I remember this one. Graham fought in Kalambay's hometown (Italy), made him look bad, and got jobbed big time. The Italians must not like foreigners fighting in their soil.
Wilfredo Vasquez' wins over Juan Polo-Perez and Genaro Rios. Two awful decisions that didn't lead to rematches, and are barely remembered. Vazquez on both occasions immediately moved onto the then biggest fight of his career, against Canizales and Hamed respectively, and Polo and Rios didn't achieve anything of note afterwards. Honeyghan-Vaca I was decided by the WBC's bizarre rule where a fighter would be deducted a point for an accidental clash of heads. It otherwise would have been a technical draw with Honeyghan retaining his title. The more famous example of this is Randall-Chvez II, but few people seem to talk about the Honeyghan-Vaca debacle these days. Randall was jobbed against Chavez, but his technical decision loss in his second fight Coggi seems to fly under the radar.
From what I remembered Randall got screwed big in the Chavez rematch. Chavez had no desire to continue after that headbutt because he knew Randall had his number, and he was fortunate that King had the judges in his pockets to make sure Chavez got the decision. The fix was already in and they didn't want to derail Chavez's entire career with another loss to Randall again. Still don't get why the rematch with Randall gets overlooked. The Whitaker draw is the most known controversial Chavez fight but the Randall rematch is just as bad IMO. Randall wanted a third fight with Chavez but wasn't given to him until 2004.
Kuniaki Shibata vs Ernesto Marcel. I'm a big fan of Shibata (and Marcel for that matter), his amazing movement, rhythm and explosive aggressive punching, but this fight was definitely NOT a draw.
Brandon Rios Vs Richard Abril was a shocking decision. 1 judge gave it to Abril 117-111 and even that may have been generous to Rios. The other 2 gave it to Rios and I still can’t understand how.
Augustus vs Burton I was the worst decision I have ever seen by far. Both the Judges and the Ref seemed to completely hate Augustus for his showmanship first style and punished him for it. He even knocked Burton out with a body shot during the fight that the ref ignored. It was absolutely disgusting. One of the very few times I actually liked Teddy Atlas at how pissed off he was. Showed you how ignorant the guys running the show really are.
That was one of the few times where it made me respect Atlas. The disgraceful scorecards, Atlas's explosive reaction and displeasure, followed by him calling out an incompetent official for making an amateurish error for calling the fight a Majority Decision when there was no draw on any of the cards was just complete bonkers. Should have been an investigation for this fight. This content is protected
I don't think I can name another fighter that has been flat out robbed more times than Augustus. That guy was such a great natural talent, that just robbed the boxing higher ups the wrong way for some reason. By the time Augustus finally got his due, got on HBO he was far too past his prime to show his stuff and then was gone. He should have been one of the stars of the sport. Sure he had limitations, he wasn't world class but his record is full of disgraceful decisions
despite my faulty memory? Still no recollection of this and it was only 8 months ago? Not sure what I will think in January but in April I scored it a draw
Surprised that Carlos Ortiz vs Nicolino Locche fight isn't mentioned enough when it comes to highly controversial fights, especially between 2 ATGs @ 135lbs. Many agree that Ortiz clearly won the fight against Locche but since it was in Argentina they called it a Draw. Sounds just as controversial as Whitaker vs Chavez. From "Boxing Illustrated": The decision was loudly bbod by the fans who felt that Ortiz was entiteled to the verdict. The manager of Ortiz, Billy Daly, was quite upset by the decision, but Ortiz made no comment. Carlos helt the upper hand in almost every round, and Locche drew frequent warning from the referee Vincente Avedano for holding and hitting. Nicolino was also guilty of numerous clinches, never-the-less one judge voted for him and the other with the referee scored the fight even. Our ringside corrospondent had Ortiz ahead by seven points 199-192 under the complicated scoring system used in Argentina.
Another Carlos Ortiz fight that is controversial is the first fight with Duilio Loi. Second one is close also.
Love Bazooka Gomez anyway....he would have destroyed Zarate just the same even if he had controlled himself... This content is protected was going to deny the Bazooka!! One of the most exciting, dominant, dynamic performances, fouls or no, that I have ever seen! Like I said, even if Gomez had conducted himself well within the boundaries of the Marquis of Queensbury rules, he would have stopped Zarate...a great champion,...who met and was destroyed by an even greater champion to be in Wilfredo Bazooka Gomez!!!!
The razor thin verdict awarding the lightheavyweight title to Willie Pastrano (from Harold Johnson) has just about been eradicated from the memory of modern boxing fans.
Chavez - Randall 2 .. absolutely disgusting theft of the title back to Chavez by King and company .. no rubber match till many years later when Randall was a drugged out shell ..
