The first U.S. televised main event of 2021 comes with a healthy mix of experienced ring officials and at least one name which will always trigger a weird reaction within the boxing industry.
Veteran referee Laurence Cole has been appointed as the third man in the ring for Saturday’s interim lightweight title fight between Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell. The scheduled 12-round bout will air live on DAZN from American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, making the locally-based Cole a logical pick from a geographical standpoint.
The three judges assigned to the bout are Mark Lyson (Liverpool, England), Rey Danseco (California by way of Calauag, Philippines) and Glenn Feldman (Avon, Connecticut). From the pool, both boxers each have one judge from their respective home regions—García hailing from Victorville, California and Campbell from Hull, England—while judge Feldman represents the lone neutral official without geographical ties to either boxer or the fight site.
Saturday’s main event will mark the first time where Cole or Lyson are assigned to work a bout involving either boxer. Both boxers appear on a show in Texas for the first time in their respective careers, making sense for Cole having never officiated any of their fights.
Cole has offered several questionable performances in the past, although he drew praise for his most recent night at the office. The 57-year old ring official—who comes in with more than 30 years of experience—served as the third man for a pair of Fox Sports Pay-Per-View-televised title eliminators on Dec. 5. On his watch, Eduardo Ramirez stopped Miguel Flores in the 5th round and unbeaten 154-pound contender Sebastian Fundora battered Habib Ahmed inside of two rounds.
Both fights were stopped at the absolute right time, particularly the latter bout where Ahmed was on the verge of taking a beating before being rescued by Cole.
Interestingly, Lyson and Campbell cross paths for the first time, coming well outside the United Kingdom. Saturday will also mark the first time Lyson has worked a fight involving García. The nine-year ring official has earned a solid reputation as a fair judge, most notably awarding a 95-95 even verdict in the terrific and razor-thin 10-round junior lightweight title fight between Terri Harper and Natasha Jonas on Aug. 22nd in Brentwood, England.
Most recently, Lyson worked the heavyweight crossroads bout between Joe Joyce and Daniel Dubois on Nov. 28th in London. Lyson had the previously unbeaten Dubois ahead 86-85 at the time Joycerallied to stop his countryman in the 10th round. J
Despite fighting often in his home state of California, García (20-0, 17KOs) has yet to perform where regionally-based Danseco worked from ringside. Danseco’s lone experience with either boxer actually comes with Campbell (20-3, 16KOs), having served as a judge for the British southpaw’s 4th round knockout Derry Mathews in Oct. 2016.
This will mark the first assignment for the 47-year old Danseco since the pandemic, having not worked since serving a judge for a show last February 29th in San Mateo, California. Among his most recent notable fights, Danseco turned in a scorecard of 116-111 in favor of Errol Spence over Shawn Porter in their Sept. 2019 welterweight unification bout at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Feldman has twice worked bouts involving Garcia, neither going to the scorecards. The 28-year ring official was ringside for García’s 5th round knockout of Braulio Rodriguez in Dec. 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Feldman barely had a chance to sharpen his pencil by the time García blasted out Philippines’ Romero Duno inside of a round on Nov. 2 in Las Vegas.
Among his recent notable fights, Feldman had Chris Colbert ahead 98-90–as did judges John McKaie and Steve Weisfeld—at the time of the unbeaten junior lightweight’s 11th round stoppage of Jaime Arboleda on Dec. 12th in Uncasville, Connecticut. Earlier on that show, Feldman turned in a scorecard of 99-91 in favor of Richardson Hitchins over Algenis Mendez. Hitchins was forced to settle for a split decision, thanks to the strange card of 97-93 in favor of Mendez turned in by Don Ackerman.
García has scored four straight knockouts entering Saturday’s interim title fight, most recently in an 80-second drubbing of Francisco Fonseca last Valentine’s Day in Anaheim, California. Campbell has gone to the scorecards in all three career defeats, including a lopsided points loss to then-unified lightweight titlist Vasiily Lomachenko in Aug. 2019, Campbell’s last fight to date.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
