Yordenis Ugas out-punched his opponent in every round of a world title fight, but was almost robbed of a win by the judges
- Yordenis Ugas threw more punches in 11 of 12 rounds, out-landed his opponent in every round, and was seen to dominate in his WBA title fight against Abel Ramos on Sunday.
- However, the ringside judges only narrowly awarded him a victory, with one judge even scoring it in favor of Ramos.
- While the result was ultimately correct, the closeness of the decision brings to light how bad judging continues to plague boxing at the highest of levels.
- One prominent boxing reporter said the judge who awarded Ramos the win, should be "disqualified" from officiating a combat sports event again.
Yordenis Ugas out-punched his opponent in every round of a world title fight, but questionable officiating almost cost him the win, bringing to light a major problem in the highest levels of boxing.
The 34-year-old Cuban fought Abel Ramos for the vacant WBA welterweight title — one level below full world championship status — during a behind-closed-doors Premier Boxing Champions event Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Ugas threw more shots than Ramos in 11 of the 12 rounds, landed more punches in every round, and set a personal best record for jabs landed (160) according to Compubox data sent to Insider.
Ugas controlled much of the fight with a pin-point double jab, a jab counter jab, and the defensive placement of his gloves and body which thwarted much of his opponent's attack, save for a late rally from Ramos.
Punch statistics indicated one-way traffic for Ugas, who landed 233 shots out of 768 attempts (30.3% accuracy) against Ramos' 109 of 626 (17.45).
Boxing Scene senior reporter Jake Donovan called it domination — a viewpoint shared by Insider — yet the judges viewed it differently, only awarding Ugas a split decision with scores of 115-113 (twice) and, even more bizarrely, 117-111 to Ramos.
Donovan said the whole fight was "horribly-scored."
Donovan wrote: "Dr. Lou Moret's card of 117-111 in favor of Ramos should disqualify him from ever again officiating a contest."
Though the correct fighter won on this occasion, elite boxing is often plagued by bad, errant, or downright incompetent judging.
Just last month the lightweight fighter Rolando Romero was the benificiary of dubious scoring when he won the interim WBA lightweight title against Jackson Marinez, who complained post-fight of "pure robbery," Boxing Scene reported at the time.
The boxing blog Bad Left Hook added that the decision was "unanimously ridiculed," forcing the WBA to consider a rematch.
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