Chopped and Funeka'd

Posted by Ryan Bates on 11.29.2009

Ali Funeka was on the very short end of a very painful stick on Saturday night, and Gary Shaw is steaming mad at the majority draw decision.

From the third round on, Ali Funeka was comfortably in the driver's seat of his lightweight title bout Saturday night, making former world champion Joan Guzman look less like a titlist and more like a speed bump on the way. But instead of picking up the IBF lightweight belt at the drive-thru and cruising into the sunset, Ali Funeka collided head-first into a brick wall constructed by three ringside judges whose scorecards were at the very best dubious.

Funeka's co-promoter, Gary Shaw, had stronger words.

"Ali got screwed and he didn't even get kissed," Shaw said in a press statement dripping with careful and deliberate repression. "Ali got robbed. One reporter told me, 'This decision was so bad it made the Diaz/Malignaggi decision look legitimate.'"

Demanding a formal investigation and reparation by the IBF, Shaw added, "We must stop robbing fighters, sending them home with nothing but shattered dreams instead of the rewards they earned in the ring."

The majority draw decision between Funeka and Guzman for the IBF title struck a chord with many viewers, as many people had Funeka far enough ahead that even judge Joe Pasquale's 116-112 seemed uncomfortably close.

Fellow promoter Lou DiBella took to his Twitter and called the decision "inexcusable horsesh*t," claiming, "Ali Funeka got screwed tonight like Whitaker got f*cked against Chavez." HBO announcer and head of the "Boxing After Dark" broadcast team Bob Papa even referred to the decision on the air as "curious and absurd."

Golden Boy Promotions, Joan Guzman's promoter, finds themselves in the same hot water as they did when Juan Diaz won a controversial, or tainted depending on who you ask, victory over Paulie Malignaggi in Houston just a few months earlier. Like Diaz/Malignaggi, Golden Boy Promotions has not yet released a formal statement.