diddy wrote:Solimon is a journeyman. Wade is clearly rather mediocre. So basically - who cares?
I know I'm bumping an old topic at this point and I hope you'll forgive me, but I'm watching fights a month behind because of a ridiculous increase in business lately, and some of the commentary on this board was frankly almost as ridiculous as the decision itself. Soliman is a journeyman???? How do you figure? He beat- nay- dominated Felix Sturm like a year ago, and would likely still have a belt and be ranked like #2 in the division if it hadn't been for a catastrophic knee injury and blatant robbery. If that's a journeyman to you, your standards are pretty strict. Manny Pacquiao is a journeyman by these standards.
I guess there were a lot of close rounds if you weren't watching all that close. It's not just that Soliman outworked Wade. He outlanded him, and with the exception of the odd straight right hand that landed with force in maybe 2-3 isolated rounds, Wade was eating the harder shots despite being the harder puncher. Oh yeah, and he was totally confused and getting backed up for almost the whole fight.
The knockdown call wasn't just questionable. It was wrong. I don't want to criticize Jack Reiss too hard for it, because maybe 40% of decent refs would still get it wrong in real time, but on replay it was a clear push/slip. I thought it was a push in real time, but wouldn't have bet anything on it. There needs to be replay for these calls (and not the total rubber stamp pretense that Argentina supposedly put in for the Martinez-Murray fight).
The 1st and 4th were the only truly toss-up rounds, with 2 and 8 being close but still clear. Jack Reiss made up everyone's mind for them on 4, and I already gave Wade the 1st. No way the fight was closer than 96-93 Soliman, or 97-93 Soliman if the right call had been made on the "knockdown." Robert Byrd should stick to refereeing, and Robert Hoyle should find a new line of work altogether. Not just because of this fight. He's out of bounds more often than he's reasonable, and that's not hyperbole. To wit:
1. He had Lamont Peterson vs. Victor Ortiz for Peterson (I could see the draw, but no way Peterson actually won that fight).
2. He had Jermell Charlo vs. Francisco Santana clearly too wide.
3. WAY too wide in favor of Mike Alvarado against Mauricio Herrera.
4. He was clearly too wide for Yuriorkis Gamboa in a close fight with Michael Farenas.
5. He had Diego Magdaleno 116-111 over Rocky Martinez in what I'd call a 70-30 type decision for Martinez, in a fight that was at least closer than that, in any event.
6. He joined Cheatham and Adelaide Byrd in slanting the Brinson fight significantly toward Wade (not necessarily out of bounds, but I had it a draw).
7. He gave JoJo Diaz a ridiculous 99-91 card in a close fight with Ramiro Robles.
8. He had Badou Jack clearly too wide over Jason Escalera.
9. He gave Mickey Bey every single close round against Miguel Vazquez to reach 119-109 in a fight I had a draw (even though I HATE Vazquez).
10. He turned in a card that didn't make numerical sense in Amir Iman vs. Fidel Maldonado.
11. He had Rex Tso beating Michael Enriquez 96-93 in a fight Enriquez more or less dominated on his way to getting horrifically robbed.
12. He had Mahonri Montes 96-93 over Ashley Theophane, which was plain silly. He also gave Montes a 10-8 round in the last round, which Theophane totally dominated outside the knockdown.
In lesser TV fights, he blatantly robbed Alvaro Morales against Andrae Carthron, and somehow found a phantom round to give Leonardo Chavez in Felix Verdejo's pro debut.
And those are just the botch-jobs I've made notes about over the past 5 years or so. There are probably a ton more before that, or that I didn't bother to put his name on.
