HEARD ?RIGHT AWAY? FROM MANNY PACQUIAO-TIM BRADLEY JUDGE
San Francisco, CA- Judge Jerry Roth emailed me within an hour or two after the event to tell me that I had confused his Manny Pacquiao scorecard with the dame, C.J. Lewis and that I needed to change the numbers around to reflect that he voted 115-113 for Pacquiao. It was Lewis and Duane Ford?s identical 115-113 scores for Tim Bradley that gave Tim the win and has the sports world abuzz with talk of boxing even in the mainstream media. The bad decision was so ?hot? Saturday night that it was ?Trending? Sunday on Yahoo.com, a leading Google story, hell everybody had a story on the fight and most people, 90% of you in a two-day poll thus far believe Manny won the fight, while 7% went with Bradley and somewhere around 3% thought it was a draw. I?m of the opinion Manny won, but not by a lot.
JUDGES HAVE MORE IMPACT THEN THEY THINK
As I?ve told you previously that judging, good judging requires total concentration, which is tough for some people. It requires that you focus on everything and anything except the infamous ?Fan Man.? If the late James Jarrett Miller were to fly into the ring again, as the ?Fan Man? did for Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe II fight in 1993, I?d understand your lapse. But if you?re thinking about your boyfriend, girlfriend, dinner afterwards, you?re not doing your job.
SOME NEW SNAPPY IDEAS N JUDGING
I?ve already raised the point and suggested a Figure Skater type of scoring, and that didn?t seem to register with a lot of you. There?s been talk here about going back to having the referee as the single arbitrator. Now today, I?m going to expand on a couple of other ways professional boxing could improve their ability to score a match.
RAISED SEATS FOR THE JUDGES
Now this might tick off a number of boxing fans that have certain tickets, but I think having the judges on the same horizontal level would allow them to see more. If you don?t like that one, here?s what Historian Ron Marshall suggested. Marshall, the world?s leading purveyor of signed boxing books said that you need to get three sound proof rooms in the back and let the three judges watch via a live TV monitor. That way, they wouldn?t hear the noise of Jim Lampley screaming (cheerleading), the fans, be distracted by anything. I don?t like judges that look into corners.
BACK TO THE CONCENTRATION LEVEL
When I see judges looking into corners, following guys back to their corner, anything other than watching the two men engage in their three minutes of battling it out. It should not matter if a fighter is cut. That is not the job of a boxing judge, he or she scores the fight, what is happening in the corner has nothing to do with you scoring the fight. You almost have to turn yourself into a Zombie and just concentrate on the fighters that are fighting. Don?t look at the corners, don?t watch the referee warning an individual between rounds, this is of no concern to a good judge. If a referee wants you to take notice, he will take away a point and you?ll know it. That?s not something you can miss.
WATCHED BOTH GOOD & BAD JUDGES
Having watched one judge carry on a conversation for an entire three-minute round one time in a title bout held in California was the worse behavior I?ve ever seen. I?ve also watched judges that can put themselves in a zone and not be affected by noise, be it cheers, boos, or hissing. But that is nearly impossible to do, to block out everything, especially if you?re watching a great-action packed fight and between rounds, there?s stuff going on in both corners. Again, this is not an easy thing to do. So maybe the ?Secret Booth? scoring might be the best, but I think it?s got the last chance of becoming part of the norm. But raising the seats to where the judge can have full and undivided attention on the same horizontal plane. That could work!
