On September 27, Colombian super middleweight Fulgencio Zuniga (21-3-1, 18 KOs) lost a unanimous decision to Denis Inkin (34-0, 24 KOs) for the vacant WBO super middleweight title at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Inkin won by the scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112. Zuniga and his promoter Alfredo Marchio claim the scores were outrageous and that Zuniga won the fight by a comfortable margin. Both have fired off letters of protest to WBO president Francisco Valcarcel. Marchio also hopes to address the matter at the WBO Convention next week in Hollywood, Florida. Team Zuniga base their protest on the grounds of biased judging by promoter-friendly officials. Marchio also stated that one judge, Denny Nelson, is the father of the referee Mark Nelson, which could be a potential conflict of interest. Nelson, incidentally, is the judge who posted the 118-110 score. Marchio also is convinced that Inkin somehow knew that he was comfortably ahead in the fight, and fought to survive, rather than win, in the final three rounds -- citing a comment by Inkin in an interview conducted by Alexey Sukachev on October 17 with Fightnews.com. Zuniga and Marchio are seeking an immediate rematch. Inkin, however, is set to defend his new title against WBO #1 contender Karoly Balzsay on January 10, 2009.

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