As "Lord of the Ring", Referees Sometimes Could be Eerily "Oafish"
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 05 Jan 2023
Referee Someya (C) officiates the Takei vs Tarimo bout on Dec. 13, 2022 in Japan.
The infamous Japanese referee Michiaki Someya who originally ruled Johnriel Casimero's comeback fight in South Korea as a No Contest after two rounds only to have that overturned by the Korea Boxing Members Commission as KO win for the Filipino, has struck again.
The eerie, questionable behavior of this Japanese referee was on display again in the undercard of the recent Naoya Inoue versus Paul Butler world bantamweight unification bout in Saitama where he stopped a 12 round fight in the penultimate round and declared fellow Japanese Yoshiki Takei winner by technical knockout over Australian Bruno Tarimo thus successfully retaining his OPBF super bantamweight title.
Tarimo was declared loser by TKO on account of a worsening cut on his forehead near the right eye after referee Someya for the nth time summoned the ring physician in middle of the 11th round who after another brief look-see finally gave the signal to have the fight halted.
It was the first time that the smaller but stockily built Tarimo was stopped in more than 20 bouts.
Someya to the displeasure of the Tarimo corner and some fans has had to stop the contest a couple of times earlier to have the ring physician inspect Tarimo's injury.
But the tough Australian despite the cut he sustained earlier was not only seemingly unbothered by the injury, even continuing to be the aggressor for much of the bout with his determined assault intensifying in the later rounds. He appeared in no danger at all.
Though not reputed as a world beater, Tarimo has beaten some big names in Australian ring including once world rated Joel Brunker.
The action of Someya brings to mind his questionable behavior in the December 3 fight between Casimero and world rated Japanese super bantamweight Ryu Akaho in which he obviously patronized his fellow Japanese Akaho in ruling a No Contest in the 2nd round after warning Casimero and Akaho complained of rabbit punch, accidental though it appeared to be.
Being now under two Japanese promoters, Casimero and his handlers are henceforth well advised against having Japanese referees, least of all Michiaki Someya, in his future fights be it in the Land of the Rising Sun or elsewhere.
This episode also brings to mind the confession recently of noted international Filipino referee Carlos "Sonny" Padilla Jr.
that he unduly influenced the outcome of a fight between then world rated super bantamweight contenders Manny Pacquiao and Australia's Nadel Hussein some twenty years ago, protecting Pacquiao from a possible knockout and enabling him to recover to eventually score a stoppage over the tough then still unbeaten Hussein.
Though nothing much came from that very late revelation, it once again serves to remind us boxing enthusiasts that as the virtual lord of the ring, referees could sometimes be arbitrarily "oafish" for lack of better appropriate term.
This also recalls to memory the behavior and actuation of
the ring arbiters in certain bouts whose outcomes could have been different had they been decisive as regularly or routinely expected of them.
I was reminded of two major boxing bouts involving bigger name foreign fighters against until those times, obscure Filipino fighters some time ago.
I am referring to the fights between Mexico's Juan Manuel Marquez against Jimrex Jaca at featherweight and Greek Australian strongman Michael Katsidis against Cesar Amonsot at lightweight which anybody could see and review and analyse for themselves via the YouTube.
Marquez then was not far removed from a helluvah of a fight against Manny Pacquiao where he was lucky to escape with a draw (and with his WBA featherweight title) despite getting dumped thrice in the very first round. (Marquez would later lose his title in Indonesia to Chris John after turning down a lucrative offer for an immediate Pacquiao rematch) He also just came from a grinder of a fight versus tough Thai Terdsak Kokietgym in which he pulled through with a later round stoppage win for the WBO interim featherweight title which decided to defend against Jaca.
I would rather have our readers judge for themselves how the referee handled the Marquez-Jaca fight but to my learned eyes, Juan Manuel was so facially damaged to prompt the referee to at least take a closer look and have summoned the ring physician to inspect Marquez's badly battered mien which could have resulted in a Jaca stoppage title win and not the actual Jaca late round stoppage loss.
The Katsidis-Amonsot fight for the WBO interim lightweight title held in the USA was worst comparatively as Katsidis had sustained a deep cut above his eyebrow which made him looked like a gargoyle that got uglier as the fight wore on and yet the referee seemed unconcerned about. Katsidis scored a late knockdown and proceeded to finish the 12 round bout a winner, undeserving it may seem, by unanimous decision.
There were definitely other major bouts that were decided by the ring's third man's indecision or inaction on one extreme and officiousness on the other as the stoppage of the Julio Cesar Chavez versus Meldrick Taylor I super welterweight title fight in which Chavez was badly losing but Referee Richard Steele stopped the bout in favor of Chavez with virtually enough time left for the two protagonists to break out of their corners for a fighting pose.
You be the judge.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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