By Ted Sares: In my book Boxing is my Sanctuary, I wrote about some things I had witnessed in a fight held in D.C. under the heading “Mondo Bizarro.” I stated: “I had recently interviewed former champ Mike Anchondo for an on-line boxing site and was rooting for him against Darling Jimenez when they squared off in Washington on April 27, 2007. Jimenez proved too fast and tough for Mike and took him out with a devastating KO in the ESPN main event. The affable Mike crashed to the deck face-first unconscious and was counted out by referee Joseph Cooper at 2:05 of the third round. It was painful to witness but what was far worse was that he was left on his stomach in a prone position and unattended for about 30 seconds before he received medical attention. That was ugly and inexcusable.
“In keeping with the bizarre events taking place that night, there was the issue of the timekeeper. After Mike had been decked for the first time and Jimenez was poised for the kill, the bell rang cheating Jimenez out of one full minute.
“I also noted that the referee appeared to be wearing no gloves in the co-feature. Then, in an under card, a fighter suffered a cut around the eye and the doctor in charge checked out the cut from several feet away. ‘Is that incompetence or something else?’ Teddy Atlas asked during the televised fight.”
More Bizarre Stuff in D.C.
Then on Friday, August 15, 2008, the Washington officials once again “distinguished” themselves when they supported referee Malik Waleed’s mind boggling ruling and held that Ishamail “The Arsenal” Arvin “beat” come backing Anthony “The Messenger” Thompson by 4th round TKO. Thompson, who had decked Arvin twice and was comfortably ahead on the scorecards, had sustained a hideous cut over his eye that prevented him from continuing.
Arvin had a won-loss record of 14-1-4, and had only fought twice since December 2007 with both bouts ending in draws. He was looking for his first win since June 15, 2006 when he won a six-round unanimous decision over David Estrada in Glen Burnie, MD.
The Cut
The fact is, the cut was cause by a head butt in the third round and everyone in the house and everyone watching on television knew it; that is everyone but ringside officials–even though they saw it as plain as day on the ESPN replay. First, they were shown the clash of heads. Then they were shown the blood immediately flowing as a result of the clash.
Normally, these kinds of fights are later overruled when the replay is reviewed. This time, the replay was reviewed immediately, but the decision inexplicably was left to stand. Let’s hope for sake of sanity that this ruling will be overturned, as this was an extremley important fight for “The Messenger.”
During a week when I have been jolted by the incredibly bad judging in the Olympic boxing matches (to the point where I no longer will watch them), this was simply icing on the cake. This was awful.