it was more controversial and highly debatable rather than outright robbery.Zarate was totally one-paced and very reticent throughout which made a lot of the rounds hard to score due to Pintor also being subdued by his power. Outright Robbery being something like Everett vs Escalera where it should have been about 12 rounds to 3 for Everett. Parlov vs Conteh was worse than the Zarate fight from around that timeframe as well.
1 10-10 neither fighter did much of anything. Tempted to give it to Pintor for at least pressing the fight a little. 2 10-9 Pintor, landed more clean blows (there were few). Zarate just shooting out a probing jab once in awhile. 3 9-10 Zarate. Good round, Pintor did some nice counterpunching. Close round. 4 8-10 Zarate. Was winning round + knockdown 5 9-10 Zarate. 6 10-9 Pintor. Very close round. I liked how Pintor made Zarate miss and countered. 7 9-10 Zarate, pulled out a close round at the end. 8 10-9 Pintor. This could've been even or I could see giving to Zarate. 9 10-9 Pintor. Close 10 10-9 Pintor. Boxed beautifully and hurt Zarate 11 9-10 Zarate 12 9-10 Zarate 13 9-10 Zarate 14 10-9 Pintor. Close round. Pintor staggered Zarate with big right hand. 15 10-9 Pintor. Final Tally: Zarate 143 Pintor 142 I watched this again tonight. I didn't recall being outraged by the decision. Pintor boxed beautifully at times against the taller man. Slipped punches, good body work, doubled up on the hook to the body then head. I thought it was a close fight. I've seen much worse decisions. I think Pintor was a great fighter based on his Bantamweight reign and his efforts against Zarate and Gomez.
p.s. Kind of like Chavez in that his boxing skills are underrated because of other great attributes. I'm not saying he's as good as Chavez just an underrated boxer.
Pity there was never a rematch with Zarate who was a great champion and unlucky, to say the least, to lose his title to Pintor. The thing I found most surprising is that the Pintor v Zarate match went the distance. Plainly these guys were both KO specialists. But equally they could also take a lot of punishment themselves.
I posted this 10 yrs ago. Being a huge Pintor fan I wanted to bring it back for fresh comments. I also found his Ring best I've faced to be refreshingly honest. Class act. For those who haven't read the book titled The big if: The life and death of Johnny Owen I highly recomend it as Pintor was part of the book making process and was a duel biography book.
He was very solid. He started having weight problems after the Gomez war, which seemed to affect some of his performances. He had some bad losses. Still, he was able to beat Juan Meza at 122 lbs. in '85.
Was the book released around the time of the documentary where he went to Wales to unveil the statue? I was reminded of that fight recently. I live in Los Angeles and showed an out of town friend a little bit of Downtown last week and I mentioned to him “That’s the Grand Olympic a once famous boxing venue” and my friend is not a boxing fan but he said “That’s were Johnny Owen fought Lupe Pintor right?” I was like WTF? How do you know that and he told me he’d been reading a book I left in NYC when I’d been out there recently. McIllvaney on Boxing was the book and it got my buddy into reading and researching more about the sport since I’d last seen him.
No fight that close on the cards can be called a robbery. It's kind of a losing game to try to sit here this many years on from the comfort of our chairs and try to rationalize what was going on inside Lupe Pintor's head as he heard the decision announced. Think about it; he's a relative unknown going up against a legend in a fight that he knows is tight but that history always tells us must therefore go to the champion, with that inane "you've got to decisively beat the champion to take the title" crap. Then, all historical odds against him, he hears his name called. Wouldn't YOU look pleased and surprised? I sure would.