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The following are excerpts from an article by ESPN's Dan Rafael, regarding the recent suspensions of the judges in the Lara-Williams fight:
In a letter obtained by ESPN.com, New Jersey commissioner Aaron M. Davis wrote to Lara promoter Dave Itskowitch of Golden Boy Promotions and Williams' promoter Dan Goossen informing them of the decision, which came after a video review of the fight with the judges.
"The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board was responsible for assigning all three judges who scored this contest and decided the outcome," Davis wrote in the letter. "At the conclusion of the contest, this agency had concerns about the final scores. Due to these concerns we decided to conduct a full review of the scoring.
"As part of this review, the NJSACB called in all three judges to our Trenton offices and conducted a full analysis of the scoring of each round."
Davis said that the review of the fight was complete and the NJSACB "has not found any evidence of bias, fraud, corruption or incapacity on the part of any of the judges. However, we remain unsatisfied with the scoring of the contest even after hearing the explanations from the judges.
"The NJSACB does not have the legal authority under these circumstances to invalidate the official result. This is due to the fact that all scoring is a matter of subjective judgment. In a similar fashion we cannot mandate a rematch. However, our opinion is that a rematch may be warranted.
"This agency has placed all three judges on indefinite suspension. Further, all three judges will be required to undergo additional training prior to their return to professional boxing judging."
Davis went further in apologizing for the lackluster judging.
"Any contestant who enters a ring or cage in our state deserves the best officiating that we can provide," Davis wrote. "While we do not mean to diminish Mr. Williams' competitive spirit and exciting style, we feel that we did not provide our best officiating on July 9. Because we have a rich history of boxing and combat sports in New Jersey, we aspire to consistently improve in our officiating and strive to learn from this situation. We have no further comment on this matter at the current time."
Wow....
In a letter obtained by ESPN.com, New Jersey commissioner Aaron M. Davis wrote to Lara promoter Dave Itskowitch of Golden Boy Promotions and Williams' promoter Dan Goossen informing them of the decision, which came after a video review of the fight with the judges.
"The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board was responsible for assigning all three judges who scored this contest and decided the outcome," Davis wrote in the letter. "At the conclusion of the contest, this agency had concerns about the final scores. Due to these concerns we decided to conduct a full review of the scoring.
"As part of this review, the NJSACB called in all three judges to our Trenton offices and conducted a full analysis of the scoring of each round."
Davis said that the review of the fight was complete and the NJSACB "has not found any evidence of bias, fraud, corruption or incapacity on the part of any of the judges. However, we remain unsatisfied with the scoring of the contest even after hearing the explanations from the judges.
"The NJSACB does not have the legal authority under these circumstances to invalidate the official result. This is due to the fact that all scoring is a matter of subjective judgment. In a similar fashion we cannot mandate a rematch. However, our opinion is that a rematch may be warranted.
"This agency has placed all three judges on indefinite suspension. Further, all three judges will be required to undergo additional training prior to their return to professional boxing judging."
Davis went further in apologizing for the lackluster judging.
"Any contestant who enters a ring or cage in our state deserves the best officiating that we can provide," Davis wrote. "While we do not mean to diminish Mr. Williams' competitive spirit and exciting style, we feel that we did not provide our best officiating on July 9. Because we have a rich history of boxing and combat sports in New Jersey, we aspire to consistently improve in our officiating and strive to learn from this situation. We have no further comment on this matter at the current time."
Wow....
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