LAS VEGAS –Nevada has been lucky at more than the gambling industry. The Silver State, in which I spent eight glorious years of my misspent youth, has been fortunate to have two crackerjack directors in succession running the boxing commission.
For many years, the genial and always competent Marc Ratner ruled the roost in an evenhanded way. Ratner was able to smoothly handle controversies involving Mike Tyson?s cannibal act, Zab Judah?s stool throwing and other incidents of untoward behavior.
Ratner earns the big bucks now, and deservedly so, for bringing a real air of credibility to the Fertitta Brothers? Zuffa LLC, owners and operators of the smashingly popular UFC. Adding the highly respected Ratner was a brilliant stroke by the brothers and Dana White.
In Ratner?s footsteps came the able and enthusiastic Keith Kizer, an attorney who labored in the State Attorney General?s Office and concentrated on all legal aspects of the NSAC.
On the eve of the huge Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch at the Mandalay Bay Saturday night, I chatted with Double K about various and sundry boxing issues and concerns.
Q. Keith, what is the story behind the story behind judge Dick Flaherty stepping down as one of the three judges in the Pacman-Marquez II bout?
A. Well, we saw your story in Boxingconfidential about Dick,. But here?s what happened. I sent, as always do, a list of nominated officials to both the Marquez and Pacquiao camps. Neither camp made any objection but then Freddie Roach mentioned that perhaps there might be an issue with Flaherty because his mother, Barbara, who was a boxing judge in Massachusetts, knew him. I spoke to Dick and he said he knew Freddie?s mom from the old days and that he had only seen her once in the past eight years. But Dick is out here and he is judging the WBO featherweight bout on the card between Steven Luevano and Terdsak Jandaeng.. We brought in Tom Miller from Ohio and he will judge along with Jerry Roth and Duane Ford, two vastly experienced local judges, in the main event. Dick did not do anything wrong and neither did Freddie. We just figured why even give off an appearance of impropriety. So it all worked out well.
Q. What is the machinery of picking officials in Nevada? How do you decided who will be a judge and who will be a referee?
A. Well, for this show Saturday there are five outside organizations involved and they submitted 25 names each for a total of 125 potential officials. Then I go to my state list and and I add in six or seven from Nevada. But we really almost pick the names out of a hat, really. Of course we always do our homework on outside officials if we don?t know them. It?s almost like a lottery. In our state, I have officials categorized in Category 1, Category 2 and Category 3. Officials can move up and down based on their performance in all fights. Someone who is in Category 3 now may have been in Category 1 back in the 1980s and someone who was not so long ago in Category 3 may have earned his or her way, based solely on performance, up to Category 1 or to the top level of Category 1. We use a merit system.
Q. What is your position on judges scoring a round or rounds plural even?
A. Larry Merchant, Harold Lederman and I were speaking one night and Larry said that he has a policy of limiting himself to only one even round in any bout. Harold and I disagreed then and I disagree now because if you score a round 10-10 and then the next round is a repetition of that round, how can you not score that exactly similar round also even? If you score one particular round even and then there comes a carbon copy of that round, I think you have to also make that round even.
Q. I can understand, Keith, the aversion to even rounds because I remember covering the Jimmy Young-Ken Norton fight at Caesars Palace, which was a heavyweight title eliminator. It was a pretty good fight with a lot of people going away saying Norton won and a lot saying that Young won. I will never, ever forget that judge Jimmy Rondeau of Washington State scored either six or eight out of the 15 rounds even. That?s not judging, that?s a guy enjoying an all expense paid trip to Vegas. By the way, a historical oddity is that Norton won a split decision but then lost in a WBC title bout to Larry Holmes. That was a great 15-rounder which was dead even after 14 rounds but Holmes came on in the final round. They were fighting for the title vacated when the WBC stripped Leon Spinks. Spinks had dethroned Ali and then chose to give Muhammad a rematch rather than face #1 contender, Norton. So the oddity is that Kenny Norton, who is a pal of mine, is the only heavyweight champion who never won a title bout.
a. Having either six or eight even rounds eight out of 15 rounds is ridiculous, I would agree but I think there is a limited place for even rounds because they do happen.
Q. How about scoring Fighter A knocking down Fighter B once or multiple times in a round? Some people insist a single knockdown should always merit a 10-8 round then for Fighter A but other say it depends.
A. It does depend. I will give you an example, in the first fight between Evander Holyfield and Michael Moorer dominated but then Hoylfield knocked him down near the very end of the round. It was a flash knockdown and two judges called it 10-9 for Moorer while the other guy called it 10-10.The Old School philosophy is that any knockdown makes a round 10-8 but I think you?ve got to capture the whole round and judge it accordingly. If one guy dominated 2:52 of the round and then he gets knocked down, it does not have to absolutely be a 10-8 round. In Nevada, you will see rounds with a knockdown which are not automatic 10-8 rounds.
Q. Bert Clements of Nevada was in the middle of controversy in Pacman-Marquez I when Juan Manuel was floored three times in the opening round. Two judges made it a 10-6 round for Pacman, putting JMM down by four points going into round two, while Clements thought Nevada disfavored 10-6 scoring and tabbed it 10-7. What?s the policy in Nevada now on multiple knockdowns and where is Bert Clements?
A. Bert Clements is still with us, still a good judge and still a Category 1 judge. He was a judge for Mayweather-Hatton. We have no hard and fast policy but I don?t want to see an extreme where some judge scores a round 10-2. If there is a 10-2 round, when it?s over, I?d assume the guy who went down no matter how many times, is on a stretcher en route to the hospital. You?ve got to give credit for a knockdown because one of the main ideas of boxing is to put the other guy on his ass.
Q. There was a long period in boxing, where they scored by rounds and not by points per round, where you could knock a guy down many times and still just win that single round.
A. Those were the days of guys getting knocked down five, six or seven times and the referees would not stop a fight because of that. Our system is today is better and certainly safer.
