In a clash between unbeaten fighters for the WBA interim lightweight title, Rolando “Rolly” Romero (12-0, 10 KOs) won a controversial twelve round unanimous decision over Jackson Maríñez (19-1, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Romero spent most his time throwing haymakers while Maríñez countered with some nifty pro moves. In the end, judges scored it 115-113, 116-112, 118-110 for Romero.
The scoring sparked outrage on social media. Showtime had it 117-111 going the other way. WBA president Gilberto Jesus Mendoza acted quickly tweeting, “I just spoke with both teams and we are going to study the possibility of a rematch.”
What a JOKE!!!
Yes, that was a gifted decision that I am sure was overshadowed by the investments from the Mayweather camp. I can understand why boxing at times gets a lot of scrutiny over corruption and crooked influences. How could anybody screw that scoring up?
Easy to do if the cards are filled out before the fight-pretty sure judges were paid to award him the decision if he was on his feet at the finish. Close scores for such a one sided fight.
Incredible decision. Who were the judges ? The WBA will accept that ? Gilberto Jr don’t accept such highway robbery. Romero may have 3 rounds. WHO WERE THE JUDGES, Disgusting !
That decision was horrible. Romero and his team knows that he lost that fight. Those judges are a disgrace.
A god damn joke! And the announcers who agree the decision was a joke say all this crap about the judges being respected! Judges were paid off by a 50-0 scumbag! This was embarrassing!
The WBA must overturn this scandalous robbery
Robert Coaster, they cant. They do not have the authority to do so. They would have to file protest to the commission and usually those protests get them nowhere.
This was an ABSURD and SHAMEFUL decision by the judges! This was a ROBBERY…
Did the judges get the two boxers confused or something. Absolutely horrible decision.
and this wasnt the worst screw job of the night! over in Tulsa Oklahoma the champion was denied her place in history by corrupt judging terrible night in boxing
Outrageous decision. Romero may have won 4 rounds. Obviously Floyd Mayweather paid the judges off!
100% agree! D-Bad Floyd pays for what he wants!
More likely won only two rounds-enough if you have Mayweather backing you.rrg
Rolly was exposed and clearly lost the fight 8-4
Yes that decision was horrible.
What a shameful, disgraceful decision. When your from 3rd world contries like DR, Colombia, and Ghana They discriminate and rob you blind. This fight result is robbery.
Speechless…But then again, he is with Mayweather…
Highway Robbery… Wish there was a crowd to really BOOOO this decision
OOOOOPSSS, but I was not surprised of the result. Eventually, that kid Romero will get KTFO to avoid scoring misdeeds.
As a boxing fan of 45 years this decision ranks right up there with Whitaker-Chavez as one the worst ever. Someone paid big to make sure Romero won. I hope they look out for Marinez. He fought his butt off and deserves better. This puts boxing back in the darks ages of crooked managers, promoters etc… Romero is?a hard puncher but he’ll get further exposed and knocked the Xxxxx out when he faces a boxer/puncher with a little more pop.
chavez vs whittaker is nothing compared to the Ali vs Norton rip off or the Pacuiao vs Horn and Pacquiao vs Bradley rip offs or even Mayweather vs Castillo I or Mayweather vs De La Hoya or like in Tulsa Breakhus vs McCaskill
Mayweather outlanded De la Hoya by 100 punches that were clean and effective, you must’ve been giving Oscar credit for throwing all those punches against the ropes but when they showed it in slow motion he was barely landing, and Braekhus looked terrible last night she definitely lost McCaskill was more active and landed the better punches!!!!
Chavez vs Whittaker was a terrible decision. Whittaker clearly outpointed him and should have been declared the winner. This fight was huge and determined the best fighter pound for pound.
Showtime should be outraged by this, and do something about it. They should make sure these refs do not get another job. This trend keeps giving boxing a bad name.
Dosen’t matter who the officials are-they don’t work unless they do as they are told.
Rolly, Showtime and WBA listen to the fans….nuff said!!!
The decision was horrible but I think it was more likely incompetence particularly the judge who scored it 118 to 110. These were 3 very experienced judges and if the fix was in you don’t post a 118 to 110 score in a close fight. I just think it was in incompetence with the judges not paying attention and giving way too much credit for the ineffective aggression by Romero and his big swinging punches which looked viscous but rarely landed with any real impact.
If he filled out his card before the fight then he didn’t have to actually watch it to see what was really happening.
Controversies in boxing are as old as when the sport began. There must be some alternatives by now to end the malady so that all stakeholders are not at times shortchanged and for the best interest of the sport.
Highway robbery. Marinez clearly dominated the bout with his boxing skills. Unfortunately the 3 judges do not understand “boxing skills” anymore. Not good for the credability of the sport
As someone who has gone through and passed the ABC judging training and examination, I can say that the commentators were getting a lot of rounds wrong. Now, I did not watch the fight in its entirety, and I plan to, but judges are taught to score on clean effective punching above all else (the other criteria really only come into effect if clean effective punching is not clear).
Romero was doing more damage in some of the rounds that I saw ringside commentators give to Mariñez.
I definitely want to watch the fight in its entirety, but this could be one of those cases that the true criteria is not really understood by those outside of judging, and it’s no one’s fault but the ABC. They do a poor job of communicating it.
Watching the fight in its entirety, I had it a close decision for Mariñez. He ran away with it late, but before the last two rounds, the most that separated the two fighters was 3 landed punches. So, without being influenced by commentators, this is not an easy fight to score. The 118-110 card is hard to fathom, but the criteria is such that if the lander of “cleaner effective punching” is not clear, you go to effective aggression. This is why certain judges do favor more aggressive fighters. Not saying that I agree with it, but when you understand how judges are taught, these types of decisions are not that hard to comprehend.
The other issue is that a fighter can win the more obvious rounds, and still lose the fight. Let’s say there were 9 close rounds and 3 extremely obvious ones. The winner of the obvious rounds will appear victorious because he appears to have a probabilistic edge. This can be corrected with making the 10 point must more flexible. Right now, it is extremely rare that a person wins a 10-8 round without a knockdown. What they could do is make any obvious round a 10-8 round and it will put a heavier weight on said round. Many would argue that it’s only fair because the fighter is getting more credit for his/her dominance in said round.
You left out Ring Generalship, more important than coming forward especially when the guy coming forward has a jab in his face as his armature wild swings caught air…so unlike you who wish to blame the announce crew I watched the match without sound & came up with a 117-111 score card for Marinez….
This is what I’m talking about. You clearly don’t know how to judge. Yes, there are 4 criteria. Clean effective punching, effective aggression, defense, and ring generalship. HOWEVER, you judge first and foremost on clean effective punching. It’s by far the most important. Hence why Harold Lederman would always say “with a strong emphasis on clean effective punching.”
Again, I am actually certified by ABC and have gone through their classes. I didn’t learn to judge watching TV.
Also went through judges training in Michigan years ago-most important thing is effective punching-Romero was the aggressor but many were ineffective wild swings. The commentators had it right-Marinez gave him a boxing lesson.
Well, if you look at punch stats, they refute what you are saying for all but the last two rounds. The first 10 were extremely close. They were all separated by no more than 3 punches landed with 4 going to Romero 4 going to Mariñez, and 2 even. They nearly split power punches as well.
Now, I had Mariñez winning because he rallied late, but if you watch closely this was no highway robbery.
I will add the 118-110 score is very hard to defend, but a 7-5 fight is really not anywhere near the level of robbery. I had it 7-5 Mariñez, and I believe he earned the decision. It was not an easy fight to score if you’re doing it right.
The judges would have made Al Sharpton & Bill De Blasio proud. Clearly this decision was a robbery. The judges should be arrested for this crap.
118 – 110 Romero? LU-DA–CRIS!!
This means Romero won 10 rounds and Mariñez only 2.
Jackson Mariñez is the only winner in this contest and he will commended for all his effort. He truly has boxing skills. Trainers should use this fight to show boxers how to beat a brawler with heavy hands.
No disrespect but Romero has no boxing talent and really doesn’t have power. He loads up with all his shots to generate power. True power punches don’t need to do that and he will get caught and suffer nasty ko’s against seasoned fighters. Why the investment in this kid from the Mayweather camp anyway. He telegraphs his punches so badly it’s a surprise he hasn’t been ko’d already but I guess his opposition has been weak. I understand he got a late start but he doesn’t have the natural boxing coordination neeeded to be a C-level fighter. Just my opinion.