[1980-11-26-Joint Promotions] Jon Cortez vs Keith Haward

[SAMS]

1980-11-26
Joint Promotions
Jon Cortez vs Keith Haward
Assembly Hall, Walthamstow, London, UK
★★★

This was really riveting to watch. Unfortunately we missed the first two rounds here, but they crammed enough good stuff into the 12 minutes that remained. Haward is in the mould of a Dynamite Kid or Chris Benoit, physically gifted, chiselled build and aggressively offensive. He’s certainly impressive on the mat and his series of moves leading to his equalising fall were absolutely fantastic. However, it really has been Cortez who has jumped off the screen in the two matches these men have had together. It may just be good chemistry between the two as I wasn’t as enamoured with Cortez earlier in the year. He was good, but perhaps in comparison to such a character like Breaks, or in the shadow of a couple Saint/Grey classics, he struggled to match up. But the performances he has delivered in November have been total class. Technically, he’s extremely gifted of course, but the extra touches are the thing. In the final two rounds he deliberately was slower and more laboured in getting to his feet to start things, he began to increase how he sold the impact of moves as the match went along and it all led to him trying to match power with power against Haward, deadlifting him off the mat, only for his back to give out and forcing him to throw in the towel. If we’d had the whole thing or if they’d let this have more time this could have been really excellent.