Boxing News: Questionable Judging Mars Entertaining Timothy Bradley-Diego Chaves Bout

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Timothy Bradley Jr. fought Diego Chaves to a majority draw at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas Saturday night, which amounts to “Desert Storm” not getting the benefit of the doubt on the judges’ scorecards.

The fight capped off a HBO Boxing card that featured another questionable judging decision by the Nevada Athletic Commission, who gifted Jose Benavidez Jr. a unanimous decision victory over Mauricio Herrera, with scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 117-111.

Related: Timothy Bradley vs. Diego Chaves Round-by-Round

The judging in the main event wasn’t as laughable, as Chaves did come to fight. The Argentinean improved upon his poor performance against Brandon Rios in August, but ultimately was outboxed by Bradley. Sherdog.com, along with HBO Boxing’s Harold Lederman, saw the fight in favor of the California native.

In the end, judge Burt Clements scored it 115-113 for Bradley, Julie Lederman had it 116-112 for Chaves, and Craig Metcalfe had it tied at 114-114.

“I thought the decision was horrible, but hey, I’m not a judge man,” Bradley said after the fight. “I felt like I controlled the fight, landed the better punches, I felt I won the fight.”

When asked why he chose to keep the fight inside, banging in close quarters and likely playing to the hands of Chaves, Bradley said it was in an effort to wear out his opponent.

“My corner told me to close the gap on him and wear him down because he was in really good shape for this fight. I tried to come inside, smother him, because that’s what my corner told me to do,” Bradley said. “I feel like I won the fight clearly, the judges saw it differently, so there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m going to go back to the drawing board, talk to my coaches, see what they have to say about it.”

As is to be expected, Chaves thought he too deserved to be given the win, telling Max Kellerman through an interpreter that he felt he was better than Bradley in different facets. It’s worth pointing out that Chaves did work over the right eye of Bradley, eventually leading to it closing up fully.

“I felt it was a pretty even fight, but I felt like I was superior in many periods of the fight,” Chaves said. “I think we needed the intensity late in the fight because we thought the fight was even.”

Earlier in the telecast, Andy Lee shocked Matt Korobov and the boxing community by stopping the Russian to claim the vacant middleweight title.