WBO President concedes judge screwed up Abraham-Smith

Arthur Abraham took a controversial win over Paul Smith this past weekend. Once the scorecards were read, the bemoaning began. It eventually hit enough of a fever-pitch that the current WBO President, Paco Valcarcel, ended up having to make public statements that the sanctioning body would have to investigate and review the scores of the bout. It didn't take long before Valcarcel admitted that at least one judge blew it.

"Regarding Abraham v. Smith, I assure you that I review each and every scorecard for WBO title fights," said Valcarcel.

"Fernando Laguna screwed up on Saturday night and 35 years in boxing have taught me that anyone can have a bad night - but not two. Our WBO officials should be aware of this."

Laguna was the judge that turned in the 119-109 scorecard in favor of Abraham, one that raised more than a few eyebrows. It even overshadowed the other two 117-111 scores that were also highly questionable.

Despite all this, it isn't clear if anything will actually come of it. Paul Smith and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, are hoping to get an immediate rematch with Abraham, but Abraham himself has been a bit wishy-washy about it. Supposedly, Abraham verbally agreed to an immediate rematch at the post-fight press conference, but has also been very vocal about meeting the winner of Stieglitz-Sturm.

Sometimes I wonder what boxing would be like sans the controversy...