STEVE’S SOAPBOX JUDGING FOR TOMORROW By Steve Kim
a reason. A funny thing happened, though: Knyba didn’t read the script, and for the most part Ruiz couldn’t get out of first gear. Knyba controlled the action in the first half of the fight behind a steady jab and then stunned, pummeled and floored Ruiz in the seventh round. To his credit, Ruiz gamely fought back in the next couple of frames, but after 12 rounds it was clear that this was Knyba’s fight. Yet when the scores were announced, we were this close to a draw. While Tony Lundy had it 117-110 for Knyba (which seems to be the consensus), Glenn Feldman and Kevin Morgan both had it 114-113 for the Pole. So without the knockdown, this contest could have very easily been a majority draw. It has to be noted that referee David Franciosi gave Ruiz an inordinate amount of time after his trip to the canvas before resuming the action. (Watching it on television – which admittedly is a different perspective – I scored it nine rounds to three for Knyba, with the knockdown.) This close call brought about the expected outrage online and further examination of Feldman, who has been ringside for the past few decades. He began his run as a ringside judge in 1992 and has presided over some of the biggest matchups in boxing. By our sport’s standards, he is a well-known judge. As you examine his track record, some decisions are head-scratching. Back in 2019, he was the lone judge who awarded Keith Thurman the decision over Manny Pacquiao. His score was 114-113 for Thurman, while Tim Cheatham and Dave Moretti both had it 115-112 for “PacMan.” You won’t find a lot of observers who felt that Pacquiao didn’t deserve to have his hand raised in victory that evening. Then in 2020, he was part of a trio of judges who gave Rolly Romero (and more on him in a bit) a unanimous decision over Jackson Marinez. He had Romero up 116-112, while Frank Lombardi had it even wider at 118- 110 and Don Trella scored it 115-113. This was an unpopular verdict with the
viewing public. In the 2022 rematch between OIeksandr Uysk and Joshua, Feldman was the only judge to rule in favor of “AJ” (115-113), while Victor Fesechko (116-112) and Steve Gray (115-113) scored it for Usyk. Then this past summer, the aforementioned Romero was matched against his frenemy, Teofimo Lopez, in defense of his WBA welterweight title. This was a rather dull affair, but after 36 minutes, the large majority believed it was Lopez who’d won more rounds. And while Cheatham (116-112) and Max DeLuca (115-113) felt that way, Feldman had it 114-114. Hey, maybe he just really enjoys Romero’s style. Let’s make this clear: I’m not alleging anything. Feldman has worked at least 2,200 fights during his three and a half decades in professional boxing, and I’m confident that most of those bouts were adequately judged. I bring up the four aforementioned fights simply to highlight a pattern that is all too familiar with longtime boxing fans: judges favoring the more popular boxer or the “house” fighter in close or even mildly competitive bouts. What’s maddening to many fans is that nothing ever seems to be done about poor judging – either in terms of improving it, or getting new judges. I’ve often joked that getting a new set of boxing judges is more difficult than changing Supreme Court justices. Problem is, it’s not a joke. Go back to fights from decades ago and you’ll basically see the same group at ringside. I recall 26 years ago, Dalby Shirley scored the first Erik Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera fight in favor of Morales by the score of 115-112. But what really drew the ire of many was that he scored seven consecutive rounds for “El Terrible” in that classic battle. This card was widely panned. Charles Muniz, a boxing manager and adviser who was quite the raconteur during his days as a boxing writer, penned a column looking back at Shirley’s checkered past in judging fights. It was me who printed out that article
and sent it to Larry Merchant. At the next HBO broadcast in Las Vegas, Merchant showed that article to then- Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Marc Ratner, who after reading this rather scathing review of Shirley basically benched him from main event assignments in Nevada. Accountability wasn’t just reserved for the judges in Nevada. During Keith Kizer’s tenure as the NSAC executive director, referee Russell Mora put forth two egregiously bad performances while officiating bantamweight title bouts. The first came in the second round of the Nonito Donaire-Fernando Montiel world title fight in February 2011. Donaire floored Montiel with a monster hook that had the Mexican standout convulsing on the canvas. Mora counted over a clearly unfit-to- continue Montiel, who flopped on his side as he groggily struggled to his feet – and Mora then allowed the bout to continue! He stopped it seconds later but only after Donaire got in another hook. Six months later, during the first bout between Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko, Mora enraged the boxing community by allowing Mares to get away with countless low blows without penalty, instead warning Agbeko for pushing Mares’ head down. He also credited Mares, who won a majority decision, with two questionable knockdowns (one after an Agbeko slip in Round 1 and one following another low blow in Round 11). The public outrage could not be ignored and Kizer relegated Mora mostly to preliminary bouts for the next couple of years. Eventually, to his credit, Mora earned the right to be the third man once again for high-profile fights. But Shirley’s and Mora’s cases beg a serious question: Does this brand of commission discipline and accountability even exist nowadays? Just a week after Ruiz-Knyba, Feldman was one of the judges for the cruiserweight championship bout between Jai Opetaia and Noel Mikaelian at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Damian Knyba scored with alarming regularity on the heavily favored Andy Ruiz.
C overing boxing, you learn a lot of things that you’ll never read in a textbook or learn in a college course. I’ve been at this since the mid-’90s, and it was after a controversial decision a few years into my run on Bash Boulevard. that John Beyrooty, working as a publicist for Showtime fights at the time, taught me something about the reality of this business. “Fighters fight for today,” he said, “judges judge for tomorrow.” I can admit that at that moment, I
didn’t fully comprehend what he was saying. But over time, I began to have a full understanding of what Beyrooty – once a prolific boxing scribe for the long-gone L.A. Herald Examiner – was telling me. Boxers fight to win the bouts directly in front of them. More than a few judges, on the other hand, make rulings for their next assignments. If they play ball enough times and provide some insurance in somewhat close fights that take care of the “house” fighter or the marquee names in the sport, well, they
become exactly the kind of judges that promoters want in big fights. Shortly before I penned this column, Andy Ruiz took on Damian Knyba on September 4 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Ruiz, who was a unified heavyweight titleholder for several months in 2019 after shocking Anthony Joshua in their initial encounter, was making his debut with Matchroom Boxing. Knyba, who was coming off a stoppage loss to Agit Kabayel, was thought to be a respectable enough opponent. But he was chosen for
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