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By Scott Shaffer
04/02/2006
Jose Armando Santa Cruz and Edner Cherry both earned the right to call themselves warriors after twelve rounds of back-and-forth action in El Paso, Texas on Saturday. Santa Cruz survived a knockdown to win the twelve-round lightweight war by unanimous decision. Santa Cruz out boxed Cherry, but his efforts were hampered by a third-round knockdown, and when Santa Cruz was badly hurt in the eighth round, boxing went out the window and he traded punches toe-to-toe with Cherry for long stretches. Santa Cruz composed himself for the twelfth round and outboxed Cherry to make sure the decision was his. The official scores in this early fight-of-the-year candidate were 114-113, 115-112 and 117-110. Showtime's unofficial media judges had Cherry winning by split decision. Official judge Jesse Reyes deserves harsh criticism for his biased 117-110 verdict. Given that Santa Cruz went down in the third and was practically out on his feet in the eighth, Reyes was bending over backwards to give every round to Santa Cruz. source: Showtime
