Carlos Zárate Serna vs. José Guadalupe Pintor Guzmán - IB's standalone RBR scorecard

Round 11

Zárate is now just kneading carefully with the jab from the outer limits of its full scope of extension. Pintor is able to jog in, slip jabs with head movement, and jolt Zárate with a head-spinning 1-2. Pintor is now wading in with supreme confidence, leaving his goal posts up and just waving each fist a nearly imperceptible amount, we're talking centimeters, to parry Zárate's counters, and slashing with lead hooks and rights. Zárate not coming totally unglued but losing a bit of his crispness - and his smoothness of motion - as he's forced into a constant retreat.

10-9 Pintor

106-102 Zárate

 

Round 12

Zárate is being hunted down and systematically picked apart now by a very focused Pintor. Uppercuts sneaking in from beneath and prying loose the guard like a crowbar while Zárate is watching out for the damaging jab up top. Pintor is forcing a brawl and hooking repeatedly into the point of Zárate's jaw, while controlling the flow on the inside by pushing down on Zárate's arms, neutralizing his combinations and sapping his strength as he wrestles them free once pinned. Nice counter left hook in the pocket by Zárate, but he's getting worked over for the most part.

10-9 Pintor

115-112 Zárate

 

Round 13

Zárate is jabbing the body, looking ragged and breathing through his mouth but grimly determined. Pintor is hopping on his toes as he jaunts in, letting Zárate score a few jabs on the forehead without adjusting his guard, keeping it clamped over his nose and chin. Pintor tries a big hook up top but Zárate is able to duck it on the go mid-stride and keep moving around him. Zárate is caught with a spearing in the gut right below his elbows and redoubles his efforts to create space. Pintor is jabbed in the nose but keeps attempting to crowd Zárate, flicking a double jab-feint at the guard and looking to find a home for the coiled right. Nice sweeping left downstairs by Pintor, hitting a legal area before straying low. The next hook is just a full-on low-blow.

10-9 Pintor, close

124-122 Zárate

 

Round 14

Zárate is jabbing lazily into the guard and getting countered by Pintor's jab and 1-2 at mid-range. Big swing and miss with the left hook by Zárate, leaving him badly positioned, and Pintor exploits it with a brutal 1-2 bang on the kisser. Zárate recovers with impressive speed and resumes circling and jabbing no worse for wear neurologically. Pintor shakes off a brief clinch attempt by Zárate and they exchange reach-around body shots and clappers up top with their respective back hands. Zárate now turns Pintor on the inside and scores a short right hand on the chin, but Pintor keeps pushing ahead, sawing into the jawline of Zárate with his jab. Zárate dives in with a lead right and stiff jab, and Pintor jerks away to make him miss and then counters with a double hook climbing from hip to head. Zárate reaches in with a few jabs and is slipped & countered by Pintor's. Zárate's right arm gets snaked around Pintor's left as the champion is tossing a lead right at the head, grazing.

10-9 Pintor, close

133-132 Zárate

 

On the unofficial scorecard of Ryan O'Neal, the winner of the 15th gets the fight.

 

Round 15

Zárate is showing the right hand downstairs, pulling away, flashing the double jab, and dancing to his left. Pintor is staying in his chest, throwing double hooks, some of them very wide and loose as Zárate peels off into a more distal groove of the figurative vinyl. Zárate is scoring a jab here and there, darting in and turning his left arm horizontal to ram into Pintor, making liberal use of his elbow, shoving and leveraging him off. Negative but smart tactics from the champion here. Pintor never stops trying but is unable to detonate any fireworks in the last frame.

10-9 Zárate

143-141

 

Hmm, wow.

SD for Pintor, can't really call it a massive robbery and I can see why judges would favor his style. I just happen to feel Zárate did enough to retain.

 

He was the rightful winner IMO, but... not sure Zárate didn't gravely disservice himself by throwing his proverbial toys out the pram and "retiring" for several years in response. He wasn't far off his prime and for all he (or anyone) knew a rematch and chance at redemption could well have been in the offing a short ways down the road (and I really would have liked to see how things unfolded over a subsequent 15.. real shame).

 

I mean... his page on BoxRec, or Wikipedia (the Spanish or English version), the IBHOF, or iMDB. Pretty much any definitive source on him.

"Lupe" should always be a tip-off more research is necessary, as there is truthfully no such name. That's a diminutive/nickname in Latin cultures, equivalent to Jimmy or Jack or Mike in the Anglosphere. Sure, there is the less than one percent of parents who, due to either ignorance or intentional trashiness, put those down on their kids' birth certificates, but dollars to donuts when you encounter somebody known by those you can bet they're officially a James or John or Michael. Ditto with Lupe for Guadelupe.

Likewise there's nobody actually named "Panchito" (that just means "Wee Lil' Francisco") or "Josésito" (the recent world title challenger who went by the ring name "Riverside Rocky" is actually named José Manuel López).

 

Interesting that if you give Zarate the first instead of making it even we actually have the same final tally...except by very different routes.

Close fight, with a lot of hotly contested "pick your stylistic preference to split this hair.." swing rounds. Hence my reticence to say that it rises to a full-on robbery.