Judges in Antonio Orozco-Abner Lopez fight really stunk up the joint in Indio

Antonio Orozco, right, was lucky to win by the wide margin he won by in Saturday’s fight with Abner Lopez/Photo courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions

 

It’s such a shame that we have to deal with bad scoring, even though it has always been part of the sweet science.

Take Saturday’s junior welterweight fight between top contender Antonio Orozco of San Diego and Abner Lopez of Tijuana at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio. After 10 rounds, Lopez had done well enough that it would not have been shocking if he had been announced as the winner. At the very least, the scores should have been close.

Yet, veteran judges Lou Moret and Pat Russell came up with the same ridiculous score of 99-91 in favor of Orozco, the house fighter for Golden Boy Promotions. Max DeLuca had it 97-93 for Orozco.

There were more than a few boos when the cards were read. I polled a few of my press-row peers and they all said they thought the bout was close. One veteran writer had it even. Heck, I spoke with someone in Orozco’s camp. I’ll leave his name out of it, but he told me, “It was close.”

So when even someone from Orozco’s camp concedes the bout was close, I’d say that makes it official – the cards just stunk.

You can’t help but feel badly for Lopez (23-6) . He came in with five losses and he was not supposed to be much of a problem for undefeated Orozco (25-0). If anything, this was thought by some to be your proverbial stay-busy fight for Orozco.

For the most part, it was Lopez stalking Orozco. Lopez fought with supreme confidence, and he gave Orozco way more grief than those lousy scorecards suggest.

Shame on the judges. They’ve been around too long to come up with scores like this in an obvious close fight.

 

Twitter Facebook Pinterest Reddit Tumblr Email Snailmail