Last night, Delvin Rodriguez fought Isaac Hlathswayo in a title eliminator in South Africa. The result ended up as a draw, which was originally announced as a win for the shocked Hlathswayo, who was battered and knocked down, according to the articles. Rodriguez has run into some bad luck lately - first he was caught cold by Jesse Feliciano, then he put Oscar Diaz in a coma, now he's robbed of a title shot because of what appears to be horribly biased judging in South Africa. http://www.thetimes.co.za/Sport/Article.aspx?id=886740
From a Star Boxing press release (partial excert): Upon further review of the scorecards by Rodriguez's promoter Joe DeGuardia, it was revealed that there was a mistake made in the calculation in one of the judges scoring. Upon an intense review by both camps and IBF official Mahsan Scott, the fight was changed to its correct decision, a majority draw. "Delvin came into Hlatshwayo's backyard and put on a great showing," said DeGuardia, CEO of Star Boxing. "He was the busier fighter, landed more punches, and dropped Hlatshwayo. I will give Hlatswhayo credit he is a tough fighter, and just kept coming all night long though." Under the rules of the IBF Rodriguez and Hlatshwayo will fight in a rematch immediately." Hope the rematch will be in the U.S or neutral site. Anybody watch this fight?
definitely a math issue - remember Winky Wright lost his title to hometown guy Harry Simon in South Africa in August 1998. When it was over, and Wright had played professor to Simon's unwilling student, the three WBO judges decided that it was a majority draw, which meant that Wright had retained his title. A few minutes later, while Wright was sitting in his dressing room unwrapping his hands, an official came in to tell him that there had been an error in the scoring, he had lost by a majority decision. (souce Wright's bio)
