By Scott Gilfoid: Last nights’ bout between International Boxing Federation bantamweight champion Joseph Agbeko (27-2, 22 KO’s) and undefeated challenger Yonnhy Perez (20-0, 14 KO’s) was one of the worst scored fights I’ve seen since the Carl Froch vs. Andre Dirrell bout on October 17th. Agbeko, the 29-year-old champion, was making his third defense of his IBF title at the Treasure Island Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Agbeko appeared to land the cleaner shots in every round of the fight except for the 2nd and 12th round. However, Agbeko was knocked down in the 10th round after clashing heads with Perez and turning his back on him in pain. The referee didn’t have a clue what had happened and thus didn’t stop the action. This allowed Perez to tee off on Agbeko while he had his back turned towards Perez.

Agbeko was dropped by a left hand while still with his back to Perez. Although not exactly sporting, the knock down stood because the referee didn’t see the head butt occur and never stopped the action. I scored that a 10-9 round because Agbeko had dominated the entire round until the head butt occurred. The rest of the fight was dominated entirely by Agbeko, who landed the cleaner shots throughout.

Perez threw a lot of shots but most of them missed badly. The final judge’s scores were 117-111, 117-110 and 116-111. The scoring was a joke and it was shocking that the scores were so far in Perez’s favor. After the fight, Agbeko rightfully thought he had won the bout and said he wants a rematch. I doubt it will happen right away, though. Perez, 30, will likely take an easy defense and then probably take on Agbeko again.

Both fighters threw a ton of punch in the fight, but Perez’s shots mostly missed and even when he did land, his punches weren’t landing as clean as Agbeko’s shots. I’m no fan of Agbeko, because I wasn’t impressed with his performance against Vic Darchinyan in July, a fight that Agbeko won by a narrow decision. However, I still think Agbeko did more than enough to beat Perez last night.

I personally scored the fight 9 rounds to 3 for Agbeko. Agbeko stayed on top of Perez and just kept nailing him with punch after punch from rounds one through the tenth round. Perez only appeared to win the 2nd, and that was by a razor thin margin on my card. After that, Agbeko dominated the action and easily won all the rounds until the 10th when he clashed heads with Perez.

The referee was too far away from the action at the time and didn’t see the head clash. When Agbeko turned his back on Perez, he was wide open for Perez’s shots. Some fighters might not have done anything, but Perez took advantage of the situation and dropped Agbeko with his back turned. But even with the knockdown, Agbeko appeared to easily win the fight. It was a terrible decision.

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In other action on the card, number #1 WBC lightweight contender Antonio DeMarco (23-1-1, 17 KO’s) stopped number #2 contender Jose Alfaro (23-5, 20 KO’s) in the 10th round of what turned out to be a dull, one-sided fight for the interim World Boxing Council lightweight title. DeMarco, a 23-year-old skinny 5’10” stork-like lightweight, used his height and reach to dominate the shorter 5’7″ Alfaro for 10 long rounds.

Alfaro, 25, just was unable to land with any consistency in the fight and was tagged repeatedly over the course of the fight while attempting to land his shots. In the 10th round, DeMarco dropped a tired and beaten Alfaro three times in the round before it was finally stopped by referee Joe Cortez at 2:07 of the round.

There was little action in the opening round as neither fighter did a whole lot, just standing and staring at each other, stinking up the joint. In the 2nd round, DeMarco suddenly got a little confident after hitting Alfaro with a hard left hand and then attacked him with a flurry of shots, most of them missing wildly. From the 3rd round on, DeMarco totally dominated the fight using his long each a lot of movement to spear the height limited Alfaro.

It was really dull to watch for the most part because Alfaro was just too short to land anything and he didn’t press the action as hard as he should have if he wanted to beat the tall DeMarco. Having seen DeMarco get battered by more aggressive fighters, it was clear that Alfaro was using the wrong approach to fighting him. To beat DeMarco, you need to go right at him and batter him on the inside.

However, Alfaro made the mistake of staying on the outside where he was picked clean by DeMarco all night long. Alfaro ended up making DeMarco look much better than he actually is. DeMarco is a good fighter, but he’s very beatable against pressure fighters and fighters with power. Alfaro basically gave the fight away by staying at the distance and not pressing the rail thin DeMarco.

In the 10th round, Alfaro’s left eye was swollen and his face reddened from the shots he had eaten in the bout. DeMarco tagged Alfaro with a big right hook that sent Alfaro into the ropes. Seconds later, DeMarco dropped Alfaro with a big shot to the head. The action resumed with DeMarco having his way with the hurt Alfaro.

DeMarco then connected with a big left hook that put Alfaro down for the 2nd time in the round. Surprisingly referee Joe Cortez let the bout continue and DeMarco took advantage of it by landing a flurry of shots to the head of the now defenseless Alfaro. Finally, Alfaro took a knee in the corner to escape the battering. At that point, referee Joe Cortez stepped in and halted the bout at 2:07 of the round.

While it was an impressive punching display by DeMarco, I give him zero chance of beating WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero. DeMarco is going to get decapitated when the time comes for them to fight.