From the first decision of the night it was apparent that the Vegas judges were watching a different series of fights. While the decisions may or may not have been the same under different judges, the discrepancy in scoring, however, was astounding, leaving many questions and raising more doubts about the integrity of boxing as a sport. Unfortunately, it is a continuing trend of outside forces influencing the outcomes and chasing away fans from boxing to other combat sports.
What was a great Pay Per View event with three exciting matches ended up tarnished by bad judging. We can make all the excuses we want, but in how many other professions do you get paid to be wrong and then get invited back after performing a horrendous job? That aside, all the boxers in this event performed remarkably well and deserve the respect of all boxing fans.
Fight #1 Demetrius Hopkins vs. Steve Forbes
A fight that on paper looked to be a tactical boxing match quickly turned into a highly competitive fight with both boxers testing each other’s chins and wills. Steve Forbes did a great job in forcing Hopkins out of his comfort zone and making him fight at close distance where the shorter Forbes was able to do more damage.
The constant pressure from Forbes forced Hopkins to largely dispense of his usual relaxed boxing style and forced him to fight. The entire bout was close from start to finish with momentum swinging back and forth between the two boxers. By the end of 12 rounds the fight appeared too close to call. However, the Las Vegas judges saw it differently with scores of 118-110, 118-110, 117-111 in favor of Hopkins. For a very close fight it was simply astounding to see Steve Forbes -who fought his heart out and was very successful at implementing his game plan- receive only 2 rounds from two of the three judges.
Fight #2 Daniel Ponce De Leon vs Gerry Penalosa
Ponce De Leon wasted no time as he tried to impose his significant punching power on his smaller opponent. Penalosa, an experience boxer, stayed calm and used his opponent’s aggression to pot shot him from the outside with clean left hands. This bout was a case of a prolific power puncher versus a smart and savvy boxer. While Penalosa landed the cleaner shots at a higher connect percentage he was simply overwhelmed by the constantly busy Ponce De Leon, who averaged more than 100 punches thrown per round. With activity like that it was an easy decision to give the fight to Ponce De Leon with the scores of 119-109, 119-109, 120-108.
Fight #3 (MAIN EVENT) Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Juan Manuel Marquez
A mixture of boxing and brawling; this fight had everything. Early on Barrera seemed to be quicker with his hands and the first to the punch, dictating the pace early on. By round 4 Barrera was using his jab with great success, and he seemed to better Marquez by getting off first and landing the sharper punches. Marquez, a slow starter, seemed to realize that he needed to step up the pace as began to throw more punches and land at a higher rate. The action seemed to go back and forth with either fighter likely to think he won the rounds.
Controversy struck in round 7 as Marquez was having a stellar round after hurting Barrera with a right hand. As Marquez jumped all over Barrera, there seemed to be a chance that Marco might not make it out of the round. Just then Marquez walked into a straight right hand by Barrera that dropped him to the canvas. Waiting for a few seconds for a signal from the referee, Barrera then walked over to Marquez whose gloves were touching the ground, and hit him in the back of the head. Referee Jay Nady proceeded to deduct a point from Barrera while in return not crediting him with the knockdown.
After the controversial seventh round both boxers chose to slug it out, with the more offense minded Barrera anxious to reclaim the point he had lost in the previous round. Once again the momentum seemed to switch many times in each round, with neither boxer willing to give an inch.
At the end of round 12, the fight for the second time that night seemed too close to call. In fact it appeared that Nady’s missed knockdown call might be the difference maker.
In the end the scores were 118-109, 116-111, 116-111 all in favor of Marquez. While it is hard to argue against either Marquez or Barrera being declared the winner since the fight was extremely competitive and close, it’s easy to argue against such a wide scoring discrepancy for a fight where most rounds were too close to call. Overall both boxers performed at an extremely high level and a rematch would be a treat to all boxing fans. I just hope that next time the judges involved don’t tarnish what was a great fight.
