Boxing: We Must Revamp the Way Judging of Fights are Scored

By Lou Eisen

For some inexplicable reason, 2014 seemed to be a banner year for horrendous judging in pro boxing. Years ago, a poorly judged scorecard would come along every once in a while, but now biased, inept, inaccurate and criminal-like judging in boxing has reached heretofore unseen epidemic levels. Every week in 2014 seemed to feature a dreadful decision and, to make things worse, there is no clear end in sight as 2015 arrives. Such horrendous judging is quickly ruining the sport even for older, more experienced, hardcore fans. It is precisely now when the hardcore fight fans are turning away from the sport they no longer hold so dear, that boxing needs to wake up and address this festering problem ASAP before it irreparably harms the sport, if it has not done so already!

It is generally agreed by the sports media that no other sport on this earth routinely shoots itself in the foot as often and as well as boxing still continues to do on a daily basis. Boxing is quickly starting to run out of feet, ammo and any goodwill it may have had left among the public. However, as we know all too well, rather than making concerted or ANY efforts to eliminate the problems causing such endemically bad judging, boxing has, in typical fashion, swept the problem under the proverbial rug. As a result, chronically inept judges routinely back up each other’s mediocrity, ensuring only that the problem of terribly adjudicated scorecards will continue, much to the eternal chagrin and consternation of the fighters, the long-suffering fans and the media.

Every time a fighter is cheated out of a hard-earned victory, he loses revenues from the loss of possible future fights he would have received had the judges made the correct decision. In close fights, the score can go either way and both fighters and fans accept that possibility. Also, some fights are indeed very difficult to score. However, this year has seen so many openly biased and inept scorecards that you sometimes get the unmistakable feeling that the same people who run pro wrestling are also running pro boxing.

Here is an ideal example of terrible judging in action. Recently, Tyson Cave easily won at least ten of 12 rounds from interim WBA bantamweight champ Oscar Escandon while giving him a one-sided thrashing during their fight. Cave earned a title shot at the reigning WBA bantamweight champion, Guillermo Rigondeaux, which certainly would have guaranteed him a sizeable raise in purse money. The media and fan consensus was that Cave won the fight against Escandon quite handily. If you saw the fight on ESPN, it would be difficult if not altogether impossible to come up with a different decision.

However, two of the three judges, Raul Caiz, JR. and Tony Crebs (AKA Jose Feliciano and Stevie Wonder) shamelessly stole the win away from Cave and gave it to Escandon. Cave stood to make double if not triple the money he made against Escandon, in his next fight against Rigondeaux for the undisputed WBA world bantamweight title. Cave has a family and needs to put money away for his children. Most elite fighters are in the same predicament. However, with a victory being taken away from him so blatantly by two openly biased judges, Cave now loses the money he would have made in his next fight and, to add insult to injury (if that is even possible!) he will be reduced to fighting Escandon again for the same amount, or perhaps even less than he earned in their first fight. Such boxing robberies are now a weekly if not monthly occurrence in pro boxing shows all over the world and the fans feel utterly helpless as to how to continue loving a sport that appears to be openly crooked to both casual and now hardcore fans. Boxing is taking its fans for granted and the fans have finally had enough of it!

There are some relatively easy safeguards that can be introduced immediately with little fuss or upset that would go a long way to improving judges scorecards. For instance, all judges and referees should have every fight they score reviewed by a panel of their peers consisting of well-respected but retired referees and judges. Every other sport in the world grades their referees and judges on each performance. Boxing is the only sport where the judges and officials do not have their work regularly reviewed. When there is a discrepancy about how a fight was scored, the cards should be impounded and reviewed by a panel of overseers. Also, each judge and the ref should be interviewed privately about how they scored each and every round of the fight.

There should be a standardized review of the officials involved after every fight card. This is not meant to punish anyone but rather to inform and educate the officials involved in the fight. Ring Magazine or Box.Rec should introduce a new feature in their respective pages that ostensibly keeps track of horrendously judged fights, as well as which judges are repeat offenders. Such a list should also be done for egregious referees as well. It can be called, The Laurence Cole List (similar to the Gatti List that Jim Lampley introduced on his outstanding HBO show, The Fight Game, to honor tough boxers with heart) in honor of the man universally considered to be the worst boxing referee in the world. By the same token, other lists could be created to identify consistently outstanding judges or referees such as Jack Reiss, Kenny Bayless, Vic Drakulich and Steve Smoger.

Perhaps if chronically bad judges and referees were named publicly, thereby shaming them, boxing might be forced to clean up this current plague of horrific judging that is hurting the sport and its participants. There is also a very disturbing time honored tradition in boxing where the week before a major fight card is staged, representatives of the particular sanctioning bodies involved, put on lavish dinners every night in the days leading up to the fight card where the referees, judges, fighters, their managers, trainers and officials from the sanctioning body and state athletic commission all come together over drinks and dinner and discuss all things boxing. Image is everything in sports and such dinners and events have the distinct odor of impropriety involved. Whether anything underhanded goes on is anyone’s guess but the mere appearance of impropriety is bad for the sport. In no other sport are managers, promoters and athletes allowed to openly wine and dine the officials involved in their upcoming event.

ESPN broadcaster Teddy Atlas said it best, after witnessing Canadian Arash Usmanee beat Cuban Rances Barthelemy in 2013 in Florida, but not receive the decision. Atlas accurately commented that such dinners are akin to a World Series team and its manager, coaches, players and owners having intimate dinners and drinks with the umpiring crew for each game. It would never be permitted by any other sport yet in boxing such shenanigans are not only tolerated, they openly encouraged. It’s simply unfathomable that it has been going on for this long!

At the recent WBC convention in Las Vegas, all of the judges said that everyone makes mistakes, which is true. They also said no one should be punished or fired for inaccurately scoring a fight. In other words, they are only interested in protecting and perpetuating their own jobs rather than making an effort to do a better job. Fans and fighters are not upset at a judge who hands in an inept or questionable scorecard during his career. It is the chronically and consistently inept and biased judges that should be demoted or banned from boxing permanently.

Boxing should have a large pool of referees and judges available for every fight but only decide which ones will work a specific fight no more than 15-30 minutes prior to a bout. Chris Dundee did this before the first Clay-Liston fight to prevent the mob from fixing the outcome of the bout and it worked.

Egregious scorecards are now accepted as commonplace in pro boxing these days and that is indeed worrisome. What does it say about pro boxing that fans have very little to almost no faith in boxing scoring these days? Fans are routinely distrustful of boxing judges that they expect all scorecards to be judged incompetently. How upsetting is that? Bad scorecards are now just accepted as part of doing business. In other words, fans have become resigned to boxing malfeasance on a mass level and that is terrible for the future of the sport.

When a fighter scores three or more knockdowns in a fight and still loses the bout, fans just smile and throw up their hands, and say, “It’s boxing. It’s all fixed!” Boxing judges today, along with many referees are viewed with the same lack of respect as pro wrestling officials. The time has come for sweeping changes to bring back an aura of respect and trust for all ring officials, although, in the eyes of many, it is already too late for that.

Unless a diligent and effective method to clean up the ranks of unskilled and inaccurate judges is implemented immediately, more fighters will be robbed of future income by judges that are consistently incompetent, inept and openly biased. It sort of reminds me of that sportswriter, who was asked not too long ago by a fan, “What was boxing like when the mob used to run it?” The writer answered back, “What do you mean used to?”