Judge Carlos Sucre’s 117-111 for Estrada over ‘Chocolatito’ heavily criticized

Juan Francisco Estrada (left) and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (right) embrace after their 12-round boxing thriller in Dallas, Texas. | Matchroom Boxing

Just dismal judging in Texas. Again. I wouldn’t envy boxing judges…


Juan Francisco Estrada (left) and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (right) embrace after their 12-round boxing thriller in Dallas, Texas.
Juan Francisco Estrada (left) and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (right) embrace after their 12-round boxing thriller in Dallas, Texas. | Matchroom Boxing

Just dismal judging in Texas. Again.

I wouldn’t envy boxing judges on a night when Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada put forth one of the great 12-round wars in recent memory. They broke a super-flyweight record for most punches thrown (2,529) in what was undeniably a back-and-forth classic.

But this is boxing and this is Texas. Judging and officiating has always been an issue in the Lone Star State and there were some really poor scores on the undercard. Sadly, the main event was no exception.

You could have made arguments either way for 115-113 or even a draw. Judge Jesse Reyes had it 115-113 for Gonzalez, David Sutherland had it 115-113 for Estrada, but the widely criticized score belongs to Carlos Sucre’s 117-111 for Estrada. There were a lot of close rounds but absolutely no one had it that wide for Estrada and certainly not that same margin for Chocolatito, either.

Here are the official tallies:

There is no way that you can justify a clean sweep for Estrada from round 8 onward like Sucre did. Just absolutely inexcusable, especially when Estrada was the one hurt in the final frame. Even more puzzling is that all three judges gave Estrada rounds 9-10, which many observers believed should’ve gone to Gonzalez or at least been split. Ironically it was Estrada’s corner suggesting he needed a KO with a couple of rounds to go, and indeed it was Chocolatito who needed the KO entering the 12th.

It’s not a robbery by any means, but the process involved in the scoring leaves much to be desired on Sucre’s part and to a lesser extent both Sutherland and Reyes. This was the only blemish on what was a truly spectacular contest.

And yes, even though Sucre judges in multiple states, it is only fitting that he is based out of Florida. It really takes some doing to make Texas judging worse but a Florida Man can make anything possible.

To isolate to Sucre, here are some tweets ripping into his scoring:

Watch the highlights and see for yourself just how brilliant the fight was and frankly how way off Sucre’s scorecard proved to be.