Tomas Molinares-Marlon Starling wrong result

[Graham Houston]

You have this listed as a no decision/no contest.

I was doing some research for Boxing Monthly yesterday and happened to be looking through Starling's file.

True, the New Jersey commission declared the fight a no decision after reviewing the tape showing that Starling had been knocked out by a punch thrown after the bell by Molinares.

However, the World Boxing Association upheld the original decision of a knockout win by Molinares ... referee Joe Cortez apparently believed that Molinares had thrown a punch that was started before the bell had sounded.

Maybe you might wish to put a clarification line in italics under the current bare result in the records of Starling and Molinares?

Molinares got the disputed win over Starling to become WBA champion in July 1988. He was scheduled to defend the WBA title against Mark Breland at Caesars Palace on Feb. 4, 1989. However, Molinares pulled out of that fight suffering from "severe depression" according to his manager, and he relinquished the title. (Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jan. 6, 1989.) Breland won the vacant title by stopping a Korean, Seung-Soon Lee, in the first round on the aforementioned Caesars Palace show.

I believe the Molinares-Starling result is wrongly recorded on BoxRec and that the result should be a KO6 win for Molinares.

Don't take this the wrong way but I have noticed discrepancies and errors in BoxRec over the years but I never knew how to bring them to your attention. I'm only trying to help, trust me. I want your site to be the best it can be, as do we all.

[John]

Hi Graham,
there is a full explanation of what happened in the system, just click on the little book to right of the bout, see
http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php?title=Fight:75731

As the state commissions are the only legal boxing authorities in the USA we are obliged to respect their decisions above those of sanctioning bodies as to the result of matches. Of course the WBA may do what they wish with the title but the result of the boxing match is the domain of the commission.

Cheers, John

[Emaster]

The same situation occurred with the contoversial Humberto Soto vs. Francisco Lorenzo bout, which was ruled a DQ win in favor of Lorenzo by the competent commission and an NC by the WBC.

BTW: BoxRec doesn't tag the bout as a WBC super featherweight interim title fight. Has the WBC really retroactively withdrawn the title fight recognition? Hasn't the title just remained vacant because of the internal NC ruling?

EDIT: The Soto vs. Lorenzo fight is now tagged as a title fight in BoxRec.