HUMBERTO SOTO vs FRANCISCO LORENZO

One of the most shocking miscarriages of justice in boxing history is likely to be put right in Mexico on Saturday when Humberto Soto meets Francisco Lorenzo in a rematch for the vacant WBC 130-pound title.

Soto’s disqualification loss against Lorenzo in Las Vegas in June still resonates within the boxing community.

The decision by referee Joe Cortez that night will never be forgotten by those who saw it.

Lorenzo, battered and bloodied, totally out of the fight, was awarded the “win” because Soto hit him with a glancing blow to the top of the head as the veteran from the Dominican Republic was on the canvas.

If Cortez had simply waved the finish, no one would have said a word. When Soto threw the last punch, the fight was over, for crying out loud. Yet Cortez called for a time out and conferred with Nevada state athletic commission officials at ringside and Lorenzo, realising he had a chance to get a favourable result via the back door, went into a swooning routine, acting as if he had had been hit on the head by a baseball bat.

Unfortunately, Soto did take aim at a downed opponent, but as Emanuel Steward pointed out in the HBO commentary, Lorenzo had been bobbing up and down like a cork in the sea and it was not unreasonable to assume that Soto, in the heat of the moment, wasn’t sure if his opponent was all the way down — or whether he was about to spring back up again, jack-in-the-box style.

That night I actually felt sickened by boxing. I know I wasn’t alone. Emanuel Steward almost trembled with indignation in his HBO comments.

Over in Britain, the outspoken pundit Steve Bunce apparently was almost apoplectic with anger in the TV studio.

Soto’s disqualification was aberrant and abhorrent. (Oddly, on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas, Juan Manuel Lopez seemed to hit Sergio Medina with a severe shot when his opponent was down but referee Cortez let it go — fair enough, because Medina was not going to last much longer, but a little inconsistent, one might say.)

Now, by order of the WBC — which refused to recognise the DQ — Soto and Lorenzo meet again.

There seems to be no way that Lorenzo can win. A stocky, muscular fighter, he has had success outhustling and outworking opponents — including an upset win over Nate Campbell — but Soto is too big, too strong, too young, too powerful and too good for the 37-year-old Lorenzo, as he demonstrated in the first meeting.

Lorenzo isn’t going to be able to outpoint Soto and he cannot outpunch him, and there is about as much chance of Soto getting disqualified this time as there is of me being hit on the head by a falling star.

This fight is all about matters being put right, as they were when Roy Jones Jr. obliterated Montell Griffin in their rematch.

The only question, for me, is how Soto will get the win.

I am not at all sure we will see another four-round beatdown. Soto brought a lot of intensity into the ring that night in Las Vegas. He was absolutely “on”. It wasn’t the same Soto in his next fight, when he laboured against fellow-Mexican Gamaliel Diaz. He got the stoppage win but he was a bit lacklustre. Maybe he was still feeling the mental letdown of the win-that-wasn’t.

If Soto’s performance on Saturday is similar to the one he gave against Diaz, I think that Lorenzo might linger a bit longer than most people think.

Lorenzo knows what is coming. He will be doing a lot of moving, a lot of ducking and diving. I think that he will be hoping that he can keep away from Soto, bother him with an occasional slapdash flurry and somehow sneak out a win.

I do believe, though, that Soto will be more motivated for this fight than he was for the one with Diaz.

This is payback time for Soto. My guess is that he will have rekindled the flame that he showed in Las Vegas. I think that Lorenzo is going to be overwhelmed once again, but this time with the better fighter not having victory snatched away from him by an officiating atrocity. I believe that Lorenzo, with survival on his mind, will last longer than four rounds this time, but probably not too much longer. I think that Soto will stop him in six to nine rounds, with six the number that seems likeliest.