Last night thanks to some respected members of the boxing community, we were able to clear some of the smoke surrounding the issue of which Hilton Whitaker judged the Williams ? Lara bout in Atlantic City this weekend.
One former head of a major sanctioning body informed us that there are only two Hilton Whitaker?s who are or were judges in the State of New Jersey. Hilton Whitaker Jr. and Hilton Whitaker III .
Hilton Whitaker III is reported to no longer be judging as he is now the President of the USBO as we confirmed last night through the IBO VP Jeremy Levine. Mr. Levine also vouched for the character of both these men as did several other people inside boxing.
Let me be direct in telling you that we are making no allegations as to the character of these men only reporting the confusion in the media and on many website around the globe as to who honestly though blindly judged this fight in favor of the punished Paul Williams.
I can find very few references to the bouts that Hilton Whitaker Jr. has officiated but several to that the North Carolina resident has judged, this could be just another error on the part of boxing websites that continue to confuse the two. He is also a distinguished member of the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, with a 17 year professional boxing career.
We have confirmed that he is the father of the USBO president.
The glitch in finally laying this to rest arises by the many conflicting eye-witness accounts that are each adamant that one or the other Whitaker performed the judging duties.
My questions to the New Jersey Commissioner are these;
1.) Why choose someone who, no matter how distinguished in the sport, has a very close family tie to an executive of a sanctioning body. In the event of just this problem for Erislandy Lara. The appearance is of something off displays a possible flaw in the Commissions judgment.
2.) Why do you not correct the confusion on Boxrec.com as to the judges records as your own site link to them for results giving them legitimacy, feeding the confusion.
3.) What are you going to do about such a travesty call, when an overwhelming amount of people inside the sport, as well as New Jersey fight fans eye witnessed a totally different bout.
The most probable answer to this last question I have learned through the years is nothing, absolutely nothing but spout sound bites about how judging a boxing match is a individual opinion, it?s different at the event than TV, yada, yada, an friggin yada.
Will we ever see in boxing a commissioner with enough integrity to stop protecting his employees when this happens an just step to the plate and say ?We blew the call? then correct it.
Is it not in the best interest of Boxing, your own career, the careers of these judges, to correct it, to stand like a man as Erislandy Lara did an give the people what they paid for, to stand as Paul Williams did and take his punishment like a true warrior without even a toenail of an excuse, to stand on the stone of integrity and take responsibility for the errors made by your appointed judges, in a fair manner, or will you force Atlantic City , New Jersey to suffer the replaying of this bout over and over as the worst call in many years?
It is a reflection on you that you appointed these judges in the first place but it is a bigger unfavorable reflection on you if you stand by their judging of this bout and toe the party line, spout the sound bites knowing the boxing world will move on because this is just all so familiar to us.
Honestly I would like to see a copy of the judges? cards, as I learned with the McKart-Marquez fight that, hell yes, judges make counting errors. That bout went from a victory for Marquez to a draw by the scorecards. Unfortunately it took a month and many articles for it to be corrected, but in the delay Bronco suffered financial loss.
If a commissioner can?t see the blatant injustice created by the poor judging of this bout perhaps it is time for the Governor of the State of New Jersey to appoint a person who can protect both the red and the blue corners from errors in judgment including perhaps his own.
