The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) will soon begin the process of selecting the officials ? three judges and referee ? for the much-ballyhooed Dec. 6 battle between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya.
“What the commission is going to do is send out to both camps (Pacquiao and De La Hoya) a list of officials that will be named as candidates to work the fight,” Top Rank head Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao, told the Bulletin over the weekend.
Arum said there?ll be names that will not suit Pacquiao or even De La Hoya?s camp based on past experiences and the NSAC will try to make sure in the coming weeks that the officials who?d be appointed would be the ones both groups will accept.
“The two camps cannot demand for a certain official but they could make recommendations” and the commission will of course give weight to their concerns, according to Arum, noting that since the Pacquiao-De La Hoya bout is not being sanctioned by an alphabet soup organization, all officials will be from the state of Nevada.
Arum, who resides and works in Las Vegas, said that two or three weeks before the fight, the commission would already have finalized the composition of the officials.
Two weeks ago, top trainer Freddie Roach said the choice of the judges doesn?t concern him because “Pacquiao will knock De La Hoya out anyway.”
Nevada-based referees who have worked the vast majority of high-profile fights in Las Vegas include Joe Cortez, Jay Nady, Kenny Bayless, Tony Weeks and Vic Drakulich, while other licensed referees in the state are Toby Gibson, Robert Byrd, Russell Mora and Pat Schellin.
There are 19 licensed judges to choose from and these are Adalaide Byrd, Burt Clements, Lisa Giampa, Dick Houck, Patricia Morse Jarman, Dave Moretti, CJ Ross, Herb Santos, Paul Smith, Doug Tucker, Eric Cheek, Duane Ford, Bill Graham, Robert Hoyle, Al Lefkowitz, Ricardo Ocasio, Jerry Roth, Dalby Shirley and Glenn Trowbridge.
De La Hoya opened as a 2-1 favorite when the fight was first announced but latest figures from Sin City now lists De La Hoya as -250, while Pacquiao is +185, meaning a $ 250 bet on De La Hoya wins $ 100, while a $ 100 wager on Pacquiao wins $ 185.
