The World Boxing Association (WBA) have temporally suspended judge Carlos Sucre, following his wide scoreline of 117-111 during Saturday’s Juan Estrada-Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez rematch.
After a closely-fought and early fight of the year contender, Estrada edged his rival by split decision to add Gonzalez’s WBA ‘Super’ title to his WBC Super Flyweight crown at American Airlines Center, Dallas, over eight years from their first bout, which Chocolatito won by unanimous decision at Light Flyweight.
Judge David Sutherland scored the bout 115-113 in favour of the victor, whilst judge Jesse Reyes returned a 115-113 card for the Nicaraguan, however judge Sucre’s scorecard of 117-111 caused some controversy and the WBA suspended him on Sunday, amid an evaluation of his performance.
“I asked the Officials Committee to evaluate the fight although I think it is not necessary,” WBA President Gilberto Mendoza said via a statement published on their website.
“It was a great fight, very close. We have to respect “Gallo” Estrada, who made a great effort.
“In this case the judges favored him, however I sent a temporary suspension while Sucre is heard, because big shows and fights like this one do not deserve the kind of score he gave. His decision was misguided yesterday.”
CompuBOX punch stats showed that ‘Chocolatito’ landed 77 more punches overall than the champion (391-314) and 22 more jabs (39-17).
‘El Gallo’ said post-fight he would open to a third fight with Gonzalez, however is first set for a trilogy with WBC mandatory challenger, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai with the scores level at 1-1.
The three-weight world champion also admitted that he thought the fight may have been scored a draw.
“I thought maybe it would be a draw. But it went my way and now we can look forward to a trilogy,” the 30-year-old said in the post-fight press conference.
“I know I have a mandatory fight with Rungvisai, and after that, we can probably close the year out with a trilogy fight.”
Four-weight world champion, Gonzalez believed he did enough to win the fight, but had no major complaints with the result.
“It was a better fight than the first one,” the 33-year-old told DAZN post-fight.
“I felt strong and I felt I won. The last round I gave it all it was a great round.
“That’s what God wanted, the result is what God wanted.”
