Stay as far away from the United States as you can!!! You will never get a fair shot! First it was Barrios getting docked 2 bull**** points against Juarez in his backyard, which basically forced him into the position of having to take more chances just to preserve a decision win that he was cruising to against his passive opponent. Now Martinez against Cintron. I've never had a problem with Santore as a ref. That could be due to the fact that he's officiated relatively nondescript fights as far as I remember. Martinez scores a knockout in the 7th round. Santore basically waves the fight off, Cintron goes crazy, and I leave the room for a couple minutes. I then come back and what what what what???? The 8th round??? Are you kidding me. To top things off, in a fight that Martinez was clearly winning, he gets docked a phantom point for God only knows what and that ends up costing him the W on the far-too-close scorecards of the two who had it a draw (one of which scored for Bell over Dale Brown). Hugo Hernan Garay and Victor Emilio Rodriguez, if you're out there just fight in Argentina or Europe. The US is waiting to rob you blind. You will have your titles stolen from you.
Martinez literally knocked his man out and got a draw. What happened to Barrios was even worse. I'm inclined to agree with you.
I thought Medina later admitted he made tha up.. or he was forced to say that he made it up. Can't really say.
I'm assuming that you know that my thread is more tongue-in-cheek than serious but Barrios and Martinez both got raw deals with the common thread being that a referee heavily influenced their fights. In the latter's case, the referee pretty much took a victory away twice. First by not sticking to his guns and stopping the fight after it appeared that he had already done so and secondly, by taking a BS point away from Martinez. You can say that Martinez's performance was pedestrian but he landed the harder punches and gave the appearance that he was in control whereas Cintron looked befuddled and pretty much embarassed himself with his 7th round antics. Barrios's case was much more subtle. Undercard fight in Juarez's hometown and the fight not going according to plan courtesy of Barrios winning. Referee takes not one but two points away to even things up. Team Barrios, knowing full well where they are and taking into account the point deductions, obviously has to tell their man to ramp it up and win the remaining rounds. The whole complexion of the fight changes and Barrios finds himself perhaps taking chances that he otherwise would not have taken giving Juarez more opportunities even in spite of himself as he was fighting passive and clearly losing. Next thing you know Barrios has a split lip and goes home a loser. Disgusting. Sure, Baldomir came here and hit it big but that's because Zab Judah stopped fighting halfway though their fight. It's no secret that Judah fades down the stretch and goes into a cruise-mode in which he's looking to survive more than actually mount any attack. If you think about it, with that fight being in Judah's backyard and Judah winning the early rounds it's a testament to the judges that night for giving the right man the win. Baldomir didn't need the judges against Gatti so that would be a rather moot point to argue don't you think? It's not just Argentinean fighters getting robbed but it just seems that the circumstances under which they have fought as of late have been bizarre to say the least.
