By Jake Donovan

Magnifying the lack of significant fights to have taken place in 2014 was the fact that fans were left to bear witness to some horrible officiating in the action that was presented. Bad scoring has forever plagued the sport, but it seems like the problem is only getting worse, and there was plenty to go around in the past 12 months.

But what was truly the worst of the worst on the year? You are about to soon find out.

2014 ROBBERY OF THE YEAR: OSCAR ESCANDON SD12 TYSON CAVE

It’s a shame that infamy has to come of a night that was intended to serve as a dedication to the late Dan Goossen.

ESPN2 normally shuts down its boxing programming in mid-to-late August, giving way to college football season before returning in January. There were notable exceptions in the fall – back-to-back Wednesday night editions in October and then a rare Thursday night showing in December.

The show was put together as a tribute to promoter Dan Goossen, who passed away in late September due to liver cancer. What should have been a night spent honoring the life of one of boxing’s true good guys instead devolved into yet another evening where fans were left to scoff at the ills of the sport.

Cave’s style is an acquired taste, and the fight itself was hardly one for the time capsule. The 12-round scrap lacked action and flow, but at least boasted one fighter superior to the other. Fans scoring at home had Cave winning with miles to spare, and a number of notable writers had the contender from Canada winning no fewer than nine of 12 rounds.

By fight’s end, there was no question as to what was to follow: Cave announced as the clear-cut winner, and – best case scenario – going on to face unbeaten titlist Scott Quigg.

Moments later came a new storyline for the night. Incredibly, Escandon – a scrappy contender from Colombia whose lone loss was in a nip-and-tuck affair with Nehomar Cermeno in Aug. ’13 – was declared the winner. Cave managed a 115-113 tally on just one card – even that margin being too close – while scores of 115-113 and an outrageous 117-111 landed in favor of Escandon.

There were two more fights on the telecast, but the commentators and network contributors refused to let the moment die.

In-studio host Todd Grisham referred to the outcome as “one of the worst decisions I have ever seen. Embarrassing.” Hall of Fame boxing scribe and historian Nigel Collins - who had Cave winning 118-111 – called the verdict “[a] criminal decision.” ESPN2 color commentator Teddy Atlas – well-known for his epic rants in the face of perceived corruption – rightfully went ballistic, calling it disgraceful that “these fighters that put everything on the line… come out of the ring with less of themselves physically than they had when they went in. And this gets done to them by a bunch of cowards at ringside that never took a punch in their life. I’m sick of it.”

So are we, Teddy. Tyson Cave certainly can’t love it, either. Even with the promise from promoter Samson Lewkowicz of a future rematch between the two, every moment until that actually happens will be spent having to sit on what was the 2014 Robbery of the Year.

RUNNER-UP: MAURICIO HERRERA – TWO TIMES THE PAIN

Had the judges scored his bouts the way most fans saw the action going, there would be a strong case to be made for Mauricio Herrera having landed as a frontrunner in the Fighter of the Year race.

Instead, the Californian suffered two losses in three fights on the year, one where only a total of three out of nine judges saw him deliver a winning performance.

There’s a case to be made for his unanimous decision loss to Jose Benavidez in December being the worst of the bunch. The HBO broadcast team had the veteran winning the fight with room to spare, as the unbeaten Benavidez was believed to have been dealt a valuable learning lesson while on the way up. Consensus opinion supported that belief, with most observers scoring in the vicinity of 117-111 in favor of the scrappy veteran.

Two of the three judges felt different, instead declaring Herrera a dethroned titlist by night’s end. The decision was met with immediate outrage, disbelief not just in the decision, but that he only managed to win four rounds on two cards and three on the other, despite outlanding and outworking Benavidez for most of the evening. 

A majority decision defeat to Danny Garcia earlier in the year wasn’t met with quite as much outrage, but the disputed loss was considered more damaging since it cost him the World super lightweight championship.

Garcia hardly impressed in his first career fight in Puerto Rico, worse that his struggling performance came just six months after claiming the lineal 140 lb. crown in a strong showing versus fire-breathing Lucas Matthysse in Sept. ’13.

Herrera also performed far better than most expected, as a perceived mismatch quickly developed into a competitive and dramatic headliner. Garcia even praised his opponent for coming in well-prepared, but stopped well short of agreeing with the perception that the wrong fighter won.

Moral victories are generally a nice way of saying a fighter didn’t win. But despite going .333 on the year, Maurcio Herrera wasn’t a losing fighter in 2014, just extremely unlucky.

OTHER ROBBERIES RECEIVING CONSIDERATION (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)
 
Mike Perez D 10 Carlos Takam (1/19/2014) – The first HBO-televised fight of 2014, boxing on the pay cable level didn’t exactly begin with a bang. Perez, who less than three months earlier spent his HBO debut with a win that came at a heavy price to opponent Magomed Abdulsalamov, who suffered bleeding on the brain and fell into a coma shortly thereafter. Whether the fight with Takam was too much too soon from a physical or mental perspective, it was clear that Perez had no business in the ring that night. Takam exploited the matter, outworking and outmauling the Cuban southpaw – now based in Ireland - in a matchup of unbeaten heavyweights. The ending draw verdict allowed both fighters to remain that way, though the general consensus had Perez as the luckier of the two.

Chris Algieri SD 12 Ruslan Provodnikov (6/14/2014) – Five months before he was forced to spend all night waiting to be let out of his cage, Algieri scored one of the biggest upsets of 2014. Unfortunately, most felt it came with the help of the judges, as home viewers and the HBO broadcast team felt Provodnikov did more than enough to retain his alphabet title. Algieri was floored twice in the opening round, and all of the heavier blows were landed by Provodnikov. In the end, two of the three judges instead went with Algieri’s busier (though not always entirely effective) workrate.

Vyacheslav Glazkov MD 10 Derrick Rossy (8/9/2014) – Glazkov made the (dis)honorable mention section a year ago after he was given a draw in what should have been a clear-cut loss to Malik Scott. Even if you want to make a case for his deserving a close win here, there was no denying that Rossy – a career journeyman who has lost every time he’s stepped up – outworked the unbeaten Ukrainian heavyweight all night in their NBC Sports Network-televised headliner. The 98-92 tally in Glazkov’s favor would ordinarily be laughable, except that it came from Pierre Benoist, the same inept judge who had Paul Williams winning or tying in 11 out of 12 rounds in his first fight with Sergio Martinez. As long as judges like Benoist continue to get assigned TV fights, crap decisions like this will continue to surface.

Mickey Bey SD 12 Miguel Vazquez (9/13/2014) – Much like Escandon-Cave, a bad decision shouldn’t be written off just because a fight lacked entertainment value. This fight was a stinker from beginning to end, and even more so once the final scores were read. Making matters worse was the fact that it came in the chief support to a high-profile Pay-Per-View event headlined by Floyd Mayweather’s repeat win over Marcos Maidana. Judge Robert Hoyle scoring the fight 119-109 in favor of Bey drew jokes on social media that the official became an unofficial member of ‘The Money Team’ (Bey is promoted by Mayweather Promotions).

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com, as well as a member of Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, Yahoo Boxing Ratings Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox