Judging Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Erislandy Lara
By James Lopez, RCM Boxing Correspondent
Las Vegas, NV (June 13th, 2013)– Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara was a very close affair. Dave Moretti scored the bout 115-113 for Lara. Jerry Roth scored the bout 115-113 for Alvarez. The third official judge scored it for Alvarez thus giving him the split decision victory. After Alvarez was declared the winner a spark of controversy erupts. The controversy does not arise because Alvarez won, but the margin of victory Levi Martinez had him winning by. Martinez the third official judge, had Alvarez dominating the entire fight. According to him, Alvarez won nine of the twelve rounds.
People start to question if Levi Martinez was corrupted to favor Alvarez before the fight even began or if he’s just an incompetent judge. A wide consensus in the boxing world agrees it was indeed a close fight and either fighter could have won. When the whole world sees the bout one way but a judge delivers an eccentric scorecard then there’s a problem. It’s hard to comprehend how a person who has been judging for many years cannot score a prize fight better than the average fan. If two Levi Martinez’s judged the Alvarez vs Lara bout, and Lara put on a more dominating performance and still loss, then this issue would have exploded. This was not the case. Since there was only one incompetent judge on the panel in a split decision, people have the mindset that either fighter could have won it so it doesn’t really matter. The problem with this is what happens on this next bout Martinez is chosen to judge in. All it takes is two incompetent judges to deliver an awful decision.
In order to prevent such issues there needs to be stricter regulations on who can judge a fight. If a judge does an absolutely terrible job of scoring a fight where it is blatantly obvious then he or she should never be able to judge again. This will help maintain the integrity of this great sport and its loyal fans. It will also protect the fighters and insure all of their hard work and sacrifices are not in vein.
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