Another time when Larry was interviewing Julio Gonzalez in the ring directly after his twelve round decision loss to light heavyweight champion Roy Jones, he told Julio that he thought the first six rounds were good, but that he thought the last six rounds resembled a sparring session in which Julio replied, "Hey Larry, I don't see you in the ring with headgear and gloves!"
The reason I bring this up is because I strongly believe competent, articulate ex-fighters such as Genero Hernandez, Raul Marquez or Jesse James Lieja to name a few, could do an outstanding job, or qualified trainers such as the Emmanuel Stewart's of boxing. They should be the ones commentating on boxing. When they speak, you can be sure it is an accurate account of what is going on in the ring.
Give me someone who knows what he is talking about and doesn't feel a need to ask someone like Roy Jones, ridiculous questions. Howard Cossell was a rare exception, he was such a strong personality, it worked, but make no mistake about it, if you didn't have "Dandy" Dan Meredith or Frank Gifford in the booth, Monday night football would have been disastrous. Remember Dennis Miller? They finally got rid of him. If he didn't know the intricacies of football, why should it be any different with some of the clowns we have judging fights? Case closed!
It is so imperative that someone who has played the game or fought the fight should be the one who tell the listening audience what is accurately going on. The audience would benefit by their expertise and not have to listen to someone who never played the game or fought the fight. I haven't always agreed with some fighters who have been commentators, but not very often, I may have had a slight, different opinion, but I have never disrespected theirs. With fighters, you can be assured of a true, valid opinion. The same cannot be said of someone who doesn't know the complete rudiments of boxing.
Ferdie Pacheco finally rode off into the sunset, its time for outstanding new boxing minds to step up. Mentioning Pacheco, I remember when he showed his boxing ignorance after Gerald McClellan went down for the final time in his fight with Nigel Benn of England, Ferdie started yelling something like, "he's not getting up, he quit, he's a quitter!" The insensitive doctor, who rode in on Ali's coattails without any previous physical boxing experience, did not take the time to realize that maybe; just maybe, Gerald's fall may have been due to a serious injury. Today, Gerald McClellan is confined to a wheel chair, blind, deaf with extreme brain damage. Someone with any kind of boxing knowledge and compassion would never have made such a brainless assessment. Ferdie Pacheco…good riddance!
That's it for the commentators. Now the judges!
The time has come to clear the air of these blind mice that have no business deciding the outcome of a hard fought fight. They have no clue what it is like to train vigorously, stand toe to toe, and have to dig down deep to win a fight. Time after time, year after year, we have had to live with their outrageous scorecards. The same people, who I believe should be commentating, could also work as judges. Believe me, decisions could be righted if put in the hands of ex-fighters who excel in knowing their craft. One thing for sure, they could not be any worse than their predecessors.
It stands to reason that anyone who has been in the ring as a fighter or as an experienced trainer would know who wins a round. The day after the fight, for my own edification, I called six ex-fighters and asked who they thought won the fight, especially who had won the last round, all six said they thought Bernard had won the fight, and that he won the twelfth round big.
Of course, there are always exceptions of someone who never made a career of boxing. One who comes to mind is our boxing hall of fame boxing historian, David Martinez. He is in all probability, the most knowledgeable boxing guy I know. As a youngster, he spent a lot of time in boxing rings; he would make an excellent judge or boxing commentator. There are others. I'm sure there are some knowledgeable people with good boxing credentials who never fought, but know boxing as David Martinez does, who would be very capable of handing in a correct scorecard; they should be given a chance. It's the same ones that constantly get it wrong that should get the boot, they are the same names who cause all the controversy. I am not trying to belittle anyone, but for God's sake, isn't it about time we weed out these certain judges who continually screw up and have no clue as to who wins a round, let alone a fight?
Reviewing Saturday night's scorecards, it was unbelievable how three judges could be in so much disagreement. Duane Ford and Paul Smith had better look into Seeing Eye Dogs, judging from their cards…they are right around the corner from becoming Mr. McGoo's.
Jerry Roth turned in the right scorecard, but lest we forget, on September 18, 1999, he gave the first three rounds to Felix Trinidad in his fight against Oscar De La Hoya, three rounds that he should have given to Oscar. Regardless, most everyone in boxing knows that Oscar won the fight. Had Roth scored it right, there would not have been any question about the outcome. Mr. Roth did not stop there, like Paul Smith in Saturday night's fight, he gave the twelfth round in the Trinidad fight to Oscar, a round Oscar himself admits to losing. Still, in boxing reality, you do not win eight rounds as Oscar did, and lose a twelve round fight.
In his second fight with Shane Mosley, I don't know anyone who thought Oscar lost the fight; he was robbed of the rightful decision. Guess who voted against him 113-115? None other than…Duane Ford. It all goes back a long way, who can forget the awful decision that was called a draw in a fight Lennox Lewis won big time against Evander Holyfield in their first fight?
I could go on and on, I sincerely think it is time fighters who win, get a fair shake, it is a terrible thing to train for months on end, fight a great fight, know you have won, and then come out on the wrong end of the decision.
Some fighters never come back from a bad decision; this is why something has to be done about it. It just isn't fair to the kids who rely on winning to make it big. It is never the fighter's fault, Jermain Taylor fought as good as he could, even though I and the majority of the media thought he lost, he was handed the winning decision. Jermain did what he trained for; he did what was asked of him, nothing more. He is not at fault. He has what it takes to be an exceptional middleweight champion, but first he has to prove it to me by really beating Bernard in the rematch. When Bernard does decide to retire, Jermain will be a worthy successor.