Some Guys Apparently Don't Know It When They See It

Published

12 years ago

June 14, 2012

PacquiaoBradley Hogan 6 One of the more memorable quotes ever attributed to a Supreme Court Justice was authored by Potter Stewart in 1964, when the respected jurist weighed in with his thoughts on “hard-core pornography” in the Jacobellis vs. Ohio obscenity case. Unable to give a clear, concise legal interpretation on what clearly was a subjective matter, Mr. Justice Stewart settled on “I know it when I see it,” a quote appropriated by Sean Connery as James Bond in Goldfinger that same year. Asked what he knew about gold, suave superspy 007blithely replies, “I know it when I see it.”

Potter Stewart left this world in 1985, but Connery is still among us at 81, and looking fit enough to throw down with operatives from SPECTRE and SMERSH if need be.I’m nominating the best of the movie Bonds to head up any international commission charged with teaching boxing judges how to properly score fights, a seemingly simple task that apparently is more difficult than becoming fluent at Sanskrit or unlocking the mysteries of quantum physics.

Because some guys clearly don’t know it when they see it.

Exhibit 984 (the list actually might be much longer) in the thick book of unexplainable verdicts rendered at ringside was the split-decision victory awarded to Timothy Bradley Jr. in this past Saturday’s pay-per-view megabout with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Despite overwhelming statistical and aesthetic evidence to the contrary, two of the three judges (that would be relative newcomer C.J. Ross and veteran Duane Ford) submitted scorecards declaring Bradley as the winner by identical margins of 115-113. To his credit, another seasoned judge, Jerry Roth, had Pacquiao ahead, 115-113, although Roth’s fingerprints and DNA are all over any number of questionable decisions in high-visibility bouts, most recently the Brandon Rios-Richard Abril scrap for the vacant WBA lightweight title on April 14, in which Roth saw Rios as a 116-112 winner when most of the world saw Abril as having won easily. Thanks to a supporting 115-113 vote for Rios from judge Glenn Trowbridge, Rios left the arena with a championship that a host of know-nothing spectators and media members thought should have gone to the loser.

But to hear Ford give us his reasoning as to why he scored Pacquiao-Bradley as he did, those questioning his eyesight and judgment – that would be promoter Bob Arum, HBO’s unofficial judge Harold Lederman (who had Pacquiao winning by 119-109), ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael (119-109, Pacquiao) and Yahoosports.com’s Kevin Iole (117-111, Pacquiao) – should go back to reading their comic books and leave the important business of scoring multimillion-dollar fights to astute professionals such as himself.

“You’ve got to put the ball in the basket and Manny didn’t put the ball in the basket enough,” Ford told Las Vegas sports writer Steve Carp. “This isn’t American Idol. If I judge for the people, I shouldn’t be a judge. I went in with a clear mind and judged each round. I don’t look at the punch stats (CompuBox had Pacquiao outlanding Bradley, 253 to 159). I saw Manny miss a lot of punches and Bradley win a lot of the exchanges.

“I’m comfortable with my performance. I thought Bradley gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson.”

That explanation apparently is satisfactory to Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who didn’t think much of Arum’s call for the scoring for Pacquiao-Bradley to be investigated by the Nevada attorney general’s office. Arum also probably wants to know who was standing on the grassy knoll outside the arena when this stinker of a decision was announced. Hey, if you thought those drawn-out negotiations to pair Pacquiao with Floyd Mayweather Jr. were difficult before, coming up with a plan that would satisfy all parties is now as impossible as a 400-pound sumo wrestler pole-vaulting over the moon.

“I hope boxing recovers, because this isn’t arguing about a close decision,” harrumphed Arum, who long ago perfected the art of displaying indignant outrage. “This is something that’s an absurdity, that’s ridiculous. Everybody’s that’s involved in boxing should be ashamed.”

I wasn’t seated in close proximity to Lederman, Rafael and Iole for this latest departure from common sense, but was 2,700 or so miles away, in the lovely village of Canastota, N.Y., for the festivities in which Thomas Hearns, Mark Johnson and 11 other boxing greats were enshrined as members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s 23^rd annual induction class. Those seated on the dais along with the honorees – a group that included returning Hall of Famers Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Carmen Basilio, Ruben Olivares, Aaron Pryor and Carlos Ortiz – might or might not have been ashamed, but they could have expounded at length about perceived injustices they endured from judges who, to paraphrase Mr. Justice Potter, didn’t know it when they saw it. Those who did catch all or part of Saturday’s pay-per-view telecast from Las Vegas were of the opinion the victorious Bradley had somehow been rewarded for using his face to beat up Pacquiao’s fists.

In legend and lore, a sizable percentage of the most odious decisions are handed down in Texas, where running counter to the grain of public opinion is as admirable as, say, sheriff Gary Cooper taking on a gang of sinister gunmen in High Noon. There sometimes seems to be a Wild West aura to judging bouts in Texas, where up can be down or wrong can be right, and dang it if the outside world doesn’t like the outcome.

But questionable scoring has been a part of the fight game since the first time two men deigned to punch one another to settle a disagreement. “Home-town” decisions are frequently decried by visitors to local jurisdictions who leave town convinced their losses on points were based more on officials’ biases than their opponent’s skill, and you’ll find no shortage of imported fighters who insist that the only way to beat a German in Germany or a South Korean in South Korea is to knock him unconscious – and then hope that the referee doesn’t find a reason to disqualify the man left standing.

Given Las Vegas’ popularity and desirability as a site of big-time boxing events, the hopeful mantra frequently recited by fight folks plying their trade there is that the Nevada commission is somehow immune to all the standard controversies. But, as Pacquiao-Bradley again demonstrates, no state is above periodic reproach. Put it this way: As a fight fan, you might see a zebra as a white animal with black stripes, and you’re going to scream bloody murder if the person parked at ringside and being paid to register round-by-round scores onto a sheet of paper decides what he’s just seen is a black animal with white stripes.

It is, of course, easy for a member of the media to criticize a judge or a referee. The press always have the luxury of playing Monday morning quarterback, and a sports writer’s take on the outcome of a particular boxing match is no more sacrosanct than that of the individual appointed by a state commission or world governing body. Human beings are not infallible, and there is always the possibility of an error in judgment.

That said, steps should always be taken by those holding places of highest authority to ensure that the number of errors, and the magnitude of them, be kept to an absolute minimum. The 71-year-old Roth keeps getting high-visibility assignments, but to my knowledge he has never been questioned for the scorecards he submitted favoring Felix Trinidad over Oscar De La Hoya in 1999 and George Foreman over Axel Schulz in 1995, fights whose decisions were as eyebrow-raising, or nearly so, as Bradley over Pacquiao. Few would question the integrity of the Pacquiao-Bradley judges, and I certainly won’t do so, but you have to wonder: How many times can a huge majority of people see a fight one way, and one or more judges see it completely differently?

Given all their differences, maybe Pacquiao and Mayweather weren’t meant to square off in any case. If they do now, which seems unlikely, the stakes and interest from the public are sure to be at a much lower level. All of which stamps the Pacquiao-Bradley scoring as a potential $100 million gaffe.

Just a guess, but I have to believe Mr. Justice Potter would have known what to do with this fight had he been around to see it.

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Bernard Fernandez

Stephen Fulton Nips Carlos Castro in a Prelude to Canelo vs Berlanga

Published

4 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Stephen-Fulton-Nips-Carlos-Castro-in-a-Prelude-to-Canelo-vs-Berlanga

In his first fight back after being dominated and stopped by pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue in a fight for super bantamweight supremacy in July of last year, Stephen Fulton nipped upset-minded Carlos Castro, improving to 22-1 (8) in his first start as a featherweight. The verdict was split, with Fulton prevailing by 96-93 and 95-94 with the dissenter favoring Castro 95-94. The decision seemed fair although not in eyes of the predominantly Mexican crowd which booed the decision.

This was an entertaining 10-round fight between two evenly-matched 30-year-old campaigners. Long-time Phoenix resident Castro (30-3) put Fulton on the deck in round five with a counter right hand and Fulton rode his bicycle to shed the cobwebs as the round played out. But the Philadelphian, with new trainer Bozy Ennis in his corner, recuperated well and had a strong sixth round.

In round eight, Castro buckled Fulton’s knees with another straight right, but was unable to press his advantage. The bout served as the “main” prelim to the four-fight PPV card.

—

In a welterweight contest slated for “10,” Mexico City’s Ricardo Salas, a 6/1 underdog, scored a second-round stoppage of Roiman Villa. The end in this slam-bang and all-too-brief skirmish came at the 2:06 mark of round three when Salas, fighting off the ropes, nailed Villa with a perfectly-placed, short right hand. Villa went down for the count.

Salas, whose de facto manager is the ubiquitous Sean Gibbons, improved to 20-2-2 with his 15^th win inside the distance. From Colombia by way of Venezuela, Villa (26-3) was making his first start since being stopped by Boots Ennis in July of last year.

—

In the opener on the PBC YouTube channel, super featherweight Jonathan “Geo” Lopez, a 21-year-old Pennsylvania-born southpaw, won a wide 8-round decision over rugged San Antonio campaigner Richard Medina. Lopez pitched a shutout, winning 80-71 on all three cards, but this was hardly a stroll in the park for him.

Lopez, who improved to 17-0 (12), simply had too much class for Medina. A 20/1 favorite, the Eddy Reynoso-trained boxer hurt Medina at the end of round seven and put him on the canvas in the final round with a straight left hand, but Medina (15-3) kept on plugging away and maintained his distinction of never being stopped.

Also

In an off-TV fight, super middleweight Bek Nurmaganbet, a 26-year-old Kazakh, won his eighth straight inside the distance, improving to 12-0 (10) with a second-round stoppage of SoCal’s Joshua Conley (17-7-1).

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Rocky Hernandez Improves to 36-2 with a Controversial TD in Hermosillo

Published

1 day ago

September 13, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Rocky-Hernandez-Improves-to-36-2-with-a-Controversial-TD-in-Hermosillo

Matchroom was in northwestern Mexico tonight in the city of Hermosillo for a card that aired on DAZN. In the featured bout, super featherweight Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez was awarded a technical decision over Thomas Mattice when the bout was halted by the ringside physician at the start of the seventh round because Hernandez had severe cuts around both eyes. The first cut, over his right eye, developed in round four. Replays showed that the second cut, over his left eye, was caused by a right uppercut. However, in the eyes of veteran Texas referee Mark Calo-oy, the damage was caused by an accidental head cut. That sent the bout to the scorecards where Hernandez was deemed the victor by tallies of 59-55, 58-56, and 58-55 per ring announcer David Diamente who had trouble reading the results submitted to him by a boxing commissioner.

Hernandez, who turned pro at age 15 in Mexico City, is best known for his rumble with defending WBC 130-pound title-holder O’Shaquie Foster. Rocky was leading that fight with 30 seconds remaining in the final round when the roof fell in on him. He trained for tonight’s bout at the DLX and Top Rank gyms in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma and Brandon Woods, the latter of whom trains Trevor McCumby. Neither Koroma nor Woods was in his corner tonight.

It was the first fight outside the U.S. for Cleveland’s hard-luck Thomas Mattice who had won five straight heading in and appeared to be turning the bout in his favor. Mattice declined to 22-4-1.

Semi-wind-up

Twenty-four-year-old Hermosillo knockout artist Sergio Mendoza showed that he is a rising force in the flyweight division with a third-round stoppage of stocky Ensenada southpaw Angel Ramos. Mendoza crumpled Ramos with a short left uppercut in round two. Ramos attempted to rise, but it became a moot point when the match was waived off.

Mendoza improved to 24-0 with his twenty-first knockout. Ramos, a 12-year pro whose career has been slowed by injuries, falls to 30-2-2.

Also

A 10-round super middleweight contest that shaped up as a slugfest proved the opposite. Local product Julio Porras (12-0, 8 KOs) won a wide decision in a snoozefest over Venezuelan import Isaac Torres who had won all 10 of his previous fights by stoppage, none of which lasted beyond six rounds.

Torres turned timid after Porras decked him with a left hook in the second frame. He fought off his back foot for the reminder of the bout, seemingly content to simply last the distance. The scores read 100-89 and 99-90 twice.

It was hard to get a good read on Porras who trains in Seatle with David Benavidez and Diego Pacheco, but at age 22 he appears to have a bright future.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 296: Canelo vs Berlanga and More

Published

2 days ago

September 12, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 296: Canelo vs Berlanga and More

Never underestimate the Mexico versus Puerto Rico rivalry.

Undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez of Mexico has fought Puerto Ricans before and should know it is never easy. But this time he chose to toe the line against a young hungry Boricua.

Will this fight be his reckoning?

Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) defends the WBA, WBC, and WBO titles against Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) on Saturday Sept. 14, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. PPV.com along with Jim Lampley will stream the loaded TGB Promotions card. It’s also on DAZN and Amazon Prime.

Mexico’s Canelo has been the face of boxing ever since Floyd Mayweather officially retired. And though he lost to Mayweather in 2013, the dividends from that experience have boosted the redhead to a skill level not seen since Salvador Sanchez.

Not many Mexicans or Puerto Ricans fight at super middleweight. So, this is a first for the rivalry at this weight class. But in the lower weights war has been ongoing between the two countries for decades.

My up-close introduction took place with Wilfredo “Bazooka” Gomez against Sanchez in Las Vegas in August 1981. At the time the Puerto Rican was considered the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world with 32 wins and 32 knockouts.

Gomez was a Mexican killer and dispatched two future Half of Fame fighters in Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor. Only Sanchez could beat the Boricua and he was an underdog to the mustached fighter from Santurce, Puerto Rico when they met.

Never underestimate anyone.

Now Berlanga is attempting to do what no other Puerto Rican has been able to accomplish in defeating Canelo.

It’s a big task for the taller fighter.

“I could be the face of Puerto Rican boxing after Saturday night,” said Berlanga, 27, who hails from Brooklyn, New York.

The taller Berlanga has yet to face anyone that compares to Canelo, He’s defeated contenders like Jason Quigley and Padraig McCrory who formerly held the IBO light heavyweight title. But a killer like Alvarez he’s never faced before.

But he’s eager to find out.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for Team Berlanga,” Berlanga said at the press conference.

As a professional fighter he needs to take the opportunity.

“We’re gonna make history and become legends,” said Berlanga.

Alvarez has been in this situation dozens of times before. He’s heard all the rhetoric and the boasts and the predictions over the years. After facing the likes of Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Gennady Golovkin and so many others, he’s almost immune to the itchy nervousness of potential danger.

The Mexican champion has his jacket of confidence woven over the years from dozens of battles endured since the age of 15. Now he’s 34 and has he passed his limit?

“I always put 100 per cent into my fights and into training, no matter who I’m fighting. It’s the same mentality every fight. This is no exception,” said Alvarez, who is fighting on Mexican Independence day for the 11^th time in his career.

This, however, is different. This is Mexico versus Puerto Rico and the history between the two countries is fraught with upsets and fierce bloody battles in boxing that have mesmerized the boxing world.

Berlanga’s trainer said it best:

“Believe me, we are grateful to Team Canelo for the opportunity, because it’s the opportunity to knock the king off the throne,” said Marc Ferrait. “as I told Edgar, he’s not going to want to give it to no Puerto Rican, and if we think Canelo doesn’t have it, oh he’s coming. We want the best of him.”

It’s power versus power. All it takes is one punch.

Other Bouts

WBA middleweight titlist Erislandy Lara (30-3-3) defends against Philadelphia’s Danny “Swift” Garcia (37-3) in the semi-main event at T-Mobile Arena. It’s been four years since the Cuban southpaw faced elite competition. Now 41, does he still have it?

Garcia, 36, a former welterweight and super lightweight world titlist, has only fought once above 147 pounds but found success when he defeated Jose Benavidez at 153 pounds two years ago.

Both are experienced, skilled and dangerous.

Super middleweight contenders Caleb Plant (22-2) and Trevor McCumby (28-0) meet in a 12-round clash for the interim WBA title. Whenever Plant fights there is always extra personal incentive thrown in. McCumby knows it.

“I just go in there and handle business,” McCumby said.

Plant seems eager to return to the ring.

“We’ll see on Saturday,” said Plant.

Another former world titlist performing is Rolly Romero (15-2, 13 KOs) meeting Manuel Jaimes (16-1-1, 11 KOs) in a super lightweight match set for 10 rounds. It’s the first time I recall seeing Romero against someone bigger. Interesting.

A super bantamweight battle between former unified world titlist Stephen Fulton (21-1) and Carlos Castro (30-2, 14 KOs) is set for 10 rounds in a featherweight match. Fulton was stopped by Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue a year ago. He’s eager to return.

Fights to Watch

Thurs. DAZN 5 p.m. Ardreal Holmes (15-0) vs Hugo Noriega (10-2).

Fri. DAZN 5 p.m. Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez (35-2) vs Thomas Mattice (22-3-1).

Sat. DAZN 3 p.m. Roiman Villa (26-2) vs Ricardo Salas (19-2-2).

Sat. PPV.COM, Prime ppv, DAZN ppv 5 p.m. Saul Alvarez (61-2-2) vs Edgar Berlanga (22-0); Caleb Plant (22-2) vs Trevor McCumby (28-0); Erislandy Lara (30-3-3) vs Danny Garcia (37-3); Stephen Fulton (21-1) vs Carlos Castro (30-2).

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