Eagle Den Junlaphan vs Rodel Mayol - One Of The Best Fights You Will Ever See

[JK1700]

I just watched it and this fight was just incredible. It's definitely one of the Top 10 fights that I have seen. There was just incredible action, back and forth, every round had it's moments. There was a good blend of skill and just grit and brutality also. Mayol might not have had a particularly good career since but back then he was a really, really good and dangerous boxer, I think he was ranked in the Top 3 by all of the major sanctioning bodies and rated #1 by the WBC. Eagle is a fighter who I really enjoy watching. His technique and style is very impressive and he had the heart of a warrior. It was very impressive the way that he won this fight, because around the 4th and 5th rounds, it looked like he was on the verge of being stopped. I had Mayol winning 5 of the first 6 rounds. By round 4, Eagle's right eye was nearly swollen shut and his left eye had a huge and nasty cut. He did great to recover and turn the fight around like he did.

Mayol really put it on him early and was landing a lot of hard, accurate punches but in the middle rounds Eagle managed to adjust to his style and started to pick him off and control and slow down his assault. Following round 6 I had him winning every other round of the fight and towards the end he was really brutalizing and hurting Mayol, culminating it by scoring a knockdown in the final round. I scored it 115-112 and I encourage more people to watch this fight because it really is very exciting. I think it shortened Eagle's career because even though he won, and deservedly so, I think he took more punishment than he dished out and his career was over aged just 28. I think Mayol can become world champion again, but it saddens me to know that he is connected with Manny Pacquiao and therefore is controlled by deceitful crooks like Michael Koncz and Bob "I Have No Soul" Arum. Something which leads me to believe that he probably hasn't made much money from his boxing career, which I think is a shame considering the fact that he always comes to fight and is very exciting to watch.

Anyway. What do you think about this matchup? How did you score it? I scored it for Eagle but I think an argument could be made for Mayol winning by a point, a couple of the rounds were pretty close and Mayol definitely won at least 4 of the first 6. I don't know what Gale Van Hoy was thinking scoring it 117-110 because that's ridiculous. If you haven't seen it, then I would highly recommend watching it, it's available in the video section and in my eyes it's right up there with classics like Ricardo Lopez-Rosendo Alvarez 2, Humberto Gonzalez vs Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez vs Saman Sorjaturong. These are in my opinion the four best fights from the 105 and 108 divisions from what I have seen.

[Mastrangelo]

I didn't read what you wrote yet as I don't want to know what happend, but I'm watching it right now and will let you know what I think and how I scored it soon.

[Mastrangelo]

Rodel Mayol is definitely underachiever, but it's also worth pointing out how tough champions he met on his way. Actually, i believe that every fighter that Mayol lost to was at some point ranked number one in a division. I also believe that he should've got the decision against Calderon in their second meeting. He's 30 years old, still fighting and we should be looking at some possible upset win for him if he gets another chance at a title! I wouldn't also say that this fight took anything from him, he looked really good later when I saw him against Calderon and Sosa.
As for the fighters, They might not be one of the most skilled, or the fastest strawwegights ever, but I don't think I ever saw two as strong physically 105 pounders against each other in the ring.
Mayol came with a lot of excitement and energy in first four rounds and was able to hurt his opponent multiple times, after one of those punches from Mayol in first round I started to look at the crowd looking for Eagles head. Those were some vicious bombs they were throwing at each other.
But later around round 5 Kyowa slowly took the fight over making some defensive adjustments and also with pace slowing down he was able to use his superior skills and experience to pretty much control Mayol for the rest of the fight. Rounds 5-6 were still close, but from 7-12 he dominated every single.
In my eyes calling it one of the greatest fights i'll ever see was huge overstatement, it wasn't particularry competitive after 4 rounds, skill level wasn't sky high and action also was really average for the weightclass in the second half. But still very interesting match-up that I really enjoyed watching.
Also for Eagle, It was second time I saw him and I'm not particulary impressed. He was smart fighter, very strong but also rather slow and not that well coordinated and there were couple more skilled strawweight in last decade as well. He was quality champion, no doubt about it, but I've seen better.

And my Scorecard:
Eagle Kyowa - Rodel Mayol
Round 1:9:10*
Round 2:9:10
Round 3:9:10*
Round 4:9:10
Round 5:10:9*
Round 6:10:9*
Round 7:10:9
Round 8:10:9
Round 9:10:9
Round10:10:9
Round11:10:9
Round12:10:8
Final Score:116:111 Eagle, Officially:117:110,115:112,114:113 Eagle.
*-Close Rounds
Acceptable Scorecard:
118:109 Eagle(scoring all close rounds to him)
114:113 Eagle(scoring all close rounds to Mayol)

[JK1700]

Originally Posted by Mastrangelo

Rodel Mayol is definitely underachiever, but it's also worth pointing out how tough champions he met on his way. Actually, i believe that every fighter that Mayol lost to was at some point ranked number one in a division. I also believe that he should've got the decision against Calderon in their second meeting. He's 30 years old, still fighting and we should be looking at some possible upset win for him if he gets another chance at a title! I wouldn't also say that this fight took anything from him, he looked really good later when I saw him against Calderon and Sosa.
As for the fighters, They might not be one of the most skilled, or the fastest strawwegights ever, but I don't think I ever saw two as strong physically 105 pounders against each other in the ring.
Mayol came with a lot of excitement and energy in first four rounds and was able to hurt his opponent multiple times, after one of those punches from Mayol in first round I started to look at the crowd looking for Eagles head. Those were some vicious bombs they were throwing at each other.
But later around round 5 Kyowa slowly took the fight over making some defensive adjustments and also with pace slowing down he was able to use his superior skills and experience to pretty much control Mayol for the rest of the fight. Rounds 5-6 were still close, but from 7-12 he dominated every single.
In my eyes calling it one of the greatest fights i'll ever see was huge overstatement, it wasn't particularry competitive after 4 rounds, skill level wasn't sky high and action also was really average for the weightclass in the second half. But still very interesting match-up that I really enjoyed watching.
Also for Eagle, It was second time I saw him and I'm not particulary impressed. He was smart fighter, very strong but also rather slow and not that well coordinated and there were couple more skilled strawweight in last decade as well. He was quality champion, no doubt about it, but I've seen better.

And my Scorecard:
Eagle Kyowa - Rodel Mayol
Round 1:9:10*
Round 2:9:10
Round 3:9:10*
Round 4:9:10
Round 5:10:9*
Round 6:10:9*
Round 7:10:9
Round 8:10:9
Round 9:10:9
Round10:10:9
Round11:10:9
Round12:10:8
Final Score:116:111 Eagle, Officially:117:110,115:112,114:113 Eagle.
*-Close Rounds
Acceptable Scorecard:
118:109 Eagle(scoring all close rounds to him)
114:113 Eagle(scoring all close rounds to Mayol)

I need to watch some more of Mayol. You say he shouldve got the decision against Calderon in the rematch? Interesting, because I heard that he was very unlucky not to win in the first fight too. I also heard that his rematch with Nino was controversial. I certainly thought this bout was more exciting to me than Casamayor-Castillo, but I guess that's just personal preference. The first half of this fight was really exciting, and the last couple of rounds were really good too. Eagle did really well to come back and win the way that he did, because after 4 rounds he looked like he was about to get stopped. Mayol was a really formidable opponent. He was rated #1 by the WBC at the time and I think he was also rated in the Top 3 by all of the other sanctioning bodies. It's a very good win for Eagle.

Eagle didn't look that good in this fight, but I think a lot of that is down to Mayol and how tough of an opponent he was. It's very difficult to look good against a really strong challenger like that. I think that you are underestimating Eagle a bit, I do believe he was a great fighter, and he was very skilled. It's just like I told you before though, the reason why Eagle and Yutaka Niida don't look as good as Ivan Calderon is because they fought much stronger competition. Eagle's win over Aguirre in itself, to me cements him as a great fighter because looking at their records going into that fight, nobody in their right mind would have picked him to completely dominate and destroy Aguirre like he did. He also dominated some very good fighters who were much more experienced than he was. Like Noel Tunacao (Ranked #4 in the world, in his 9th pro fight), Aguirre (Rated #1 in the weight class, in his 12th pro fight) and he beat long time Japanese minimumweight champion Satoshi Kogumazaka in his 13th pro fight as well as Katsunari Takayama as well as Akira Yaegashi and Mayol. To me that is a much better Strawweight resume than Ivan Calderon and he only lost to Oleydong by a round or two. I had that fight 115-114, and I think Oleydong is one of the most skilled fighters in boxing. I definitely expect him to become world champion again.

[Mastrangelo]

Originally Posted by JK1700

I need to watch some more of Mayol. You say he shouldve got the decision against Calderon in the rematch? Interesting, because I heard that he was very unlucky not to win in the first fight too. I also heard that his rematch with Nino was controversial. I certainly thought this bout was more exciting to me than Casamayor-Castillo, but I guess that's just personal preference.

First fight I thought Calderon was winning clearly, Mayol was doing better in the second(If you're going to watch the rematch, notice how biased comentators are for Calderon).
And yep, of course it's preference. You're clearly fan of Eagle, so you enjoyed fight more than people that will not find his style that entertaining. I'm on the other hand big fan of Castillo + was amazed by that skill level of two veterans doing those little tricks to pull the victory.

Originally Posted by JK1700

Eagle didn't look that good in this fight, but I think a lot of that is down to Mayol and how tough of an opponent he was. It's very difficult to look good against a really strong challenger like that. I think that you are underestimating Eagle a bit, I do believe he was a great fighter, and he was very skilled. It's just like I told you before though, the reason why Eagle and Yutaka Niida don't look as good as Ivan Calderon is because they fought much stronger competition. Eagle's win over Aguirre in itself, to me cements him as a great fighter because looking at their records going into that fight, nobody in their right mind would have picked him to completely dominate and destroy Aguirre like he did. He also dominated some very good fighters who were much more experienced than he was. Like Noel Tunacao (Ranked #4 in the world, in his 9th pro fight), Aguirre (Rated #1 in the weight class, in his 12th pro fight) and he beat long time Japanese minimumweight champion Satoshi Kogumazaka in his 13th pro fight as well as Katsunari Takayama as well as Akira Yaegashi and Mayol. To me that is a much better Strawweight resume than Ivan Calderon and he only lost to Oleydong by a round or two. I had that fight 115-114, and I think Oleydong is one of the most skilled fighters in boxing. I definitely expect him to become world champion again.

Calderons strawweight competition was weaker than that of Eagle and Niida, but not much weaker. Calderon at least according to scorecards completely dominated Trejo that Kyowa badly struggled with, he beat Bustos and former champion Reyes who later went on to beat Lazarte.
What's worth note though, is that Calderon, after dominating his not particulary great opposition at 105 went up in weight to weight-class that didn't suit him at all, he was small guy even for strawweight, and there he has a win over Hugo Cazares what's better than any guy that Eagles or Niidas has beaten. So if he could go up in weight, as 33 years old and beat guy like Cazares, I'm sure he could deal with much tougher opponents than he had at his natural weightclass in strawweight.
And Oleydong I also rate really, really high. I wouldn't say he's one of most skilled in boxing PFP, but definitely one of most skilled below bantamweight. Still Kyowa lost to him and Calderon would present to him even bigger challange with much better footwork and speed. I'm absolutely sure that Calderon beats Kyowa and I don't see it being close. Niida would be tougher fight I think that Calderon could potentially lost, but on good day I'd pick him to win.
Generally I rate Ivan significantly above those two.