Photo by Top Rank
HBO’s Jim Lampley was adamant about the fact that this decision was bad for boxing. “This score will generate a great deal of disgust” were his exact words.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. struggled to do anything in dominant fashion against Bryan Vera, except land the harder shots throughout the entire fight. In the end, that was all he needed to do.
Even though the HBO commenting team of Lampley and Super Middleweight champion Andre Ward repeatedly said that the judges could score for volume or power, they were unhappy when power won out.
The most controversial scorecard belonged to Gwen Adair who scored the bout 98-92, or eight rounds to two for Chavez Jr.
The other two judges–Carla Caiz and Marty Denkin–had the bout 96-94 and 97-93, respectively.
After the official decision was announced, fans took to twitter to voice their displeasure with the “robbery.”
Vera got robbed. I gave Chavez maybe 3 rounds. BS
— Alex (@alrodriguez99) September 29, 2013
“@TwoPieceBoxing: Its one thing when #boxing fans say its a "robbery". Its a whole other thing when boxers do.”
— Gina Caruso (@gina_blue1) September 29, 2013
Going to sleep after nightmare judging in boxing, wake up to European soccer where there is athletic if not money justice in their scoring
— Martin Mulcahey (@MartinMulcahey) September 29, 2013
My problem with labeling this fight a robbery is that Vera threw way more punches–734 to 328–but his connect advantage wasn’t all that astonishing–176 to 125.
Final @CompuBox numbers — @jcchavezjr1 125/328 || @BVWARRIOR 176/734 in total punches landed #ChavezVera
— HBOboxing (@HBOboxing) September 29, 2013
In the post fight interview, Vera was gracious in defeat and simply stated that he thought he did enough to win and that he would like a rematch.
Chavez Jr. was critical of referee Lou Moret, who declined to call many of Vera’s belt line punches low. Chavez Jr. also called Vera a dirty fighter.
It remains to be seen if Vera will be able to score a rematch with Chavez Jr., given the fact that he was a liver dog than most people thought he would be.
How did you see this fight? Did you think it was a robbery?
