Sporting Chance

MERIDA -- The day after Luisito Espinosa lost a unanimous 11th round technical decision to Guty Espadas, Jr., Mexican newspapers had conflicting reports on the final scores of the bout for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight title at the Poliforum Zamna here.

Blame it on WBC supervisor Rex Walker, who's a strong candidate for a crash course in arithmetic.

Walker initially authorized ring announcer Ricardo Kim Yu to declare Espadas the winner on scores of 118-109 (Chuck Hassett), 117-110 (Marty Denkin), and 118-109 (John Keane). Those were the scores that wire reports carried all over the world. Those were also the scores Popoy Juico and I read on Viva Vintage's satellite telecast.

But on closer scrutiny, Popoy and I later realized the scores were impossible. How could a judge score 118 points in a fight that ended in the 11th round? The maximum possible points a fighter can accumulate in 11 rounds is 110.

So we sought out Games and Amusement Board (GAB) chairman Dominador Cepeda and commissioner Hermogenes Arayata who then asked Walker for an explanation.

Walker admitted he made a mistake in authorizing the wrong scores. The correct scores, he said, were 108-99 and 108-99 (Hassett and Keane) and 110-98 for Denkin. Walker apologized profusely for the confusion.

I asked to inspect the official scoresheet. Walker obliged. As I looked at it, my mouth fell open. The scoresheet was marred by several alterations. I wondered if there had been a conspiracy to rig the fight from the start. Not that Espinosa deserved to win -- I scored it a draw after 11 rounds without Espinosa's one-point deduction.

I wrote down the round-by-round scores of each judge for a breakdown of the results and added up the scores. Alas, there was another discrepancy. Denkin's 110-98 meant he pitched a shutout but in his breakdown, he gave two rounds to Espinosa and had one even. Denkin's scorecard should've read 108-100.

The Mexican newspaper Novedades had a different version of the scores: Hassett, 107-98, Denkin, 107-100, and Keane, 107-99. Other Mexican newspapers El Munda al Dia and Por Esto reported the incorrect scores as read by Yu in the ring.

Despite the errors, one thing was certain -- Espadas won by wide margins in each judge's scoresheet. But was the fight that lopsided? I don't think so. Obviously, the judges were out to protect the hometown hero. Espinosa couldn't have won on points -- he had to knock out Espadas to win. So what else is new?

Incidentally, Walker, a back-slapping Colorado lapdog who speaks Spanish, sang along as the Mexican national anthem was played before the Espinosa-Espadas fight. He certainly did a good job of ingratiating himself to WBC president Jose Sulaiman and the Mexican fans.

And Walker was supposed to be a neutral supervisor.

Espadas' mother Maria Nona had unkind words for Espinosa after the bout. "That Filipino is a dirty fighter," said Maria Nona. "I'm glad my son won. Espinosa did a lot of dirty tricks and I was so mad I wanted to enter the ring to hit him." She castigated Espinosa for the headbutt that opened a nasty cut on Espadas' forehead. Ringside physician Fernando Bautista ruled Espadas unfit to continue because of the accidental butt and referee Richard Steele waved it off at 2:23 of the 11th.

Espadas' wife Karla, who couldn't watch the fight at ringside because of her English classes in Mexico City, said she will go to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral to thank the Lord with her husband and their three-year-old son Saul.

It doesn't look like Mexican trainer Robert Aguallo will be back in Espinosa's camp if he decides to continue fighting. Espinosa said his father Dio will supervise his training from now on.

Aguallo, who predicted an Espinosa knockout in the seventh, said Espadas dominated the fight from the beginning. The first round knockdown, he added, set the stage for the breeze. He said Espinosa got only two to three rounds. Aguallo predicted a long reign for Espadas.

Espinosa's dilemma is he dislikes the cold weather in San Francisco but can't find decent sparmates in Manila. So where will he train? In San Francisco, there are several fighters to choose from as sparmates but it's too cold. In Manila, the only sparmate who can stand up to Espinosa's punches is Philippine junior middleweight champion Jerry Balagbagan. It's possible Espinosa got used to fighting Balagbagan -- who's notoriously slow -- and lost his footwork for Espadas in the process.