By James Blears

WBC President Jose Sulaiman has announced that the Board of Governors will vote whether the Humberto Soto vs. Francisco Lorenzo fight will be a no contest, or Soto will be declared the winner by knockout.

Don Jose declared that referee Joe Cortez's decision to disqualify Soto was an act of gross injustice, and one of the biggest injustices he’s seen for a long time. He also stressed: “They should have also accepted the WBC rule of instant replay, and if they had, then they would have seen what happened. As it was a WBC Interim Championship, the decision for the world is our’s. The decision for the municipality is theirs’. We reviewed the TV instant replay and we found that there was absolutely no reason for the disqualification. In fact, Lorenzo had gone down to the canvas, refusing to fight.”

Don Jose was also puzzled by the actions of Cortez. He said: “He intervened twice to stop the fight when they were exchanging blows. There was no clinch. So I don’t understand that in a referee with so much experience.”

When questioned about the possibility of a rematch between the two, Don Jose replied: “I don’t know if Lorenzo would like the rematch, after what happened, because he was really getting a beating the likes of which I’ve seen very few times in recent boxing. In the third and fourth round, it became a one-sided fight.”

The decision of the WBC Governors is due within seven to ten days.