“It was a real home-town decision,” complains Óscar Soberón Nakasima, the manager of Mayela “La Cobrita” Pérez. “Two of the judges saw Zurita winning, the other, Mayela by one point. No way! But we were the visitors and such things are to be expected.” The venue was Joy of Austin in Round Rock, Texas. The fight was on Saturday night. According to Brenda Delabra’s report for Saltillo’s La Vanguardia, “The girl from Saltillo attacked throughout the six rounds, connecting hard and often to the face of the veteran, but lamentably, the judges were not impartial and protected the local fighter. It was Mayela, though, that won the acclaim of the crowd.”

No doubt Zurita’s  manager and local paper will say the exact opposite. Far better, I think, to ignore the judges altogether and regard every such fight as a draw. We know by analogy from studies examining other sports, as well as studies dealing directly with boxing, that the task referees are asked to perform is physiologically impossible and that however hard they may try to be fair, they are influenced to a staggering extent not only by psychological pressure from the home supporters, but even by the crowd noise itself (when not present in the stadium but watching film of matches that have already taken place) and that even the colour of the clothes worn by  fighters can play a decisive role in the way judges assess their performance: digitally alter the film so that the fighter in red appears to be wearing blue and judges will score the same fight differently.

 

This being the case, it’s an absurdity to go on wasting money paying judges for their time and compensating them for their hotel and travelling expenses, when their decisions in the end mean nothing, lead to acrimony, and encourage a style of fighting that (next to) no one wants to see. Instead, the money should go to the fighters – either directly or by ensuring the best possible medical attention is available to them before, during and after the fight.

 

Common sense will prevail no doubt in the end, but don’t expect change in your lifetime. As J.K. Galbraith pointed out in a different context, new ideas rarely cause anyone to change their mind. What happens is that those who held the old ideas (the ‘conventional wisdom’ as he called it) eventually die out and a new generation looks at the same facts with fresh eyes.