Sometimes, despite the combat being brutal enough, it can also just be a hard luck sport. Hank Lundy didn't catch any breaks this weekend after an accidental headbutt in the first round opened up a big cut on Herrera, which eventually forced the fight to be called off in the fifth round. I had Lundy winning at the time of the stoppage, but the judges didn't, so Herrera took the victory with two scorecards of 48-47 in his favor and one having it knotted up at 48-48.
The first cut on Herrera came from an accidental head clash between the two men in the very first round. After Lundy managed to land some punches on the cut during the subsequent rounds, the cut worsened to the point it was really just a flap hanging over Herrera's eye. This forced the doctor and referee to step in to end the fight during the 5th round. Because the fight went into the fifth round and had to be stopped due to an injury caused by the accidental foul, the fight went to the scorecards.
"He stung me in the first round and I kind of lost focus," Herrera, THE RING's No. 8-rated junior welterweight, admitted after the fight. "I started finding my momentum as the rounds went on. But, the issue with the cut really made the fight lose its rhythm and momentum."
At the time the fight was stopped, Lundy was sure that he had won the fight and was celebrating triumphantly. It was an ugly fight, a little hard to score, but Lundy didn't get his name called at the end of it and became visibly upset.
"You saw it. He couldn't handle my speed, my power or my skills so he was holding and doing a bunch of other dirty stuff," Lundy said after the HBO Latino-televised fight. "I know I won the fight, and I was ready to take him out if it kept going."
With the win, Herrera earned the NABF title and called for a fight with Lucas Matthysse whom he says he has figured out from their history of sparring. Hank Lundy has to go back to the drawing board.