Rewind to December 26th, Boxing Day, and fans witnessed two things in Bangkok, Thailand: a great action fight and a terrible, hugely controversial decision. In a year-end battle for the vacant WBC 108-pound title, hometown fighter Panya Pradabsri, AKA Petchmanee CP Freshmart, was handed a 12-round majority decision over Venezuela’s Carlos Canizales. The decision – 116-112, 115-113 for Pradabsri, the third judge having it even at 114-114 – fooled no one, not even Pradabsri’s home fans, who booed the decision when it was read out.
In a nutshell, this was a serious case of home cooking, and for Canizales, who fought in a relentless manner, with his punches busting up Pradabsri’s face, with the co-challenger rocking his rival numerous times, it was a crime that not one single judge had him winning the fight. Immediately after the verdict and the inevitable controversy and fan outrage, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman released a statement in which he said he was far from happy with the performance of the three scoring officials and that he would order an immediate review.
Now, as per a news story from Ring Magazine’s website, Sulaiman has ordered a rematch between Canizales, 27-3-1(19) and Pradabsri, 44-2(27). The rematch was ordered today, and the two sides now have until February 18th in which to reach a deal and avoid the need for a purse bid.
It’s great what Sulaiman and his organization have done here, but it is to be hoped the rematch takes place somewhere other than Thailand; if not Venezuela, then at least somewhere neutral. That said, when the world is watching, and a bad decision goes down, there is nowhere for the three scoring judges to hide. Oftentimes, when we make a bad decision after it receives a hammering from the fans, nothing happens, and people forget how angry they were. Here, at least, the rematch has been ordered to take place.
As to who wins the return fight, if Canizales fights as well as he did the first time, he should, with three capable and fully unbiased judges sitting ringside, get the win this time. The win Canizales so clearly deserved just under a month ago.