By Jake Donovan
The handlers for Roberto Castañeda have filed an official protest over the circumstances surrounding his August 16 loss to Jose Lopez, BoxingScene.com was informed Monday evening.
Lopez survived four knockdowns and a point deduction to floor Castañeda three times in a wild eight-round majority decision in Caguas, Puerto Rico. The bout served as the televised co-feature to Felix Verdejo’s shutout win over Oscar Bravo, a headlining act that paled in comparison to the intensity of its chief support.
As more comes out surrounding the scoring controversy in Lopez’ narrow win, the bout will continue to remain in the headlines.
“Today, we officially contacted the Puerto Rico boxing commission to protest the outcome of the fight,” informed Alex Camponovo, Castañeda’s adviser. “We sent a note to the commission, to the representatives for the Association of Boxing Commissions, and the promoters of the event.
“We did this all for our kid, who worked too hard to be treated like that.”
Castañeda (21-7-1, 15KOs) has suffered all seven career losses in the span of his past 10 fights. He entered the Lopez fight on the heels of an eight-round win at home in Mexicali, but knew he was facing an uphill battle fighting Lopez on the road in Puerto Rico.
The Mexican slugger did his best to pull off the unthinkable, but quickly found out the deck was stacked against him. The 23-year old overcome a knockdown to floor Lope four times in the opening round, including at round’s end at which point the local favorite raced to his corner in hopes that the sequence was overlooked by referee Roberto Ramirez Sr.
Lopez didn’t get away with a fourth knockdown called, but was granted the benefit of sitting on his stool during the one-minute rest period while the referee issued a “sitting” eight-count.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Camponovo noted. “I mean, why not just give the guy a stretcher to lie down and relax?”
Because the bout was a non-title fight, the unified rules of the ABC were not in effect. Instead, the judges were ordered to score in accordance with the Puerto Rico Professional Boxing Commission (PRPBC) rules, with Castañeda being given credit for a 10-7 round.
That apparently wasn’t good enough, according to ringside judge Cesar Ramos, who has since come forward insisting the three officials were demanded to change the round to a 9-7 score. One card was changed, with allegations of it being ordered by Commissioner Jose ‘Toto’ Peñagaricano.
Upon further review of the official cards, the tallies of all three cards were changed after four rounds of action, reading 36-34 across the board rather than two scores of 36-35 and one card at 36-34, as was announced after four rounds through open scoring by the ring announcer.
The matter is under investigation, with Peñagaricano facing a possible suspension if not a permanent ban altogether if found guilty of such infractions.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox