Hopkins vs. Shumenov Horror: Bad Judging Is Ruining Professional Boxing
By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
Washington DC (April 21st, 2014)– Bad judging is as old as time in professional boxing. When Gentleman Jim Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan to win the World Heavyweight championship under the Marquis de Queensbury rules, even still a knockout was required to win the world title outright. Corbett got it. When Leon Spinks beat Muhammad Ali in their first meeting, one judge still tried to give it to Ali. In point of fact, sports fans always overlook the obvious when their favorite athlete or favorite team wins.
As a ringside reporter, I have been witness to some of some of the worst decisions in professional boxing over the decades. Sad to say, but bad decisions still haunt professional boxing. There are days when I wish HBO commentator Harold Lederman and New York Athletic Commissioner Melvina Lathan were still judging, because they always got it right.
In the worst case scenario, I saw a former welterweight contender, who never realized his potential for one reason or robbery or another, win all ten rounds against a top promoter’s unbeaten prospect in Atlantic City. However the judges gave every round to the promoter’s fighter. Worst, the judges saw fit not even to give the former contender nine points for each round, when he deserved ten points for each round, and there were no knockdowns in the bout. The prospect’s fans were delirious after the win, this reporter was not. This reporter was shaking his head. Later, in a number of televised opportunity bouts, the so-called prospect took a beating and got exposed in each major bout, which I pretty much expected to happen and found painful to watch.
The names of the fighters are not particularly relevant. Actually nobody expects the visiting fighter to win on a promoter’s card or in a visiting location. That is just the way it is. However, when international robbery is televised worldwide, officials and promoters have nowhere to hide.
When judge C.J. Ross scored the bout 114-114 a draw in Saul Canelo Alvarez versus Floyd Mayweather Jr., when Floyd blatantly won all 12 rounds, the boxing establishment was horrified. This was an internationally televised World Light Middleweight title bout last year in Las Vegas. The Ross scorecard was unthinkable.
This past weekend, rotten Judging was at its worst again. Judge Gustavo Padilla scored 114-113 for Beibut Shumenov in a Light Heavyweight World title bout in which Bernard Hopkins won at least eight of the 12 rounds, and scored a knockdown in round 11. Unconscionable would be an understatement for Padilla, who should never be allowed to judge again.
New Jersey State Athletic Commissioner Aaron Davis suspended judges Don Givens, Al Bennett and Hilton Whitaker after Paul Williams won a majority 10 round decision over Erislandy Lara in 2011. Given, Williams clearly lost the bout, and all three judges needed retraining. Other judges require the same sort of punishment when it is clearly demonstrated they do not know what they are doing. A robbery decision is bad, but not suspending the rotten judges, in this reporter’s view, is far worse.
To what extend can a reporter write against a promoter who fighters win undeservedly? Never. Till the world ends, boxing reporters will feel like clowns when fighters who deserve to lose get to win, and fighters who deserve to win get to lose. For fight cards which take place in casinos, my advice is always the same: don’t bet. At the very first fight card I covered for television way back in the 1970s, the crowd shouts after the decisions were announced were timeless: “Get robbed!” If boxing decisions were crimes, I would be a very rich man. However , I must also note there is a lot of excellent judging I have witnessed too.
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