Referee Gonzalez Assists Rocky To A Win, and Cintron Wins By Stunning KO!
18.07.04 – Reporting from Ringside, Carlos Kalinchuk – – < Photo Gallery > -At the tender age of twenty, in front of 6,000 excited fans at the Reliant Arena in Houston Texas, Lightweight Juan Diaz 25-0 (12 KO’s) pounded out a tough win over rugged Mongolian Lavka Sim 19-4-1 (16 KO’s) to earn a Unanimous Decision victory. Diaz made good on his first chance at a title shot as he came away with the WBA Lightweight Championship.
Although Diaz showed tremendous energy and stamina with his uppercuts and rapid-fire combinations to the body, Sim preferred to fight on the inside with short but very accurate right hooks and overhand rights. Diaz made it difficult though as he would feint, jab, move and nail Sim with sizzling combinations all night long. The exception though was round four when both Sim and Diaz threw all caution to the wind, and went toe to toe in the middle of the ring for nearly half the round. It was boxing at it’s best and the fans let both fighters know it at the conclusion of the round and throughout the fight.
Although Diaz got off his corners game plan for one round, he seemed to get back on track the remainder of the fight until rounds eight and nine where Sim’s pressure forced Diaz to once again fight on the inside for long stretches. Diaz however, being the good student he is, listened to his corner and he finished the remaining three rounds the way his corner wanted; with movement and with upper cuts, jabs and combinations. It was a great fight from two very talented fighters. The official scores were 116-112, 118-110, and 118-111 all in favor of Diaz. Eastside Boxing scored it 117-111 in favor of Diaz. With Diaz’s style and likeability in and out of the ring, it appears Main Events has a shining star in it’s stable of great young fighters.
Rocky Gets Home Field Advantage In More Ways Than One!
Referee Robert Gonzalez is known in Houston as Bobby Gonzalez. His first and last name make the initials “BG” but after his despicable performance in last nights fight between Rocky Juarez and Zahir Raheem, he should change his initials to “BJ” because he sucked!
In what was supposed to be a display of two professional prizefighters fighting in their biggest fight to date, Gonzalez mired the evening with his incessant meddling and clear bias towards the Juarez corner.
From the first round until the final bell, Gonzalez interfered and deducted points at will and warned Raheems corner for the smallest of infractions until he went onto deduct points from Raheem in rounds 4,6, and 10. To add further insult to injury, he became not only verbally abusive but also physically abusive with Raheems head trainer Fred Jenkins. It was blatant and despicable and even after the scorecards were read in favor of hometown product Rocky Juarez, many in attendance gave halfhearted applause if any at what they had just witnessed. The final scores were 114-110, 115-109, and 113-111 all for Rocky. The 113-111 scorecards from Oklahoma judge Sutherland was the most accurate while the Texas Judges unbelievably had it by a much wider gap of 114-110 and 115-109. Eastside Boxing scored the bout 112-112 a draw.
The only time Raheem appeared in trouble physically (and not by the referee) was in round four when he took a well timed Juarez left hook. Of course this was also the first of three occasions that he would be penalized a point.
Even more ironic is the fact that the Juarez corner never complained about the hooking Raheem was doing. If it can get any stranger it did. Juarez was also guilty many times of holding onto Raheem’s glove and as a result his head would come in direct contact with Raheems face. Naturally some of Raheem’s hooking was a way for him not to crash heads or make it Juarez’s fight on the inside. This happened over and over and absolutely no warning was given to Juarez for his infractions the entire night! Additionally, Juarez punched on the break on a few occasions and yet he received no warnings at all. Moreover, during one furious closing exchange Gonzalez stepped between both fighters as they were throwing punches. Gonzalez seemed to want to break up both fighters when they were willing to fight and his erratic behavior played an enormous role in Raheem’s strategy.
In closing, I’m not a conspiracy theorist but here goes…the odd thing about this fight is that Zahir Raheem is not ranked by the WBC and both he and Rocky were fighting for the number one spot in the IBF for a fight against Juan Manuel Marquez. So why would a referee from the WBC (Robert Gonzalez) officiate this fight? At least that’s what his patch said. Needless to say, it didn’t appear that Raheem had a snowballs chance in hell to win last night no matter what happened! He was fighting the man in front of him, the Texas judges, and the WBC sanctioned referee and that should be looked into. As for Gonzalez, he should never officiate another fight ever again. Not even a peewee tee ball game. Raheem put on a boxing clinic and with all the deductions and threats and physical abuse going on, it’s a wonder he didn’t eventually attack the referee as many at ringside wanted to.
“Two Gun” Gets Shot Down By Kermit “Killer” Cintron!
In the first televised fight of the evening, Kermit “The Killer” Cintron 24-0 (22 KO’s) passed the toughest test of his young career when he beat and kayoed the very durable Teddy “Two Gun” Reid 22-6-1 (16 KO’s) in round eight of their 12 round scheduled bout. Despite the furious action at times, Cintron seemed pretty much in control as his power shots caught up to Reid in rounds 3 and eight. Referee Tim Adams waived off the bout, as Reid was not able to fully recover from an early and vicious knockdown in the round. As a result Cintron picks up the NABF Championship Title and the WBO Welterweight Title.
Cintron’s hooks, uppercuts, and overhand rights dictated the fight and the win. He just proved to be too much for the older Reid. Even though Reid debated the stoppage, it appeared to be the right call as Reid “just” seemed too wobbly to continue. The only round Reid may have won was round four when the fight went from a steady flowing fight with heavy bombs, to an all out war. Both gave no quarter as each unloaded everything they had as the balance of power seesawed from Cintron to Reid. Unlike Gonzalez though, referee Tim Adams called a very good fight as he only sought to deduct a point from Reid after very purposeful blows after the bell in the early rounds. By round four, Tim Adams had seen enough and penalized Reid for the infraction.
Finally, this was a very emotional fight for Cintron. As the fight ended, he broke into tears over a very emotional and hard fought victory. Even though he won a fringe belt, he can now say he is a Champion.
Carlos “Stiff-jab” Kalinchuk
Contributing Writer & Photographer