Official Miscopied Scores

The error that caused Marco Antonio Barrera’s split-decision victory over Ricardo “Rocky” Juarez on Saturday night to initially be announced as a draw occurred in the transfer of the judges’ scores to the master scorecard, said Armando Garcia, executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission.

Judges Ken Morita and Duane Ford each scored the 12th and final round a draw, marking down 10 points for each fighter on their individual scorecards.

Commission official Rebecca Alvarez had the responsibility of copying that score on the master sheet.

With Juarez’s name on the left side and Barrera’s on the right, Alvarez saw the 10 under Juarez’s name and assumed Barrera had gotten a 9 because even rounds are rarely given by judges.

The correction, which added a point to Barrera’s final total, didn’t change the outcome on Ford’s card.

Juarez still was the winner, 115-114, instead of the original 115-113.

But it did change Morita’s card and thus the outcome of the Staples Center fight, because the third official, Anek Hongtogkham, had Barrera winning, 115-113.

Instead of the 114-114 tie initially announced after adding up Morita’s card, the added point gave Barrera a 115-114 edge and thus a split-decision victory that allowed him to retain his World Boxing Council super-featherweight title.

“Rebecca Alvarez is my most loyal and my most trustworthy employee,” Garcia said. “We were rushed at the end. There were a lot of things going on. But it was an error. And that’s all it was.”

Immediately after the fight, Garcia had said the error resulted from improperly adding the point totals.

-- Steve Springer