Here you will see the official master scorecard for the Ike Quartey/Vernon Forrest fight, which took place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York last Saturday night. The fight was televised on HBO World Championship Boxing.
The official cards, as you will notice, reflect a narrow decision victory for Forrest (96-93, 95-94 twice). I had scored the fight 95-94 Quartey (as you can see on my unofficial card at the bottom of this post), while others such as HBO's unofficial ringside judge Harold Lederman gave Quartey much more credit than I did, with a score of 97-92. The following is an illustration of the official master scorecard.
Click on image to enlarge.
From this observer's perspective, without the point deduction for the low blow by Forrest in the 9th round, Quartey would've deserved a draw in that fight. However, the officials did not quite see the fight from the same perspective. The ninth round was undoubtedly the most critical round of the fight. Whether you liked Quartey's effectiveness in the first half of the round, or Forrest's rally in the last minute to save the round as an even round, score totals of this fight could conceivably swing either way. The fight was close.
Therefore, I can not exactly label that decision made by the judges, a decision that prompted aggitated fans in the crowd to angrily chant "bullshit," a highway robbery (ala Holyfield vs Lewis I or Foreman Briggs, two of the biggest highway robberies of the 90s), but I will admit that Quartey was once again on the wrong side of another close and unpopular decision, just as he was seven years ago with Oscar De la hoya. I thought he deserved to win a close decision in the De la hoya fight, too.
Certainly this was not one of those robberies that warranted immediate investigation. I would, however, care to see a rematch.
Quartey just can not seem to catch a break when it comes to being in close fights in America. In October of 1997, Quartey was forced to settle for a draw with Jose Luis Lopez, in a fight in which Quartey clearly won atleast eight rounds.
With all of the business being conducted from 147lbs to 154lbs (which you will read a bit more about later on), involving all of the other big players in the neighboring classes, Quartey and Forrest seem to be left alone solely for each other for the time being. Let's see a rematch with a much clearer winner. Here's to hoping Quartey doesn't fall into obscurity for another 14 to 16 months as a result of this.
My scorecard for Forrest/Quartey read as follows:
Round 1: 10-9 Forrest
Round 2: 10-9 Quartey Total: 19-19
Round 3: 10-9 Quartey Total: 29-28 Quartey
Round 4: 10-9 Forrest Total: 38-38
Round 5: 10-9 Forrest Total: 48-47 Forrest
Round 6: 10-9 Quartey Total: 57-57
Round 7: 10-9 Forrest Total: 67-66 Forrest
Round 8: 10-9 Quartey Total: 76-76
Round 9: 10-9 Forrest/1 point deduction from Forrest = 9-9 Total: 85-85
Round 10: 10-9 Quartey
Total: 95-94 Quartey (5-4-1 in rounds).
Ouma vs Powell scorecard
Round 1: 10-9 Ouma
Round 2: 10-9 Powell Total: 19-19
Round 3: 10-9 Powell Total: 29-28 Powell
Round 4: 10-9 Ouma Total: 38-38
Round 5: 10-9 Ouma Total: 48-47 Ouma
Round 6: 10-9 Ouma Total: 58-56 Ouma
Round 7: 10-9 Ouma Total: 68-65 Ouma
Round 8: 10-9 Ouma Total: 78-74 Ouma
Round 9: 10-9 Ouma Total: 88-83 Ouma
Round 10: 10-9 Powell
Total: 97-93 Ouma (7-3 in rounds).
No controversy here, as you can clearly see.
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