WHEN OFFICIALS MAKE MISTAKES, BOXERS SUFFER (VIDEOS)
By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Mon, 01 Feb 2016
PHOTO AND VIDEO BY JHAY OTAMIAS.
Something sad and controversial happened last night during the main event of the fight card dubbed as Valley Fight Nights promoted by Bash Boxing, Top Rank Promotions and their partners UniMas TV and Tecate Beer.
Involved in that main event was one of the rising stars of Top Rank Promotions who was often featured in the Valley Nights Fights, Jose Felix Jr (33-1-1, 25KO) of Los Mochis, Mexico. His opponent was a little known slugger from Bohol, Philippines Ricky Sismundo (30-9-2, 13KO) who now makes Yokohama, Japan his training grounds.
From the beginning, the fight was nip and tack with Sismundo showing his aggressive banging style highlighted by overhand rights that occasionally lands and snaps back the head of Felix. Felix on the other hand kept on his game plan by utilizing his long reach and height advantage. But mostly, he runs.
At the end of round 6, Sismundo was deducted a point by referee Zac Young for allegedly hitting after the bell.
Clearly, Young made a careless judgment!
The punch that he judged as illegal was not actually a late punch. It was a continuation of a punch that came at the exact moment the bell rung. Everyone in the crowd saw it and when the boos came raining from the crowd, Young knew he made a mistake. He simply bowed his head and gazed at the canvas!
Another mistake Young made was he was slow in breaking the fighters as soon as the bell rung. From our ringside photo position, we saw him acknowledged the ?10 second? warning from the ringside official timer and he moved closer to the fighters. However he made no attempt to prepare himself to break the fight as soon as the bell rung as most referees do. All through the fight it seems that his heart is not on the job. It seems like he was just going through the motion. He was slow in reacting to the fighters and he was flat footed. But he was quick, too quick in fact in judging the tail end of the punch from Sismundo that came with the bell as illegal.
From our perspective, his unusually quick action to deduct a point made it appear he was bias. He could have simply warned Sismundo because the ?late punch? was not intentionally thrown.
The point deducted from Sismundo changed the result of the fight that could have been easily a draw because clearly it was a close fight.
The result of the fight may not have meant much to Zac Young. But to the fighters involved, it?s their life. I wished he could have performed his job better!
Now the scores:
Max de Luca called the fight for Sismundo at 95-94. Filipino American judge Joni Davis scored it for Jose Felix at 95-94. Daniel Sandoval, a Mexican American scored it as 96-93 for Felix giving the Los Mochis TR house fighter a split decision.
I have no qualms about Davis scoring it for Felix and de Luca calling it for Sismundo . Both judges scored it 95-94 which in my humble opinion is fair. But I do not feel that the 96-93 score of Sandoval was. The fight was closer than that and had it not been for the deduction, it could have been a draw.
The California Boxing Commission routinely has post fights meeting to discuss the performances of the officials. I have no doubt whatsoever that referee Zac Young was placed in a spot. Perhaps, Sandoval too.
But that is part of boxing. The referee made a mistake and a boxer suffered. Unfortunately nothing can be done about it. That is how the fight game goes. Even the best one like Manny Pacquiao sometimes ends up on the short end of the stick. Remember the first Pacquiao?Marquez fight?
We interviewed a few fight fans after the fight to hear what they have to say about the results of the fight and the apparent mistake of the referee that led to the fight results.
Even the Mexican fans are saying that Sismundo got a bad rap.
Sismundo himself is at peace with the result. He accepted the result and he knew that given a different situation, the result could have been different. Let the fans decide what he said.
