Gary Shaw would like to stick a lance into Lance Revill. When the bombastic promoter of Vic Darchinyan gets done lambasting the veteran referee from New Zealand, he may have to change his name to Lance Revill-ed.
After Aussie Darchinyan?s controversial IBF 12-round eliminator in Cebu Saturday night, Shaw, never one to understate things, opined loud an clear that he thought Revill?s handling of the bout against Pinoy homeboy Z Gorres was so inept that the Kiwi third man ?should be banned from boxing for life.?
I say this, not having seen the three knockdown bout (Gorres down in the first and ninth rounds with Darchi on the floor in the second), it?s a lucky thing for Revill that Big Gar is only mildly pissed off.
The natives took great exception to the first round knockdown and started firing various missles into the ring. These included water bottles so maybe some of the fans thought there was an shortage of H2O in the fighter?s corners.
Or maybe they just wanted to see how well Kiwi Lance can swim.
As for the judging, I don?t know if it was curious or spurious. But I do know this, once again boxing gave off the appearance of impropriety by not assigning three neutral (meaning no one from Australia or the Philippines0 judges.
The Pinoy judge favored Darchi, the Aussie arbiter had it a draw and the judge from Thailand favored Gorres.
And they had the nerve to nickname this fight ?Now Or Never? when it should?ve been labeled ?To Be Repeated.?
How difficult would it have been for the IBF to have added, let?s say, a judge from Japan and one from Hawaii or California? Or even a second Thai judge?
It amazes me how boxing can make itself look improper when I am sure nothing dihonest was intended.
And how about the pressure on the Filpino and Aussie judges to bend over backward to prove they are not just homers? Is that a mental burden that any judge needs?
The rematch is coming soon. It would be moronic not to try it with three neutral judges next time.
