Ringside Reporter Idec Recalls Torres-Holt I Debacle in Colombia

July 1st, 2008

Ringside Reporter Idec Recalls Torres-Holt I Debacle in Colombia
By Scoop Malinowski

Keith Idec, a respected newspaper columnist and magazine feature writer, was at ringside covering the infamous Ricardo Torres-Kendall Holt WBO Junior Welterweight championship match for Holt’s local newspaper The Herald News. Here is how he remembers the controversial finale of the fight which was “won” by Torres:

“Though Torres hurt Kendall Holt with a left hook with a little less than a minute left in the 11th round, referee Genaro Rodriguez should’ve stopped the action, at least temporarily, once fans started throwing cans, cups and plastic bottles into the ring,” says Idec, almost a year later. “Rodriguez was not in an enviable position, but safety should’ve been his foremost concern. The safety of both boxers, not to mention his own safety, was in jeopardy once ice cubes and liquids flew through the air (on September 1, 2007 in Barranquilla, Colombia – the champ’s hometown). Torres actually slipped on the soaked canvas while trying to finish off Holt. Rather than recognizing a dangerous situation, Rodriguez actually helped Torres to his feet and sent him back at Holt, without wiping off his gloves or adequately separating them.”

In boxing we have seen some unbelievably strange cases of bizarre officiating, and what happened in Colombia ranks right there amongst the worst, at least that’s the way I interpret it having heard Idec’s story again now and shortly after he returned last September.

“The stoppage shortly thereafter was suspect, too, as Holt, while tiring and clearly just trying to survive the round, was on his feet and trying to fight back. Had Holt been dropped again, Rodriguez would’ve been justified in stopping the bout. But how do you deny a challenger who’s winning on two of three scorecards in the champion’s hometown at the least the opportunity to go down swinging? It wasn’t as if Holt had taken an inordinate amount of punishment throughout the fight. And Torres’s left hook was the only truly flush punch Holt absorbed in the 11th round.”

Eddie Futch once told me they turned out the lights in Puerto Rico when hometown hero Sixto Escobar was about to get knocked out by K.O. Morgan in a world bantamweight title fight in 1939. “Morgan knocked Escobar down in the 4th,” Futch told me in 1996. “Sixto was unconscious. Then all the lights went out in the stadium. The fighters went back to their dressing rooms. They found someone had pulled the switch to avoid the champion losing by KO. When they resumed, Escobar stayed away and they gave him the decision.”

In Colombia, instead of a man pulling the light switch, a hooligan in the crowd threw an object at Holt. “The most potentially dangerous blow Holt had to withstand in the fight came in the sixth round, when he was struck directly in the face with a can of beer while waiting for Rodriguez’s count on a floored Torres. The fact that not a single WBO official seated ringside was watching Holt in the neutral corner while Rodriguez was counting is inexcusable. The 11th-round fiasco might’ve been prevented had a WBO official seen Holt hit with the beer can, because they could’ve announced a warning to the crowd about throwing things into the ring.”

“The shame of all this for Torres is that the stupidity of some of his fans seated ringside cost him any shot he had at a legitimate TKO win against Holt. And unfortunately for Billie Chams, Torres’ co-promoter, the controversial conclusion ruined what until the fight started had been a very smooth, professional promotion.”

Now, ten months after the fiasco in Colombia, Holt, thanks to Top Rank and Bob Arum, has the opportunity for redemption and justice that K.O. Morgan was denied. Torres and Holt will battle again this Saturday July 5 in Las Vegas, televised by Showtime. Torres (32-1, 28 KOs) will defend his WBO crown for a third time against Holt (23-2, 12 KOs) who is hoping to become New Jersey’s first world champion since The New York Giants of the NFL – and first world boxing champion from The Garden State since Arturo Gatti.