By Scott Gilfoid: I don’t know what everyone is getting upset about, I totally agree with the Ali Funeka (30-2-3, 25 KO’s) vs. Joan Guzman (29-0-1, 17 KO’s) bout being scored a 12 round draw. In fact, that’s exactly the way I scored it on Saturday night. Funeka’s co-promoter said “Let me put it to you this way, Ali got screwed and he didn’t even get kissed.” But if they want to blame anyone, they should look at Funeka. He’s the one that decided to only jab the first six rounds of the fight. The vacant International Boxing Federation lightweight title was on the line for the fight, which took place on the undercard of the Lucian Bute vs. Librado Andrade bout at the Pepsi Coliseum, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

While Funeka was busy jabbing, Guzman was the one throwing power shots and landing the much heavier shots. I don’t know about you, but when you have to fighters throwing back at each other and one of them is mainly throwing jabs, I give the rounds to the other fighter every time. It wasn’t until the 6th round when Funeka started to throw power shots instead of jabs. By then, I had Guzman ahead five rounds to zero.

I do think that Funeka started battering Guzman at that point and appeared to dominate the next six rounds. However, with the fight on the line in the 12th and final round, Funeka didn’t fight as hard as Guzman and looked to have given the round away. In the last round, it was Guzman who was the one throwing power shots, pressuring and trying to make a fight of it.

Funeka could have easily stood his ground and fired back, but he mostly circled the ring and flicked out his jab and doing little. You got to give it up for Guzman. He fought with a lot of heart, even though he had a bad cut over his right eye and a bloody nose from the 4th round on. The cut, incidentally, was caused by a clash of heads in the 4th round. The blood, which turned Guzman’s white trunks a bright red. The blood slowed Guzman down in the second part of the fight because he often had to squint with his right eye to see out of it. Guzman looked slightly hurt in the 8th round when he was hit by a right hand from Funeka while trapped on the ropes. Still, Funeka failed to follow up with anything big enough to cause Guzman any more troubles.

But with the fight on the line in the 12th, Funeka was missing in action and didn’t meet Guzman’s charge. He basically blew it. The final judges’ score for the fight was 114-114, 116-112 for Funeka and 114-114, making it a majority draw. All Funeka had to do was fight his heart out in the 12th and he would have won it, but he didn’t. He had his chance and threw it away by letting Guzman control the final round. If it was me, they would have had to pull me off of Guzman because I would have been raining shots on him through every second of the 12th. After all, the vacant IBF lightweight title was at stake for the fight. Funeka should have gone all out in the final round.