GRAHAM HOUSTON SAYS ESTRADA-MELINDO FIGHT WAS OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 29 Jul 2013
Respected boxing writer Graham Houston has praised HBO as well as Showtime for telecasting what he referred to as ?simply good fights rather than an A-side attraction meeting an outclassed opponent, so, for me anyway, Saturday?s presentations by HBO and Showtime got top marks. Houston pointed out that it is so much more enjoyable.
Commenting on the tape-delay HBO show from Macau which featured WBO/WBA flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada whom Houston described as ?Mexico?s excellent young flyweight who is emerging as one of boxing?s bright new stars, against unbeaten Filipino Milan Melindo? which was unusual since flyweights generally are not seen on network TV.
He said ?Perhaps programmers are finally realizing that the little men often provide the best fights.?
Houston noted that ?Although the scores were wide in favor of Estrada, I thought that this was a tense, always entertaining fight, and the boxing was of the highest quality.?
He said Estrada showed ?a match-winning left jab, a jolting weapon that kept Melindo contained and piled up points, and some of Estrada?s moves and combinations really were a delight to watch? and while it was ?an even fight on all three judges? cards after four rounds then Estrada pulled right away from his opponent.?
The boxing writer said ?Melindo is a dangerous, competent fighter but in the later rounds Estrada was outclassing him. Cut over both eyes, and down in the 11th, Melindo did well to make it to the finish.?
Earlier, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told us he would surely give Melindo another title shot in the future and praised the Filipino as ?a good fighter with a good punch and crowd-pleasing style.?
At the same time Arum took issue with the wide margins on the scorecards of all three judges posing the question ?what fight were they watching??
Rafael Ramos and Zoltan Enyendi had Estrada winning by an inexplicable 118-109 margin while Takeshi Shimakawa had Estrada also ahead by an almost similar 117-109 which raised serious questions of fairness and even competence by several members of the Philippine and international media who covered the fights in Macau.
Ryan Songalia of Ring had Estrada winning by 7 rounds to five which when translated into points with a 10-8 for round eleven when he scored a knockdown the scorecard would have read 116 to 113.
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