Bad Left Hook

Of the many issues in last Saturday's WBC middleweight title fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Marco Antonio Rubio, the use of open scoring was one that raised a lot of eyebrows. The practice is endorsed by the WBC and used in many countries for their title fights, but is not approved by the Association of Boxing Commissions, and thus is not used in the United States.

But Chavez vs Rubio did feature open scoring, as the corners were told after the 4th and 8th rounds what the judges' scorecards were at the time. Usually, the scores are also announced to the audience, but that was not the case on Saturday.

WBC supervisor Alberto Leon spoke to BoxingScene.com's Jake Donovan about what went down:

"The Texas Commission approved the WBC’s request to use open scoring on a limited basis only for the benefit of the corners," informed WBC Supervisor Alberto Leon. "In fact, the (local) commission itself conducted the procedure that was used."

Rubio's team, which has several complaints right now (most notably a total lack of post-fight drug testing), says they were not aware that open scoring was going to be used for the fight. Yet another thing they apparently weren't up to speed on, which makes it all the more strange.

Why the Texas commission approved the WBC request is up for debate, but frankly it appears the Texas commission has just as much to explain, if not more, than the WBC for all of this mess. The Texas commission doesn't have the most sparkling reputation in boxing in the first place, with accusations of biased officials and lower standards for licensing than some states, and their role in what appears to some to be some kind of conspiracy meant to benefit Chavez isn't looking great right now. I have no idea what the role really is, but Texas and the WBC look like they're holding hands and skipping along with Julio down the yellow brick road right now.