LAS VEGAS – For boxing referees and judges, some of the most memorable bouts of the past 25 years have served as some of the most valuable teaching points to advance the sport into the next quarter century.
At Friday’s boxing portion of the national Combat Sports Summit, sequences from the Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward trilogy, the first Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez bout and Gervonta Davis-Lamont Roach Jnr were highlighted as ways the sport can make strides to be viewed with more competency and transparency.
Referring to the Association of Boxing Commissions’ manual as an evolving “living” document, recently retired referee Jack Reiss told summit attendees to consider rules as guidelines and to lean into common sense and fairness to best display professionalism as instantaneous and widespread mainstream and social media coverage/criticism hovers over the most volatile decisions.
“There’s no place to hide anymore as a boxing referee … the criticism is by your name,” Reiss told attendees. “If you don’t have broad shoulders, you’re not going to last in this game.”
Reiss, now working as a judge and video replay official for the California State Athletic Commission, pointed to the response to the controversial Davis-Roach draw in March as an example of the embrace of immediate improvements the sport should strive for.
In that bout, Roach landed a ninth-round power right that caused Davis to drop to a knee in front of New York referee Steve Willis. Instead of ruling it a knockdown as he should have, Willis allowed the favored WBA lightweight champion Davis to walk to his trainer for a towel to wipe his eye and the absence of a 10-8 round allowed Davis to keep his belt and remain unbeaten.
“We got rid of the old thinking and revitalized the manuals … in the Gervonta Davis fight, we couldn’t find it written anywhere that when you take a knee voluntarily, it’s a knockdown. It’s always been the policy most everybody always used, but now it’s in writing,” Reiss said. “Now there’s no question.”
Another ninth round – pulled from the epic series of brawls between Gatti and Ward in the early 2000s – has shifted the way referees should treat fights, Reiss said. In that scene, Gatti was getting brutally hammered by Ward and was effectively out on his feet as the fight was allowed to proceed.
Ward says he suffers from CTE. Gatti is dead, but reportedly struggled before that through neurological issues.
“We’re going to stop [that] fight in today’s age. We sanction competitive bouts. When the bout is no longer competitive, we get the guy out of there. We didn’t do that back in the day. It was savage. It’s not savage anymore. We’ve got science behind us, unbelievable ringside physicians who’ve taught us stuff,” Reiss told BoxingScene. “Yesterday’s solutions don’t solve today’s problems.
“Our job is not to protect the fighter from harm. We are there to protect them from unnecessary harm.
“When they are too tough for their own good, when they can no longer intelligently defend themselves, when the corner should be throwing in the towel, or the promoter shouldn’t have put them in there, we’re there. We’re trying to cut this off. I don’t want anyone dying.”
Reiss doesn’t believe the sport’s entertainment value will be compromised by such measures, especially as boxing takes steps to improve accountability and adeptness from its arbiters and thus address the countless controversies that have beset the sport over time.
Some of the major efforts are being eyed in judging.
Reiss touched on the basics of scoring – that effective punching is more important than the quantity of the punches, that punches delivered with the knuckles leading are telling, that punches to the arm or shoulder usually aren’t, that exchanges are key to observe.
Judges should not be overly influenced by what happens in the late-going of a round to eliminate the action earlier in the round. They should stay in the moment, maintain a constant judging schedule, calculate a running scorecard in their heads, know that blood on a fighter shouldn’t necessarily influence the score since some people cut easier than others and understand how judging is different from watching for recreation.
“Don’t confuse activity with effectiveness,” Reiss re-emphasized.
Veteran MMA referee John McCarthy described fight judging as one of the most difficult endeavors that exist, advising that judges seek constructive advice from their peers, with Reiss saying, “Put your pride in your pocket,” to embrace such candid conversations.
To close Friday’s session, judges were shown videos of several hectic rounds to score. One included four combined knockdowns and two one-point deductions for excessive holding.
When many of the judges’ scores were returned incorrectly, McCarthy took to detailing how the correct 8-6 score was reached and he emphasized how important it is to have this tattooed in the knowledge bank, reminding that litigation over a flawed card is possible.
One judging development is connected to the inactive first round of the popular Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano super-lightweight title rematch in which Taylor landed the only punch of the round.
Reiss said the push is to eliminate 10-10 rounds even in ultra-competitive or no-action bouts, calling a 10-10 score “unacceptable” in Friday’s session.
Attending the meeting, California State Athletic Commission Executive Officer Andy Foster spoke up to say, “Anyone turning in a 10-10 card after three minutes should not expect a call back from any executive officer in this country.”
Beyond that, Reiss says the ABC wants its judges to more liberally award 10-8 rounds in cases when a fighter decisively wins a round. It’s routinely 10-8 in a round that includes one knockdown.
Separately, the WBC is pushing American and British commissions to institute both a five-judge panel and a scoring system that can categorize rounds as “extreme-decisive,” “decisive,” “moderate” or “close.”
“The five judges is a great and easy thing to do, but [in] the U.S., and U.K., it will be hard to introduce,” WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman told BoxingScene Friday. “Resistance to change is the mortal enemy of boxing.”
Sulaiman has used the enhanced scoring system in his WBC Grand Prix with what he called “great success.”
“We anticipate two to three years of trials and then, hopefully, it will be used as the new scoring system in world-championship fights,” he said.
That’s consistent with the ABC push for more judging expertise.
For instance, when Pacquiao knocked down Marquez three times in the first round of their 2004 first bout, one judge errantly scored the round 10-7 for Pacquiao instead of the appropriate 10-6 score, a detail that made the result a draw and deprived Pacquiao of victory.
“The sport’s more advanced now. The public can see everything. You get to grow as a referee because you get to see yourself named – by a network or the call by people to make yourself better … we’re bringing everyone into the 21st century,” Reiss said.
He stopped short of saying that commission officials will be empowered to correct flawed scorecards on the spot before they are finalized, saying the judge’s knowledge of the state’s scrutiny of their work should be enough incentive to provide accurate scoring.
“We don’t accept [slippage] anymore,” Reiss said.
The advent of instant replay in boxing gives officials another opportunity to get it right, although that escaped replay official Reiss in May when title contender Charly Suarez cut super-featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete and stopped the fight – a technical decision that Navarrete won.
Yet, replays couldn’t be reviewed in a reasonable time to establish if the cut was caused by a head butt or punch. Navarrete retained his belt and negotiated his way out of a WBO-ordered rematch with Suarez, who indeed cut Navarrete with a punch and should have won the bout.
Despite that scenario, the effort to get it right must occur, Reiss said
“We’re trying to get everyone to embrace modern technology,” Reiss said. “We have it. You [reporters] use it against us. We have to use it: Go to a replay, get it right.”
Reiss was the referee in another California bout that produced rules clarification – when light-heavyweight Joe Smith Jnr knocked Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins out of the ring at the Forum in 2016.
“When fighter A knocks Fighter B out of the ring, like Joe Smith did to Bernard Hopkins, and fighter B falls through the ropes onto the apron, the apron’s still considered to be in the ring,” Reiss said. “You’ve got to be up by 10 and on your way back to the ring. If not, you’re counted out. If he gets in the ring before the 10 count, he gets a mandatory 18 count for assessment. A lot of guys don’t know this, but it’s been in the rules for two years. We want knowledge and practical applications of the rules.”
Reiss told the group that referees should consider themselves branch managers, aware of all potential issues in and around the ring, providing an in-control but not “cop-mentality” attitude with the fighters while working in a high-risk, low-frequency setting where an abundance of unpredictable matters can transpire.
“These are the things you need to be proficient at,” he advised.
Reiss showed a series of fight videos, providing commentary of the officiating missteps in an educational tone.
Whether these edicts take hold in boxing officiating globally is challenging given the shady reputation of the sport.
Still, California commission head Foster said efforts like this gathering can help.
“Change happens incrementally, but it needs to happen,” Foster told BoxingScene. “I would argue 30 years from now [boxing] will look different, and hopefully we’ll have put some of these things into effect that will make the sport safer and better than it is today.”
Reiss is persistent in a push that also includes re-thinking the handling of fights when a winner has clearly emerged.
“When a fighter is off that night or is getting shellacked – there comes a time you can’t win mathematically and no longer have a puncher’s chance – we should be looking to stop the fight when the guy’s just looking to survive,” Reiss said.
“We’ve got to get them out of there when they are no longer competitive. Activity does not mean competitiveness. And as a referee, as a doctor, you need to realize this long before the fans realize it. You’re not just sitting there.
“Fighters don’t like that, and we know father-trainers seem to never throw in the towel on their sons, and the sons never quit in front of their fathers, but we get to send that guy home to his family.”
Part of that strategy has to do with the referee “selling the fight,” dealing with events as they transpire, such as the treatment of a diminishing fighter by advising, “You’ve got to show me something,” or “Are you OK?”
Decisiveness is key.
“Don’t be a deer in the headlights, don’t be in a rush,” Reiss told the officials.
He additionally emphasized the idea of “getting the assignment” praising Florida referee Chris Young for his work handling the unique event of last month’s knockout victory by two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua over YouTuber Jake Paul.
“Chris Young ‘got the assignment,’” Reiss said. “Jake Paul, by holding on to Joshua’s legs, reverted to his childhood, like he was fighting on the playground. He was surviving. And Young called him on it,” scolding Paul that this was “not what the fans paid for.”
When Paul remained upright, the entertainment ensued – Joshua’s crushing sixth-round right hand that broke Paul’s jaw in two places.
“Jake’s now paid his dues,” Reiss said.
Whether the day-long session that opened the sport’s next quarter century will advance it beyond the scandals that have dropped boxing from its former heights of popularity remains to be seen.
“I hope we accomplished in making you think – that it’s about far more than just you and the two fighters in that ring,” Reiss told the attendees.
