“I am a big boxing fan. I am pissed off for getting ripped off by the people who control boxing. I live in Dallas and I will plan a boycott of the proposed Rios vs Marquez fight. Rios clearly lost. Marquez, who lost a fight in a similar fashion, should not award Rios with this fight here at Cowboy Stadium. Bad boxing descisions have been getting worse and worse. Rios vs Abril, Marquez vs Pacquiao, Khan vs Peterson. I pay $55 dolars for the pay per view and get robbed. Please write about this and let your boxing insiders know that I will do my best to stop this fight from happening here in Dallas if Rios is the headliner. I plan on sending this email to the Cowboy Organazation also. Please feel free to call me, if you even care. Not many people do and thats sad. Why do we lay down and let boxing f–k us? I also think you should know I am a big Rios fan. I thought he would dominate, but he didn’t for what ever reason. I just want to see fair fights.” Ricardo Rincon, Dallas, Texas
Dear Ricardo: Yours is an angry letter, that’s obvious. But I feel your pain and so do millions of boxing fans. But you don’t blame the Johnstown flood on a leaky facuet in nearby Altoona. In other words, I think your rightful anger is misdirected here. Neither trainer Robert Garcia nor Bam Bam Rios picked the judges, the Nevada commission did. Yes, Juan Ma whipped Pacman last time but was given the short straw and, yes, I’m in agreement that stringbean Abril cleverly boxed his way to victory over a physically depelted Bam Bam. But you are wrong on including the Amir Khan-Lamont Peterson bout. Peterson’s victory came about because of penalty points, debatable as they were, that were taken away from Khan by the referee. I was speaking about inconsistency in scoring in Las Vegas before Saturday’s show with Nevada’s veteran judge Duane Ford. Like Ford told me, all officials will have the occasional off night. But there was a fight Friday night in Vegas where Michael Katsidis lost a decision. The scoring was ridiculous, one judge had it a draw at 95-95 while another saw Albert Mensah ahead by seven points and third had Mensah edging it, 96-94. No one, in particular the Katsidis camp, howled robbery but where is the consistency in scoring? If three judges all score a round using the four prongs of scoring: clean punching, ring generalship, effective aggression and defense, then why do we wind up with one judge’s final tally being SIX POINTS different than another’s? Getting back to Rios-Abril, the three judges only agreed as to who won half of the 12 rounds. How long would an NFL official or a MLB umpire last if he only got half of his calls right? But this is boxing and judges get to repeat the same ineptitude over and over again. One solution would be to take the top tier judges–Julie Lederman, Glen Feldman, Steve Weisfeld, the aforementioned Ford and a few select others and create a Super Panel to work the key world title bouts. But that would take coordination and cooperation between state commissions and the Alphabet Groups so I guess we stop right there. Ricardo, your anger is understandable but let’s not forget that honest scrapper Bam Bam Rios was wearing gloves, fighting in the ring, and not sitting ringide with pad and pencil. Blaming Rios makes about as much sense as blaming the messenger. Ring announcer Lupe Contreras was merely the messenger so don’t blame him, either. The judges pick the winner but who picks the judges?
