There were some minority opinions at ringside besides that of judge Adelaide Byrd Saturday night in Las Vegas.
The generally quite competent Ms. Byrd tabbed it 114-113 after 12 ugly rounds at the Thomas & Mack Center. Her tally was in favor of Bernard Hopkins and, because she disagreed with Ted Gizma and reliable Chuck Giampa, Joe Calzaghe flies home to Newbridge, Wales, with a split devision victory and the meaningless Ring magazine light heavyweight belt.
It?s not every day though that a fighter can earn a title trinket from a company fully owned by his opponent?s promoter, eh? We?ve done enough Ring bashing lately.
Back to other minority opinions. Associated Press, ESPN and New York Daily News all agreed with Byrd at 114-113 for the mauling, clutching, fouling Hopkins. So did Kevin Iole, now at Yahoo and before that at Las Vegas Review-Journal for so many fights.
The old line, what fight were they watching, comes to mind. I will resist the temptation to label these writers “Byrd brains.”
You’ve heard of “Meet The Press,” maybe it’s time to beat the press.
As one biting, caustic and acerbic Boxingconfidential.com reader just commented that he watched as BHop ?turned into John Ruiz.?
Ouch!
As for the AP, I guess that was Tim Dahlberg. To put it nicely, Timbo is no Fast Eddie Schulyer when it comes to scoring a fight accurately. As for Dan Rafael, maybe he had an off night because from rounds seven to 12 the scoring was simple because Calzaghe was fighting to win while Hopscotch was fighting to go the limit.
What about good guy Tiny Tim Smith? I don?t bedrudge him the gig but Tim also writes for Calzaghe promoter Fearless Frank Warren?s website. It is entirely possible that, in seeking to be extra fair because of that, Smitty bent over backwards to be fair to Hopkins. I used to try so hard to be impartial in Muhammad Ali bouts, because of my freindship with and allegiance to Ali, that I sometimes had a screwed up ending ballot.
I find Iole to be consistently accurate on his cards though I doubt he cares a whit about that.
On the other hand, all four veteran scribes will probably insist their cards were on the mark.
I wonder if one, two or all three watched from the same side of the ring as did Ms. Byrd. You know, of course, she and the other two judges all had slightly different perspectives from their perches.
I had it 116-111 or 9-3 in rounds for Joe C. Wales. I do acknowledge there were about three rounds that could?ve gone to either fighter so maybe the one point Hopkins ballots are not ridiculous. Boxing wise man Johnny Bos made it 10-2 in rounds for Calzaghe.
I just wonder if anyone, judge or journalist, gave the 12th and final frame to BHop because he embarrassed himself in not trying to score a KO or just to win that final frame.
Final note: It?s not uncommon for boxing writers from the bigger papers or the wire services, all seated in the same two or three rows, to come up with similar final counts.
And here?s another little secret. The scribes talk to each other about their ballots as the rounds go by.
?Hey, Danno, who did you give that one to? Hey, Tim, how do you have it so far??
Maybe some writers make adjustments if they believe they are out of whack with their colleagues. I am sure some do.
Oh, well, it?s all just fistic fodder now. Let?s get back to the real fight, Hillary and Barack in Pennyslvania.
