Controversial End To Luevano Vs. Concepcion Match

                 The match itself was a bit lackluster after the first round.  Concepcion showed his power early on in the first round when he made the champion Luevano stagger twice, both times with a looping right hand shot.  But Luevano is called a thinking fighter for a reason, and he didn’t rush into his opponent.  Concepcion knows that and didn’t rush in as well.

                Both fighters were cautious in the next four rounds, and there wasn’t much action prompting the crowd to express their discontent.  In the fifth round, Concepcion once again made Luevano stagger as he hit him in the midsection, throwing him off balance for a second.

                It was only starting to get heated up when the referee called for a disqualification to Bernabe Concepcion, when he threw a couple of punches after the bell had rang for the end of the sixth round, knocking Luevano out, but resulting in the retention of the title by champion.

                Concepcion and his coach, Freddie Roach, argued that he did not hear the bell or the 10-seconds warning sound off.  Now, I’m not condoning the act of throwing punches after the bell rang.  But I think there should have at least been the benefit of the doubt given to Concepcion.  But, what’s done is done and the referee’s decision is final so everyone just has to accept what happened.

                There are of course, in my opinion, some fine points that should’ve been considered prior to giving the decision.

1.        The referee should have been watching the fighters even after the bell had already rang.  If you’ve seen the controversial end, you would have seen the referee was nowhere in between the fighters, when he should’ve stepped right in the middle the two.  Especially when the boxers were still face to face and in very close proximity to each other.

2.        Who’s to say that Concepcion lied about not hearing the bell?  With tensions getting thicker by the second, the adrenaline would be high on both men which could’ve led to them not noticing the bell sounding off.

3.        The way Luevano fell on his back was kind of not the way he should’ve fell down, given the way Concepcion hit him. Experts would see this.  He should’ve fell forward and not backwards.  Also it took him a bit longer to “decide” whether he’s going to fall or stay up.  Luevano has been hit by much powerful punches but didn’t go down.  Anyway, like I said, he is known to be a thinking fighter, so falling on his back and staying down probably was the best way to retain.

To end, as I said, what’s done is done and as controversial the decision may have been we all have

to accept it.  This was just my opinion on the matter.  I also give the benefit of the doubt to the referee.  He had to make a decision right away according to what he saw.  To me, these are just questions that I had to ask and not really expect answers to.