If you missed the fight between Shane Mosley and Oscar de la Hoya, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a gross miscarriage of justice.
The truth, as so often in boxing, is far more complicated.
Mosley won a controversial points decision in Las Vegas - the three judges scoring a tense, tactical fight 115-113, 115-113, 115-113.
But the result was met with shock and anger by De la Hoya's camp and promoter Bob Arum and with jeers from sections of the crowd.
Team Mosley looked slightly bemused and it took the new WBC and WBA junior middleweight champion a few seconds for the announcement to sink in.
An apoplectic Arum called the decision "the garbage end of a sewer sport", while De la Hoya hinted he may hang up his gloves and is calling for an investigation into the judging.
However, one of the allures of boxing is its ambiguity, and here is one observer who thinks Mosley was good value for his win.
In his post-fight interviews, De la Hoya pointed to the computer statistics and the fact that he had out-punched Mosley over the 12 rounds.
But professional bouts have never been decided by computers and punch counts, and the heavier and more telling blows were landed by Mosley throughout.
True, De la Hoya had the better of the early rounds, but there was little action and at one point referee Joe Cortez responded to boos from the crowd by imploring the pair to fight.
All three judges gave Sugar Shane the final four rounds, when the challenger's power began to tell and De la Hoya started to wilt.
And boxing's Golden Boy looked ready to fall in the ninth and was rattled again in the 12th by three savage right hands from Mosley.
The irony of De la Hoya threatening legal action is that he has twice been the beneficiary of suspect decisions in the past - against Pernell Whitaker and Ike Quartey.
And the fact that there were journalists at ringside who thought Mosley was the worthy winner suggests De la Hoya's planned inquest will change nothing.
 Promoter Bob Arum was incensed at the result |
The more realistic scenario is De la Hoya channelling his sense of injustice into a rematch, despite his rather vague talk of retirement.
De la Hoya is only 30-years-old and a former title holder at five different weights - retiring so young and without a belt to his name would be anathema to the Golden Boy.
As for Mosley, other than a lucrative rematch with De la Hoya, he has possible matches against welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga, IBF light middleweight title-holder Winky Wright, former 11-stone champion Fernando Vargas or middleweight king Bernard Hopkins.
Whatever happens, the division and those around it remain as confusing as ever: Mayorga has twice beaten Vernon Forrest this year, Forrest twice beat Mosley in 2002, and Vargas was beaten by De la Hoya last year.
As for Arum's bitter outburst, expect him to be wading through the garbage if and when the rematch rolls round.
MMIX
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I have been watching boxing for many years and I have never seen a decision like this before. De la Hoya won the fight!
