Batyr Akhmedov hoping to secure immediate rematch with Mario Barrios

Junior welterweight contender Batyr Akhmedovisn’t happy with the way he lost his chance at a world title (albeit a secondary world title) during this past weekend’s Errol Spence vs. Shawn Porter undercard. Akhmedov has since watched a replay of his unanimous decision loss to Mario Barrios, and is even more convinced than before that he should’ve rightfully won that fight.

The official judges turned in scorecards of 116-111, 115-111 and 114-112 in favor of Barrios, who scored two knockdowns in a fight that he was otherwise getting handled in. BLH scored the fight a draw, 113-113 on two separate scorecards, which I personally thought was a very easy fight to score. The crowd also made their displeasure known when they booed Barrios’ win.

“I worked my whole life to become a world champion and when the opportunity came, I clearly won the fight,” Akhmedov said Wednesday. “I dominated the fight from start to finish. Re-watch the tape as I have and see how bad Barrios was hurt in every round. After the 10th round, he wanted to quit, he was so badly beaten. I don’t even think the judges watched the fight.”

Now this might is oversold a bit from Akhmedov. In fairness, it appeared that Barrios rightfully won the first four rounds of the contest in pretty clear fashion. But from the fifth round onwards the action clearly favored Akhmedov, who appeared to have Barrios close to folding towards the end of the fight.

To his credit Barrios managed to land a good counter in the 12th round that he was losing, dropping Akhmedov for a second time, and for me that was just enough to earn Barrios a draw rather than a loss. But an official win for Barrios obviously didn’t sit well with a lot of people, particularly with Barrios up several points on the official cards despite being down big on CompuBox numbers (Akhmedov landing 238 of 924 total punches while Barrios landed 135 of 772.

Vadim Kornilov, who manages Akhmedov, shared his thoughts on the outcome of the fight:

“This is the height of incompetence. These judges needed to be immediately held responsible to the full extent permitted. They stole the world title from Batyr,” Kornilov said. “Look at the photos from the fight and after the fight. Barrios did not win that fight and his whole team didn’t even expect to get their hand raised.

”Barrios is [medically] suspended and cannot enter the ring for the next six months. How is he going to defend his championship? He cannot fight for medical reasons due to injuries suffered in the fight, and Batyr could fight next month if the opportunity was given.”

Kornilov says their plan is to now file an appeal with the WBA, hoping they will grant an immediate rematch considering the circumstances.