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by J. Walker
In a heavyweight fight advertised with the line “somebody’s ‘o’ has got to go,” nobody’s ‘o’ went anywhere tonight as undefeated heavyweights Vyacheslav “Czar” Glazkov of Ukraine and Malik Scott of the USA fought to an uneventful draw on NBC Sports Network’s Fight Night, broadcast from The Paramount in Huntington, NY.
With a very biased sounding commentary coming from the NBC announcers–especially color analyst BJ Flores, who seemed to decide early in the fight that Scott was going to win and win big–this bout had all the makings of becoming another one of those “controversial” decisions. And so it was, if you subscribe to the notion that what the skillfully negative Scott was doing in the ring equalled winning a fight going away.
Scott calmly strolled around the edges of the ring all night, moving side to side and backwards while landing some nice body shots and stinging jabs to be sure. But his relentlessly negative style may have not only frustrated Glazkov– who complained after the bout of Scott’s constant “running” from him all night–but also a couple of the judges, who refused to reward him excessively for it.
In truth, neither fighter exactly lit it up in there, and judge Julie Lederman’s 95-95 score seems like a reasonable way to view the fight.
Neither man was ever hurt in the bout, though Glazkov’s better punches were often ignored by the broadcast crew as they raved about the talents of Malik Scott.
As for Glazkov (14-0-1, 10 KOs), he didn’t show the imagination needed to really break the fight open: he was exposed as being somewhat one-dimensional at this point in his career. And Scott (35-0-1, 12 KOs) had zero intention of really trying to win the fight, rather than simply not lose it: his style makes the supposedly “safety first” heavyweight champion Klitschko brothers look like madman daredevils in the ring in comparison.
Aside from Lederman’s 95-95 score, one judge saw it Flores’ way with a 98-92 tally for Scott, while another saw it the way this writer did, with a 96-94 score for the more offensive-minded Glazkov.
Rematch? Let’s not and say we did, OK?
In the first of the co-headlining bouts, Huntington native Chris Algieri (15-0-0, 7 KOs) out-worked and out-thought the very game Jose “Mangu” Peralta (10-2-0, 6 KOs) of Jersey City, New Jersey in a ten round junior welterweight bout.
This fight was intense and entertaining throughtout. Momentum shifts occured in rapid succession in the early part of the fight, as Algieri demonstrated his mastery of the boxer-puncher style, using angles and switching levels–upstairs to downstairs and back again–to confound his opponent, while Peralta crouched low and relentlessly came forward in classic slugger fashion.
Styles make fights, indeed, and the contrast in styles here, in contrast to the later heavyweight bout, guaranteed an exciting bout.
As the fight wore on, Algieri’s variety and volume simply began to wear Peralta down, and the Huntington native took command in the latter stages, as he landed some bone-jarring uppercuts that stunned Peralta and backed him up.
Algieri threw in excess of 1000 punches, and later said “the kid’s just super tough” of his opponent, who he defeated by scores of 96-94, 97-93, and 98-92.
