After many hours of researching newspapers since yesterday?s announcement by New Jersey State Athletic Control Board Commissioner Aaron Davis that all three judges of the Paul Williams ? Erislandy Lara, WBC title elimination bout in Atlantic City, we can find no record of any instance where all three judges of a bout of this importance has been suspended.
Never in the recent history of boxing have the three people in charge of the livelihood of combatants in this sport all have been found lacking in sufficient knowledge and/or training, that they have been removed from their jobs indefinitely.
What is more confusing is how such a historical occurrence can take place yet the bout that the Commission has said was misjudged is allowed to continue to stand in the record books.
The NJSACB may not have the power to overturn the scores, they may not have the authority to order a rematch but they do have the authority and the responsibility for a fight of this magnitude to declare this bout a No Contest, and there are precedents for that decision to be made.
There have been incidents where the Commissions across the world have ruled a fight, after the fact, a No Contest, after an official has been found to have performed his duties incorrectly. There is even an instance of a world title bout changed to a ?No Contest?.
The WBC is more than familiar to this, for in April of 1976 the Japanese Boxing commission declared the Alfredo Escalero vs. Buzzsaw Yamabe bout, a ?no contest? when they found that the referee failed to follow the regulations requiring him to issue a 10 count, consult with both the ring doctor and the second the corner before stopping the WBC world title fight.
Commissioner Aaron Davis failed to follow regulations that mandated he appoint competent judges, trained enough to officiate a title elimination bout.
In 1951 Middleweight Champion Sugar Ray Robinson fought German Heavyweight Gerhard Hecht and was disqualified for kidney punches in the third round, the Berlin Boxing commission met for three hours before overturning the referee?s call and ruling the bout a no contest.
A July 8th 2001 bout between Hector Camacho Jr. and Jesse James Leija was changed from a technical win for Camacho to a ?no contest? when the New York State Athletic Commission ruled that the bell should not have been rung for the start of the sixth round and because it had that the scorecards should not have been consulted by New York State boxing rules.
There are a great many instances where a referee has made an error and the commission has changed the bout to a no contest as well as fighters behavior in the ring or in the case of steroid use a bout has been ruled a no contest.
The historical significance of the decision to suspend indefinitely three judges from one bout, that all have all been found lacking in their ability to judge warrants such a ruling, the fact that the commissioner himself who erred in choosing three judges whom were found incompetent enough to need ?further training? before judging another bout warrants such a ruling of No Contest , in fact an investigation into the competence of this commissioner, himself, may need to be done, as he made the appointments of these judges.
That loss in Erislandy Lara?s record has value, the chance to fight for a world title the linear world title, has significant value, and the robbery by three judges lacking in training to judge besmirches the effort Lara has made to climb the ladder of success, we have sent a message to Cubans throughout the world that our government makes errors in judgment and doesn?t care if they are corrected only punished, like Cubans have suffered for decades.
Fans need to understand that whatever course that the NJSACB takes there will be lawsuits filed, so in the pursuit of integrity and for the sake of the sport of boxing itself in the state of New Jersey this bout needs to be put in the ?never happened? not the ?do over? column, history books need to look back on this as a non-issue in the deciding of who is allowed to fight for a title, not an instance where the judges mis-ruled the squared ring and the combatants were victims of official negligence and incompetence.
Make no mistake these judges have been ruled by their boss as incompetent hence the suspension and ?Further Training?, the judging by the incompetent and undertrained has no business deciding a title eliminator, frankly it seems Aaron Davis has decided they didn?t have any business judging at all.
