World-rated junior welterweight Stevie ‘The Viking’ Spark 16-3 (14) was on the wrong end of dubious split decision against Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela 27-3-1 (16) at Estadio Akron, in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico on Saturday night.
After a last minute change of officials, the 26-year-old Australian has labelled the decision “incompetent” and “corrupt”.
Fighting on the undercard of the undisputed super middleweight championship fight between Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and challenger John ‘The Gorilla’ Ryder, Spark seemed to have the measure of his Mexican opponent despite being dropped by a body shot in the sixth round.
He rallied hard down the stretch, outlanding the 28-year-old local 176-86 in power department across the course of the fight, according to CompuBox.
When the scores came in, Valenzuela was announced the winner 96-93 (Erika Contreras), 95-94 (Ruben Cruz) and 94-95 (Jeremy Hayes).
But controversy has now erupted over the selection of the judges.
“We were meant to have the same judges as Canelo vs Ryder,” Spark said to Fox Sports Australia.
“We found out after we got out of the ring, they switched out two of the judges to the local commission. Both of those judges are from Guadalajara and they’re the ones that gave it to him.
“It was all in writing who was actually going to be judging and officiating the event. They tried to switch the referee, and we found out after that they switched the judges last minute, two local judges.
“[Promoter Matchroom Boxing] told us they’re going to look into the judge switching.
“You’re messing with people’s lives. Incompetent, corrupt whatever it may be, you change someone’s life. You’d like to see these people held accountable.
“I was a bit upset for about an hour, but you have to just pull yourself together and go again. I should have got [Valenzuela] out of there, but I’ll come again. This won’t affect my career.”
Head of Matchroom Boxing, Eddie Hearn, expressed his dismay at the judging debacle.
“I thought [Spark] won the fight,” Hearn said to iFL TV.
“I’m not actually happy because the officials were changed for that fight. They were supposed to be neutral officials and before the fight somehow they ended up being local officials and I’m not particularly happy about it.”
The consensus opinion on social media is that Spark did more than enough to secure the victory.
Speaking to Fightnews, former IBF 140-pound champion Lovemore Ndou said he felt Spark deserved the nod too.
“Spark dominated Valenzuela in nearly all the rounds and even when he suffered the knockdown he recovered well and came back to take control,” said Ndou.
“Spark should not be disillusioned by the loss because he has the talent to be a future world champion.”
With the controversial nature of the scoring and the backing of Matchroom, it seems unlikely that the loss will set back Spark’s career too much.