Hector Camacho Jr. Has the Heart the Size of a Pea - Page 2
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Suddenly, as Smoger asked Camacho Jr.'s corner to clean the water on the canvas in their corner, from the side of the ring opposite Camacho Jr., promoter Dan Goossen of America Presents frantically waved for Camacho Jr. to stay in his corner. Goossen obviously knew the rules. If the fight was stopped on an accidental head butt after five rounds, the scorecards to that point would determine the winner.
But Leija had to be winning clearly on the scorecards, right?
Maybe, Goossen, who is Camacho Jr.'s promoter, had sneaked a peek over the judge's shoulders and saw that Camacho Jr. was amazingly ahead on all three scorecards.
Or maybe it was planned that way from the beginning.
At that point, the referee Smoger and the ring doctors stopped the fight.
It was the first time in 25 years of covering boxing that I ever saw a promoter stop a fight.
The judges scorecards somehow had it 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47, all for Camacho Jr. Two judges only gave Leija the fifth and final round, which was ridiculous, since Camacho Jr. was almost KO'd in the first round.
HBO's TV judge Harold Lederman went ballistic after the fight.
"I have no problem with the stoppage of the fight," Lederman said. "You can't make a fighter fight when he's complaining of blurry vision. My problem is with the judges. I had the fight 48-47 for Leija. I can't believe the scorecards."
A sampling of the ringside reporters had Leija almost unanimously winning 48-47, which was also Suite101.com's tally.
Leija corner was visibly angry after the fight.
"He quit," said Lester Bedford, Leija's manager, of Camacho Jr. "His manager and promoter told him to quit. The ring doctor let Camacho Jr. talk him into it. He had already agreed to let the fight continue. That's incompetence. There'll be a rematch, but it sure as hell won't be in New York."
"I'm a man," Leija said, when he was interviewed by HBO's Larry Merchant in the ring after the fight. "I fight through it when I'm cut. When the referee says fight, you fight. Five cuts, tens cut. This is boxing. We're men. We're supposed to fight."
