Scoring takes punch after the final bell

LAS VEGAS.

Marc Ratner was in the press room at MGM Grand Garden hours before the big fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night.

Ratner used to be the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission and one of the most respected figures in boxing. He resigned more than a year ago to work for Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed martial arts company that is about to start doing business with HBO.

Still, Ratner was used to running around before a big fight in Vegas, taking care of countless details.

“I feel like I should be doing something,” he said.

“Stick around,” I told him. “I’ve got a feeling they’re going to need you tonight.”

Well, they sure could have used somebody.

Mayweather won a split decision over De La Hoya in a competitive but not great fight. I scored the fight eight rounds for Mayweather to four for De La Hoya, 116-112, the same as judge Chuck Giampa.

Judge Tom Kaczmarek scored it 115-113 for De La Hoya and judge Jerry Roth 115-113 for Mayweather. If Roth had scored the final round for De La Hoya, as had the two other judges, the fight would have ended in a draw.

A number of writers at ringside also scored it a draw, but I didn’t think it was that close. As the bout went on, Mayweather dominated the action, keeping the fight in the center of the ring and tiring out De La Hoya, who tried to stalk Mayweather and put him in the corners and against the ropes.

I am not a big fan of the Compubox punchstat numbers, but they overwhelmingly favored Mayweather. He landed 207 punches over 12 rounds to 122 by De La Hoya. Of those punches by Mayweather, 138 were considered power shots to 82 for De La Hoya.

I had predicted chaos for the evening and nearly nailed it. The circus, however, took place after the fight, when it was discovered that the judges’ scorecards were copied and handed out at ringside after the fight and had the fighters in the wrong color corners.

There is a red corner and a blue corner. De La Hoya was in the red corner, Mayweather the blue. But on the scorecards distributed after the fight, Giampa and Roth had the red corner — De La Hoya — winning and the blue corner — Mayweather — the loser.

Richard Schaefer, a partner in the De La Hoya company that promoted last night’s fight, then stood on the ring apron to announce that the scorecards were wrong, sending everyone into a panic.

Schaefer spent nearly 20 minutes with one employee from the Nevada Athletic Commission who was responsible for copying the scorecards and eventually came away satisfied that it was “an honest mistake.”

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