Usually, the selection of judges for a big fight in Nevada is an easy task.
A list of potential candidates is presented to the commission, the executive director makes his recommendations, and the commission approves the selection. It normally takes all of 30 seconds.
But with the controversial history having shrouded the three previous fights in Las Vegas between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, the selection of officials for their fourth meeting on Dec. 8 at the MGM Grand Garden has received heightened interest.
Thursday’s Nevada Athletic Commission meeting agenda includes the selection of officials for the fourth go-round between Pacquiao and Marquez and both camps are concerned about the use of Nevada judges.
Marquez has demanded that no local judges be used after he has come out on the short end of all three fights, each of which went to the scorecards to determine the outcome. Their first meeting on May 8, 2004 at the MGM ended in a 12-round draw. Their rematch on March 15, 2008 at Mandalay Bay saw Pacquiao awarded a 12-round split decision. Their most recent meeting on Nov 12, 2011 at the Grand Garden saw Pacquiao win a 12-round majority decision.
Pacquiao also has had his share of judging controversy outside the Marquez fights. Pacquiao was the loser by split decision against Timothy Bradley Jr. back on June 9 in a fight many observers believe he won convincingly. In the wake of what happened against Bradley, Pacquiao said he would like to see someone from outside the state judge this fight.
“Not all the judges from Vegas are bad,” Pacquiao said. “But for this fight, we should look at using some judges from outside of Vegas.”
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, who has worked Pacquiao’s corner for years, said a fair compromise would be to spread it around.
“They should have one Vegas judge, one American judge and one international judge,” Roach said. “That would be fine with us. But I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m not concerned about the judges. I’m very concerned.”
To that end, Nevada Athletic Commission Keith Kizer has carefully vetted the list of candidates he will present to the five-member commission panel this morning. The list includes 11 potential candidates, including Adalaide Byrd, Dick Houck and Ricardo Ocasio from Nevada. There are four out-of-state judges on the list – Gary Merritt of Indiana, Steve Weisfeld of New Jersey, Mike Ross from Florida and John McKaie from New York.
The four international judges under consideration are Stanley Christodoulou from South Africa, John Keane from Great Britain, Jurgen Langos from Germany and Anek Hongkongkam from Thailand.
Who Kizer will recommend remains to be seen. But in the past three Pacquiao-Marquez fights, officials from outside Nevada have been used. In the first meeting, John Stewart of New Jersey and Guy Jutras from Montreal were ringside. In the 2008 rematch, Ohio’s Tom Miller was used as a judge.
Kizer will also avoid using Nevada judges who have worked any of the previous three Pacquiao-Marquez fights. That means he didn’t consider Dave Moretti, Robert Hoyle and Glenn Trowbridge, who worked the 2011 fight; Jerry Roth and Duane Ford, who worked the 2008 fight; and Burt Clements, who judged the first fight in 2004.
In light of the controversy surrounding Pacquiao’s loss to Bradley, C.J. Ross was not considered to work Pacquiao-Marquez even though she hadn’t worked any of their three previous fights. Ross ruled in favor of Bradley against Pacquiao back in June.
“Whenever there’s a rematch, or, in this case, a triple rematch, I try not to use the same judges for two reasons,” Kizer said. “One, it makes sense to have a fresh set of eyes. Two, we don’t want the fighters worrying about what one judge did in a previous fight.”
When the fight was made a couple of months ago, Roach said he was convinced that Pacquiao would be behind by three rounds before the opening bell given the controversy of his prior wins over Marquez. He has since backed off a little on that premise. But Roach remains concerned.
“As long as we have three qualified judges, that’ll be fine,” Roach said. “Manny’s intention, and I think Marquez’s intention as well, is to not let this get into the hands of the judges this time.”
The Nevada Athletic Commission’s meeting, which is open to the public, is set for 8 a.m. Thursday in the Sawyer Building, West Washington Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. Representatives from both camps can provide input prior to the commission voting. Any discussion or deliberation as well as the actual vote to approve the officials is done in front of those in attendance.
“It’s a totally transparent process,” Kizer said. “I’ve sent the list of possible officials to both fighters and so far I have not heard from either camp objecting to anyone on the list.”
“I’m OK with whatever they decide,” Pacquiao said. “There are good judges in Las Vegas. I’ll let the commission do their job and I’ll do my job.”
■ 50 CENT LICENSE – In addition to the selection of officials for Pacquiao-Marquez IV, the other item of interest is the application by rap star 50 Cent for a promoter’s license in Nevada. SMS Promotions, which is run by 50 Cent, whose given name is Curtis Jackson, has several fighters under contract, including world featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa, who is fighting on the Pacquiao-Marquez undercard Dec. 8.
“We have all the information that we have requested for Mr. Jackson’s application and it’s my understanding he will be at the meeting to answer any questions,” Kizer said.
