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Despite Manny Pacquiao
and Tim Bradley squaring off back in June of 2012, in the end, they weren’t the
two most talked-about individuals involved. That distinction went to Duane Ford
and CJ Ross. The two ringside judges were in the vast minority by scoring the
fight for the “Desert Storm” in what was considered the 874th black
eye for boxing and about the 43rd time the sport died. Alas, the
boxing industry is still alive, well and operating and this weekend, Pacquiao
and Bradley meet again at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
This time
around, the trio of Glenn Trowbridge, Craig Metcalfe and Michael Pernick who
will judge this contest. And Top Rank Promotions’ Bob Arum is confident in this
group.
“Well, I know
the body of work of all of them and I have heard no criticism of any of them,” he
told Maxboxing on Wednesday morning. “But I put the burden where the burden
belongs: on the people who will most be affected by it - and that's the fight
camps. So those judges and the referee [Kenny Bayless] are approved by both of
the camps. In other words, there's no official doing this fight that hasn't
been given the seal of approval by both camps. Now, that's a tremendous
departure from what happened in the past.”
And it's at this
point in which the 83-year old Arum - who is still overflowing with piss and vinegar
- took some shots at the former Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic
Commission, Keith Kizer. When asked about their past objections to “Can't Judge”
Ross (who then botched Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez by ruling it a draw), Arum
stated, “Let me tell you something; this is a new policy for the Nevada
Athletic Commission. They had an executive director who, based on two or three
years of experience in the sport, knew more than any person who's ever been
involved in the sport. Therefore, you couldn't tell him anything and you
couldn't argue with him and he had complete authority to recommend to the
commission, the officials.
“Then when some
journalists questioned [Kizer] on the Mayweather fight as to why CJ Ross was
being, again, appointed for the high-visibility job, he put it on me and he
said, ‘You guys must be drinking Arum's Kool-Aid or you must be kissing up to
Arum because you want him to give you perks at his fights.’ Now that, to me,
was the last straw. That was totally outrageous and it just showed what a
delusional world he was living in. Now, right now, we don't have an executive
director; they're going to appoint one but the guy who is the chairman is a
young fella who works for Andre Agassi, Francisco Aguilar. He's a super, super
young man and he really wants to do the right thing. And here, in this case, it
shows he's done the right thing. Nobody on any of these televised fights is
complaining even one little bit about the officials because they approved them.”
What frustrated
those in the boxing industry in the past was Kizer's reluctance to bring in
other well-respected judges from outside of Nevada. Equally frustrating was the
fact that the same suspects would be used over and over again in big fights.
It's as if they were entrenched permanently.
“That's correct,” confirmed Arum, “because it was an ‘old boy’
method of choosing judges. In other words, there was no evaluation of the
judges’ ability. ‘Hey, Duane, you haven't had a big payday for judging in two
fights, so therefore we're going to appoint you.’ That's how it worked. Now,
hopefully, by asking them to use worldwide - at least for two spots - you
have a vastly bigger pool and you're not involved in the ‘old boy’ network.”
THE PANEL
Based on the hysteria the first fight caused in the aftermath of Bradley's
highly-disputed split decision over the “Pac-Man” in 2012, you have to wonder: Can
Bradley get a fair shake this time around? After all, Pacquiao is still the marquee
attraction here. Hey, in basketball, you see make-up calls all the time. James
Brown would call it the “Big Payback.” Hey, this is boxing; it's not out of the
realm of possibility.
It'll be up to Pernick, Metcalfe and Trowbridge to judge this fight without any
preconceived notions or prejudice. All three are seasoned arbiters who have
plenty of championship experience.
Trowbridge is an interesting choice given that in the disputed third bout
between Pacquiao and archrival Juan Manuel Marquez, he had Pacquiao winning
116-112 (Dave Moretti had it 115-113 and Robert Hoyle 114-114). He also had
Brandon Rios defeating Richar Abril by a score of 116-112 in a fight many
believed the Cuban deserved. Both Pacquiao and Rios are Top Rank fighters. To Trowbridge’s
credit, he did have Gabe Rosado beating J’Leon Love last year (95-94) in a
fight many thought Rosado deserved. Recently, he has judged Leo Santa
Cruz-Cristian Mijares, Evgeny Gradovich-Billy Dib, Orlando Salido-Orlando Cruz
and Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse.
Pernick's most recent title bout was Robert Stieglitz-Arthur Abraham (he had
Abraham winning by the score of 113-112) and he scored the Mikey Garcia-Juan Carlos
Burgos match-up. Last November, he was in Macao, China and saw Pacquiao
pitching a shutout over Rios.
Metcalfe was ringside for the Saul Alvarez-Alfredo Angulo fight and had it
89-82, “Canelo,” at the time of the 10th round stoppage. And when
Mayweather faced Alvarez, he scored it the widest of all three judges at
117-111 (while Moretti had it 116-112 and Ross, 114-114). Metcalfe scored the “Super
Six” final between Andre Ward and Carl Froch, 115-113 (like John Stewart),
which was much closer than most observers and pundits deemed. Vitali
Klitschko-Tomasz Adamek and Sergio Martinez-Kelly Pavlik (115-112 for Martinez)
are also recent title bouts on his résumé.
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MAYWEATHER-GM GRAND?
Arum had no problems in publicly haranguing MGM Grand President Richard Sturm at
the final press conference for this weekend’s fight over the signage for the
May 3rd card at the same venue, prominently featuring Floyd
Mayweather and his upcoming bout against Marcos Maidana (http://yahoo.com/-bob-arum-erupts).
Yeah, Hurricane Bob was a Category 5. But the bottom line is he absolutely has
a point here. The MGM Grand is basically a promotional partner this weekend but
are they really acting as such (or in good faith) by marketing an archrival’s
card that takes place in three weeks? And when Alvarez-Angulo took place last month
in the same venue, there weren't any Pacquiao-Bradley promotional materials to
be found on the premises.
With how Arum reacted, you can bet Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer
would have felt the same way - and rightfully so.
But perhaps Arum is also feeling a bit frustrated by the fact that tickets are
to be had all over for Saturday night’s event (http://www.tiqiq.com/tickets/manny-pacquiao-vs-timothy-bradley/?brandid=tiqiqhomepage&eventid=10367481475&publisherid=51113&widgetid=0).
Maybe the smaller arena of the Mandalay Bay would have been more ideal for this
rematch.
Now, the question is: Does Arum now put a Venetian logo in the center of the
ring on Saturday night (not that I want to give him any ideas or anything)?
SOE
My latest
contribution to www.SportsOnEarth.com on how Manny Pacquiao is fighting to
retain his pay-per-view status and his market value this weekend versus Tim
Bradley:
TNR
Here’s the
latest episode of “The Next Round” with Gabe Montoya and Yours Truly:
LAS VEGAS FLURRIES
Look for Edwin Rodriguez (who’s owed an HBO fight for getting shutout against
Andre Ward in November) to appear on the network’s May 24th card.
Marcus Johnson is being discussed seriously as his dance partner...How ‘bout
Joshua Clottey? There is life!...The Angels seemed cursed; don't they?...See
everyone in Las Vegas…I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing,
where you can discuss our content with Maxboxing readers as well as chime in
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I can be reached
at k9kim@yahoo.com and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.
We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing,
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