By Mark Vester

In one of the more controversial happenings in the last few months, Humberto Soto (43-7-2, 27 KOs) was disqualified in the fourth-round of his bout with Francisco Lorenzo (33-4, 14 KOs) on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The fight was the co-feature to Manny Pacquiao-David Diaz.

For all four-rounds, it was a one-sided fighted with Soto battering Lorenzo into a bloody mess. Lorenzo was dropped was dropped hard in the fourth, and after taking some more punishment, he decided to take a knee as Soto was throwing a combination of punches. Referee Joe Cortez would at this point stop the fight and claimed that Soto hit Lorenzo when he was down.

Cortez would take a few minutes to speak with Nevada State officials before issuing a disqualification call against Soto. Despite several television replays showing that Soto's punches never connected when Lorenzo was down, the result stood. 

The fight was for the WBC's interim-super featherweight title. Due to the controversial nature of the fight, the sanctioning body refused to give Lorenzo the title since the winner could ultimately become the full champion with Pacquiao [the current super feathweight champ of the WBC] moving up in weight and capturing the WBC lightweight title. The WBC will view the final result as a draw and have ordered an immediate rematch.