ICB's RBR Of Joel Casamayor vs Michael Katsidis.

[Spicoli]

ok so i guess we get to argue marquez vs. pac 2 all over........wheres 'piss flap' or flip flush now ??

good stoppage last one with Kats Imo (have to watch replay)lol Sorry RBR so sloppy but we had a No-mas at the last minute and was caught cold.

[amat]

Great fight.

From the moment they both entered the ring and had that great stare down, you knew it was going to be good. I'm glad to see the return of Joel Casamayor. Looked terrible last time out, but lots of movement this time out and he returned from some serious adversity.

However, while Casamayor was the man of the hour, Katsidis pretty much stole the show with his performance. I just got the feeling that we were seeing the beginning We all knew he was exciting, blood and guts volume 2 and that all the superlatives in the world couldn't catch a grip of how exciting he truly was in the ring. We saw that. We saw it against Graham Earl and again against Czar Amonsot but we didn't know if he could compete on the highest level.

Sure enough, he more then competed on the highest level and very well almost won the thing. He didn't have much of an outside attack but he wasn't afraid to rip on the inside and his body punching is going to cause a lot of problems for many years to come. He was absolutely sensational, and his body punching more then anything was giving Casamayor serious problems. I've never seen Casamayor look more uncomfortable in the ring then the way he did when he took those body shots. He hated them and every time one landed, I started to feel my legs drain on my couch at home.

In addition to the body punching, I was surprised at the punch selection. Every combination he put together, it seemed he picked the perfect punch to throw and changed the sight lines of Casamayor, going high to low beautifully, putting the straight right before and after the left hook to keep Joel guessing. And with the exception of the first and last rounds, he wasn't nearly as wild as I previously thought, in fact his punches seemed shorter then Casamayor's most of the fight. You could pretty much tell that it was his first time under the big lights and he had some nerves in him, but you could also tell that he's a guy who will be around for a while. Loved the way he handled himself after the fight, didn't bag on the ref for the stoppage and said all the right things to get back in the ring.

I'm glad for him and think he did very well for himself and any problems he had tonight will iron themselves out over time. He has flaws, but he can work around them. He is pretty much always square but that isn't a problem as long as you have some way of getting inside and you aren't moving straight ahead going for broke which is what cost him all three times he got knocked down.

With that being said, Casamayor was tremendous. He was presented with a test after what appeared to be an easy night in the early going and then he got hurt. Then he really had to work. When the body shots came and you could see all the movement and life sucked out of Casamayor, I thought that was pretty much the last we would see of him.

After the knockdown, he began leaning forward a lot, tying up, stuff that wasn't typical of Casamayor. His movement faded, in those middle rounds he couldn't help but get caught on the ropes and while he was still competitive, you could see things weren't going his way. He was landing the occasional right but he just couldn't keep Katsidis off of him.

Yet from the outset of round 8, he found his motor and was able to move his feet the entire the round, used a lot of lateral movement and never got caught on the ropes. He built on that in round 9, sticking behind the jab and started back up with the left hands again but this time he coupled it with movement like he did in the early goings.

Katsidis made a rookie mistake, saw that Casamayor's quickness was back and began headhunting in round 9. He tried to rush straight ahead in round 10 and as soon as he did, he used the check hook to take care of business.

Only three times that entire fight that Katsidis reached that far in front of his feet the right hand. All three times just trying to make something happen and swing for the fences. And all three times Casamayor sent him to the canvas. That's what guys with nearly 500 fights do, and Joel proved he's still got it.

I think the travesty in the Santa Cruz fight is now absolved and I'm ready to see Casamayor take on any of the top guys at 135.