By Erik Schmidt: In one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in quite some time, WIBF Women’s International Boxing Federation and Global Boxing Union Female super flyweight champion Alesia Graf (24-1, 9 KO’s) defeated American Terri Lynn Cruz (17-6-2, 8 KO’s) by a 10-round split decision on Saturday night at the Color Line Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 96-93 for Graf, and 95-94 for Cruz.
I had Cruz winning by a lopsided decision. Graf only appeared to win two rounds, the 2nd and the 9th, and even those rounds were very close. Graf was staggered badly at the end of the 5th and took severe punishment as the round ended. In the 6th round, Graff was rocked again by a big right hook from Cruz and sent down on the bottom rope. Graf was then given a standing eight count.
She staggered back to her corner as the round ended. Graf would continue to take serious punishment in the 7th, getting tagged at one point by 15 consecutive right hands to the head. Incredibly, the referee allowed the fight continue but it really should have been stopped in my view.
The 8th was another one-sided round with Cruz blasting away at Graf with right hands over and over again. In the 9th, Graf came back and appeared to win the rounds with her jab and forward motion. It was a close round none the less.
In the 10th and final round, Cruz moved around the ring picking Graf off with right hands to the head and out-landing Graf by a nine punch to three margin. Given that Graf was hurt in both the 5th and 6th rounds, and appeared to lose rounds 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 by a significant margin, I can’t see how two of the judges awarded Graf the victory. Graf was getting badly out-punched in pretty much every round and badly hurt in the 5th and 6h. Even the other judge that gave Cruz the victory by narrow margin of 95-94 seemed to be way off from the fight that took place.
This wasn’t a close fight by a stretch of the imagination. Graf was no match for the right hands from Cruz and had no defense for the American’s shots. For the most part, all Graf did in the entire fight was throw jabs. She missed with most of her efforts at landing power shots and out-worked in almost every round of the fight except form the 2nd and 9th.
This was a really bad decision. Cruz did all the punching in the 1st round, landing four punches to the head of Graf. For her part, Graf did nothing in the round other than circle the ring and miss with her shots. Graf was losing the 2nd round but then came on in the second half of the round to get the better of Cruz with a couple of right and left hands to the head.
From the 3rd round until the 9th, Cruz completely dominated the fight, hitting Graf over and over again with big right hands and out-working her by a huge margin. There was nothing close about any of these rounds because Graf was getting nailed repeatedly by clean right hands and wasn’t blocking anything.
Cruz didn’t need to throw a jab or a set up punch to land her right because Graf had no defense for it and was just getting hit solid every time. Cruz totally dominated the 5th, driving Graf to the ropes and going right hand crazy on her once she had her trapped there.
Graf was taking awful punishment near the ropes at the end of the round when Cruz suddenly staggered Graf with a big right hand to the head. Cruz then followed up four unanswered shots as Graf lowered her head and staggered slightly in the last seconds of the round.
It was a bad beating and the referee should have stepped in because Graf was out on her feet. The one-sided beating continued in the 6th round with Cruz nailing Graf with unanswered shots. Graf had absolutely no defense and I was wondering why her corner wasn’t stepping in to stop the bout because she was taking terrible punishment.
Near the end of the round, Cruz nailed Graf with a big right hand that first staggered Graf and then sent her down resting on the bottom rope. She was given a standing eight count by the referee. The round ended just after she received the eight count. Graf then staggered back to her corner looking completely out of it as she listed from side to side.
The 7th round was more of the same with Graf taking enormous punishment and doing absolutely nothing to defend herself or fire back with anything. The 8th round was close with Cruz out-landing Graff 11-7. I couldn’t give the round to Graf, because Cruz’s right hands were landing too cleanly without any hint of being blocked or slowed down by Graf’s gloves.
The punches sailed straight through Graf’s and snapped her head back each time. The 9th round was the only round in the fight where Graf landed more punches, getting the better of Cruz by a slim 11-10 margin. I gave the round to Graf, even through Cruz’s shots were coming in more cleanly and solid than the mostly jabs that Graf threw in the round.
Cruz didn’t waste time throwing jabs, her punches were pure right hand power shots. Cruz should have won this round too, because of her more solid shots landed. Graf was coming forward, but missing with a lot of her punches and throwing mostly jabs.
She made it seem like she was doing more than she was by grunting loudly each time she would throw a jab. However, Cruz was the one that was landing the harder shots in the round. In the 10th, Cruz moved around the ring throwing right hands on the move and catching Graf every time.
Cruz’s accuracy was quite excellent, as she never seemed to miss with her right hand even while circling the ring. Graf did very little in the round, stalking but only landing three punches. She threw a lot of jabs, grunted a lot, but missed most of her shots.
Overall, this was a really poor decision as I said, and one of the worse ones that I’ve seen ever.
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