By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Mike Borao couldn’t believe his ears.
When he heard ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. state “119-108” on Saturday night, Borao assumed the fighter he manages, Matt Korobov, had upset Jermell Charlo in their FOX main event. There was no way, Borao figured, that a judge could’ve scored 11 rounds of those 12 rounds for Charlo.
Borao didn’t think it was possible Korobov could’ve lost eight rounds, either. Once the unanimous decision was announced, Borao, Korobov and the rest of the veteran middleweight’s team were left befuddled by the scoring of an extremely competitive 160-pound title bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“I thought Korobov won easily,” Borao told BoxingScene.com. “I thought he won eight rounds to four. Matt controlled the space in the ring and completely neutralized Charlo.”
Having spent decades in the sport, Borao realizes competitive rounds can go either way sometimes. He took issue, though, with Larry Hazzard Jr. scoring the fight 119-108 for Charlo.
Hazzard scored only one round, the fifth, for Korobov (28-2, 14 KOs). Hazzard also scored the 12th round, in which Charlo hurt Korobov early,10-8 for Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs).
“Boxing scoring is subjective, but 119-108 is outrageous,” Borao said. “When a judge submits a scorecard like that, he should never judge another meaningful fight again.”
Unofficial CompuBox punch stats credited Charlo with landing 42 more overall punches than Korobov (170-to-128). According to CompuBox, Charlo connected on more jabs (56-to-9), whereas Korobov landed more power punches (119-to-114).
Judges Max DeLuca and Steve Weisfeld scored the fight the same, 116-112 for Charlo. Houston’s Charlo retained his WBC interim middleweight title by fending off the skillful Russian southpaw.
As disappointed as Korobov and his team were following this defeat, Borao recognizes that Korobov boosted his stock within the boxing industry. Before Saturday night, he hadn’t competed in a high-profile fight since Andy Lee stopped him in the sixth round of their WBO middleweight championship match four years ago.
Korobov, 35, was particularly impressive because he faced one of boxing’s best middleweights on six days’ notice. Korobov took the fight only after Charlo’s original opponent, Willie Monroe Jr., was removed from this 12-round main event because he failed a performance-enhancing drug test.
“I’m very proud of Matt and his team for performing the way he did on one week’s notice,” Borao said. “Imagine if he had two weeks! But millions of people saw the fight on FOX and social media heavily skewed towards thinking Korobov won the fight.
“Based on that, Korobov’s career is in a better place than it was a week ago. And PBC and FOX provided Matt with massive mainstream exposure. He will get another big opportunity early in 2019.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
