Shaw believes it’s one of the worst decisions he’s ever seen, telling Maxboxing,"I think it ranks up in the top four or five, since 1971 that I’ve ever seen, I think anybodies children that watches cartoons could’ve picked the winner of that fight, having no knowledge of boxing. I just think it was an all-around terrible decision and what I don’t understand and I don’t know who did it, but one of the judges, Rousell, who worked the Nate Campbell-Funeka fight and gave the fight to Campbell, turns around and appears at this fight, as well. Why would you put the same judge in two fights?"
In fairness to Roussell, the Campbell-Funeka fight( won by Campbell via majority decision back in February) was a closely contested contest where Funeka hit the canvas twice. Nobody really disputed that call. Also, judges like Roussell, who are appointed to work championship fights, have to be approved and assigned by the sanctioning body. But it’s safe to assume that if Funeka ever saw him sitting ringside again at one of his fights, he’d probably just pack his bags and head back to East London.
Guzman started out well, winning the first two rounds, beating the much taller Funeka to the punch on the inside. But from then on, Funeka controlled the action from the outside with his steady jab and reach. He staggered the Dominican in the eight round with a right-cross to the chin. By the end of the night in Quebec City, Guzman was battered, bruised and bloody.
The process has begun to right this wrong.
"I’ve ordered the tapes sent to the IBF, I’ve asked the IBF to re-look at it, I’ve asked the IBF to elevate Ali Funeka as the interim champion. I think it’s unfair for them to rule for Guzman again and have the same split when Ali Funeka won the fight and I’m not so sure Guzman and Golden Boy want to see Funeka, again," said Shaw.
Because this title was vacant, a purse bid was held with a 50-50 split. Golden Boy Promotions won the rights to this fight and they placed on this weekends show, pairing it with the rematch between Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade. It was clear that Funeka and Shaw were playing a road game in Quebec. If a rematch is ordered, Shaw says he will make sure that it will be on one of his cards.
"It would have to be my show and then again, it depends, HBO, I’d give them the first shot. If they didn’t want the fight, I know Showtime would love to have Ali Funeka on their air because by having Funeka on their air and having rights to him, they would have he and Antonio DeMarco, two of the 135-pound champions,"explained Shaw.
While Funeka’s plight is another case of dubious scorekeeping, it speaks to a much larger problem. The reality is that questionable decisions are inevitable when it comes to a subjective art form which is reliant on objectivity. No two individuals will ever see a fight the exact same way. The problem lies in that too many of the same judges are allowed to continually work the most important fights. They seem to have more tenure than Supreme Court justices.
"That is right to the point," agreed Shaw." In the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball and hockey, the judges have a supervisor, the league hires the referee’s for all the positions. Somebody isn’t doing well, they sit them down for some games or they drum them out. Here, we the promoters represent fighters and they have manager or advisers, we have no say. The commission doesn’t tell us,’We’re thinking about these three judges and this referee. You have a problem with any of them? Have you had bad blood?’ There’s nothing. Same thing with the sanctioning bodies and that’s totally unfair.
"So the fighters and promoters are at the mercy of boards of boxing commissions that are part-time and do other things for a living. We’re at the mercy of the sanctioning body who brings someone in and causes us difficulty in payment from the distances( they come from) and we have no say in who’s deciding the lifeline of the fighter."
But even in those leagues that Shaw mentioned, you can get rogues like Tim Donaghy, the disgraced referee who was found to have placed wagers on games he was officiating. When asked if there were officials that Shaw was suspicious of and would get rid of, if he was so empowered, he answered emphatically,"1000-percent correct, yes."
But he did add,"And then there are others that I believe are the consummate officials and if you look at their history of calling fights as judges, they’re right on, all the way through with rare exception."
THE FALLOUT
The disappointment was written all over the face and body language of Funeka, who for the second time this year, came excruciatingly close to winning a major world title on North American soil.
"He was very down, remember his fight with Nate Campbell was very close, very tight. and then he gets here, where he clearly wins it, everyone congratulates him on a clear victory- and then there’s no clear victory. And that’s absolutely crazy," Shaw said.
Yeah, Funeka will get another crack at the title but there’s no guarantee he’ll ever win it and be able to say he’s a world champion. Perhaps this was the one night where he had the mojo going for him, where it all comes together. But instead, not only isn’t he a titlist, but he can’t even reap the financial rewards that come with having one of those belts around his waist( at least for now.) It’s also the difference between calling your own shots or being forced to fight on the road in hostile territory your next fight.
Instead, Funeka, has to once again begin the process of doing road work, training and sparring, in a career that is usually very short, relatively speaking. Every fighter has a certain battery life and every training camp and fight, takes a certain amount from it. So it’s imperative that participants in this tough business maximize their earning potential as soon as they can. Funeka was denied this opportunity.
Yeah, he might win the title his very next fight( if there’s any justice in the world, he will) but I’ve seen other instances where fighters like Jose Navarro and Jose Armando Santa Cruz never quite recovered or got back on track from questionable decisions in title opportunities.
APOLOGY
My sincere apologies to one Jean-Guy Brousseau, who in a previous article I listed as one of the two judges who scored the bout for Guzman, when instead he was the referee in that contest, where he did a fine job.
Nobody should be besmirched like that.
TITLE FIGHTS
I had a chance to view a pair of entertaining title tilts that took place on November 21st. Zsolt Erdei squeaked past the always-rugged Giacobbe Fragomeni for the WBC cruiserweight title in Germany. The scores were 115-113( twice, for Erdei) and 114-114. While the skill level wasn’t Evander Holyfield-Dwight Muhammad Qawi, this was one of the better cruiserweight fights I’ve seen.
The bout between Marvin Sonsona and Alejandro Hernandez was also action-packed. Sonsona, who was unable to make the 115-pound weight limit, lost his WBO belt on the scales. And after a quick start, he had his hands full with the tough Hernandez. Sonsona, who announced that he would move up two full weight classes to jr. featherweight, looked malnourished in there and showed great grit holding off the hard-charging Mexican. The scores read: 115-113, 113-115 and 114-114, which really highlighted the close and competitive nature of this bout.
But the most interesting thing about this fight was that for the first two frames Hernandez had on some boxing shoes that had him slipping around all over the canvas as if he were on roller skates. In between the second and third round, his corner took those off and put on a pair of Adidas running shoes on his feet. I mean a NASCAR crew couldn’t have changed tires any faster in a pit-stop. And from them on, with much more traction, Hernandez fought much more effectively.
As Mars Blackmon once famously uttered: the shoes, it’s gotta be the shoes.
IV
It was confirmed by Golden Boy Promotions, CEO, Richard Schaefer that the fourth hook-up between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez will take place on May 22nd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Showtime will be televising the bout, which is appropriate, given that they did the first three chapters of this historic rivalry..
And yeah, I’m a blood-thirsty savage, I can’t wait to be there.
TIGER FLURRIES
Shaw tells me he has signed Salvador Sanchez, who is related to the all-time great....So Winky Wright’s fight against Grady Brewer on December 11Th was cancelled? I’m sure dozens of ticket buyers in Puerto Rico are devastated....So more women are coming forward saying that they had dalliances with one Eldrick Woods? I get the sense this is just the tip of the iceberg for the Tigertanic....That should be Nike’s new campaign for him, all these women who look into the camera, one at a time saying,’I’ve done Tiger Woods’......Seriously, isn’t there some irony in Tiger’s wife brandishing a golf club, it would be like a boxer being chased by his wife with a pair of Everlasts, throwing left hooks to smash out the back window of their car. All I can say is that Tiger is lucky he isn’t a sniper or a butcher.....So the Sixers re-signed Allen Iverson, huh? Is Andrew Toney far behind?.....I think it’s time to put Saints signal-caller Drew Brees in the class of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. The Saints are NFL’s version of Manny Pacquiao. They have an improved defense, that still isn’t perfect, but an overwhelming offensive force.....Any questions or comments please email me at
k9kim@yahoo( and no, the Tiger jokes will not cease, so don’t even go there)....
Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing.....
