WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman wants six judges for the May 18th undisputed heavyweight championship clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Sulaiman feels that the Fury-Usyk clash is too critical for just three judges to work the contest, which makes sense, given Fury’s recent fight against Francis Ngannou last October.
Much of the world saw WBC heavyweight champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) being given a gift 10-round split decision over Ngannou, and they feel he should have lost by two to four rounds against the novice.
According to Boxing Scene, Sulaiman has sent an emergency petition to the WBA, IBF & WBO, asking them to humor the idea for the Fury vs. Usyk clash to have six judges working.
If the same pool of judges has been working on previous fights, what difference does it make if three additional officials are working the Fury-Usk bout? What is really needed is quality judges who know how to judge a fight.
Throwing more cooks in the kitchen probably won’t change anything if they don’t have a clue on what they’re looking at, and if they can’t set aside their biases for the A-side fighters.
On the other hand, it could be a wise move by Sulaiman because the last thing fans need is another judging fiasco like the one we saw in Fury’s fight with Ngannou, which would further harm the sport.
The basic problem is that the popular A-side fighters tend to have the judges scoring fights in their favor, which has given boxing a black eye.
Let’s Be Real, We’ve Seen Some Doozies
Fury’s fight with Ngannou was just one example. Other questionable decisions that stand out in recent times:
- Teofimo Lopez vs. Jamaine Ortiz
- George Kambosos Jr. vs. Maxi Hughes
- Teofimo Lopez vs. Sandor Martin
- Devin Haney vs. Vasily Lomachenko
- Teofimo Lopez vs. Vasily Lomachenko