Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. pulled off a unanimous decision victory over middleweight contender Brian Vera on Saturday in Carson, Calif. However, the sports of boxing was once again under scrutiny after the judges' scorecards drew criticisms from boxing analysts and fans, who believed the fight should have been close, if not, awarded to Vera.
Chavez Jr. who returned inside the ring after his loss to Sergio Martinez along with a 9-month suspension for testing positive for marijuana might have bagged his 47th career victory but not the approval of majority of the crowd at Stubhub Center.
Thousands of Mexican fans attended to witness the much-awaited return of the son of Mexico's boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., but they ended up seeing a heavier and flat-footed Chavez Jr.
Chavez Jr, who weighed in at 172.4 pounds on Friday, looked like a cruiserweight or perhaps a light heavyweight inside the ring. On the other hand, Vera weighed in at 171.2 pounds, but he was the more agile fighter in the match.
Vera came out on fire in the early rounds, landing good shots on Chavez's big head. But the Mexican bounced back in the middle rounds of the scheduled 10-round bout as he fired solid punches on the jaw of incredibly durable Vera.
The two engaged in toe-to-toe confrontations in the eight, ninth and 10th rounds, but Vera seemed to have an edge in those mano-y-mano sequences.
The three judges scored the bout all in favor of Chavez 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92, receiving boos and jeers from majority of the crowd.
"I think they know what happened in this fight, and I feel that I won," Vera said after the fight according to ESPN. "I was better than him, boxing-wise, and he hit me with a couple of shots because I was being very aggressive, because I felt I had to do that to beat him at his house," he added.
"I'm disappointed. I'm winning, and my trainer told me I was the winner. When I heard the 98-92 card, I felt they were going to steal it. I felt sick," he added.
CompuBox statistics indicated Vera was the busier and effective fighter, landing 176 shots of 734 punches throws. On the other hand, Chavez landed 125 out of 328 punches.
ESPN writer Dan Rafael was again critical about the outcome of the match, even calling the 98-92 scorecard of Marty Denkin as bad as CJ Ross' 114-114 score on Floyd Mayweather's majority decision win over Canelo Alvarez 2 weeks ago.
"Just imagine if Marty Denkin (98-92 for Chavez) & CJ Ross (where do I begin?) had a kid together and the kid grew up to be a #boxing judge," posted Rafael on his Twitter account.
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