Colbert wins horrendous decision over Valenzuela

By Scott Shaffer

26/03/2023

Colbert wins horrendous decision over Valenzuela

Chris Colbert W10 Jose Valenzuela... Jose Valenzuela appeared to deal a serious blow to the career of Chris Colbert, mostly dominating Colbert over ten lightweight rounds in Las Vegas on Saturday. Dismayingly, all three official scores went the wrong way, 95-94 for Colbert. The verdict was greeted by vociferous boos from the crowd and outrage from Valenzuela. Showtime's unofffical scorer, Steve Farhood, judged it 96-93 for Valenzuela. "He never hurt me once in this fight... I felt like I put it on him," said Valenzuela in his post-fight interview.  It was the second straight loss for Valenzuela who was coming off a loss in his last fight to Edwin De Los Santos.  Colbert (16-2) lost to Hector Garcia in last last fight, which took place more than a year ago. (Garcia went on to win the WBA 130-pound title, and Colbert moved up to 135 pounds for this fight. Colbert said he was willing to grant Valenzuela a rematch: "Let's run it back," he said while still in the ring.

Valenzuela nearly ended the bout in round one, knocking down Colbert early, and punishing him for the entire three minutes. Colbert survived, but over the first half of the fight had very few positive moments. The sixth round was another brutal one for Colbert, as Valenzuela teed off while Colbert stayed with his back on the ropes. Colbert's left eye began to close, but he managed to survive the attack and actually did pretty well over the last thirty seconds of round six. Colbert continued his good work in round seven. Colbert lost round eight but did well in rounds nine and ten, although he was hurt again just before the final bell. The scorecards were simply terrible and unfair to Valenzuela.