Forgotten Counter-punchers. #1 in an occasional series...

[Datsue]

...Laurent Boudouani.

French light-middle of Gitan ancestry (I believe). Admittedly, more of a stand-up-straight sharpshooter type than your classic counter-puncher, but able to utilise his leverage & athletic ability (in conjunction with beautiful balance & an innate nous for turning defensive moves into sudden, explosive single power shots that he could then string into a hurtful combination) to great affect. Won the WBA light-middle title with a stunning splattering of noted hard-case Julio Cesar Vasquez (turn the quality up):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCX8KzwDfZ4


That right uppercut counter that drops Vasquez face-first is the proverbial Thing of Beauty; the follow-up after the Argie somehow peels himself off the deck is equally savage.

Also, beforehand, he destroyed future two-time world champion Javier Castillejo in nine, in defence of the EBU title:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96GHXGXAqgc

Notable not only for stopping Castillejo, something Sturm, De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Keith Mullings & Roman Karmazin didn't come close to, but for the punch selection in the last couple of rounds: left uppercuts, straight rights, left hooks, a jolting (though from the shoulder) jab. Some of the counters close to the end were utterly utterly savage.

(He later rematched Castillejo, winning on points but decking the Spaniard a couple of times along the way).

His best performance, imo, is the first time I saw him, utterly destroying noted UK hardman Andy Till for the vacant Euro crown. I can't find a video on this, but it was absolutely horrific, from a UK standpoint, to see "Iron Man" Till toyed with, negated, exposed & annihilated. For the jingoistic way Till had been built up in the UK trade press, to see a man facing him give a performance that handled the Northern milkman with such contemptuous ease was a bit of an eye-opener.

In summation, a flawed (particularly defensively; that straight-up stance meant he had to rely far too much on head movement) but athletically gifted boxer who was able to use his athletic gifts to apply classic counter-punching technique, with, most important for Datsue's Forgotten Counter-punching Series, flair & general bad-arsery. Not an all-time great, but offensively & on the counter a joy to watch, blessed with great timing, hand-speed & natural power.

On his day (rather before the Jones fights, imo, & certainly before he fought David Reid) I believe he still would've lost to the modern luminaries of the division (DLH, Vargas, Forrest, Wright, a non-shot Norris)--too flawed, too reliant on those natural gifts--but he'd've put the shits up any of them & I don't think he'd be embarrassed in that company. I could even see him scoring the odd knockdown of such exalted fighters, if they'd have left a slight opening after a shot.

[Rover]

Jones has been around for ages. It's almost unbelieveable that these two fought in the late 90s twice for a jr. middle title.

[Datsue]

Jones has been around for ages. It's almost unbelieveable that these two fought in the late 90s twice for a jr. middle title.

Yep.

O/T: (not that anyone else cares, because we're the only two stupid enough to be talking about a forgotten French counter-puncher, but there you go...)

I've tried & tried but I can't find anything other than rumours about Jones' failed steroid tests. I remember reading something years ago, about the time of the Nelson fight, but all that was solid melts into air...

[Rover]

Jones has been around for ages. It's almost unbelieveable that these two fought in the late 90s twice for a jr. middle title.

Yep.

O/T: (not that anyone else cares, because we're the only two stupid enough to be talking about a forgotten French counter-puncher, but there you go...)

I've tried & tried but I can't find anything other than rumours about Jones' failed steroid tests. I remember reading something years ago, about the time of the Nelson fight, but all that was solid melts into air...

I haven't seen anything confirmed about it, either. At least someone else commented in your thread (yours truly), so your effort produced results.

[Datsue]

Yay!

[orbtastic]

I've a fair few of his fights, including the Till one.

The two fights with Jones were excellent.

I personally felt the scoring in the Reid fight was a little off.

His fight with Razzano is on youtube, it's a bit of an odd one. Gives him a bit of a pasting early on but starts to tire and ship punches and gets himself stopped.

[Jpreisser]

Thanks for posting. I have never seen him fight before and I love these less known fighters with admirable skill. I have been into boxing for about a decade so it is a treat when someone points me in a direction such as this, because I am woefully unfamiliar with fighters pre-2000.