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Philippines, 10 Feb 2026 |
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WILL DONAIRE NEED A KNOCKOUT TO WIN AGAINST MATHEBULA? By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Thu, 05 Jul 2012  Reports indicate that IBF Chairman Lindsey Tucker announced the officials that will work the Donaire vs. Mathebula Super bantamweight unification fight. Three Californians were given the assignment: Pat Russel (referee), Lou Morret and Steve Morrow (judges). The third judge however is from South Africa, Deon Dwarte! I do not know Deon Dwarte. He must be a very capable referee, otherwise he may not get the nod. In addition, I am not questioning his ?fairness?. But?. When he judged the Caballero-Mathebula fight in Panama back in April of 2009, Dwarte was the only judge that gave the fight to Mathebula. (116-112) The other two, Hector Afu and Patricia Morse Jarman gave it to Caballero with the same scores. In February of the same year when Nate Campbell beat another South African, Ali Funeka by a very close majority decision, Russel Benoit scored it 114-112 and Michel Pernick score it 115-111 for Campbell. Dwarte could not bring himself to give it to Campbell and scored it a draw, 113-113. Does that tell us something about where the loyalty of Dwarte lies? The fact that the Donaire-Mathebula tiff is a huge title fight, a unification at that, Tucker should have used some form of ?delicadeza?, finest if you may, to avoid doubts about ?fairness? in judging. If the fight ends in yet another split decision win for the South African, with Dwarte voting for Mathebula, then people will be crying about another ?Pacquiao-Bradley incident?. But don?t tell me I didn?t warn everybody! For Bob Arum who is the promoter that will be another torn in the side given the fact that some people blame him for what happened to Pacquiao. Besides, I am tired hearing Arum cry for ?investigations? to ?clear names and bring respect back to boxing? when he knows too well nothing good will come out of such investigations. I am not saying that Dwarte was chosen to assure that Mathebula will get the nod if the fight is close. For all we know, Dwarte may even side with Donaire in such case. But I doubt it. Strongly, if I may add. But this is boxing and people have an inherent lack of trust in how it is adjudicated particularly in close fights, therefore, it would have been better if Dwarte was not chosen. There is still time to make changes and removed Dwarte from the panel or remove one of the two California judges and put a Filipino judge. But I am positive Lindsey Tucker does not have the balls to do it! Having three totally neutral judges would have been good, or better still, if a Filipino judge was chosen as well to give the judging panel some sort of ?balance?. I wonder, why was Tucker (IBF) given the sole responsibility of picking the officials? Is this fight favoring the IBF and its champion? Since this is a unification fight, did Paco Varcarcel of the WBO have his say? I always thought that the CSAC is the one responsible for appointing the officials based on the suggestions of the sanctioning bodies and the promoters. Was IBF given the sole responsibility of picking the officials? Do I smell a set up? I am not insinuating that we may be heading towards another ?Pacquiao-Bradley? incident. Oh no, not in any manner, shape or form But I can?t help but think that perhaps things are not what they appear to be. Therefore, I hope that Donaire will plaster Mathebula to the canvas so that there will be no chance for any hanky-panky to happen. Not that hanky-panky will happen. But a knock-out is the best way to erase all semblance of doubt. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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