Judges, due to poor decisions, are changing the course of boxing history

Phil Jay 16/04/2019

📸 Stacey Verbeek

Saturday night’s super-welterweight title clash in Mexico saw yet another hard-working fighter miss out on his defining coronation.

It what’s become the norm for boxing, a home fighter with ties to a staging promoter, won a decision which on the whole should never have been.

An overwhelming majority of those witnessing the Jaime Munguia v Dennis Hogan contest saw a championship title change hands – definitively. Not by a wide margin, but a general consensus margin which should be enough to find the correct result.

Out of the three professional and trained judges scoring at ringside, none could see Hogan taking the WBO strap.

Social media was once again awash with disappointment, especially after WBO President Paco Valcarcel promised Hogan a fair shake pre-fight.

Let’s face it, this didn’t happen.

Golden Boy has since taken to their fan channels to ask who Munguia should face next. The answer shouldn’t even need to be discussed.

Hogan deserves another shot, and on neutral territory to boot.

The Aussie did make a statement in the aftermath that a return was promised. But it’s still unclear whether this will actually transpire. If not, Hogan will just be another statistic of injustice.

“Zanfer promotions offered us one straight away. They obviously know, everyone knows. I’m not one to cry, I’m not one to play, I’ll come back and win the title on neutral ground.

“I’ll win the title, set my family up. They just tried to take my families future away and I’ll fight hard to win it back again,” said Hogan.

Even Munguia seemed red-faced at being given the result, albeit highly relieved into the bargain.

“I thought it could be a draw,” said the Mexican, obviously knowing he was helped out considerably by poor judging.

This kind of thing, sadly, is common-place in the sport. Once a fight is competitive, the usual predictions follow that it will be the home fighter who gets it.

This has to alter for the good of boxing moving forward. No longer can it be acceptable to kill a fighter’s dream.

These contenders go through hell to get their opportunity, and to be robbed of it when they did enough is hard to swallow.

Maybe the whole process has to have an overhaul?

An online voting system consisting of ex-pros, referees and boxing media could be a way forward. It would take seconds for a panel of say 100 personnel to click a button and declare the rightful winner.

This would take the pressure off three officials sitting ringside with the whole promotional company they work for on the night baying for their man to win.

Fingers crossed somebody eventually sees sense.

Gennady Golovkin and Tyson Fury are two of the higher-profile cases of late. Golovkin in 2017 against Canelo and Fury against Wilder in 2018.

Both those results could have changed the course of boxing history. WBN scored the initial Golovkin v Canelo fight 118-110 in favor of the Kazakh.

It seemed a no-brainer decision but was eventually pencilled in as a draw. Canelo had an off night and just couldn’t work ‘GGG’ out as he eventually did in the rematch.

With Fury, it was far more difficult as Wilder scored two knockdowns in a see-saw battle. One round WBN scored in favor of Fury is all that separated the eventual stalemate outcome.

Once the dust settled, it was Fury claiming he was hard done by. The Briton then negated on a second fight citing the result of the first as the problem.

There have been countless others who feel the same. One that sticks in the memory the most is Manny Pacquiao v Timothy Bradley I.

Unfathomably, Bradley took victory in the first of three meetings. Pacquiao had seemingly dominated from start to finish.


Outcomes like these have a major effect in the course of where boxing can go. Pacquiao’s career stalled after that, and once again when he was shafted versus Jeff Horn – so shockingly.

Boxing has to find a way to eradicate this disease of poor judging. Promoters should take a long look at themselves during the selection process.

Some of those at the height of staging event are themselves former boxers. They should know all too well how it would feel to be robbed of glory.

It’s been mentioned in the past that bringing in other ex-boxing stars as judges could work, so why not look into the possibility?

Either that, or take scoring away from ringside in what would be a radical change of policy. Whatever happens, it’s clearly not working the way things are.

Phil Jay is Editor of World Boxing News. Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay