Showtime analyst Antonio Tarver had the fight scored 114-112 for Pascal, Stephen Brunt of Toronto's Globe and Mail had it even at 113-113, and Dan Rafael of ESPN.com had it in Hopkins' favour at 114-112. The fight was simply that tight.
Here is an excerpt from Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.com:
"We now know this about Hopkins: He can still fight. He didn't get robbed in Canada. For all of Hopkins complaining about the referee, for all of Richard Schaefer's huffing and puffing about seeking legal remedies to overturn the decision, Hopkins got a fair shake. Two judges scored it a draw while another gave Hopkins a narrow win. Screwed? The New York Daily News's Tim Smith had Hopkins by a point, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Don Steinberg had Pascal by the same margin. Me? I had it even."
Et ceci:
Let me try and set the record straight on some misguided information which has made its way into the media.
1. Fact: the referee is a Canadian named Mike Griffin. Mike is undoubtedly one of the best referees in the world, bar none!! His job in this fight was perfect. His nationality made absolutely no difference in the fight. In fact his work was beyond exemplary.
2. Fact: there were three appointed judges for the fight. One American, one Canadian and one neutral judge from Belgium. These judges are appointed by the WBC and not the Quebec Boxing Commission. It appears by the scorecards, that the only one who was biased was the American judge. He had Pascal only winning three of the first five rounds and only gave Pascal one round the rest of the way. With that being said he still had the fight close at 114-112.
3. Fact: The Canadian judge should be commended for his neutrality in submitting an even 113-113. His card virtually matched the neutral judges card round for round, in fact the Canadian judge gave Hopkins the 10th while the Belgian judge scored it even.
4. Fact: Bernard Hopkins won more rounds than Jean Pascal. However, boxing is scored by points and not by rounds. The two knockdowns scored by Pascal early clearly made the difference and saved his titles in the end.







