Castillo robbed of world title by dodgy scoring

THE Soccer World Cup kicked off on a relatively low key in Brazil on Thursday overshadowed by the controversy of fresh allegations of corruption over the awarding of the 2022 Qatar bid.

These new developments have confirmed suspicions that the awarding of such games can be tainted.

Tainted decisions seem to be worming their way into every sporting code judging by the recent scoring in the female WBA interim welterweight title clash between Noni Tenge and Oxandia Castillo in East London last weekend.

Castillo was arguably robbed of victory despite totally dominating the bout and wobbling Tenge on numerous occasions, with the local boxer surviving by holding for the better bout.

But not a single judge rewarded the 19-year-old Dominican Republican lass for the efforts she put forth, despite the Orient Theatre crowd seeing her as the overwhelming winner.

The only judge who came closest to rendering a correct outcome was Spanish official Reyes Garcia who turned in a 95-95 scorecard but he was overruled by his South African colleagues Siya VabazaBooi and Wally Snowball who saw Tenge a winner by 96-94 and a ridiculous 97-93 respectively.

The outcome was one of the worst in a region notorious for being biased against visiting boxers and it reinforced what has always been said about judging of bouts in East London – that a

part

of

a

one-sided foreign boxer should annihilate their opponent in order to get a fair result.

Interestingly, a trainee judge had Castillo winning all the 10 rounds contested with a 100-90 scorecard.

It is yet to be seen if Castillo’s camp will lodge a protest with the WBA over the controversial scoring as other aggrieved camps usually do.

However, due to apathy shown to women’s boxing, it is unlikely that the WBA will take any action.

But one thing for sure about the Dominican Republican lass is that she is probably regretting ever agreeing to come to Africa.

Now her fight record will forever be tainted by a loss that never was.

When

Manny

Pacquiao

was clearly robbed against American Tim Bradley in their 2012 of their WBO welterweight title clash, the WBO ordered an investigation into the scoring.

Then again that was probably done because the bout involved Pacquaio whose fights generate a lot of revenue and interest.

Incredibly Tenge does not understand what the hullabaloo is all about regarding a fight which she believed she won.

After the outcome was announced she celebrated by greeting her fans oblivious of the disdain with which the rest of the spectators regarded her.

Had she done the honourable thing and given the belt to Castillo she would have earned applause for not supporting the outcome.

She should have taken cognisance of the disdain that befell Bradley after insisting that he deserved the victory over Pacquaio.

Bradley was derided for not distancing himself from the controversy and the stigma remained with him in his following bouts as fans refused to buy his pay per view fights against Ruslan Provodnikov and Juan Manuel Marquez in protest.

This hit him hard in the pocket until he had to give the Filipino hero a rematch which he lost.

While East London will long be associated with this black eye in boxing, the reaction of local fans once again proved their deep love for the sport for openly slamming the outcome even though it favoured their own boxer.

They are the true supporters of boxing.