March Madness Indeed; Battle between Barrera and Marquez ends with suspicious scoring and officiating error

March Madness Indeed; Battle between Barrera and Marquez ends with suspicious scoring and officiating error

By Jeremy Valdez (Jan 18, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © German Villasenor)

It was a night that should have been great for boxing. The long overdue, classic battle between two of the sports greatest warriors definitely lived up to the hype as far as the action was concerned. Where the night fell short was in the absurd scoring the entire night by the judges and a blown call by referee Jay Nady that didn't really matter in the end.

Juan Manuel Marquez captured the WBC 130 pound title Saturday night with a unanimous decision victory over fellow Mexico superstar Marco Antonio Barrera. The fight started out a bit tactical in the first round with each fighter sizing up the other. There were a couple of flurries in the round with Barrera seemingly controlling the majority of the round with his superior jab and surprisingly faster hands. In the second round the fight really heated up as the it became what I would say was a 'technical-war.'

Both fighters showed that they were truly warriors at heart but neither put aside their technical skill that has made them two of the sport's best fighters over the last decade. Each round had great ebb and flow with both Barrera and Marquez landing hard shots and having moments of very good defense. Barrera looked like he was controlling the first half of the
fight with a stiff jab, good defense, and constantly beating Marquez to the punch. The seventh round, however, was where the controversy started and Barrera's chances went south. Marquez landed a straight right that badly hurt Barrera and had him in trouble for the majority of the round. Marquez wasn't able to finish Barrera and in the closing seconds of the round Barrera landed a straight right of his own that sent Marquez down. Referee Jay Nady was extremely delayed in his reaction to what happened and Barrera stood over Marquez for a few seconds waiting for a knockdown call and when there was none made he hit Marquez with a glancing blow while he was still down. Nady then ruled that it was a slip and took a point from Barrera for hitting Marquez while he was down. It appeared that it was a clean knockdown as Barrera nailed Marquez right on the button and replays between rounds confirmed that fact.

In fairness to Marquez, Barrera did in fact hit him while he was down but the late reaction by Nady likely led Barrera to believe that he wasn't going to step in and was going to let the action continue as only Marquez's gloves touched the ground. During the last 5 rounds Marquez was the aggressor as Barrera seemed very tired but the action still went back and forth and the rounds became even harder to score than the first half of the fight. At the end of the fight I thought Barrera did enough to win even with the point taken and no knockdown call, although I wouldn't have felt it was a bad decision for either fighter to get the nod by a point or two. My fear was that Jay Nady's mistake could be the difference in the fight and that's not what boxing needed. It turns out I didn't have to worry about that. All three judges gave Juan Manuel Marquez a clear, unanimous decision victory by scores of 118-109, 116-111, and 116-111. Judge Doug Tucker only found 2 rounds to give to Barrera. Stevie Wonder could have scored a more accurate fight than that.

The fight was extremely close as the compubox statistics suggest. Barrera landed 262 of 737 total punches and 146 of 354 power shots while Marquez landed 255 of 663 with 197 of 453 being power shots. There really should have been no controversy by scoring the fight for either fighter. The wide margins on all three judges cards and the obvious blown call by Jay Nady, however, makes me think that something definitely smelled funny inside the Mandalay Bay. For boxing's sake, I hope I'm wrong and the judges simply preferred Marquez aggression in the second half of the fight, although no matter how many ways I look at it I thought Barrera EASILY won at least 3 of the first 6 rounds and AT LEAST 3 of the last 6. I actually scored 7-5 for Barrera and had him winning by one point because of the deduction. Marquez' swollen and bruised face also had him looking like he had gotten the worst of the action.

He obviously disagreed with my perspective.

"I won every round. I was very aggressive. Yes he hit me with a glancing punch," eluding to the knockdown, "but he also hit me when I was down. Yes I think Marco Barrera was a very aggressive fight and yes I want a rematch."

Barrera was very dejected in his post-fight interview.

"I feel my jab was very fast. I did what was necessary to win the fight, I don't know what happened with the judges. I hit him, he went down and the referee said nothing. I won. I don't know what happened in the minds of the judges."

When asked about his future and a possible rematch Barrera seemed unsure.

"I don't know. I have to take a vacation with my kids, with my wife, with my family. I have to think. Maybe this time I say bye bye Golden Boy. I don't know. I have to think about it.

It makes you wonder why he is possibly thinking about saying goodbye to Golden Boy since he is not only a Golden Boy fighter, but a partner in the company as well. Perhaps he only meant he might say goodbye as a fighter. Barrera's record now stands at 63-5 while Marquez improves to 47-3-1.

On the under card the judges seemed to be way off base again as they awarded Demetrius Hopkins a unanimous decision victory over Contender star Steve Forbes by scores of 118-110, 118-110, and 117-111. If the judges in the Barrera-Marquez fight preferred Marquez' aggression, it makes you wonder what the judges in this fight based their scoring upon. Forbes was definitely the aggressor throughout fight, as well as the busier fighter.

He landed 198 of 782 punches for a connect rate of 25% while Hopkins landed 168 of 770 for a 22% connect rate. Forbes also had the edge in power punching, landing 174 of 559 while Hopkins was good on 132 of 512. Hopkins moves his record to 26-0-1 while Forbes falls to 32-5.

In the other bout of the night Daniel Ponce de Leon improved to 31-1 with a unanimous decision victory over Filipino veteran Gerry Penalosa for the WBO 122 pound title. Penalosa fell to 51-6-2. Ponce de Leon wasn't extremely impressive as he was countered quite often with his wide punches but threw almost 1400 punches during the fight to Penalosa's 481.

Penalosa gave a good effort and showed good defense as he held Ponce de Leon to a 19% connect rate. He simply didn't throw enough punches during the fight to win many rounds as the judges scored it 119-109, 119-109, and 120-108 for Ponce de Leon. Ponce de Leon's lack boxing ability may have been slightly exposed but he is a big puncher and exciting enough to possibly land much bigger fights down the road.

Overall it was a good boxing card. Two very good under card fights with a great, action packed main event. Despite the horrible scoring and officiating the fights were still exciting to watch. Fans should still feel good that Barrera-Marquez finally happened and had all the ingredients that could spark a rematch and possibly a trilogy. I guess Golden Boy couldn't have really asked for more since a rematch is the best way for all parties to make the most money in the future since it's highly unlikely that we will see either fighter take on Manny Pacquiao due to the feud between Oscar De La Hoya and Bob Arum. My only hope is that with the biggest fight in many years fast approaching between De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr., the Nevada Athletic Commission takes a good look at what went wrong Saturday and does everything in it's power to make sure similar mistakes aren't made on May 5. Boxing needs that to be a great night where
there is a clear winner and no controversy. Controversial scoring and officiating would put a huge dent in the event that's supposed to help boxing regain some of it's luster. I remain optimistic that it will be a great event and all will go right. This fight has been too hyped for it to be anything but a spectacular night for the sport. Lets hope anyways.