AVILA On LARA-WILLIAMS DECISION: “The Judging Wasn't That Bad”

Bad judging.

Everyone has an opinion on judging a fight.

One thing about prizefighting is that everyone has an opinion on what fighting style is the best and how to win a fight.

Of course the easiest and most defining method is the knockout.

Barring a knockout, to win by decision puts a fighter at risk because judges have their own opinion and preferable style of defining who won a fight.

After hearing about the alleged bad judging this past weekend in Atlantic City regarding the Paul Williams and Erislandy Lara fight, I took a look at the fight replay and was surprised.

The judging wasn’t that bad.

Sure I wasn’t there and it’s much more difficult to judge a fight unless you are actually there. Television doesn’t do a fight justice because you cannot hear the impact of the punches and the directors often cut away to get a different angle.

One thing I learned about watching fights on television is to turn off the sound.

Why?

Because often the commentators have their own agenda and lean toward a particular fighter’s punches. I’d rather see it for myself and judge than listen to a commentator’s version.

Williams and Lara looked to be a very close fight after 12 rounds.

What I saw was Lara holding throughout the fight and every time he held Williams would pop him with four to eight clean punches. All of those blows count. If one fighter holds another and is getting popped then he is losing the round. Each blow counts.

Yes, Lara landed pot shots throughout the fight but took a lot in return whenever he held Williams, which was just about every round. The referee should have made Lara stop holding and then we would have seen a clear cut picture of who won the fight.

Getting back to the judges. I don’t think their score cards were that bad. Sure the esteemed Harold Lederman had a much different score card, but that’s not unusual in the fight game.

One other factor that led fans to cry foul is the Compubox stats. They had Lara landing many more punches. Forget Compubox. It’s not a good measure because you have one guy pushing a button. He didn’t count any of the punches Williams was landing while being held. There was one round in particular where I was counting the number of blows Williams landed in the clinch. When the round ended Compubox had Lara out-landing Williams by four punches. They didn’t count any of the punches Williams connected while being held. Compubox is just an entertainment additive and not 100 percent accurate at any time.

New Jersey may have suspended the judges but I really didn’t see them doing anything out of the ordinary. They just preferred the volume of punches being landed by Williams in the clinch over the pot shots of Lara.

Watch the fight without the sound and judge for yourself.

Other boxing chatter

Las Vegas prizefighter Diego Magdaleno (19-0, 7 KOs) defends the NABF junior lightweight title against Alejandro Perez (15-2-1, 10 KOs) tonight at the Texas Station Casino in Las Vegas. The fight card is promoted by Top Rank and also features a battle between other undefeated junior lightweights Casey Ramos (13-0, 4 KOs) and Joselito Collado (12-0, 3 KOs).

Congratulations to Pico Rivera’s Rico Ramos (20-0, 11 KOs) who won the vacant WBA junior featherweight world title by knockout over Japan’s Akifumi Shimoda (23-3-1, 10 KOs) at 2:46 of round seven. Ramos occasionally trains in San Bernardino and has fought several times at Pechanga Casino.

Juan Manuel Marquez and his younger brother Rafael Marquez both fight on Saturday in Cancun, Mexico. The older Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KOs) fights Likar Ramos (24-3, 18 KOs) in a 10 round junior welterweight bout. Rafael Marquez (39-6, 35 KOs) collides with Eusebio Osejo (19-9-2, 7 KOs) in a 10 round featherweight contest. Also, WBA junior flyweight Roman Gonzalez (28-0, 23 KOs) fights Omar Salado (22-3-2, 13 KOs).

WBO flyweight world titleholder Julio Cesar Miranda (35-5-1, 28 KOs) defends against former junior flyweight world champion Brian “Hawaiian Punch” Viloria (28-3, 16 KOs) on Saturday July 16. The world title fight takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii. It’s Miranda’s fourth title defense.

IBO cruiserweight world titleholder Danny Green of Australia (31-3, 27 KOs) fights former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver (28-6, 19 KOs) on Wednesday July 20, in Sydney, Australia. Green knocked out Roy Jones Jr. and Paul Briggs and beat BJ Flores by decision.

Las Vegas contender Jessie Vargas (16-0, 9 KOs) blew out Walter Estrada (39-15-1, 25 KOs) at 38 seconds of round two. Vargas is now trained by Roberto Alcazar, who guided Oscar De La Hoya early in his pro career.

Arizona’s Jesus “El Martillo” Gonzalez (27-1, 14 KOs) won the NABF super middleweight title by decision over Francisco Sierra (24-4-1, 22 KOs) on Friday. The fight took place in Phoenix.

WBO cruiserweight world titleholder Marco Huck (32-1, 23 KOs) defends his title against Argentina’s Hugo Garay (34-5, 18 KOs) on Saturday July 16, in Munich, Germany. Huck is making his seventh world title defense.

In the United Kingdom undefeated John Murray (31-0, 18 KOs) collides with Kevin Mitchell (31-1, 23 KOs) in a lightweight battle for the vacant WBO intercontinental title on Saturday. The fight takes place in Liverpool, England. On the same card Scotland’s Ricky Burns (31-2, 8 KOs) defends his WBO junior lightweight world title against Nicky Cook (30-2, 16 KOs).

Undefeated George “Comanche Boy” Tahdooahnippah (27-0-1, 20 KOs) fights Jimmy Holmes (19-2-2, 10 KOs) in a 10 round middleweight fight on Saturday July 16. The match takes place in Lawton, Oklahoma.

WBA junior bantamweight world titleholder Hugo Cazares (35-6-2, 24 KOs) knocked out challenger Arturo Badillo (20-2, 18 KOs) at the end of round three to retain the world title. The clash took place in Mazatlan, Mexico.

IBF super middleweight titleholder Lucian Bute (29-0, 24 KOs) knocked out France’s Jean Paul Mendy (29-1-1, 16 KOs) at 2:48 of round four to retain the world title. Bute fought in from of his native fans in Romania.