Not a smart bet, even if the guy you picked should have won. Lebedev needed the KO but didn't seem able to catch Huck after the 6th. But seriously this was a Sauerland production.
Here are some examples of German based fighters losing decisions in Germany: Schulz - Botha Schulz - Moorer Maske - Hill Michalczewski - Gonzales Huck - Cunningham Here are some examples of German based fighters losing close decisions (and maybe getting robbed) while fighting abroad: Foreman - Schulz De La Hoya - Sturm The main problem I have with Sauerland's German hometown decisions is not the actual scoring of the judging -- close fights are being misjudged all over the world. This is not a German problem. The issue I have with this is that Sauerland somehow manages to obtain the scoring of each judge round by round and then the trainer can instruct the fighter to take more or less risk depending on whether his fighter is ahead of behind on the score cards. There was an infamous scene in one of the disgraceful Ottke fights where they knew he was ahead on the cards by 2 rounds going into round 11. Wegner screamed at Ottke "Just act as if you're doing something. Take no risk! Just hit and run, don't take any risk!!!" Unfortunately for the Sauerland opponents they don't have scorecard insider information.
Huck fights are generally not easy to score, simply because he always fights the same way, in spurts, therefore when scoring a round, you have to make the distinction whether the haye-makers he's throwing, are hard enough, that there are enough of them over the coarse of the round, to cancel out the activity of the opponent who is trying to be more consistent over the 3 mins. Huck is usually able to win rounds with this strategy, but against Lebedev he missed a lot of his shots, as Lebdev kept a fairly decent defense as he applied the pressure. Huck fought most of the fight on his heels, he had Lebedev digging his body from the beginning taking it out of him, and Lebedev being a lefty did'nt see to do him any favours either.
Did you remember how long it took the decision to get made? According to Wladimir Hrunov(Lebedevs manager) one of the judges, after the fight was scrambling around and made a second score card....
It was a close but clear win for Lebedev, anything from 116-112 to 115-113 would have been fine. I really felt sorry for him, seems to be a decent guy. The big german newspaper bild.de is ignoring any critical report on their side, but the average replies from all viewers were all pointing out this robbery, so even the average fan in Germany, who has no clue at all, doesn#t get fooled by this.
I knew Lebedev would win, as you maybe saw in a thread I made I thought he would knock Huck out. I want to see Lebedev vs USS Cunningham
Bloody Germans. I must say though the amount of ordinary Germans coming out and being embarassed about this is changing my views a lot..