Being Judged…?

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where
I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

Being Judged…?

Adalaide Byrd, Craig Metcalfe, Ian John Lewis…

“Those scorecards…were an absolute disgrace…I will never, ever allow an American fighter to come here with this British board scoring the fight.”

Scoring a fight in the boxing ring can be nothing more and nothing less than subjective. There are times, however, when the British advert for new spectacles, should have gone to Specsavers, accurately depicts the reaction to wide scorecards which end up headlining the newspapers the day following a big fight.

For Adalaide Bird, after a string of controversies around her scoring, the Canelo/GGG wide decision for Canelo was the end of her time as a judge and she lost her role. It suggested that whoever sacked her in authority disagreed with her. In fact, every boxing journalist worth their salt and huge numbers of active and inactive fighters also disagreed with her and that made the decision for her to go, a popular one.

Boxing as a sport was seen to act.

Ian John Lewis was the judge and respected referee who gave Josh Taylor a commanding points win in the first fight that Taylor had with Jack Catterall. Catterall was an Englishman, not in New York, but in Scotland, and many thought that Taylor got a “home win” and it led to calls for a rematch. Most of the crowd booed the decision in Glasgow, even Scots were embarrassed by it. It meant that Catterall did not get all 4 belts to become the undisputed world champion. He was simply robbed. The British Boxing Board of Control (BBB of C) removed Lewis’s status and he left the BBB of C after a stellar career but after some scrutiny, it was found that he had been apparently guilty of other questionable judging along the way. Simply put, to some, he had form for getting it wrong.

Once again, it meant that someone in authority had disagreed with an official and that led to action for boxing’s sake.

Recently, Canadian Craig Metcalfe, as the WBC judge awarded Tyson Fury, the WBC champion, the win against Oleksandr Usyk. Less of an outcry, perhaps, but most of the crowd, most pundits, commentators, and boxers who tuned in, poured some scorn on the points win given by Metcalfe. It may be that some will quiver if they have to face Metcalfe judging their fight in the future.
But the right man won and in the spirit of boxing, Metcalfe gets a pass. Except…

Whilst social media blew up with people labeling the split decision win, “corrupt”, “embarrassing” and “disgusting”, Metcalfe got Fury winning by a single point and never disagreed in any of the rounds with all of his colleagues. In essence, Metcalfe was far from corrupt, disgraceful nor an embarrassment to the sport.

And so, as I write this, it is in the afterglow of an exceptional battle between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall in their long-awaited rematch. Catterall won by Unanimous Decision. An incredible fight which was clearly won, in my humble opinion, by Catterall – but just and no more. I had them even after 10 rounds, but Catterall who was highly criticized in the first fight for coasting in the championship rounds and therefore losing the fight, was more active in the 11th and 12th and nicked it.

Taylor disagreed, his promoter Bob Arum took the mike in the ring and gave his pronouncement that that Taylor won that fight and Arum would never ever bring an American fighter to the UK under the British Boxing Board of Control. He didn’t and Arum won’t. But we enjoyed the pantomime. This was a fight that sold out in 24 hours, had intense security throughout the buildup as the enmity between the fighters spilled into insults, physical threats and hands on approaches to face offs. Taylor was respectful and honest at the end of the fight, Catterall happy and not triumphant but the shadow that fell across the win? The scorecards.

Two of them had Catterall 117 -111. Taylor’s coach, Joe McNally agreed with Arum and had been giving Taylor the message throughout the fight that Taylor was boxing well and in front. He was wrong and the widely held view is that “the right man won on the night.”

Now as well as the Fury/ Usyk scorecard we have also had the Majority Decision card for Ryan Garcia/ Devin Haney, so Bob may have a bigger fight on his hands if he wants to rid the sport of daft judge’s decisions.

But shall the BBB of C ask the two judges to come in for a chat, review past score cards? Ask them as they did with Lewis to explain their decisions? With hundreds of fights around the country, would this open up a floodgate of expectations that fighters losing close calls get the right of appeal? Shouldn’t they?

The fact that there were no championship belts on the line for the Taylor/ Catterall rematch would suggest that only when there are eyes on the BBB of C do they act. Will they act now? But the right man on the night won – is that enough to make it all, all right? Josh Taylor will not think so, Bob Arum certainly does not and even Catterall’s promoter, Eddie Hearn questioned the validity of the wide scorecards against Taylor. But will they show that each judge agreed with another judge making them much more defendable? Of course, if they just agree with each other rather than the third judge does that ensure fairness as two out of three aint bad?

What is bad is that once more there are doubts over a Taylor/Catterall fight. The sadness will be that the fight itself which screams for a trilogy, was the best of British Boxing. THAT needs to be the headline and not Arum’s comments. But it is a pantomime once more…

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