On Saturday night, middleweight J’Leon Love captured his first title when he claimed the NABF strap with a close, many say controversial, decision over Gabe Rosado. When the split decision verdict was announced, a loud chorus of “Boo’s” were heard throughout the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Particularly disturbing for many was the 97-92 score given by one judge in favor of Love.
No matter who won the fight, it was clearly a close one. A knockdown in the sixth round was enough to sway the decision in Rosado’s favor in the minds of many. But two of the three judges saw it in favor of Love, and that is all that matters. Love remains undefeated as a pro, and Rosado was left scratching his head, loser of consecutive fights.
Following the rest of the night’s action, which was capped by Floyd Mayweather winning a much easier decision, a press conference was held with most of the night’s participants. Both Gabe Rosado and J’Leon Love attended, and their fight was the focus of a lot of the discussion among both journalists and fellow fighters.
Most of his colleagues offered support to Rosado, telling him they felt he had won the fight. And when talking to the media, Rosado said the same. Although respectful to Love following an often heated build up to the fight, he was particularly bitter towards the one judge who had scored the fight in favor of Love in such a lopsided fashion. The loss has to be particularly frustrating for Rosado considering the career resurgence he had enjoyed prior to his back-to-back losses.
As for Love, he understandably was less bothered by the scoring. As he mentioned, all he can do is fight. The scoring is something that is out of his control, but in his opinion, despite the knockdown, he had done enough to take the decision and capture the belt.
This was a big step up in class for J’Leon Love, who until this fight had been in the ring with fighters designed more to build a resume than to possibly defeat him. Escaping with a vitory, and dealing with adversity both in and out of the ring should be a great learning experience for the Detroit boxer now training out of Las Vegas.
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