After 12 scintillating rounds at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last Saturday, two proud warriors waited in their corners for the judge’s verdict. One, Rocky Juarez, 26 years old, looked as fresh as a new born colt save for some slight facial swelling, anxiously pacing back and forth. The other, boxing icon Marco Antonio Barrera, nose bloodied and face swollen, had the look of a very tired man who was expecting bad news. The body language in his corner, from the cornermen to the Golden Boy hierarchy of Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaeffer seemed more compassionate than congratulatory.
It wasn’t that the future Hall of Famer Barrera, 62-4, 42 KO’s, had performed badly. From the onset he boxed beautifully, using an effective jab and footwork to hold off the young gun Juarez, who stalked Barrera without interruption throughout the fight. It was the performance of the tenacious Juarez, 25-2 [18], pressing the action with compact power punches, taking the fight to Barrera in the late rounds with an obvious hunger for Barrera’s WBC Super Featherweight title that provided the drama in the outcome. Barrera was forced to dig deep within his champion’s heart to weather Rocky’s power combinations in the late rounds, landing enough late flurries to steal some rounds on the judge’s cards, and to have two judges see the 12th round as even.
The judge’s scores were announced as 115-113 Juarez, 115-113 Barrera, and 114-114. I had the fight 114-114, so a draw seemed reasonable here.
Both men had moments in the fight and there were some thrilling exchanges. Juarez suffered a cut over his right eye in round one, Barrera’s nose was bloodied in the second and continued throughout the fight, Rocky’s nose was bleeding in round three, Barrera was rocked in the third by a good Juarez hook, Barrera’s left eye began swelling in round four, becoming increasingly worse as the fight went on, and he suffered a cut over that eye in the fifth. Right down to the furious exchange at the final bell, it was truly anyone’s fight, depending on the scoring. And it was a difficult bout to score at that, attested by the fact that the judges could only agree on five rounds.
A half hour after the fight went off the air, HBO announcer Jim Lampley came on air to state that there had been a mistake in the addition on the judge’s cards. Judge Duane Ford, originally announced as scoring 115-113 for Juarez, had scored the final round even, making his score 115-114. Judge Ken Morita had also scored the final round as a dead heat, changing his announced 114-114 score to 115-114 for Barrera, changing the draw to a split decision victory for Barrera. The third judge, Anek Hongtongkam scored the 12th round for Juarez, and his card was tabulated correctly, 115-113 for Barrera.
It is easy to see why the Juarez people might have suspicions after the scores of not one, but two judges had been changed on the master scoring sheet. Ford’s extra point was a non factor, but Morita’s gave Barrera the thin margin of victory.
But the truth was that it wasn’t a failure to perform simple mathematical addition, it was a posting error when the numbers were transferred from the judge’s cards to the master scorecard.
Armando Garcia, the chief executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission [CSAC] explained what happened:
“I immediately, not 20 minutes like people reported [took action]. I immediately checked the scorecard because there were too many scratch offs. They were still talking with the microphone facing the camera when I went to Harold Lederman and gave him the information. And my girl [name withheld by request of Garcia] that did it is my most trusted and loyal employee.
“I immediately went to HBO, immediately went to Juarez, immediately went to Barrera, then press row, then to the press conference, then I stayed after the press conference. When I asked if anyone had any questions about the issue, please ask them now, no one asked any questions about the issue. The easy thing for me to do was to let it go as a draw and everyone’s real happy, but it wasn’t a draw.”
Barrera was going to keep his title with the draw in any event, so if there was an impact, it was most likely to Rocky’s pride. To go into Oscar De La Hoya’s home town as a 4-1 underdog and battle the Mexican legend to a standoff has to feel a little better than a split decision loss. [Only winners seem to be able to say “There are no losers in a fight like this.”]
Juarez says that he wants a rematch, but with Barrera heading toward the end of a great career, he’s more likely to direct his attention toward the Manny Pacquiao – Eric Morales rubber match this fall, and the riches that would come from facing the winner of that bout.
While I’m satisfied that no foul play was involved, I do have some concerns.
Ford is a veteran of 102 title bouts, Morita 28. With the fight on the line, I can’t agree with their decision to score the final round even. To me, with the exception of a technical decision or an extremely rare case, no judge should score a round even. Judge Hongtongkam scored it for Juarez. It was an exciting finish, but I agree with him. But even if they leaned toward the legendary Barrera, that would have been fine – just make a decision, for Pete’s sake.
Maybe the CSAC deserves a black eye for making a grievous human error in such a high profile fight. But Garcia should also be credited with doing the right thing and reporting the error, knowing that he was going to take some heat. But human error or not, the fact remains that 10,000 people paid top dollar but left the arena with the wrong result. Millions of HBO viewers went to sleep, only to learn that the decision was changed the next day. Even some early internet reports went online with the “mistabulated” information.
I find myself sympathizing with Chief Commissioner Garcia, who had the unenviable job of trying to explain how the individual score sheets submitted by the judges were correct, and the mistake occurred while transferring them to the commission tabulation sheet. He wasn’t given much to work with – the tabulation sheet appeared to show both cards in question as a 10-9 round for Juarez, then scratched out and changed to 10-10. I asked Garcia why he didn’t simply present photocopies of the individual judge’s scorecards of the 12th round from Ford and Morita and present it to the questioning media and the Juarez camp. It might not have changed the error, but it might have cleared the air.
“Because no one asked me,” he replied. Garcia went on to say that he had sent a complete copy of the originals to [Rocky’s promoters] Main Events and one internet reporter who had requested it.
BOXING, ADVERTISING, AND POLITICS
Sometime, hopefully soon, the networks and the commissions are going to have to have standardized practices in effect as to what is acceptable ring etiquette regarding ring attire, advertising, and politics. Three weeks ago, at the De La Hoya fight, Ricardo Mayorga wore a robe advertising “Latinos Gone Wild,” basically a Latino porn site. Now I ask you, is that the image that we want to portray to the younger fans that we so badly need to attract?
Janos Nagy, a previously undefeated Hungarian Jr. lightweight who was knocked out in 49 seconds by WBO titlist Jorge Barrios in the Barrera- Juarez co-feature, entered the ring in a plain red robe. However, painted on his back was the words “Exclusive Change,” and was fined. From what I’ve been able to determine, unfamiliar as I am with foreign languages, Exclusive Change is a foreign website that serves as an International currency converter. I understand that HBO has a policy on such advertising, but think about it – is that more offensive than Mayorga’s Latino’s Gone Wild? Nagy had never previously fought in the United States, and judging from his performance, probably never will again. He wasn’t advertising an online gambling site or a porn site, [and I assume he didn’t get the fight on Match.Com], so either give him a break or tighten up on the ring apparel worn by fighters and their cornermen.
Garcia said, “The HBO people were not happy with Janos Nagy having a tattoo on his back. That was a contractual agreement where he could not wear any advertising, and he showed up with it after the weigh-in when it could not be removed, so he got fined.”
Finally, one of the benefits of boxing, as with all sports is that it provides escape from the problems of the everyday world. I believe that boxing is better served without politics, even on an issue of which I feel particularly sympathetic.
Team Barrera, like De La Hoya three weeks ago, entered the ring with “No H.R. 4437” emblazoned on their team uniforms and headbands. They also carried a flag sized banner with the same message.
H.R. 4437, passed by Congress 239-182 last December, may well be one of the worst pieces of legislation in recent years, sparking the recent protests for undocumented workers. The bill is a harsh enforcement only bill, 169 pages in length, which makes undocumented workers felons and imposes mandatory minimum five year sentences on humanitarian and church workers whose only intent is to provide relief, shelter, or basic needs. Property used in such acts would be subject to seizure. It offers no path to citizenship or a guest worker program. If passed the legislation could break up families and result in mass deportation. An estimated 12 million people are affected.
The Senate is going to pass a compromise bill any day now, but has already voted down a proposal to allow the immigrants to remain in the country. Even after the Senate passes the modified bill, the House and the Senate have to meet to negotiate a compromise.
My concern is that such obvious political publicity, free of charge courtesy of HBO, may lead down a slippery slope of other political messages brought into the ring. If someone decides to bring in a Nazi or Confederate flag, or a KKK banner are we now obligated to provide equal time? Who determines what is politically acceptable?
I asked Armando Garcia to explain his position.
“This is a very delicate subject that is very close to the heart of many people of all different races and all different persuasions, and all political parties. And, it didn’t offend HBO, and I let it go. If it had offended Rocky, I wouldn’t have let it happen.
“After the fight when we had a post fight meeting with my staff and we talked about all things that evening, I mentioned the tattoo and that particular political statement…We’re going to have an event Saturday night and I anticipate they’re going to do the same thing and I’m waiting for an organizational security meeting to begin and I’m going to bring that up.”
The Golden Boy team made their point. On some levels, I’m glad they did, but I think from this point forward the game of boxing would be better served in the long run if the commissions and the networks work together to avoid future problems by prohibiting political statements in the ring. It doesn’t happen in any other sport, and with good reason.