The recent Katie Taylor vs. Delfine Persoon fight at New York City's Madison Square Garden was one of the best women's bouts, well, ever. Taylor, an Irish hero and 2012 Olympic champion, entered with three of the four major lightweight championships. Persoon, from Belgium, was the more experienced pro, coming in wth the other major lightweight title plus a 43-1 professional record. The fight itself was a high-skill slugfest, with blood shed by both women. Persoon finished up with a very badly swollen eye, but if post-fight body language was the deciding factor, Persoon would have been the clear winner. Instead, Taylor became the new undisputed world lightweight champion, just the seventh boxer in history to hold the IBF, WBO, WBA and WBC titles simultaneously. Taylor won by almost the slimmest possible mathematical margin-- a majority decision that was scored 96-94 (twice) and 95-95. 

 

But was the scoring correct? Seven-division champion Amanda Serrano, who stands to make the most money in her career by fighting Taylor next, confessed, "I don’t want to sound like a hater. I was totally rooting for Katie Taylor because that’s my fight to win but hats off to Persoon. I honestly thought she won."  Let's take closer look at the scoring...

 

Taylor-Persoon was a case of the polished boxer (Taylor) going up against the awkward aggressor (Persoon).  I describe Persoon as an awkward aggressor because her punches lack precision and her overall technique is sloppy.  But nevertheless, she is a true warrior and her unorthodox approach works for her.  Taylor ’s majority decision victory is considered controversial by some, because many thought that Persoon effectively imposed her will on Taylor and made her fight her fight.  And if you look at the last round, Taylor definitely looked like a beaten fighter.  But fights aren’t scored based on the appearance of a boxer at the end of the fight.  They are scored one round at a time with no regard for the momentum or the drama.  At times, Taylor effectively out-boxed Persoon, and demonstrated that she was the more skillful of the two.  At other times, Person suckered Taylor into exchanges and made it a sloppy affair.  A few rounds in this bout were very difficult to score.  While keeping an unofficial scorecard, I would sometimes hope that one of the fighters would do something significant so that the round would have a decisive winner.  Since some of these rounds were close, they could have gone either way.  If a judge were to give all of the close rounds to Taylor , because of simple math, she could have been declared the winner.  As it turns out, that’s what happened.  In my eyes, however, Delfine Persoon won this fight six rounds to four.  I feel badly that Persoon was denied what could have been a sweet victory, but in all fairness, I wouldn’t describe the decision as a robbery.  Below is a breakdown of my unofficial scorecard.  

 

ROUND 1 – Taylor 10-9

 

ROUND 2 – Persoon 10-9

 

ROUND 3 – Persoon 10-9

 

ROUND 4 – Taylor 10-9

 

ROUND 5 – Persoon 10-9

 

ROUND 6 – Taylor 10-9

 

ROUND 7 – Persoon 10-9

 

ROUND 8 – Persoon 10-9

 

ROUND 9 – Taylor 10-9

 

ROUND 10 – Persoon 10-9

 

TOTAL: 96-94 for Persoon

 

NOTE: Doveed Linder is the author of RINGSIDE: INTERVIEWS WITH 24 FIGHTERS AND BOXING INSIDERS, a trilogy of books, each consisting of 24 in depth interviews with various fighters, trainers, corner men, promoters, commentators, and officials, including “Sugar” Ray Leonard, Roy Jones, Jr., Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Kathy Duva, Angelo Dundee, Bob Arum, Emanuel Steward, Larry Merchant, Lou DiBella, Ann Wolfe, Joe Souza, J Russell Peltz, Gerry Cooney, Leon Spinks, Al Bernstein, Naazim Richardson, Harold Lederman, George Chuvalo, Steve Smoger, Winky Wright, Ronnie Shields, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Duane Ford, and Jackie Kallen.  The foreword for the first RINGSIDE book was written by Boxingtalk publisher Greg Leon, and is available on Amazon.com