By Geno McGahee
This is why people hate boxing. The house fighters benefitting from crooked judges as we saw in the terrible decision in the Barrios-Akhmedov WBA super lightweight title fight. Mario Barrios, 25-0, 16 KO’s, was given the unanimous decision over the aggressive Batyr Akhmedov, 7-1, 6 KO’s, in a fight that was very close, but the unanimous decision by scores of 114-112, 115-111 and 116-111 showed that the fix was in.
For the first round rounds, Barrios controlled from range and scored a knockdown from a left hook in the fourth round. From round five to round eleven, Akhmedov had Barrios on the run and won every round, clearly. In the final round, Barrios would lose the majority of the round but would land a right hand and drop Akhmedov again. The decision was in doubt, but the house fighter was given the nod and the WBA gold was handed off to the new champion.
Scared Stiff had the fight scored 113-113, a draw. 114-112 was acceptable, but 116-111 was absurd and the judge should be looked into.
