The fight was held in the town's bullring in front of a capacity crowd and Owen entered the arena to loud jeers. The first round was relatively uneventful as both fighters settled. When Owen returned to his corner, his father was infuriated after smelling wintergreen oil on Owen. Believing the substance came from Rodríguez's gloves, he approached the referee who ignored Dick Owens's complaints. The British Boxing Board of Control's (BBBofC) representative at the fight, Harry Vines, attempted to approach Owen's team to find out what was causing commotion and found himself being pushed and shoved by members of the crowd before Spanish police ordered him to return to his seat. Rodríguez used several underhand manoeuvres against Owen, including illegal use of the head and elbows and attempted to screw his thumb into Owen's eye, eventually receiving an official warning from the referee in the twelfth round after being reprimanded on several occasions. At the start of the tenth round, Owen returned to the middle of the ring but was forced to wait as Rodríguez took several extra minutes to leave his corner before standing to taunt his opponent in front of the home crowd. Rodríguez was awarded the victory on points in a decision that Steve Bunce later declared "In what has been regarded as a 'home-town decision travesty', Rodríguez was awarded a fight he had so obviously lost." The "Dictionary of Welsh Biography" went further and described the decision as "an insult to the good name of boxing."