Bad Decisions Are Still Hurting The Sport of Boxing

A few weeks ago current WBC and WBA Junior Middleweight Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez won a unanimous decision over Austin Trout. Both men came into the fight undefeated as Trout owned the WBA Junior Middleweight Title coming into the bout. Alvarez won the bout even though Trout landed 30 more punches than Alvarez. Alvarez did record a seventh-round knockdown on Trout, but judge Stanley Christodoulou scored the fight 118-109 in favor of Alvarez. There was no way that the bout could have had that much distance between both fighters when the majority of the rounds were even.

Alvarez is a native of Mexico who has strong following of people that support him which was evident by nearly 40,000 packing The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on April 20 to watch their native son take on Trout. Alvarez is also under Golden Boy Promotions which is run by former six-division champion Oscar De La Hoya. Going into the fight with Trout, De La Hoya was already talking about a potential showdown with current WBC Welterweight Champion Floyd Mayweather.

According to boxingscene.com, Alvarez recently shot down the notion of a rematch with Trout because he felt that “he had done enough” in the fight to prove himself. The hardcore boxing aficionado can watch the bout between Alvarez and Trout and see that is was extremely close; possibly a draw. The real reason why Alvarez turned down the notion of fighting Trout again is that there isn’t  any real money in a rematch with Trout; the money is there to fight Mayweather. 

Generally when a champion loses his title, especially when he is undefeated like Trout you will see a rematch in the cards. Being that Trout wasn’t dominated by Alvarez, there “should” be a rematch on the table.

Last Saturday, undefeated Englishman Martin Murray traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to take on WBC Middleweight Champion Sergio Martinez. Both fighters danced through the rain drops at Estadio Jose Amalfitani for a twelve round bout. Martinez was joking around with Murray in order the force Murray into making a mistake, but the 38-year old Martinez was the pugilist who made mistakes. 

Murray knocked Martinez to the canvas twice, but referee Massimo Barrovechio ruled the second knockdown which occurred in the 10th round as a slip rather knockdown. Martinez was convinced that he was knocked down and thus he was awaiting Barrovechio to begin counting.

The World Boxing Commission stood by Barrovechio’s decision to rule in favor of it being a slip rather than a knockdown. HBO televised the fight and their cameras clearly showed that is was Murray’s punches that sent Martinez to the canvas.

As I watched the fight I knew Murray would only get a fair shake if there was enough security personnel on hand to get the judges and Barrovechio out of Martinez’s native Argentina safely. Over 40,000 of Martinez’s countrymen showed up to witness his first professional fight in Argentina and they were not prepared to be disappointed, but once Murray began to control to fight you could hear a pin drop.

Controversial decisions will continue to plague boxing and it is unfortunate as fighters can be dismayed by the back door politics that occur. It is tough to tell a fighter to train for several months while making the sacrifices that come with his training to show up for a big bout only to lose because he doesn’t have the drawing power of his opponent. When in doubt more fighters must go to the ring with the mindset to knock an opponent out instead of letting the officials decide. The powers that be who control boxing such as De La Hoya who himself was the victim of a controversial loss in 2003 to “Sugar” Shane Mosley are continuing to do a disservice to their beloved sport.  A controversial loss to Leonard was Hagler’s last fight as he retired and Holmes’ career was never the same after losing to Spinks. We already have predetermined outcomes in professional wrestling as Vince McMahon has made a fortune of of it and it needs to stop in boxing.