THE GORRES-DARCHINYAN FIGHT - A PERFECT EXAMPLE
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 05 Feb 2008
Many had been written about the fight in Cebu last Saturday and the ugly bottle throwing incident that occurred in the first round of the Goress-Darchinyan bout after New Zealand referee, Lance Revill wrongfully ruled a KD on Z Gorres when it was clear that it was a slip. However, nothing has been written about the possible course of events that led directly to the incident.
I agreed with the many who said that Revill made a blatant mistake in that crucial first round. But personally I think his mistake is just the last straw that completed the circumstances allowing an accident that was waiting to happen, to explode.
I believe the whole thing is the result of the changes made by the IBF prior to the fight. If IBF took the advise of the ALA people and the Darchinyan camp to use Bruce McTavish as the referee, the fight could have been better officiated. With what I saw at the fight, McTavish without any doubt would have been the better choice. But I wonder why McTavish, with his credibility and international experience was removed in favor of Revill.
Jonathan Davis did a commendable job judging and many agreed with his scoring. From what I heard, even ALA himself sent him a text assuring him that the ALA camp harbors no hard feelings about his scoring that evening.
However, I also believe that the original choice, Salven Lagumbay could have performed as well. The young man is a good boxing judge and a very credible one too. The fact that he was a journalist should not have been counted against him.
Would he make a poor judge just because he is a journalist? I do not think so!
So if one is to sort out the circumstances to find out why things went the way they did, the only one to blame for the ugly incident that occurred last Saturday night was the person or persons who influenced the IBF to make the changes from the original choices of judges and referee.
I for one do not condone the bottle throwing not only because I was hit by one at the back, but because I knew it did not speak well of us as Filipino people.
But, I can also understand why a handful of people acted that way. It was a thunderous release of pent-up emotions dating back to the Gorres-Montiel fight when Gorres lost a fight because the referee screwed up.
The incident is still fresh in people?s mind and they are not going to sit back and take another referee screw-up that would result in another defeat for their hero, Z Gorres.
However bad was the crowd?s reaction that evening, hopefully it would serve as a lesson for the IBF. Perhaps next time they should allow the two opposite camps involved in a fight to select and agree on the judges and referee, with input from the IBF.
Most importantly, IBF should not listen to others particularly if they are not involved with any of the fighters because they may have another agenda that would not be good for the particular fight.
What happened last Saturday night was a perfect example.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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