Filipino lawyer Danrex Tapdasan will join the panel of three judges assigned for the WBO flyweight title fight between defending champion Julio Cesar Miranda of Mexico and challenger Brian Viloria at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu this Saturday. The other judges are Robert Byrd of Nevada and Dr. Ruben Garcia of Texas. Hall of Famer Joe Cortez will be the third man in the ring.
Tapdasan, 33, leaves tonight on a Continental Airlines flight to Honolulu via Guam.
?When I received an e-mail from (WBO Asia-Pacific chairman) Leon Panoncillo informing me of my assignment, I couldn?t believe it at first,? said Tapdasan who began judging professional fights only two years ago. ?I thought to myself, is this for real, is he joking, is there a problem? Then, it sank in and I immediately started preparing for the job. Of course, I?m excited. It?s my first major world championship fight. This came as a total surprise. Last year, I attended the WBO convention in Cartagena and I met WBO president Paco Valcarcel who appreciated my effort to travel all the way to Colombia. Mr. Valcarcel told me I would be assigned to judge a world title fight soon. My feeling was it would probably come in maybe, two years after a few regional assignments so when I got Leon?s e-mail, I was completely surprised.?
Tapdasan said the WBO has assembled a neutral cast of judges. Viloria is considered an American although he is of Filipino descent. Garcia and Cortez are Americans of Mexican descent.
To prepare for the assignment, Tapdasan said he has been reviewing the WBO rules to refresh his memory and watching fight videos, not involving either Viloria or Miranda but others so as not to develop any bias.
?I?ve been watching a lot of fight videos,? he said. ?I mute the sound and I score every round. Then at the end of the fight, I compare my score with the scores of the judges to see how close or how far we are. The four things I?ll look for in scoring a round are effective hits, ring generalship, defense and overall conduct, in that order. Those are the factors I consider in judging a round whether it?s a four-rounder, a six-rounder, an eight-rounder, a tenner or a 12-rounder. Those are my fundamentals.?
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The fact that Viloria traces his roots to Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, won?t make a difference in Tapdasan?s mind. ?For me, I?m going into the fight as a WBO official, period,? said Tapdasan. ?I?ll be judging the fight not as a fan but as an objective professional. I?ll look at the fight on a round by round basis. Boxer A will be from the red corner and Boxer B from the blue ? identities are insignificant to me. Each round is separate and distinct from the other. It?s against the rules to compute mentally the cumulative scores of each fighter. If you add up the scores, that?s when bias comes in. After every round, I turn in my score to the referee and my focus turns to the next round. I don?t think about how I scored the previous round.?
Tapdasan said in the WBC, the judges? scores are announced after every four rounds in an open-scoring system for the benefit of the fans and fighters and in the interest of transparency. The WBO does not use the open-scoring system.
?I don?t agree or disagree with the open-scoring system,? said Tapdasan. ?As far as I?m concerned, I only follow the rules of the governing body supervising a fight. If it?s a WBC fight, then the open-scoring system is used. If it?s a WBO fight, then it?s not used. I just abide by the rules of the body that has jurisdiction over a fight.?
Tapdasan said where the fight is held has no influence on a judge or referee. ?I look at this fight like any other fight,? he said. ?A boxer fighting in his hometown has no bearing whatsoever on how I score a round. I score every round regardless of who the boxers are. The most important thing is I bring integrity and honesty to my work.?
Tapdasan said from what he knows, the match is a toss-up. ?Miranda is not concerned about fighting in Hawaii where Viloria was born and believes he?ll win by knockout,? said Tapdasan. ?Viloria is also convinced he will knock out his opponent. I don?t really care about the hype. All I can say is may the better man win.?
Tapdasan said he?ll be back in Manila on Monday night. ?I?m travelling alone,? he said. ?My wife (Mary Joy) is seven months pregnant with our first child and I don?t want to be away from her too long. Last year, I was away for 10 days, including flying time, to work three title fights for the World Professional Boxing Federation as a referee in Ghana. The experience really helped me a lot in terms of focus. It taught me to adjust to a different culture and to an entirely unfamiliar living environment. The highest fee I?ve earned as a referee was $500 for working the WBO female championship fight between Teeraporn Pannimit and Jujeath Nagaowa in Thailand last year. As a judge, my highest fee was $200 for the WBO youth championship fight between Froilan Saludar and Liempetch Sor Veerapol and the IBF Pan Pacific lightweight title bout between Al Sabaupan and Wonpichit Twins-Gym. In the Miranda-Viloria fight, my fee will be based on the total purse of the two fighters. As of now, I still don?t know their purses.?
