The prevailing thought had been that Lewis Ritson was going to dominate veteran Miguel Vasquez in their main event tilt on Saturday in his backyard of Peterborough, England.
Vasquez had other plans in mind, controlling a good chunk of the fight with his superb boxing prowess throughout. But in what has been an ongoing issue in boxing, the judging once again reared its ugly head as Ritson got a good dose of hometown cooking, defeating Vasquez by split decision (113-116, 117-111, 115-113) at the East of England Arena. The 27-year-old Englishman felt there was no doubt he did more than enough to bring home the victory.
"I was confident I won the fight although I knew it was close," Ritson said in his post-fight interview. "I was hitting him with the cleaner shots and he was tap-tap-tap and running away."
Beyond the two judges, Ritson seems to be the only one who thinks he won the fight.
Vazquez (42-10, 16 KOs), a former IBF lightweight champion, exemplified good lateral movement and executed his game plan to a tee. He routinely popping a hard jab and used his faster hands to befuddle Ritson. Ritson often looked perplexed and was unable to crack the code of Vasquez. Coming in as the bigger puncher, Ritson simply couldn't get off any of his power shots and did nothing of significance to make anyone think he should have won the contest.
Regardless of the fact, Ritson (21-1, 12 KOs) walked away with the win and moves another step closer to a title shot.