By Chris Williams: In a surprising statement from one of the judges that worked last Friday’s fight between WBC super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez and Robson Conceicao, the judge, Stephen Blea, is apologizing for his 117-110 score.
The scoring for the fight was dreadful from top to bottom, as Conceicao appeared to do more than enough to win the fight in the view of many boxing fans, but shockingly, all three judges gave it to Valdez.
The Valdez vs. Conceicao fight took place at the Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona. Valdez is from Mexico, which is next door to Arizona.
The judge, Blea, essentially gave almost every round to Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs) in a fight that Conceicao (16-1, 8 KOs) arguably should have won.
There’s no word on the other two judges apologizing for their equally terrible 115-112, 115-112 scores in favor of Valdez. For a lot of fans, that would have been fitting.
Also, we haven’t heard anything from the referee Tony Zaino, who took a point away from Conceicao without a previous warning for a rabbit punch he hit Valdez with in the ninth. Later in the fight, Valdez landed a rabbit punch but WASN’T penalized.
It wasn’t even a rabbit punch in the strictest definition. Conceicao tapped Valdez behind the head when the two were in a clinch, which appeared to be a response to him hitting him in the back in the kidney area.
Valdez hit Conceicao repeatedly in his left kidney arena while the two were locked up in a clinch. Kidney punching is supposed to be illegal in boxing.
Chris Williams had Conceicao winning 8 rounds to 4, and it wasn’t close.
Judge Stephen Blea said this:
“I am an honorable man with profound love, knowledge, and respect to the sport, I am sorry for having a bad night and having brought unnecessary controversy to such a sensational fight,” said Stephen Blea.
“I feel I have let down our sport and the fighters inside the ring.”
Given the huge mess with the scoring and the refereeing for the Valdez vs. Conceicao fight last Friday, Chris Williams believes the World Boxing Council should order a rematch to clear up the controversy.
If WBC doesn’t want to order the rematch, Valdez and his promoters at Top Rank should do the right thing and give Conceicao the benefit of a rematch in a neutral country like Argentina, Paraguay, or Bolivia.
Believe me, the backlash that Oscar Valdez has been receiving over his gift decision last Friday isn’t going to go away on its own.
Valdez isn’t going to be able to magically make every boxing fan in the world forget what they saw last Friday night with him winning a HIGHLY questionable 12 round decision over the talented Conceicao in Tucson, Arizona.