The Greatest of This Time

[BigBoyBrackey]

ROUND 9

Mayweather controls the early action with his jab, then drives home a jab-cross combo that causes Pacquiao's left eye to swell further.

Pacquiao blocks an uppercut, countering with a left cross followed by a right hook, both to the head. Mayweather lands a left hook, then blocks Pacquiao's left and lands another hook.

Tom Trunzo gives Mayweather the round on his unofficial scorecard, which now reads 88-83, Pacquiao.

[BigBoyBrackey]

ROUND 10

Pacquiao scores with a right hook to the face, but just misses landing it flush. A right hook to the body lands full force, though, causing Mayweather to double over. Pacquiao straightens Floyd up with a left uppercut.

Mayweather is suddenly on wobbly legs, which don't get any more steady after he absorbs a vicious jab to the face. Mayweather tries to clinch, but Pacquiao pushes him back into a neutral corner. Manny hammers him with left uppercut, then a savage overhand left to the chin.

Floyd is clearly hurt, with nearly a minute remaining in the round, and Pacquiao pours it on, dispensing with the body attack in favor of head shots. Left cross. Right jab. Right hook. Right hook. Left cross.

Mayweather, who has not thrown a punch in at least a minute, stumbles to his left and looks about to go down when Callas leaps in, wrapping his left arm around Floyd and pushing Manny back with his right.

Pacquiao avenges his round-robin defeat and wins The Greatest of This Time Welterweight Tournament by way of technical knockout at 2:27 of the 10th round.

[BigBoyBrackey]

I started this thread as something of a counterbalance to the Greg Page universe -- a quick-hitting diversion with a focus on the present.

Well, almost five months later, the first Greatest of This Time Tournament is finally complete.

In the interest of moving things along, welterweight will be the only division to use a round-robin format. While it produced a lot of intriguing match-ups and excellent fights, it also really dragged ... things ... out.

It was also a very long way to go to get to an all-but-assured final: Pacquiao vs. Mayweather.

Going forward, each tournament will be a 16-man, single-elimination event. The seedings will be based on the ratings in the most current issue of The Ring, with the other five or six spots (depending on whether there is presently a recognized champion, or whether the crown is vacant) filled by yours truly. Most ratings will be from the database, with the creations of John Dewey and others filling in where needed.

Coming up, The Greatest Cruiserweight of This Time Tournament ...

[BigBoyBrackey]

1. Steve Cunningham
2. Krystof Wlodarczyk
3. Marco Huck
4. Zsolt Erdei
5. Giacobbe Fragomeni
6. Troy Ross
7. Danny Green
8. Denis Lebedev
9. Ola Afolabi
10. Matt Godfrey
11. Guillermo Jones
12. B.J. Flores
13. Alexander Frenkel
14. Wayne Brathwaite
15. Yoan Pablo Hernandez
16. Grigory Drozd

[BigBoyBrackey]

FIRST ROUND

Steve Cunningham (1) vs. Grigory Drozd (16)
Krystof Wlodarczyk (2) vs. Yoan Pablo Hernandez (15)
Marco Huck (3) vs. Wayne Brathwaite (14)
Zsolt Erdei (4) Alexander Frenkel (13)
Giacobbe Fragomeni (5) vs. B.J. Flores (12)
Troy Ross (6) vs. Guillermo Jones (11)
Danny Green (7) vs. Matt Godfrey (10)
Dennis Lebedev (8) vs. Ola Afolabi (9)

(First-round bouts at ExCel Arena in London, using the unified rules and scheduled for 10 rounds. Top 10 seedings based on The Ring ratings, updated May 4, 2010.)

[Infinity]

Originally Posted by BigBoyBrackey

Steve Cunningham (1) vs. Grigory Drozd (16)
Krystof Wlodarczyk (2) vs. Yoan Pablo Hernandez (15)
Marco Huck (3) vs. Wayne Brathwaite (14)
Zsolt Erdei (4) Alexander Frenkel (13)
Giacobbe Fragomeni (5) vs. B.J. Flores (12)
Troy Ross (6) vs. Guillermo Jones (11)
Danny Green (7) vs. Matt Godfrey (10)
Dennis Lebedev (8) vs. Ola Afolabi (9)

Predictions:

Cunningham over Drozd
Wlodarczyk over Hernandez
Huck over Brathwaite
Frenkel over Erdel
Fragomeni over Flores
Jones over Ross
Green over Godfrey
Afolabi over Lebedev

[BigBoyBrackey]

Ola Afolabi W10 Dennis Lebedev: After a tremendous two-way second round, Afolabi drops Lebedev in the third. The knockdown, along with a point deducted for a Lebedev low blow in the seventh, makes the difference in a 95-93, 94-94, 95-93 majority decision.

Matt Godfrey W10 Danny Green: Godfrey outboxes Green, who is warned for four fouls, has trouble getting off more than one punch in a row and never has his younger opponent in serious trouble. Godfrey prevails by scores of 98-93, 97-94, 98-93.

Guillermo Jones W10 Troy Ross: The 6-foot-4 WBA titlist shows no signs of rust despite being inactive since 2008. Jones' advantages in height and reach are too much for the game Ross, who forces toe-to-toe exchanges throughout. The sixth and the eighth are especially brutal, with Ross cutting and nearly finishing Jones in a round-of-the-tourney candidate. Jones drops Ross with a combination in the 10th, sealing a victory by scores of 96-92, a deceptively one-sided 98-90 and 97-91.

B.J. Flores W10 Giacobbe Fragomeni: The tourney's first scoring controversy, as Fragomeni is the aggressor, lands more punches and appears to get the better of most exchanges. Flores, though, drops the former WBC titlist with a counter left hook late in a wild round he seems on his way to losing, cuts him over the left eye early in a close 10th and does enough to keep most rounds close.

The Greatest Cruiserweight of This Time's first four-fight card at ExCel Arena ends with the underdogs completing a clean sweep (though, to be fair, Jones is seeded so low because The Ring dropped him from its rankings due to inactivity ...)

[BigBoyBrackey]

Originally Posted by Infinity

Predictions:

Cunningham over Drozd
Wlodarczyk over Hernandez
Huck over Brathwaite
Frenkel over Erdel
Fragomeni over Flores
Jones over Ross
Green over Godfrey
Afolabi over Lebedev

Not bad for the first four bouts: 2-2 (I was wrong about Fragomeni and Green, too ...)

[BigBoyBrackey]

Zsolt Erdei W10 Alexander Frenkel: Erdei becomes the first higher seed to pull out a win in this matchup of unbeatens, dominating the first four rounds with his inside body attack and cruising to a 97-93, 99-91, 98-90 win. Frenkel gets untracked later in the fight, rocking Erdei in the fifth and seventh, but is unable to consistently force the Hungarian back.

Wayne Brathwaite W10 Marco Huck: Easily the wildest fight of the tournament so far sees each fighter hit the canvas three times, but Brathwaite's dominance in the early rounds helps him to a 94-92, 94-91, 93-91 win. Trailing on all cards through three rounds, Huck drops Braithwaite in the fifth, but crashes himself in the sixth. Braithwaite all but stops Huck in the eighth, flooring him twice, but Huck returns the favor in an equally dominant ninth. Neither can do much damage in the 10th, which Braithwaite takes on two cards to seal the victory.

Krzysztof Wlodarczyk TKO4 Yoan Pablo Hernandez: Trailing on two of three cards after three rounds Wlodarczyk unleashes an onslaught of shots to become the first inside-the-distance winner of the tournament. A big left hook 30 seconds in had Hernandez in trouble and a straight right drove him to the ropes before a right uppercut gashes his left eye. Hernandez, who hurt Wlodarczyk with a left hook and a right cross in the opening minute of the bout, was unable to fight his way out of trouble and wasn't punching at all when referee Lezek Jankowiak intervened at 2:19 of the fourth.

Steve Cunningham TKO4 Grigory Drozd: A nasty gash opened by a Cunningham right cross in the opening moments of the second round reopened repeatedly and finally made a loser of Drozd, who won the first in convincing fashion. After the cut, though, Cunningham stayed in control by targeting the wound until referee Pat Russell called it 43 seconds into the fourth.

The favorites stage a comeback on the second night of the opening round, winning three of four bouts, two by TKO. The sole upset, Braithwaite's six-knockdown brawl with Huck, easily qualifies as the Fight of the Round.

[BigBoyBrackey]

Steve Cunningham (1) vs. Ola Afolabi (9)
Krystof Wlodarczyk (2) vs. Matt Godfrey (10)
Wayne Brathwaite (14) vs. Guillermo Jones (11)
Zsolt Erdei (4) vs. B.J. Flores (12)

[BigBoyBrackey]

B.J. Flores W10 Zsolt Erdei: Despite throwing and landing fewer punches and getting dropped for a six-count by a left hook in the eighth round, Flores pulls out a 94-95, 96-93, 95-94 decision. Flores, who did his best work in the middle three rounds, outmaneuvered Erdei in a slow final round to gain the edge on the two cards he won.

Guillermo Jones KO5 Wayne Braithwaite: Jones, who won by controversial fourth-round TKO in their real-life meeting, leaves no doubt this time. After a two-round slugfest to start the fight, Jones' superior firepower takes over in the third and midway through the fifth, a perfect left cross-right hook combination drops Braithwaite for the full count.

Krzysztof Wlodarczyk KO8 Matt Godfrey: Wlodarczyk forces Godfrey into a toe-to-toe brawl and proves too strong, taking a commanding lead on two cards after seven rounds behind a steady body attack, then hurting Godfrey early in the eighth and finishing the American with a right cross behind a stiff jab. Godfrey is counted out at 2:36 of the eighth.

Ola Afolabi W10 Steve Cunningham: The top seed seems to take control after scoring a second-round knockdown, but goes into a defensive shell after building an early lead. Afolabi is the aggressor throughout, throwing more punches, but proving slightly less accurate. Still, two judges are impressed by the activity, making Afolabi a winner in the biggest upset of a tournament filled with them by scores of 96-93 and 95-94, while the third saw it 96-93 for Cunningham.

[btown32]

Wow...a 9 vs 12 in one bracket and 2 vs 11 in the other. Looks like a cake walk for K. Wlodarczyk. Very disappointed in Cunningham.

[BigBoyBrackey]

Originally Posted by btown32

Wow...a 9 vs 12 in one bracket and 2 vs 11 in the other. Looks like a cake walk for K. Wlodarczyk. Very disappointed in Cunningham.

Looks like a very live No. 11 seed, though, as Guillermo has been the second-most-impressive guy so far. Wlodarczyk-Jones seems like the real showdown, with the winner against Flores/Afolabi somewhat anticlimactic. Then again, with all these upsets ...

[BigBoyBrackey]

Ola Afolabi (9) vs. B.J. Flores (12)
Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (2) VS. Guillermo Jones (11)

[BigBoyBrackey]

After splitting the first four rounds, Ola Afolabi takes control, dominating the rest of the fight with an aggressive inside attack that B.J. Flores never quite finds a way to counter.

His left eye swelling from the early rounds, Afolabi -- who upset top seed Steve Cunningham with an unrelenting attack in the quarterfinals -- stays on Flores' chest the rest of the way. Flores, his right eye nearly shut by the 10th round, hits the canvas in the final round, courtesy of a Afolabi right cross.

Afolabi prevails by identical 118-109 scores on all three cards.

Dropped and nearly stopped in the ninth round, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk puts Guillermo Jones on the floor with a left hook to the liver moments into the 10th. Jones gets up, but gets battered around the ring the rest of the way, hitting the floor again with a minute left in the 12th after eating a brutal right uppercut.

Wlodarczyk's late surge proves the difference in a fight filled with close, back-and-forth rounds, as he pulls out a 114-111, 114-110 and 114-111 decision to reach the tournament final, where the No. 2 seed will face No. 9 Afolabi.

[BigBoyBrackey]

The championship match of The Greatest Cruiserweight Of This Time Tournament is widely seen as a mismatch, with Krzysztof Wlodarczyk coming in as a 6-1 favorite over Ola Afolabi.

The No. 2 seed justifies those odds less than a minute into the first round, when he nearly decapitates the lanky Brit with a heavy right uppercut. Afolabi slams to the canvas, but hops to his feet at the count of two. Afolabi recovers quickly and lands a few shots later in the round, but Wlodarczyk remains in control for the first three rounds.

Afolabi is on the ropes early in the fourth when he catches Wlodarczyk coming in with a one-two to the head, dropping Wlodarczyk to his knees.

The knockdown brings the crowd at ExCel Arena to life as Afolabi shows his first sign of competitiveness, but after getting up at the count of six and weathering the round, Wlodarczyk regains control with a withering body attack in the sixth.

The two stand toe-to-toe in the sixth and seventh, with the Pole appearing to earn a slight edge in each. Several hard rights by Wlodarczyk in the eighth cause Afolabi's left eye to begin swelling. A hard left hook early in the ninth sends Afolabi stumbling into the ropes, where he remains for much of the rest of the round. A hard left hook had referee Paul Thomas taking a long look at the Brit, but the bell sounded before he decided to step in.

Afolabi got a second win early in the 10th, landing several head shots, but one appeared to hurt is left hand, as he winces visibly and shakes it midway through the round.

A three-punch salvo flattened Afolabi in the opening moments of the 11th. He was up at eight, but a hook under the ribs drops him to his knees a minute into the round. Wlodarczyk moves in, ready to close the show, but Afolabi put on a fine display of clinching to weather the round (though Thomas would not have been out of line had he stopped it).

Afolabi did little in the 12th but try to survive, which he did despite absorbing several clean punches to the head and body.

The only surprise about the scoring is the card turned in by judge Luciano Tagliamonte, who had it 114-111. Since he saw the 11th at 10-7 for Wlodarczyk and also gave the Pole the final round, he somehow had Afolabi ahead by a point after 10 rounds. The other two judges, Americans John Parish Jr. and Michele Helstern, have it 118-107 and 118-106, respectively, with each giving Afolabi only the fourth and Wlodarczyk a 10-6 advantage in the 11th.

The winner, and Greatest Cruiserweight of This Time: Krzysztof Wlodarczyk!