My name is Mark D. Kilburn and I will be writing some articles for Grudge Wear. I will be interviewing your favorite fighters and investigating some of the more serious issues concerning the fi

ght world. I will take you inside the gym as well as the ring and we will talk to fighters and coaches and trainers of all classifications from amateur to professional. I am a novice boxer who has had the luck in finding the Grudge gym and trainers and am beginning to learn just how special the Grudge way is. Grudge has saved many lives as well as turning so many people’s lives around just as they’ve done for me. I hope to talk to some of these miracle cases as well as the fight stars you already know and love. Please let me know what you like and dislike, as well as what you want and don’t want as we try to make this website the best in the fight world. Feel free to email me  ringwrap56@gmail.com, I will try to personally answer all emails.

This first article will cover the Vernon Paris-Manny Perez fiasco last May. Although Vernon Paris won, (thanks to inept judging) Manny Perez outfought him in nearly every round. I thought we’d break this fight down assuming as I studied each round through slow and super slow-motion that I’d see what the judges saw, I did not however, and here is my round by round breakdown of the fight.

The only way to prove or disprove the results of Manny’s fight is to go through it frame by frame and count the punches. My counts will differ from TV’s count because I only count the punches that land. Blows to the arms, shoulders, backs, or gloves don’t count, neither do glancing blows, pushes nor taps. I give a star for any punch that knocks down or out an opponent or for any body punch that causes any opponent to be rocked or stopped or head shots that violently turn or jerk the head.  Whenever I review a fight and want to see an actual punch count I slow it down to four speed or sometimes to fifteen speed to see all the action and the result of only the punches that are landed. I’ve done the Perez-Paris fight this way.

Here are the results. Round one: Manny clearly dominated this round from bell to bell. The totals confirm it, Manny landed 23 body punches and 6 head shots while Paris landed 5 body shots and nearly matched Manny with 5 head shots. Statistically Manny won this round without question and was also the aggressor from bell to bell. Round one must go to Manny regardless of the judges.

Round 2:-Manny lands 32 body shots, obviously sticking with his game plan of working the body. Round 2 is a better statistical round for Vernon but he gives up too many good punches to carry the round. Manny starts to go after Vernon’s head and lands 14 head shots picking up 2 stars, one at 2:21 and the other at 1:45, both shots are vicious right hands and both punches snap Vernon’s head around. Paris’s punch count was better than round 1 but there is no possible way to give him credit for the round. Paris lands only 6 shots to the body and a pattern seems to be developing of Paris ignoring Manny’s torso, he tacks on 17 hits to the head. Vernon scores his first star at 1:30, landing a right uppercut. Manny is the superior boxer so far both offensively and defensively. Both rounds go to Manny and neither one is close.

Round 3: Paris’s best round by far but not enough to best Manny. Statistically this round was the closest round yet with Manny landing 23 blows to Vernon’s midsection and having success hitting the bigger man’s head 16 times. 2 of Manny’s headshots came around the 1:08 minute mark and both blows snapped his opponents head around; when I watched the fight live I thought I smelled at least a knockdown coming but it was not to be. Still, Manny landed a couple of the best blows of the fight, both were right hands and any reasonable mind, fan, trainer, or coach, had to give this round to Manny on those two star punches alone, even though statistically this would be Vernon’s best round so far. Paris landed only 9 body shots perhaps pointing a finger towards a hotdog who by trying to knock Manny out and not working the body more, missed the golden opportunity just like Manny was doing to him! In concentrating on Manny’s head Paris landed 26 head shots but only hits Manny with 9 body shots. Many of these were jabs that were slowed by Manny’s gloves and although I don’t count glancing punches some of these moved Manny’s head a little so I counted them. I am trying to be objective because I am a huge Manny Perez fan so I will give Vernon some leeway so my prejudices don’t come through. I can still count punches fairly with the overall point being that I am giving Vernon the benefit of doubt. Once again Manny is the obvious aggressor as well as statistical winner and leader. 3-0 Manny-

Round 4 : This is by far Vernon’s worst round, both offensively and defensively as well as statistically. Manny gets 3 stars making this his best round of the fight. Manny lands few head shots but the few he landed looked like knockdown punches to me. Manny hit Vernon in the head 16 times in round 4 and 3 of them were stars! He earned stars at 2:38, 1:24 with 2 right hands and a left hook at 18 seconds remaining to dominate the round. He did not forget Paris’s body even when it appeared Paris was in trouble landing 15 torso shots and nearly earned another star for a body shot that drove Vernon backwards just before the 2 minute mark. Vernon again ignored Manny’s body and landed only 7 punches to Perez’s torso for zero stars but nearly matched Manny with 13 head shots. For the fourth time in four rounds Manny was the aggressor from bell to bell and won what otherwise would have been a neck and neck round by landing those 4 special blows. Again Manny is the clear cut winner, so far so good. Manny has clearly won the first four rounds and appears to be cruising. Only the 4^th round has proved to be close.

Round 5: this was one of Manny’s most difficult rounds of the night. Statistically he is the winner landing 16 head shots and 20 body blows while Vernon again forgot about the body and only landed 4 there. He landed some of his best shots of the night to Manny’s head and matched Manny with 16 hits. Now if we went on head shots alone Vernon would win his first round but we judge on the entirety of the round including factors like body shots and who the aggressor was. With a 20 to 4 advantage in body shots and the fact that although Manny wasn’t the aggressor from bell to bell like the first four rounds he still out-aggressed Vernon. We can concede this as a draw doing Paris a huge favor or we can give the round to Manny for earning another star with a solid right hand at 1:03. We will call this round closer than any before and perhaps Paris is waking up. Go ahead and count it a tie and Manny is 4-0-1 on rounds won.

Round 6: Statistically Manny wins yet another round and in my opinion the fight. Unless Vernon really turns it on or manages to knock Manny out, (Can anyone knock Manny Perez out?) he will lose this fight. These last rounds will prove to be better rounds for Paris but Manny is still sticking with his attack-the-body game plan and it appears to be working perfectly. Manny hits his adversary in the head 18 times as well as earning a star punch with perhaps 6 sec left. I almost gave Manny another star for a good left hand a few seconds before his star so another good round for Manny. Never forgetting to attack the body Manny lands 18 body shots while his opponent lands 18 head shots yet only hits Manny’s body seven times. Vernon’s best round yet and I’d call it even, how’d you call it? As far as I could see there were no star punches for Vernon, making me feel even stronger that this round is dead even and a draw however we will give it to Vernon just because. Paris landed 18 head shots but only 6 body shots. So it’s one very close round for Paris, 4 obvious rounds for Manny plus 2 close rounds, makes the score 4-1-1 Manny, and the one round won by Paris is pretty much a gift.

Round 7: Although Paris appears to be doing better as the fight goes longer; statistically speaking Manny wins yet another crucial round. He is sure winning a lot of rounds to still be declared the loser. In round 7 Manny lands14 hits to the head while Vernon totals one less and scores 13, Manny continues to work his game plan and lands 26 body shots to Vernon’s paltry  5. Manny also picks up another star at 2:21 with yet another head shaking right hand. I think of all the factors working in this and all fights, the fact that Vernon never goes to the body with Manny has hurt him the worst. Perhaps working the body may have slowed Manny’s determined aggression down some. Either way Manny is still charging hard and is always the more aggressive fighter. Round 7 must go to Manny! 5-1-1

Round 8: At 1:19 seconds Vernon Paris finally gets his 3rd star punch with a right to the head and has his best round so far, however; Manny also scores in this round, he earns two more stars with only 5 seconds to go, one for a right to the head and one for a left to the head back to back. Statistics give Manny the two stars plus 14 more head shots for a total of 16 to counter Vernon’s 23 head scores plus his star punch at 1:19 for a total of 24. Paris completely ignored Manny’s torso landing a non-noticeable total of just 2 body shots! Manny countered with 26 body shots and it is clear to see that both are well trained fighters, both deserve our respect. Vernon has taken blow after blow to his body and it doesn’t seem to have slowed down. Manny has had his face reddened but has not either slowed or hurt him likely due to his excellent defense that turns Vernon’s punches into deflections that are more like slaps than blows, or absolute whiffs and misses. Statistically you have to give this round to Manny but a case can be made that Vernon had one of his best rounds of the fight so we will be gentlemen and give round 8 to Vern. Only his second round won so far and it has to be ruled whoever won it was a ‘very close’ win. It is 5-2-1 in Manny’s favor so far and in reality Vernon has no chance to win this fight without a knockout, like that’s going to happen.

Manny, in my mind’s eye has a little bit of Smokin Joe Frazier in him and we can hear Manny’s corner telling him to keep up the attack and true to form Manny will bring it from bell to bell and in all fairness his opponent does too. Both fighters have certainly earned adulations for being in absolutely great shape. In all likelihood this round was probably a draw but we’ll take a 5-2-1 or 5-1-2 lead with just 2 rounds to go.

Round 9: Both fighters are aggressive this round. Manny lands 16 body shots while Paris lands 7, advantage Manny! Mr. Perez also lands 25 head shots, unleashing a beautiful three punch combo with 33 seconds left in the round. He had several nearly star punches that again I do not want to let my emotions give Manny something he didn’t earn. I give Manny one star for a right hand with 1:33 sec. left and nearly gave him another for a solid right with 35 sec. left. Had Vernon thrown these I would have probably given him two stars but I only gave Manny one. Manny is still is coming forward like Joe Frazier used to do, attacking and continually throwing combinations. It’s late in the fight now and if you want to give Paris this fight then he needs to out-aggress Manny and he does not do it. Manny scores 25 headshots to go with 16 more body blasts while Paris lands 20 headshots and only 7 torso hits so Manny wins the statistic battle and Paris knows he needs to score more so he throws more. That doesn’t mean he lands more! When I slow the fight down to 4 or 15 speed I can clearly see (so can you) how many of Vernon’s punches were missing or only partially landing, or glancing blows that do no damage to Manny. Because it was one of Paris’s top three or four rounds we would be lenient to call it a draw but I will play it super conservative and give it to Vern as another close or very close round. 5-3-1 or 5-2-2 Manny!

Round 10: This is it, Manny has this fight in the bag and could play it safe but that’s not Manny. I think he could taste the victory but instead of playing it conservatively Manny was nearly sprinting towards Paris when the bell rang. Paris could only take three steps before Manny was knock-knocking at his door. That was the tone of the entire fight, Manny charging and pushing the much larger man backwards. Vernon back-pedaled most of the fight, while Manny kept on charging like an angry bull. How could the judges overlook this fact? Statistics show that Manny was once again the statistical winner, throwing and landing 24 to the head and a whopping 34 blows to the body while Paris stayed true to form landing a fight high 34 headshots but again nearly ignoring Manny’s torso and landing only seven to the body. So once again Mr. Perez who doubled as Mr. Relentless wins the statistical battle and perhaps a fan of Vernon’s will say that Paris’s huge weight advantage means his punches are harder and hurt more-Well okay then, are they so much harder they make up for a nearly 20 punch advantage to Manny in that last round?

I believe the final round of a fight is the most important round. Amazingly, Paris did not wilt, he stood toe to toe with Manny and gave nearly as well as he got. This last round was what all fans hope for in all fights, two fighters giving their all, it was a beautiful thing to watch and even if you give this round to Paris, (Statistically Manny won yet another round) Manny still wins the fight and wins it by a unanimous decision. I will give Paris this round for landing some nice head shots and getting another star punch at 2:20 with a left and a second star with a left uppercut at 1:36. Manny also got two stars for a right at 2:33 and a left just before at 2:28. I give Vernon yet another round but once again very close. Final score is either Manny at 5-4-1 or Manny at 5-3-2. Yes the last round is the most important but it could have gone either way and Manny did nothing to lose what he spent all night building. At the very least you can call this fight a draw and I would have to say Manny did more to win than his opponent but a draw would have been the worst Manny could have fared, but to give Paris a unanimous decision win is ludicrous.

Ponder on this, using my punches landed type of statistics we see Manny landing 165 headshots and 15 of them rated stars. Vernon landed more, 202 but only earned 5 star punches, and it’s the bodywork that illustrates exactly how bad the judges’ decisions were. Manny lands 229 body punches while Vernon throws and lands a miniscule 58. For this fight to be even a close fight Vernon would have had to hit Manny four times as hard with his body punching as Manny was hitting him. If you watched the fight you already have a feel for how dishonest this decision was but if you slow it down and then watch again you will be even more shocked. Manny out starred Vernon 15-5 and was awarded the punch of the night for that right hand smash they kept showing us. Please tell me how it’s possible to award Paris as the winner.

We fans of boxing are paying a whole lot of honest and hard earned money to attend these events or the exorbitant rates of pay-per-view to watch in our homes. We pay top dollar and with top dollars, come the expectations of an honest production that is a properly scored, handled, and managed, contest. This particular fight has been judged in such a negligent manner it points to a real and growing problem that needs to be corrected yesterday.

How many times, after watching a fight that is decided in a purely negligent manner, have you said to yourself, ‘Just another fight decided by judges who surely were watching anything but that fight?!’ If you are like me you’ve said it over and over and over…

We fans get pissed off, we switch channels or turn it off, curse, swear and go grumpy for awhile but then it’s back to our work-week hoping someday there will be accountability. What about the fighter, this is their life-This is their entire career, their extremely short window of opportunity to earn some money by putting themselves into extreme danger each time they step into the ring and they do it for our entertainment.  Can we fans tolerate such negligence outside the ring while admiring such professionalism inside it? It is worse than unfair, it is criminal!

We owe it to the professional fighters as well as ourselves to start insisting that fight judges be held accountable. They are held accountable in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and all the other professional sports. Why not in boxing as well? The best refs rise to the top and get the highest paydays while the ones who make the most mistakes are regulated to the minor leagues. This is a fairly simple measure that would get immediate result. All fighters should be able to appeal decisions like this one. If the board finds the judges erred then they can be barred from judging any more of the lucrative pro fights and be forced to work non-paying novice fights until they learn how to judge fairly.

Judges should be older and with some sort of ring experience either from actual fights or as trainers and coaches. Judges first and foremost should have to know how hard these fighters work and what it’s like to fight and train from close experiences and from hours spent at the gym. That’s my take on this fixed fiasco, thanks for reading and until next time, stay fit, stay strong. mk

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Boxing Friday Night Fights Manny "Manos" Perez