Unless something unforeseen occurs?like a bomb exploding on someone?s chin?Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is going to the judges?
Neither Floyd Mayweather nor Manny Pacquiao is a knockout artist. Mayweather hasn?t starched anyone since 2011, when he caught Victor Ortiz with a legal sucker punch. Pacquiao has been even less effective in the knockout department. The last man he stopped was Ricky Hatton in 2009, after Floyd softened him up two years earlier.
Since then, it?s been decision and after decision and we shouldn?t expect otherwise Saturday night. Punches will land. There will be action. There will be blood. But unless something unforeseen occurs?like a bomb exploding on someone?s chin?Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is going to the judges.
Bob Bennett, Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, has been in office a year. He is one of the new blood generation of boxing executives breathing life into our sport, which includes Andy Foster in California, David Berlin in New York, and Greg Alvarez in Texas. In light of Bennett?s busy schedule?May/Pac is this week?my timing couldn?t have been worse?he explained how he chose the judges and referee for a fight of this magnitude.
?Being a former marine and former FBI agent,? he told Boxing.com, ?I?m used to stress and pressure. When you have a situation like this, I quite frankly embrace it and look at it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How many people get to select the judges for once of the biggest fights in history, for an epic fight? I?m willing to do the preparation and the homework to do whatever it takes to get the job done and I?m blessed to have this position. So I really don?t stress over it. But there is quite a lot of work, day to day business, and then you add this on top of it?you can?t make a mistake and it?s incumbent upon me to recommend the best officials to my chairman and my commissioners.?
I asked about process. Bennett isn?t pulling a rabbit out of a hat. He?s not playing pin the tail on the donkey. He has no crystal ball. So how did he select the officials for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao?
?That?s a great question,? said Bennett. ?Let?s speak about the judges and referee to start with. First of all, they have to be experienced. They need to have worked in a variety of venues throughout the country and the world, like Macau and Madison Square Garden. And most importantly, and I say with this all due respect to the other venues, they have to have experience working under the big lights of Las Vegas, in the fight capital of the world. Because if you can work in Vegas and you?ve proven that you?re consistent, you?re competent, and you can work under these conditions, then you?re more inclined to get selected.
?In my short tenure of one year I?ve seen many judges and referees come in here who are outstanding?but for some reason they made a mistake, which we?re all entitled to, and it comes at the fighter?s expense. Or they choke or get too stressed out because they?re in Vegas. Everybody says, ?Oh man, the fight?s in Vegas, the fight capital of the world,? and they get too wound up, when it should be, ?Whoa, let me slow down. I?m competent. I?ve been doing this for years. I know what I?m doing. I?m going to take advantage of this opportunity and I?m going to hit the ball out of the park.? That?s what I look for, the character, the personality, the demeanor to be able to accept this assignment and do it second to none.?
That?s a tall order. But Bennett has clearly given this some thought.
He continued, ?Then of course I have a number of other sources that I go to for statistical data. One that has been extremely beneficial to me in the last year of being here is the Pod Index and working with Matt Podgorski. Matt is a consummate professional and I worked with him since I started. I gave Matt a call because I was interested in determining the results from the statistical data and subsequently asked him to prepare custom-made reports for my judges, so that I can see who?s been in the minority most of the time, who?s in the majority. And the data is very important provided there?s a reasonable amount of data.
?Now certainly the process doesn?t begin and end with the Pod Index, but Matt?s data has proven to be very informative.?
I asked Bob Bennett to give me an example.
?For this fight, for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, I told Matt, ?I?d like to know how many title fights and/or special events, let?s just put it as 12-round fights that my referees have worked since 2012.? He lets me know that since 2012 Tony Weeks did 72, Robert Byrd did 57, and Kenny Bayless did 42. That?s not an exact number, but it?s pretty close. And he did the exact same thing with the judges. I said going back to 2012, how many championship fights or special events has Glenn Feldman done? He?s done 30. How about Dave Moretti? He?s done 24. Burt Clements? He?s done 23. What are we looking at? Maybe 30 months? You?re not going to say these guys do a championship fight every month, but it?s close to that.?
?My point is that they?re doing high-end fights, and they?re doing other fights on a regular basis. So it?s just like any other sport. The more active you are, the better you are able to hone in on your skill set and perform better. Probably the key factor is the ability to concentrate and not let 18,000 screaming fans sway you one way or the other.?
I asked Bennett to elaborate.
?In making that determination of what officials to use, I?ll go through their last two or three years, big fights, small fights, they are all important. Every fight is important to the fighter who gets into that ring, and I look at what judges have been most consistent and have performed exceptionally well. And interestingly enough, the statistical data, to a reasonable extent, such as Matt provides me with, has matched up very closely.
?Let?s say I happen to be thinking about Glenn Feldman or John McKaie for Saturday?s big fight. I went on the Pod Index website?Matt has a great site that we subscribe to?and I was able to look at the scoresheets from the Quillin-Lee fight. And you see that Guido Cavalleri was in the majority 100% of the time, Eric was out one round, and Glenn Feldman was out two rounds. But I happen to agree with Glenn on the 10-9 round. I don?t think it was a 10-8 round. I also got the Matthysse vs. Provodnikov fight up in Turning Stone off the Pod Index, just to see who was in the minority and majority. When you see John McKaie and Glenn Feldman, they?re in total agreement for 12 rounds and Don Ackerman was out one. But all three judges did an outstanding job. So they?re all an indication when you collectively think about the experience and venues they?ve worked. How cool, calm, and collected are they under pressure? I?ve gotten to know them. I?ve gotten to observe them, whether I was the Executive Director for the last year or a professional boxing judge for two and a half years.?
Being able to watch the judges work can?t be beat, but ?there?s no doubt that the Pod Index improves your ability to comprehensively review all the data that?s available. Unfortunately, boxing is more subjective than other sports. Take basketball. A guy goes to the free throw line and the announcer says, ?He?s a 90 percent free throw shooter.? Well, you can?t really do that in boxing. But depending on the data that you entered over an extended period of time, it does paint a picture. If you look at the scorecards on somebody who might be struggling, you can see that, wow, this particular judge is not in the majority of the beginning of the fight, but this other judge is in the minority in the final rounds. And if there?s a pattern that develops, it might be an indication that the first few rounds the judges unequivocally is taking too long to get settled and get into a zone. If it?s the latter part of the fight, maybe the judge?s concentration is starting to dwindle, and it?s something you need to pick up on.?
?Just like baseball, if you look at baseball pitchers, they have it down to a mathematical formula. If pitcher a is 6-foot, 200 pounds, and throws at x speed for x amount of innings and x amount of innings, he should last x number of years. I do think that the more information you have, provided the information is accurate, you?re in a better position to determine who to utilize. Our number one priority is the fighter. We?re only here because these guys are fighting. And if the data enables us to select better officials, better referees and judges, it?s incumbent upon us to do our job so that the right fighter is picked at the end of the fight.?
One doesn?t have to work with a tribal commission to be a Big Chief. Bob Bennett has proven that. I haven?t met him face-to-face, but can?t wait until I do. Matt Podgorski, by contrast, speaks with him regularly. I asked Matt how it has been working hand in glove with the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
?Bob was extremely meticulous during the selection process for the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao officials,? replied Podgorski. ?He asked for a whole suite of custom statistical reports and he asked a ton of questions to fully understand their meaning. He spent a lot of time on this project. He dug into the details, going as far as drilling into the scoring of a specific round from more than a year ago. This guy really gets it.
?Much like Andy Foster in California, Bob is immersing himself into the sport and gathering as many facts as he can before making decisions. I have been really impressed with both Bob and Andy.
?After being involved in the research portion of the judge selection process, I feel confident that if there is a controversy on the scoring outcome of Saturday?s fight, the judges won?t be to blame. Rather, it?s more likely to be a media-driven controversy.?
