Sports Eye
A boxing referee’s blunder
By Jeus A. Garcia Jr.
ANOTHER two world title fights in different divisions last Sunday were marked by a blunder and poor officiating and consequently failed to end in convincing results.
The first was the Timothy Bradley vs. Jessie Vargas in an interim WBO welterweight title fight and, the other, the fight between our Filipino former world light flyweight champion from Ormoc City, Johnriel Casimero against world title holder Amnat Ruenroeng of Thailand for the IBF (International Boxing Federation) flyweight crown.
But the fight that had the most horrible ending, was the Bradley-Vargas encounter, all because of the referee. The speedy Bradley clearly out-boxed the world super lightweight champion Vargas of Mexico in the first eleven rounds but unexpectedly absorbed a huge overhand right cross in the dying seconds of the 12th, that almost knocked him out. But the fight was suddenly stopped by the aging American referee Pat Russel when he mistakenly thought the clash had already ended on hearing the sound of the bell. But in reality, there were still seven seconds to go and Bradley was ready to fall. Thinking that he already won by technical knockout since the referee stopped the fight, Vargas quickly raised his two hands, and was even carried by his handler in triumph. It turned out, the referee mistook the last ten seconds sound as the end of the round. Since it was not a technical knockout. the fight was concluded through the scoring of the three judges, 115-112, 116-112 and 117-111 for the black California ring warrior. This was one of the worst boxing blunders I’ve seen in my life all because of the referee’s hearing problem.
Although the Vargas camp, headed by former world featherweight champion Erik Morales, fumed in disbelief, it accepted the decision but with a condition that the two should clash again and threatened they would file an official protest if no rematch was agreed. I was not surprised that Russel was booed.
In the case of our fighter Casimero, I believe he lost the fight because the referee did make the calls to count against the Thai boxer Ruenrong, a silver medalist in the 2012 London Olympic Games and a jail termer. The latter fought with shoves, elbows, head locks with a bit of wrestling but the American referee Larry Dogget either deliberately refused to warn Ruenrong or played blind. After five feeble warnings, Dogget eventually deducted a point against the Thai in the penultimate 11th round, but it was not enough to make Casimero the winner. Ruenroeng’s manager Aljoe Jaro, a Filipino, was quoted describing Ruenroeng as ‘smart’ and not a ‘dirty’ fighter.
In other words, napagulang niya and that’s part of professional of boxing. Anyway, the fight was one of the least memorable matches comparing it to what happened to our boxing great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde” when he fought Sandy Saddler who used every dirty trick, like Ruenroeng did, to win the world featherweight title match.
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My big congrats to our cyclist Ronald Oranza of Villasis for winning the gold medal in the individual-time-trial race held last June 28 in Tagaytay City during the two-day National Open Cycling Championship. Sports Radio DZSR said the first day event was marred by confusion at the finish line won by former Ronda Pilipinas king Mark John Lexer Galedo. Our local bets Oranza placed fourth while 2012 Le Tour de Filipinas winner Baler Ravina of Asingan landed eight. Mangaldan son Joshua Carino finished second in the Under 23 Category won by John Mark Camingao of Marikina City. Sto. Tomas town’s Dominic Simon Perez checked in fifth. Keep up with the good work, boys. This is our sport.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And God said “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your works, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. EXODUS 20: 8-10
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