Ok so Abner Mares is now the new bantam weight World Champ. Mares finds himself there by outworking, outlanding, out hustling Joseph Agbeko for the majority of the fight in front of a rowdy crowd inside the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. I want to first of all start there because I?m afraid that the low blows that referee Russell Mora missed have and will continue to over shadow Mares?s hard fighting performance.
Don?t get me wrong, I mean I do feel real bad for Agbeko, after all, Agbeko may have gotten a more fair shake had it been Jose Sullaiman as the referee last night. But being brutally honest here, I didn?t see too much from Agbeko. Other than Agbeko?s right hand and few jabs that were finding thunder, I just don?t feel that Agbeko made the right adjustments for me to say that this was a Jesse James type of robbery.
So I ask you this, How does one score a round when you deduct a point from a fighter who was winning those rounds in the first place? If you answered 9-9, then at best or worst, this fight would have been a draw, or would have still gone to Mares by 1-2 points. Truth be told, had Agbeko pressed harder and finished off Mares in the fourth round when he had Mares hurt, then all this wouldn?t even be up for discussion or controversy.
All in all, a rematch is in need just to be fair to the fans and more importantly to both fighters. Untill then, As this blame game takes place, we should all look in one direction and one direction only. And that direction all depends on where referee Russell Mora is standing at that particular time. Because here is the thing, and this is what pains me. It pains me to hear our very own fans and writers say that these are the type of things that kill the sport of boxing. It?s actually our very own fans and writers spitting that craziness that is actually killing the sport.
Because in any other sport, Baseball, Basketball, or Football to name a few, if a ref or umpire blows a few calls, it is the ref or umpire that gets the flames. Not the sport. And in most of those sports, they have instant replay for crying out loud! And in many cases the ref still goes in to that little booth to review the play and still makes the wrong call. Even after all that, you do not hear their fans or writers say ? You see this is what is killing our sport?.
