Its Never Over Till Its Over

Leon Williams vs Shane McPhilbin - British Cruiserweight Title

The headline says it all. Well behind in the fight Shane McPhilbin produced 3 knockdowns in the 12th and final round to become the British Cruiserweight champion. If only having 3 weeks notice wasn't hard enough McPhilbin came off the canvas twice to pull of the comeback of all comebacks. The short punch that started Williams downfall was "a la" Tyson vs Berbick. Remember how Berbick just couldn't get his legs together after Tyson's short left hook?. Williams got up though but his legs were a mess and quickly he was knocked down another 2 times enforcing the 3 knockdown rule from star ref Marcus McDonnell.

Referee McDonnell had a busy night. I liked how he let the boxers "box free" most of the time when they were in a clinch. Its something i hope will continue as some of referee's seem to break up the boxers as soon as they clinch. The old saying by former ref Richard Steele comes to mind "punch to get out". McDonnell also correctly called a 6th round knockdown by Williams as he clearly landed 2 punches forcing McPhilbin to bounce of the ropes onto his knees. A point was also taken off from both fighters late in the fight as McPhilbin continued to foul after repeated warnings , he was deducted a point in round 10. Williams then in the very next round lost his point due to frustration by trying to throw McPhilbin across the ring to the ropes. Nothing like an easy first night back eh??.

Now to the scoring part. On all the best boxing sites that i go around (look to the right of this article) this fight never really caught the public imagination especially from the American based forums where i can understand there being virtually no interest. Ive managed to get a few sites to submit their scores along with a few of the fans forums. I totally expect the bigger the fight the more scores i will attain. So below is my scorecard for the fight along with all the scores i was able to collect.

Round 1 ....10-8 Williams - Knockdown scored by Williams in this round
Round 2 ....9-10 McPhilbin
Round 3 ....10-9 Williams
Round 4 ....10-9 Williams
Round 5 ....10-9 Williams
Round 6 ....10-8 Williams - Knockdown scored by Williams in this round
Round 7 ....9-10 McPhilbin
Round 8 ....10-9 Williams
Round 9 ....10-9 Williams
Round 10 ..10-8 Williams - Point deducted from Mcphilbin in this round
Round 11...8-10 McPhilbin - Point deducted from Williams in this round

TOTAL - Williams 106-99 McPhilbin at the time of stoppage

SHANE McPHILBIN WINS BY 12TH ROUND TKO

Boxing Sites , Fans Forums Scores

Onthebeak.com (Tommy Barber) - Williams 108-99 McPhilbin

Fightfranchise.com (Kai Smith) - Williams 106-100 McPhilbin

Boxingscene.com (Alex Sukachev) - Williams 105-101 McPhilbin

Worldboxingnews.net (Phil DJay) - Williams 107-98 McPhilbin

Boxing-monthly mag (Glyn Leach) - Williams 109-95 McPhilbin

Boxingasylum Fan Forum - Williams 106-100 McPhilbin

Ringnews24 Fans Forum - Williams 105-100 McPhilbin

Eastsideboxing Fans Forum - All for Williams 108-98 , 107-98 , 106-101


There you have it. Every boxing fan , site writer or written press guy had Williams well ahead at the time of the stoppage. Credit to McPhilbin for coming back though as he has never fought past 6 rounds before.