Was Velez Ripped off in Denmark? – 2004

By Sue TL Fox – January 18, 2004  Source: Translated Danish report

(JAN 18) As reports keep coming into WBAN about last nights fight in Aarhus, Denmark where Denmark’s Anita Christensen won a controversial split decision over Ada Velez— it is looking more like Velez was indeed ripped off. On a Danish Boxing Website, which has been translated for boxing fans they wrote the following:

Scandalous decision after a dream of a fight  (Translated)

It could have been a huge triumph for professional women’s boxing. In a way it was, but at the same time it was a big blow to the credibility of Danish professional boxing and in particular the judges from DPBF. The fight between Anita Christensen and Ada Velez was a credit to boxing, and was not only the main event, but also the best fight at that point of the Aarhus fight card. Not only judged on the will to fight, but also skillfulness.

Anita Christensen started the fight cautiously and Ada Velez won the two first rounds, without Anita really getting into the right gear. She let the cat out of the bag in the 3rd round and surprised Ada Velez with good technical boxing throwing her jabs and good crosses. She continued this in the 4th round, but Velez came back strongly in round 5 and 6.

Velez did hit the canvas at the end of round 5 and she could have been given a count, but she wasn’t hurt. Anita came back in round 7, but the round was a draw at best. Round 8 was a bad one for Anita, when she was on the receiving end of several clean shots, and she ended up on the canvas. Round 9 and 10 was all out fight, where both fighters tried to give everything they had, but it was Velez who got the better of the slugging match. Just how keen both fighters was, became evident 30 seconds before the end of round 10. Both fighters tried to attack behind the back of the referee after break. Our scorecard gave the bout to Ada Velez by 98-92, in a fight the deserved the right winner, which would have made it close to the most perfect women’s boxing match. Now it ended with a completely scandalous victory to Anita Christensen with the scores 97-93 Velez from the Finnish judge, 97-94 from Jan Christensen and 96-95 from Freddy Christensen.

We wrote before the fight, that the titles wasn’t necessarily the most interesting about this fight, but we might be faced with the world’s two best fighters in the bantam weight division. If Anita Christensen won, it could be argued, that she was the best bantam weight fighter in the world. Last night’s fight showed that title belongs to Ada Velez.

The WIBA and WIBF titles are worth nothing. Anita Christensen deserve to be praised for saying after the fight, that she felt the bout was even, but with a slight advantage for Velez.

We hope, DPBF (Danish Professional Boxing Association) will draw the consequences of this blatant misjudgment, and suspend Jan and Freddy Christensen. The score 97-94 can only be reached by deliberate wrong scoring or by incompetence that should prevent one from judging fights in the first place. There are no other ways.