Aaron M. Davis, commissioner of the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, has suspended judges Al Bennett, Don Givens, and Hilton Whitaker, who somehow came to the conclusion that Erislandy Lara did not do enough to win against Paul Williams last Saturday night at the Adrian Phillips Ballroom in Boardwalk Hall. What happens next is probably nothing, something boxing excels at, since without evidence of misconduct, the decision, as rotten as it is, will stand. Commissions cannot overturn results simply because they feel like it. Davis, who has taken dramatic action before (but who did not respond to a query concerning his rubber stamping of Alejandro Valdez, a fighter who had suffered a brain bleed, to fight in New Jersey last year), deserves some credit for benching his trio of nincompoops. Unfortunately, it was Davis who gave these three neophytes the high profile assignment in the first place. Will he suspend himself as well? **** Like many things in boxing, suspending judges is an act that has nearly disappeared over the decades. Years ago it was common for fighters to be tossed from bouts for poor efforts, for fights to be declared no-contest if they seemed suspicious, and for judges and referees to be censured. Of course, in those days, mob control of fights made honest officials more vigilant. The most infamous judging scandal of all, perhaps, was when NYSAC head Eddie Eagan suspended two veteran judges, Harold Barnes and Harry Ebbets for their votes in favor of Jake LaMotta over Robert Villemain in 1949. After his El Foldo performance against Billy Fox two years earlier, LaMotta trailed a long shadow of suspicion behind him wherever he went. Also in 1949, Sam Pearlstein and Morrie Sherman were suspended for myopic vision in rewarding Lester Felton the duke over Kid Gavilan in Detroit. Felton, alas, was connected to Motor City Mafioso Sam Finazzo and participated in a slew of fistic mysteries. In something out of a cheap noir, Pearlstein and Sherman passed lie detector tests and were officially exonerated of wrongdoing. Even World Boxing Hall of Fame inductees were not immune to official censure. Popular Mushy Callahan, former junior welterweight champion, and his colleague, Joe Stone, were benched for tipping Art Aragon over Chuck Davey in 1954. Both Aragon and Davey had a number of suspicious fights between them throughout their careers. Most recently, in 1999, Eugenia Williams made shrill headlines?and the suspension list?for her abracadabra in favor of Evander Holyfield against Lennox Lewis. (Williams disappeared for over four years before turning up again to judge fights in New Jersey.) Although IBF president Bob Lee, who appointed Williams, would eventually do time for money laundering, and Don King, who promoted Holyfield at the time, was the ?Teflon Don? of boxing, there was really no link between Williams and a smoking gun. Ditto the trio involved in Williams-Lara, a decision that?despite conspiracy theorists everywhere?seems rooted in incompetence. **** In addition to being incompetent, the crew at ringside for Williams-Lara was fairly inexperienced. But they also might have been swayed by the phony memes that dominate boxing, particularly those invented by clich? mongers and spurious authorities who have been following boxing since 2008. Although the frequency with which they crush the dreams of unsuspecting prizefighters may indicate otherwise, judges are human, too, and some of them may find it difficult, despite professional obligations, to cut through the propaganda surrounding so many fighters. Judges also follow boxing, presumably, otherwise they would not have enough of an interest to become officials in the first place. So, theoretically, they may watch fights on HBO that they are not involved in and read ESPN.com. In that case, they are bombarded by propaganda and false narratives concerning fighters all the time. Is it possible for judges to be affected, subconsciously at least, by so much of the pettifogging surrounding fighters these days? If a judge spent any time reading RingTV.com, for example, he or she would probably think that Saul Alvarez is the Messiah decked out in trunks and Winning gloves. Because Williams, like many other fighters, was anointed as some P-4-P great after beating Antonio Margarito in 2007, he was followed into the ring by a numinous glow of hype and purple prose. These false narratives in turn spawn other false narratives. The importance of fights involving ?P-4-P? residents is completely overblown by compilers of such specious lists, which are, after all, MAKE BELIEVE. It was bizarre seeing Dan Rafael, for example, defend his selection of Kostya Tszyu for the Hall of Fame by citing, among other reasons, the fact that Tszyu had been on many pound-for-pound lists for years. Imagine citing the points accrued by a baseball player in your Fantasy League as a reason for voting him into the Hall of Fame. This is preposterous, of course, and if you wonder why a writer never thinks Fighter X should be on the short end of a close decision, it is probably because they are merely covering up for previous hyperbole. ***** As for corruption and conspiracies, we should just note that scoring the fight for Williams does not exactly bring to mind the Illuminati or the Black Hand managing to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinad. Dan Goosen is no Tex Rickard, of course, but the man who once served as VP of Operations for Top Rank and ran America Presents into the ground about a decade ago, is one of the cleaner promoters in business today. Of course, that statement is relative?and other industry types might dispute it?but Goosen was the only promoter to come out untainted during the federal trial of former Bob Lee, indicted on racketeering charges in 1999. Cedric Kushner, Dino Duva, and Bob Arum all admitted to paying bribes, and, according to Jack Newfield, Don King was named ?un-indicted co-conspirator? along with Lee. Dan Goosen, however, despite his prickly personality, came out looking like a saint compared to some of the other big players in the game. ***** Finally, if Williams was ?protected? at Boardwalk Hall, it was for reasons that are hardly tangible. Fighters may have been protected in the past for their moneymaking capabilities, but Williams?a good, solid pro?generates nothing for anybody (except himself and his team, of course) and never has. As a figment of the HBO imagination, Williams has never produced gates, never provided television ratings, and would not make a high roller think twice about sticking to the Roulette wheel at the Borgata. Looking out for Williams, then, seems like a subconscious act on the part of judges who have been reading too many ?P-4-P? lists and who are looking to, perhaps, score points with promoters. These are, of course, the wrong points to score.
