On the agenda: Refine refereeing

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, April 26, 2000 | 10:10 a.m.

The very nature of professional boxing is such that fights are won and lost not only because of the actions of the participants, but as a result of decisions made by the officials assigned to the bout.

And as any boxing fan can testify, sometimes those decisions seem abhorrent, or, at the very least, misguided.

But in an effort to rectify the widely divergent methods of refereeing and scoring a fight, the World Boxing Council is hosting a two-day seminar for officials. The event, entitled the First World Ring Officials Congress, opened Tuesday and concludes today at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

Representatives of 25 countries, and 20 states, are in attendance.

A second Ring Officials Congress will be held May 4-7 in Paris.

"Boxing has had a lot of criticism, especially in the last 10 years or so, because of questionable officiating," explained WBC president Jose Sulaiman. "We want to send a message with this conference that we want unity. We want to raise the performance level of our officials to a higher peak."

With an all-star cast of speakers, the Ring Officials Congress followed a tightly scripted agenda that featured numerous presentations by those affiliated with the sport. For instance, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner had a one-hour block of time in which he outlined how he critiques officials immediately following a fight.

"This is all about education," he said. "We have these kind of seminars for Nevada officials once or twice a year, but this is the first time something like this has been done on a national or worldwide basis. I'm very pleased we're having it because only good can come from it."

Veteran referee Arthur Mercante Sr., the chairman of the WBC's Ring Officials Advisory Board, is determined to take something positive from the seminar.

"What I have to say might be considered explosive," he said before addressing the gathering. "The refereeing in boxing is awful; it's worse than it was 10 years ago.

"It's obvious that we have a lot of referees who make errors in the ring. They stop a fight too quick, or they let it go too long, or they're out of position, or they're just not in shape. The result is that we have a good number of referees who shouldn't even be licensed."

Among those in his audience was a trio of stalwart referees from Nevada, Joe Cortez, Mitch Halpern and Richard Steele.

"You're in good shape in Nevada, but I'm being candid by saying refereeing is not up to par in general," Mercante said. "Sometimes it's even atrocious. Jose (Sulaiman) also realizes the ineptitude of officials has become a problem and that's why we're here today."

Among the spectators at the event were two of the sport's three major promoters, Top Rank's Bob Arum and America Presents' Dan Goossen.

Arum said he doesn't routinely find fault with referees, yet he believes officiating can stand some improvement.

"The main reason there's controversy with judges is that there's no objective standard," he said. "Take other sports, like diving, for instance. There's an objective standard for that sport; if you make a big splash when you land they count it against you.

"In boxing there is no objective standard and the judges are all over the place with their scoring. I'm hopeful this seminar will help eliminate some of those problems."

Goossen, likewise, saw the potential benefits of the gathering and offered a possible deterrent for poor officiating in the future.

"This is great for the industry," he said. "These are the small steps that enable even larger steps of reform to be taken. It'll get everyone on the same page."

He advocates expanding a practice that thus far appears to be limited to Nevada.

"We're seeing it some in Nevada: If you've shown in your performances that you're lacking, you'll be demoted and you'll have to work your way back up to a higher rung," Goossen said. "I'd like to see that expanded to a worldwide basis. There has to be some recourse for bad officiating; if you don't make the grade you should be weeded out."

Intricacies such as the officials preferring a particular style of fight, or fighter, were also on the docket to be addressed.

"Scoring differs too much from one country to another," Sulaiman said. "In Europe, for example, there's a tendency for the judges to like a man who's more of a pure boxer. In America it's just the opposite; the judges like punchers. We have to come to terms with things like that and I'm hopeful we will.

"Just to see this many people here and to know how far some of them have come for this is a very optimistic sign."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman opened the seminar with a brief address (and an exchange of humorous stories with NSAC chairman Dr. Elias Ghanem).

"I have a great deal of love and affection for the boxing game," Goodman said. "I've represented a few boxers in my day and I've found that their word is their bond. Everyone in the sport seems to be honorable and decent.

"If they're here to refine their scoring and procedural habits, I have to think they'll get it done."