By David Mackie – Germany gets a lot of negative press regarding its judging decisions in boxing matches. It’s always been known that it is extremely difficult for foreign fighters to go to Germany and earn a decision victory over a German-based fighter. Boxing in Germany is big-business and has got to be one of the world-leaders in terms of how many viewers they pull in on television and the attendances that German-based fighters bring in. In short, it’s a big money industry.
German-based fighters such as Valuev, Sturm as well as others have in the past been accused of being gifted decisions as a result of biased judging. After settling down Saturday night to watch a presentation of live European boxing from Germany on Eurosport, I have to say that there is some majors problems with the way fights are judged over there..
On Saturday night I witnessed two blatant robberies, one which it could be argued that was fairly close, and the other which may have been the most rotten decision I have ever witnessed. It was almost criminal.
The show was broadcast from Cuxhaven, Germany.
The first fight of the broadcast saw German-based middleweight Mahir Oral (27-2-2) take on Italian Fabio Liggieri (11-4-4) in an eight-rounder. Right off the bat Oral appeared very disinterested and sluggish. Liggieri kept taking the fight to Oral and blasted him with lots of shots in every round. Most of the shots may have been blocked or were only hitting Oral’s shoulders but never-the-less Liggieri was winning clearly on work-rate alone. Oral would occasionally step back to get out of trouble, but never landing anything offensively.
At the end the eight-rounds Liggieri and his corner lept around the ring in celebration at what should have been a big win for the Italian. Oral looked very unmotivated (like he had been the entire fight) and upset with his performance. I had the fight 78-75 to Liggieri as he had been the busier fighter and showed the most heart.
The first judge scored the fight a surprising 76-76 draw. The next two judges scored it 78-77 to Oral. A furious Liggieri flipped a middle finger and storm out of the ring. I have to agree with his reaction. Oral should have lost.
The next fight was a light-welterweight contest between 2008 Olympic gold-medalist Felix Diaz (4-0-0) of The Dominican Republic against Bronislav Kubin (9-2-1) of the Czech Republic. Diaz took a little time to get going, but when he did he dominated a clearly over-matched opponent. The southpaw Diaz floored Kubin in the second-round and again in the third, before finally knocking him out with a nice left-hand at the halfway point of the third-round. Diaz looked good, but it’s too early to tell if he can become a contender.
The final fight in the broadcast is where the biggest robbery of the night took place.
It was a heavyweight clash between Alexey Mazikin (13-4-2) of the Ukraine and Konstantin Airich (13-2-2) of Germany. This was the second time these to men had fought, the first time they fought to a draw. The taller-man Mazikin controlled the fight for the entire 8-rounds. He was deducted two-points for punching below the belt. Mazikin hit Airich with clubbing right hands all night. A clash of heads opened up a cut above Mazikin’s right eye in the sixth-round. Airich just didn’t have an answer for Mazikin and failed to land anything of substance throughout the entire fight.
I had Mazikin winning every round. A score of 78-72 due to the two point deduction. The first judge shockingly scored the fight in favour of Konstantin Airich and the other two gave a score of 76-76, resulting in a majority draw. An absolute travesty, and another display that makes boxing look like a joke.
Something needs to be done about this sort of thing. I can’t fathom what sort of criteria the judges were looking for, but it’s bad for the fighters, bad for the fans and most of all bad for the sport.
David Mackie, www.primetimefight.com