Yoan Pablo Hernandez Upsets Steve Cunningham Via Suspect Technical Decision
by Scott Christ on Oct 1, 2011 5:05 PM EDT
in Boxing Results and Post-Fight Analysis
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Yoan Pablo Hernandez is the new IBF cruiserweight titleholder, but the circumstances of his win are not exactly bringing about celebration from boxing fans.
Hernandez won the title from Steve Cunningham after six rounds via technical decision, winning on scores of 58-55, 59-54 and 56-57. Bad Left Hook had it 57-56 for Cunningham at the time of the stoppage, and it would be damn hard to convince most anyone that Hernandez won four of the six rounds, let alone five of six.
Cunningham (24-3, 12 KO) was floored hard in the opening round by a left hand counter from Hernandez (25-1, 13 KO), and it appeared that he wouldn't make it back to his feet. But he did, and referee Mickey Vann let the fight continue. Hernandez tried to close the show, but Cunningham just barely held on, and made it out of the round.
By the fourth round, Cunningham was in a solid groove and taking control of the action. A hard clash of heads opened a cut high over Hernandez's temple in the third round. The Cuban pawed at the cut a lot, but it didn't seem in a place that was badly affecting his vision or anything.
Now there are two things at play here:
- The headbutt was ruled accidental, but -- and this is no knock on Cunningham -- it could easily be viewed as intentional. He came in pretty hard with it and those heads smashed together. Should Mickey Vann have ruled that intentional, even docked points?
- Vann could easily have stopped the fight in the first round as Cunningham flopped around like a fish out of water. So why didn't he? The cut was not so bad that the fight should have been stopped, and when it was, confusion reigned. Vann is the referee who threw the towel back out of the ring during the Katsidis vs Earl fight. Why the sudden rush of caution from him?
After the fight, Cunningham said he felt like he was "set up" and that he'd "been had," questioning why the fight wasn't stopped earlier, before it would have gone to the scorecards, and why it was stopped when it was. These are questions people are going to have, quite frankly, and it's hard to blame them. Something isn't quite right here, whatever it is.
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One more week, one more controversy
Should we have our heads checked for staying loyal to a sport that seems to make everything in its power to make fans go mad?
Come to MMA
Come to the dark side. GIVE IN.
Instead of writing dumbass poems and sucking off JMMA fighters, i should instead recognized the greatness that is Anderson Silva. The Pride is by far the most knowledgeable commentator on this site and you should all bow before him
so there isn't any skill or sport in mma?
by Mohammedini Hussein on Oct 2, 2011 5:22 AM EDT up reply actions
Pre-emptive ban on soapboxing about the ignorance leading to a misunderstanding leading to anyone who doesn’t like MMA being wrong, since Matt has said he likes MMA.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
okay sorry
I needed to be checked. ;)
by Mohammedini Hussein on Oct 2, 2011 5:50 AM EDT up reply actions
Haha it’s cool. It’s just we’ve all heard it. I think most of us here are at the very least perfectly content with the idea that MMA exists. I think the worst thing I’ve ever seen re: MMA on our site is “I just don’t care for it much.”
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Oct 2, 2011 6:05 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
yeah you are right
but I have been on a lot of forums were they bash mma openly.
So I have become a little sensitive/paranoid lol ;)
by Mohammedini Hussein on Oct 2, 2011 6:57 AM EDT up reply actions
We love boxing damn it :P
I think most of us, love boxing but we don’t mind watching a good MMA fight.
I am excited to see how does UFC do with their Fox Sports deal.
The timing couldn’t be better given that the NBA is just shooting themselves in the ass with their lockout.
I hope that ESPN can reallocate some money to boxing if it is a season long lockout.
"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."
i love both sports
but the judging and reffing in MMA isn’t any better
The cuts didn’t appear to be getting any worse, that was the thing. Vann could have stopped it after the 3rd if he thought Hernandez couldn’t continue (which he clearly could continue, and if it had been stopped it would have been harsh on Hernandez after the first round.) My initial thought was that Hernandez quit or his corner pulled him out, he had the look of a fighter that didn’t want to go on, and had the fight gone on it really wasn’t looking good for him. Maybe that wasn’t the case but something wasn’t right.
I’ve watched the fight now, and don’t feel it’s that scandalous really. In the sixth round, another cut appeared from an accidental clash of heads. The ringside physician then recommended stopping the fight as a constant pouring of blood into the eyes of hernandez meant a considerable disadvantage for him. The ref followed this recommendation. And it was absolutely OK to judge the fight in favour of Hernandez to this point of time.
Maybe it’s felt as such controversial because shortly before there was this – obviously highly controversial – draw?
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
The scoring for Hernandez was incompetent no matter what else you think happened. I could see 57-56, but not 58-55, and definitely not 59-54.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
59-54 was certainly over the line. 58-55 is somehwat biased for me, but not completely indefensible. I think 57-56 is the score I’d give, and this is pretty close to the average actual cards.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
Steve Foster 57-56 Cunningham
Dave Paris 58-55 Hernandez
Some Polish judge 59-54 Henandez
Brits had a dodgy night in Germany :(
Well I don’t feel like calling this a robbery. Cunningham had been lucky already not to be given a knockout in the 1st round, and he’s been lucky that the headbutts weren’t ruled accidental. And he can’t really complain about the result of the judging, either. Stopping the fight for this reason was certainly quite uncommon, but it was done by a judge who had been quite friendly to Cunningham before (see above). All in all, this just doesn’t seem very scandalous to me.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
The ringside physician totally screwed this one up. Check out his <a href=“http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7045823/yoan-pablo-hernandez-wins-ibf-cruiserweight-title-split-technical-decision”?explanation to the AP:
Ring doctor Walter Wagner said he recommended the fight be stopped.
“The cuts weren’t dangerous but the blood could have run into the eyes and affected his vision. I think the head clashes that the referee felt were accidental weren’t entirely accidental. You can have different opinions there. Hernandez was at a disadvantage from the cuts, so I gave the recommendation,” Wagner said.
(1) The cuts weren’t dangerous?
(2) The blood could have run into the eyes?
(3) The clashes “weren’t entirely accidental” (that’s relevant to the ring doc’s decision how?)
(4) “Hernandez was at a disadvantage from the cuts” (maybe, but since when is that the standard for stopping a fight on cuts?).
That’s just terrible.
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