Judge Involved In Oscar Valdez’s Controversial Win Admits He Was Wrong

WBC judge Stephen Blea seeks apology for scoring the highly anticipated fight between Oscar Valdez and Robson Conceicao held in Tucson on Friday night.

Considering the fight was as close as it can get, everyone was stunned to see the 117-110 score in Valdez’s favor. The other judges had scored the fight 115-112 and 115-112 for the newly crowned champion.

Blea, who’s a Colorado resident, admitted that he did not give Conceicao enough credit in the contest.

In an open letter to the boxing community, the judge said that he has let down the NABF, WBC, both boxers and the sport for his inaccurate ratings.

“I have watched the fight and thoroughly analyzed it, the 117-110 score is not accurate and does not represent the actions in the ring,” he wrote.

“Close rounds – There were a few very close rounds in this fight and I made two mistakes, 1) not to score 10-10 in 2 rounds I felt there was not a clear winner, 2) scoring those to the champion giving him the benefit in the close actions.

“Crowd noise influence – It was a loud crowd in favor of Valdez, during the first rounds of the fight some actions took place in a corner in which I had limited view and couldn’t see some punches land by Conceicao and there was no crowd reaction, contrary to when Valdez landed,” he continued.

Boxing judges have been in the spotlight ever since WBA judge Gloria Martinez Rizzo was suspended following a controversial scorecard in the Gabriel Maestre-Mykal Fox saga and Boxing Scene uncovering past racist tweets.