Bad arithmetic discovered; Barrera is winner



Rocky Juarez lost his second fight in a row and is 25-2, with 18 knockouts.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera and challenger Rocky Juarez left the ring Saturday night believing they had fought to a draw. So did the crowd that had cleared out of the arena.
Their fight initially was ruled that way, with judge Duane Ford scoring it 115-113 for Juarez, Anek Hongtogkham giving Barrera the edge 115-113, and Ken Morita scoring it even at 114-114. But it was announced some 15 minutes later that Morita's scores had been added wrong, and that his correct total was 115-114 in Barrera's favor to give the champion a split decision.
Even the score announced for Ford's card turned out to be 115-114 for Juarez instead of having him winning by two points, although that difference didn't affect the outcome.
When the draw was announced, there was booing from those in the crowd of 10,617 who thought Juarez had landed far more telling punches than Barrera, whose face was bloody and swollen by the end of the bout.
Incredulous
"I don't believe this. Who could believe this?" said Juarez, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist from Houston. "I had been thinking that [a record of] 25-1-1 was OK, with the one draw against a legendary fighter like Barrera.
"But to come back to the dressing room and tell me that I'd lost by a point is very disappointing, very upsetting. When I was walking out of the ring, everybody was saying, 'Good fight, you won.' I wonder how they would have reacted if they'd heard that I lost the decision."
Barrera predictably had a different take on the final scoring.
"I always respect the decision of the judges. They added the scores wrong. We're all human, we all make mistakes," Barrera said through a translator. "I'm satisfied with the decision."
There were no knockdowns, but Juarez rocked Barrera several times, bloodied his nose and puffed up his left eye. Juarez appeared unmarked at the finish.
The 32-year-old Barrera, from Mexico City, raised his record to 62-4, with 42 knockouts. The 25-year-old Juarez lost his second in a row and is 25-2, with 18 knockouts. He weighed 1291/2 pounds and Barrera weighed 129.
Earlier on the card, Jorge Rodrigo Barrios took only 49 seconds to knock out Janos Nagy in the co-main event. Barrios landed a solid left hook to Nagy's right side, Nagy looked stunned, and Barrios landed the same punch in the same spot.
Nagy sank to his knees and remained there while he was counted out to an increasing crescendo of boos and whistles.
Barrios, who weighed 129, improved to 46-2-1, with 33 knockouts. Nagy, 1293/4, is 23-1, with 14 knockouts.
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