touted prospect like a lost child. Beating them with the tools they've honed over the years. It's like "Shoulda learned to box smarter, sucka."
40-36 for espada was a travesty. I know the fight is not going to the 42 year over a top prospect but try to make it believable.
Should have been a draw, but 39-37 isn't a travesty. There's no exuse for giving Espada all four rounds, though. Solid fight.
There are tricky old dudes in all facets if life, work, and especially martial arts. They are tO be feared, respected, and when possible; imitated.
Lol! I like that quote. This was a fun fight to watch, I was thinking Harris was going to steal the decision and win the hearts and minds of boxercise instructors across the nation, but he can sure hold his head high after that performance. He was probably happy as hell he showed up so well on TV.
What? Like beware tricky old guys if you're a judge? Because they might raise some questions, especially when the scores are written out before the end of the first round? I saw this one when it aired new... had me cheering.
