Judge Carlos Sucre Suspended by WBA over Estrada vs. Gonzalez Scorecard

The WBA temporarily suspended judge Carlos Sucre following Juan Francisco Estrada's split-decision win over Roman Gonzalez.

WBA President Gilberto Jesus Mendoza issued a statement:

"I asked the Officials Committee to evaluate the fight although I think it is not necessary. It was a great fight, very close. We have to respect 'Gallo' Estrada, who made a great effort. In this case the judges favored him, however I sent a temporary suspension while Sucre is heard, because big shows and fights like this one do not deserve the kind of score he gave. His decision was misguided yesterday."

Sucre scored in favor of Estrada 117-111, a noticeably wider margin than the other two judges. Jesse Reyes went 115-113 for Gonzalez, while David Sutherland had the same score for Estrada.

Sucre's call received heavy criticism on social media:

Gonzalez not only threw but also landed more punches than Estrada, landing 391 blows to 314 for his opponent. He also had a 352-297 edge in power punches.

Of course, pure volume doesn't necessarily speak to which fighter was better. As Reyes and Sutherland's scorecards would indicate, the result could've gone either way on the slimmest of margins. But to score so overwhelmingly toward Estrada doesn't portray what happened.

While not on the same scale in terms of the attention drawn to the fight, Sucre's suspension will likely draw parallels to Adalaide Byrd's infamous 118-110 score for Canelo Alvarez when he drew with Gennady Golovkin in September 2017.

Byrd was removed from consideration for fight judging shortly thereafter but returned at UFC 222 in March 2018.