Remembering the Juan Manuel Marquez vs Freddie Norwood controversial bout

By Boxing News - 09/11/2015 - Comments

marquez35By Gerardo Granados: Last week at the end of the Jamie McDonnell vs Tomoki Kameda bout there were odd scoring by boxing analyst who usually have a good eye. For instance Dan Rafael and Paul Malignaggi saw Tomoki as the winner of the bout while I saw it the other way around scoring it 117-110 for Jamie.

The official score cards had McDonnell winning a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 116-111, 115-112 and 117-110 but on the internet you could see different scoring giving the bout to Kameda or to Jamie McDonnell.

Sixteen years ago Juan Manuel Marquez and Freddie Norwood fought a decent fight but the defending WBA World featherweight titlist Norwood shut off many rounds, fought quite dirty and it’s odd to say but the one putting the pressure being the aggressor was Marquez.

Back in September 11 of 1999 Harold Lederman score this bout 115-111 for Marquez while Kevin Iole 115-111 for Norwood, I just saw the fight yesterday and score it 116-110 for Marquez. The official score cards had Norwood winning a Unanimous Decision, Judges Artur Ellenshohn had it 117-112, Stanley Christodoulou had it 115-111 and Duane Ford 114-112.

If the young fight fans haven’t seen this bout yet then you should search for it only if you like to score the bouts but if you expect to see a thrilling match up then perhaps you should better not watch it.

This bout was Marquez´s first shot at a world title and it took him more than three years to take another shot at a world title against former featherweight champion Manuel Medina for the vacant IBF feather strap winning by TKO7. I wonder what would happen to Marquez´s career if he had been given the decision that September of 1999.

Sometimes it could seem trivial for some fight fans the importance of how to properly score a bout, but the bright future of the boxing career of many of the young lions tend to depend on it when they don’t have an illustrious name inherited or when they aren’t backed up by an influential promoter.

There were a couple of rounds hard to score and others close but I clearly saw Marquez win that fight. But what about the reader, do you think the scoring was correct or was controversial?



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