"Most Respected Officials in Boxing"

by Keith Terceira

22.09 - A quote from Mark Ratner's comments to the press, shortly after Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya blasted the judging of De La Hoya- Mosely II. While these Judges are bureaucrats from their organizations, the boxing fan and fighter may disagree on whether they are respected .

Judge Duane Ford is a former Chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, a Commission Member from 1984 to 1990, and Past President of the Association of Boxing Commissions. He was also a judge in the Holmes-Cooney fight in 1982 and had Cooney ahead 7 of the first 10 rounds. In June, 2002 Ford judged the Morales-Barrera bout. DeMarcus Corley was the beneficiary of Mr. Fords’ wisdom during the Zab Judah fight with Ford having him winning by 3 points. A long list of suspicious and debated matches line his record of judging, not to mention the fiasco’s that took place under his watch at the Commission.

During Casamayor vs. Garcia, Duane must have been counting the wisps of breeze that came from the gloves of Garcia as he constantly missed his target, and Ford scored the bout 77-74, Casamayor, though many felt it was a nine round pounding until Roberto was stopped. Dave Moretti also judging the fight had it 76-74 only a little less realistic. Moretti and Ford would be in ignorant agreement again during the Holyfield-Ruiz match. Holyfield used tactics normally reserved for Pro Wrestling to win a unanimous decision . Problem was, though there was no knockdowns or point deductions both Ford and Moretti decided that in the third round, enough damage was done to award Holyfield a 10-8 round. If not for that, a draw would have been the more likely outcome. Duane Ford and Stan Christodoulou worked the Trinidad-Vargas match scoring a similar 103-100 and 104-100 and the fight was stopped in the 12th. In November, 2002 Ford score the virtual shutout thrown by Guty Espadas against Clarence "bones" Adams, 115-113 Adams.

Stanley Christodoulou who was judging from the WBA is another respected official, high in the ranks of the hierarchy. World Boxing Association’s Euro-African Vice President, Executive member of Boxing South Africa, also member of the WBA Rankings and Championship Committees. No conflict of interest there folks, only par for the course. Stan the Man may be remembered for his hard-line stance that banned the smaller supposedly little known sanctioning bodies from South Africa., while he was managing director of the now defunct South African National Boxing Control Commission. Stanley is still considered respected even after he revealed he used his influence to secure unearned , high rankings for South African fighters.

Christodoulou is quoted as having referred to WBU, IBO, IBA and others as "Mickey Mouse Bodies".

Whether Stan "the Dictator" Christodoulou is respected one need only ask the dozen’s
of displaced South African fighters his good ole boy rulings affected. Stan functions as a consultant to other African nations regarding Boxing. Good for the powers that be, bad for the small beginning organizations that want change in the sport.

Christodoulou is a respected referee, but as we investigate all these "judges" one begins to wonder why Ratner did not select men respected by the fighters as Judges instead of Officials looking for free seats at the fight. At the least, select people who have no inside track on policy.

One needs only to refer to the Association of Boxing Commission’s fourth annual World Judges Report to see where Mr. Hongtongkam sat as far as judging goes. Listed as being from Thailand, his hometown papers question the fact that Anek is more of a permanent fixture in Vegas than Bangkok. One hundred and twenty two judges were reviewed by past ABC president Sirb for the Report. Anek placed in the bottom 15%. The average percentage of judges that voted with the winner of their fights was 88.76% . Anek placed below that at 75% the bottom 10% of the class.

Mr. Hongtongkam also placed poorly in the percent different column where the world average was 12%, his was 13.29%. To quote the report "If the Judges % figure is above the world average this means that this particular judge is the odd Judge out more times than the average judge." Well odd is the key word, odd Ratner would even consider such poor quality.

The report further states "If Boxing commissions use this report properly but still let some Judge into their jurisdiction that has a high percentage in the % different column, scores a lot of even rounds, and consistently has not voted for the winner of the bout, than, when a "bad" score comes in, that Commission has no one to blame but themselves". Or they can blame the promoters, the fighters or the greenhouse effect.

So lets look at his fight list, during his scoring of the Mayweather-Castillo fight he loved the jab so much he scored it 116-111, Mayweather . Castillo out landed Mayweather 35-20 in round 11 with a 34-17 edge in power connects and Anek scored for Mayweather. In round 10, Castillo out landed Mayweather 26-17 and 25-8 in power shots and again Anek went with Mayweather. His love for the jab continued with Tokuyama vs. Kawashina even after his winner was a one armed fighter. During Cho vs. Penalosa , Judge Moria of Japan had it 116-114 Cho , Judge Castellano of us had it 115-112 Cho and Anek "Mr. Magoo" Hongtongkam scored the bout 115-114 Penalosa. As I recall Cho was better than all these scorecards show. He loved the Jab, that is until DLH-Mosely II.

I won’t continue with the long list of disputed matches and bad calls these gentleman have been involved in. It serves only to inflame those already fed up with the perception of slime that exists in the sport. Can anyone imagine an Ex- Commissioner of Baseball umpiring the Montreal Expo’s playoff game. Or maybe the Executive V.P. of the Jets being the Ref at a Jets-Dolphins game. Would you choose to be the fighter that complains about a referee’s job performance, only to have that ref be the judge at your next fight. Then if the you lodge a grievance on the ref/judge you find that the guy is also on the rankings committee and you are now ranked S.O.L (So off the List)

Judges should be Judges, Refs are Refs, and Officials are paper-pushing policy enforcers. When you blur the lines, you set a cloud over Boxing that the shady-side of the sport can use as cover to hide. If you want fairness in Vegas I recommend forgetting defense, forget boxing skill, its KO or be KO‘d . The only consistency in Boxing is its INCONSISTENCY.