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May 2001
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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VIEW FROM NEW YORK with Steve Farhood What conspiracies? |
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THERE WAS criminal involvement in Hilton-Thobela, but not on the part of the judges
- Get Big Pic In simpler times, fights were fixed because judges were
paid off. Those were the good old days. Today,
conspiracy theorists would have you believe every close decision is awarded to
“the house fighter”, or the contestant favoured by the lead promoter. Part
of the conventional wisdom: Most title-fight judges are appointed by the
alphabet organisations, which have strong ties with certain power-promoters.
Since judges covet big-fight assignments, not to mention expenses-paid trips to
Bangkok, Paris, Munich, and Tokyo, they “know” whom to score for. If you
believe that line of thinking, fights are still fixed. Sort of. I’m not
necessarily a believer. While I’m not naive enough to think certain judges
aren’t swayed by temptation, the conspiracy theorists (“Eugenia Williams was
on the grassy knoll in Dallas!”) conveniently overlook one stone-cold fact:
Scoring is a subjective exercise. Always has been. Still is. And always will be,
at least as long as judges are instructed to rely on the four points of scoring
(effective aggressiveness, accurate punching, and the two ridiculously vague
ones, defence and ring generalship). For the
masses, scoring hit rock-bottom in March 1999, with the draw verdict in Lewis-Holyfield
I. But where was the conspiracy in the rematch, which was a much closer fight? I
had Holyfield winning by a point, but Don King’s fighter lost that one. And what
about Bob Arum’s supposed influence in Nevada, where Top Rank is based? Johnny
Tapia blamed his first loss to the Arum-promoted Paulie Ayala on his break-up
with Top Rank. But where was Arum’s clout when Felix Trinidad was awarded an
undeserving decision over Top Rank’s then-franchise fighter, Oscar De La Hoya?
Sure, the decision in Erik Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera went Arum’s way, but
in two lightweight bouts, Jose Luis Castillo defeated and drew with Stevie
Johnston. You can’t tell me Arum wouldn’t rather have seen Johnston win
those decisions. Some distance
fights result in either close decisions or daylight robberies, depending on your
perspective. For instance, I didn’t think Irene Pacheco’s points win over
Hawk Makepula was a miscarriage of justice, but most of my colleagues did. And
one other thing: The local favourite doesn’t always win. Last September,
Willie Jorrin travelled 8,000 miles or so to face England’s Michael Brodie for
the vacant WBC super bantamweight title in Manchester. Jorrin got the unpopular
nod. Taking it one step further, Jorrin barely outpointed Oscar Larios in his
first defence. To suggest that Jorrin kept the belt because his promoter, Don
Chargin, wields undue power in the WBC is laughable. Davey Hilton-Dingaan
Thobela . . . Derrick Gainer-Victor Polo . . . Juan Lazcano-James Leija . . .
Vivian Harris-Ivan Robinson . . . Erik Morales-Guty Espadas . . . Evander
Holyfield-John Ruiz I . . . There have been a handful of controversial decisions
in recent months. If you’re convinced that boxing politics played a
significant part in each and every one of them, you probably also think a
right-wing conspiracy, launched by disgruntled Ku Klux Klan members and funded
by the military-industrial complex, is responsible for denying Glyn Leach the
Nobel Prize for Literature. Then again,
I’ve always wondered about that one, too. The Finisher: Years after his reign as welterweight and
middleweight champion, Mickey Walker developed into an accomplished painter. Dr.
Ferdie Pacheco puts colour on canvas well enough to have presented his work in
one-man shows. And LeRoy Neiman is a fixture at big fights. Otherwise, I
might have difficulty connecting the worlds of art and boxing. Until the night
of 29 March, that is. As a member
of the board of directors of F.I.S.T. (The Fighters’ Initiative for Support
and Training), the non-profit organisation Gerry Cooney founded to help retired
boxers make the transition from the ring to the real world, I attended a
fund-raiser at the Benedetti Gallery in SoHo. (New York City’s SoHo, not
yours.) It was fascinating to see the likes of Cooney, Carl “The Truth”
Williams, and Jake LaMotta mingle with the hoity-toities who were bidding
thousands of dollars for etchings, lithographs, and bonded bronze sculptures. There was
even an item for auction by pound-for-pounder Renoir, titled “Woman With
Tambourine III.” “I musta missed the first two fights,” whispered LaMotta.
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