MANILA, Philippines — It was, honestly speaking, a close fight.
But, based on the final scores submitted by the three judges, the bout was a horrible mismatch.
A plain review of the one-sided scoring would also show that Gerry Pe?alosa managed to win only a single round in his world super bantamweight challenge against Mexican Daniel Ponce de Leon in Las Vegas Sunday.
That is a big, fat lie.
Pe?alosa surpassed himself and came close enough to scoring an upset.
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OK, Pe?alosa, 34, fell short and failed to wrest the crown. But the gallant Filipino hardly looked a loser.
In fact, it cannot be openly claimed Ponce de Leon had clearly retained his crown.
The champion did not fight like a champ. The Mexican was many times on the receiving end of Pe?alosa’s sharp, clinical attack.
It was just too bad that Pe?alosa, smaller and older, failed to sustain his fiery offensive. He would often turn overcautious and tentative.
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Fight scholar Dennis Principe was right.
Pe?alosa made good his vow to make his countrymen proud.
Principe would bare at the ABS-CBN studios Sunday how Pe?alosa had told him before departure for the United States that he would never shame the Filipino in his title fight against Ponce de Leon.
Said Principe: “Pe?alosa fought like a true, red-blooded Filipino warrior, (Ponce) de Leon did not fight like a true Mexican.”
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In fact, Principe noted, Ponce de Leon suddenly started speaking a different language and fought like a Japanese in the last three rounds.
By this, Principe meant Ponce de Leon decided to run away in the closing rounds, as though riding a bike, in the tradition of Matsunori Tokuyama, the elongated Japanese who had frustrated Pe?alosa’s final try to regain the WBC 115-lb crown.
For his part, fight expert Ronnie Nathanielsz said the WBO should be blasted for the hideous scoring.
He said WBO is a disgrace to world boxing, citing anew the robbery perpetrated by the organization against Z Gorres right in his home turf Cebu last month.
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There was no way Sunday’s fight was that wide.
The sickening disparity was, however, traced by sportsman/lawyer Rudy Salud to what he called the faulty system adopted in unified scoring.
“The unified scoring system did not allow draws, no matter what, in any round,” Salud explained.
The truth, Salud added, is that there were rounds which should have been scored as draws in Pe?alosa’s title bid Sunday.
Plainly put, Salud said, the officials would, in case of a doubt, just base their judgment on subjective preference, not on what had honestly taken place during a round.
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Repeat: Pe?alosa hardly looked the awful loser. Maybe his only fault was in having fought in a heavier division.
Of course, he had made everything look possible at certain brilliant moments in the close fight.
Pe?alosa, smaller, was visibly more masterful. He also succeeded in disproving critics, including this reporter, who said he was waging a surreal challenge for a world crown. Despite built-in limitations, Pe?alosa blasted brutal barriers in boxing.
He has earned the right to be installed among Filipino boxing greats of all time.
