By Ronnie Nathanielsz

It turns out that Florante Condes who was beaten by  Raul “Rayito” Garcia in the Mexican’s hometown of La Paz and lost his International Boxing Federation minimum weight title actually lost by a split decision.

IBF Championship Committee Chairman Lindsey Tucker informed Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today that the confusion was caused by the fact that the ring announcer merely read the scores without naming the judges and their scorecards.

Tucker told us “the fight actually ended in a split decision” with Hawaii judge Abraham Pacheco scoring it in favor of Condes 115-112. Mexican judge Alejandro Lopez scored it 115-112 for Garcia which was the exact opposite of Pacheco.

The shocker was the scorecard of American Adelaide Byrd who scored the fight by a lopsided 118-110 score for Garcia despite the knockdown scored by Condes in the twelfth and final round.

Byrd has come under fire in the past for her judging. Respected boxing writer Doug Fischer referred to the Mike Arnaoutis-Ricardo Torres fight for the vacant  WBO 140 pound title which Torres won in a controversial split decision with Byrd penning what Fischer called “an absolutely ridiculous 116-112 whereas Harry Davis had Torres the winner 114-113 and Jerry Roth had Arnaoutis the winner 114-113.

Fischer claimed the Greek fighter was “outright robbed of a deserved title victory by the incredibly inept judging.”

We got the real score in the Condes-Garcia title fight after Tucker  responded to our inquiry as to how one judge could score the fight in favor of Garcia by such a wide margin and requested for the judge’s name . At the same time Tucker said he thought Garcia won the fight which is something that even Condes graciously accepted saying “I really lost.”

It was another instance where Condes showed his fairness, honesty and simplicity which endeared him to thousands of Mexican fans throughout his stay in La Paz.