(Originally Published: September, 2017 @ Boxing.com)
In the boxing world, all is possible and in the boxing world of Chihuahua, Mexico, when it comes to an apparently beloved countryman against a visiting gringo, even the impossible is possible.
On Saturday night at Gimnasio Manuel Bernardo Aguirre in Chihuahua, fringe contender Carson Jones (40-12-3, 30 KOs) outworked, beat down, and bloodied up former welterweight champ, Antonio Margarito (41-8, 27 KOs)– appearing to make him quit on his stool between rounds seven and eight—only to lose a unanimous decision.
A fight that began even enough, with Jones and Margarito splitting the first four rounds, became increasingly one-sided as the Mexican battler began to tire significantly. A cut over his previously injured right eye, apparently caused by a headbutt in the second round, bled solidly throughout the fight and seemed to be a clear point of concern for the fighter from Tijuana.
In the fifth round, a point was taken from Jones for another accidental headbutt—a point taken with no apparent previous warning.
The point didn’t really matter, though. Or, at least, it SHOULDN’T have mattered as, by the fifth, Jones was in full control and chipping away at Margarito’s resolve with a fairly basic attack that was clearly wearing down the former world champ.
In the sixth and seventh rounds, Margarito seemed just about done. Despite a brief, but mostly ineffectual surge in the seventh, it was clear that Margarito was on his way to a TKO defeat as his forward plodding had given way to stiff-legged reception of increasingly heavier shots landing increasingly flush.
After the seventh, when the referee waved off the fight, standing over a slumped and exhausted Margarito, everyone—including the Spanish language broadcast team, which had been calling for the fight to be stopped—assumed that the bout had been ended at Margarito’s, or his corner’s, request.
Jones’ in-ring celebration turned to disdain as he discovered that, rather than a merciful ref decision or a smart corner stoppage, the bout was being waved off over the cut opened in the second round and would be going to the scorecards.
It was then that a second travesty occurred as the three judges in attendance had somehow scored the fight unanimously in Margarito’s favor by scores of 67-65, 68-64 and 67-65. This writer had the bout scored 67-65 in favor of Jones after the seventh.
Margarito’s frailer than frail comeback continues and he hopes to parlay this win into a big money rubber match with Miguel Cotto later this year.
Meanwhile, Jones goes back to the US with another loss and yet another sad boxing story to tell.
Σχόλια