BEIBUT SHUMENOV W12 (split) GABRIEL CAMPILLO

I’m not one to bash judges. I thought Juan Diaz beat Paulie Malignaggi in Houston. I had Nikolai Valuev eking out the win over Evander Holyfield. I made Ali Funeka beat Joan Guzman by only 115-113 — not the landslide that most saw. I didn’t think Felix Sturm was robbed against Oscar De La Hoya.

On Friday night, though, I saw a decision that shocked me. Two Las Vegas judges decided that Beibut Shumenov had done enough to beat Gabriel Campillo in their WBA light-heavyweight title bout. I just couldn’t see it that way. For me, Campillo was a clear winner.

Some scoring controversies can be fuelled by the TV commentary. I thought, though, that the veteran Bob Sheridan did a good job on the Fox Sports Net broadcast. He reminded viewers that Shumenov was starting the rounds strongly and that Campillo was winning the later part of the rounds. Would the judges like the first half of the round or the last half? Fair enough. The TV commentary had Campillo a clear winner. This was one time when I agreed with the commentary.

Of the three scores, New Mexico judge Levi Martinez seemed to have the most accurate interpretation: 117-111 in favour of Campillo. Las Vegas judge Jerry Roth — one of the world’s best — saw it 115-113 in Shumenov’s favour. I thought this was a case of a good judge having an off night. Then came Patricia Morse-Jarman’s score of 117-111 in favour of Shumenov. It was a mind-blowingly bizarre scorecard. Are you trying to tell me that Campillo won only three of the 12 rounds? Am I going out of my mind or was Morse-Jarman watching a different fight?

Look, this was a tough fight, and it was a competitive fight. Shumenov showed all the guts in the world. He was strong and heavy-handed. The fighter from Kazakhstan landed some hefty hits to the body. Even though many of his punches were going on arms and gloves, at times the sheer weight of his blows was pushing Campillo back. Campillo, though, was the man who was controlling the flow of the fight.

Here is how I saw it. I saw Shumenov making some great efforts, really letting his hands go and usually winning the first half of each round. I saw Campillo very calm and composed, blocking a lot of punches, very seldom, getting hit cleanly to the head, letting the storm abate, then coming on to back up and at times beat up Shumenov.

I thought that Campillo looked the better fighter, the more seasoned, the one who always had the situation in hand.

For me, Campillo outscored and outfought Shumenov. (Old-time fight guys would have probably said that he outgeneralled him.) He was more accurate. He surely landed the greater number of punches on the target area, at times putting in sustained bursts of punches from his southpaw stance.

A fight shouldn’t be necessarily judged on how banged-up the fighters look at the end — Willie Pep looked in a shocking state after his rematch with Sandy Saddler but he clearly outboxed the harder hitter. It is worth pointing out, though, that Campillo was unmarked apart from a cut over the left eye while Shumenov had a welt under the right eye, a bloody nose and seemed to be bloody inside the mouth.

Where I would fault Campillo was the way he eased off in the 10th round after having Shumenov almost ready to be stopped in the ninth. What Campillo should have done was to have kept the pressure on Shumenov and tightened the screws. He let the tough and courageous Kazakh back into the fight. It was a serious tactical error.

Still, Campillo surely did enough to win. The fight reminded me a lot of the rematch between Winky Wright and Shane Mosley, which was another hard fight. Mosley fought well but was mostly blasting away at Wright’s defensive shield, and Winky would come on to land quick punches from his southpaw stance to pull out most of the rounds.

The fighters’ body language at the end told the story. Campillo had the look of a man who was totally sure he had won; Shumenov had the slightly slumped, head down look of a fighter who felt he had come up short.

I admired Shumenov’s grit and his never-say-die spirit, he fought well and he somehow managed to dredge up the stamina and determination to fight back from the terrible ninth round. He’s a true fighter. Unfortunately — as I saw it — he didn’t win the fight.