22.05.06 – By Geoffrey Ciani: When Rocky Juarez squared off against Marco Antonio Barrera this past Saturday night, it actually wound up being one of the best fights of the year, bar none. Indeed, this fight represented the classic example of anaging great defending his title against a hungry up-and-comer. Both fighters fought tremendously, and each man was forced to dig down deep, exhibiting an undeniable heart and a true desire to win in the process. This is what it’s all about! This is exactly the type of fight that fans have come to love to appreciate..
Unfortunately, despite all of the positives, we’re left with a sour taste at the ultimate outcome. Why? Well, it had something to do with a supposed mistake on the scorecard. In the end, this mistake is just another blemish on a sport that needs no further tainting. It’s no wonder boxing is stuck with its reputation; even when something great happens, like this classic battle between Barrera and Juarez, something just had to ruin it, and people will be ultimately be more apt to remember the “controversy” than the outstanding fight.
Originally, this bout was scored a draw, and this was a perfectly reasonable conclusion to a sensational championship match-up. In fact, my own scorecard read a draw, and frankly, I think that decision was both fair and warranted. Especially considering one of my colleagues scored the bout 115-113 in favor of Juarez and another scored it 115-113 in favor of Barrera. With my 114-114 card, we more or less mirrored what the judges saw unfold. Or did we?
I later discovered that the fight wasn’t a draw, that in actuality, the victory was later awarded to Barrera because of an addition error on one of the judge’s scorecards. Ridiculous! Nothing short of ridiculous! Making matters even worse, the “error” wasn’t caught until after HBO had already gone off the air, meaning, many fans went to bed that night under the impression this fight was a draw, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if many fans were still under that impression.
Simply put, this sucks! It sucks out loud.
Why does it suck? Well, first off, even if this was an honest mistake in the tabulation of the scorecards (which I’m not saying it wasn’t), it just leaves a bad taste about the whole affair. It makes it appear as if something fishy happened, and this taints what was an otherwise outstanding performance by the living legend, Marco Antonio Barrera. Secondly, having actually seen the real judge’s scorecards, it looks even fishier. It appeared as if two of the judges had originally scored the final round 10-9 in favor of Juarez, only to overwrite their initial scores to make the final round an even 10-10.
Then again, even if nothing fishy went on, what fight were these judges watching to score the final round even? For that matter, how often do judges actually bother scoring even rounds in the first place? Surely, there was a more appropriate round in this fight to call even than the twelfth.
This whole thing, whether real or perceived, reeks of corruption. And in the end, everyone loses: the fans lose, Barrera loses, and Juarez loses both figuratively and literally. The fans feel jibed, Barrera’s victory looks tainted, and Juarez now has another loss on his record. It’s a sad state of affairs considering the tremendous fight that occurred.
As for the fight itself, Juarez proved that he’s a hungry young buck who’s determined to break into the big time and Barrera proved he still has the intangibles required for a championship caliber fighter. Both fighters should be proud of their respective performances. It was a bloody war where they gave it all that they had. A draw would have been entirely fair, and as I stated, I myself actually scored the bout a draw.
I’m just left wondering how the hell this could happen in the first place. I mean, you think they would take care of something as simple as adding up a scorecard. That they didn’t catch it before the decision was announced is disgraceful, because to reiterate, it somehow makes Barrera’s win look tainted and it diminishes his otherwise terrific efforts from this past Saturday night. And the funniest thing is, had the decision been awarded to Barrera from the get-go, I’m not sure too many people would have taken issue with it. However, as a result of the way things happened (catching the tabulation error after HBO went off the air), this just looks bad for boxing and somewhat tarnishes Barrera’s image and unjustly so, I might add.
Let’s hope that this thing can be straightened out and that someone is hired who understands remedial mathematics so that such an error in scorecard tabulation never happens again. Because this was an absolute disgrace of the highest magnitude!