Howard Goldberg says it\u2019s time for Boxing SA to toughen up on ring officials because the standard of refereeing, but mostly judging, has decreased alarmingly.<\/p>\n
The former referee and judge, with more than 300 title fights, serves the WBF as its president.<\/p>\n
He said he has done more than a dozen referees\u2019 and judges\u2019 seminars worldwide. Of late, many SA title fights have been reviewed due to dubious scoring. <\/p>\n
There are lots of good ring officials and there are many who are not competent enough … They should be trained properly<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Howard Goldberg<\/p>\n
That process is part of the comprehensive Boxing Regulations of 2004, which were enacted on March 26 2004, under the South African Boxing Act, 2001.<\/p>\n
The outcome of that process has no bearing on the initial verdict.<\/p>\n
Two weekends ago, a judge\u2019s scoring in a closely contested 12-rounder between Ndabezinhle Phiri and Jackson Chauke set tongues wagging.<\/p>\n
That judge\u2019s scoring of 117-110 has borne a lot of criticism from all and sundry. <\/p>\n
Other scores were 115-112 and 114-113 in favour of Phiri.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo judges had Phiri winning by two points and a one-point margin, respectively, and the other one has Chauke losing by seven points… what do you call that?\u201d asked Goldberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of good ring officials and there are many who are not competent enough … They should be trained properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBSA must have a panel that continually monitors and grades officials … elevate those that are doing well and drop those who don\u2019t perform according to the standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldberg said he has provided the CEO (Tsholofelo Lejaka) with one of the training manuals, which would certainly benefit the officials.<\/p>\n
Key challenges of boxing judging are:<\/p>\n
The main criteria are:<\/p>\n
Clean and effective punching: Landing the knuckle part of the glove on the scoring area with force. A single powerful punch that wobbles an opponent is often more valuable than multiple light jabs, but determining the impact in real-time is challenging.Effective aggression: Aggression must be \u201ceffective\u201d (landing scoring blows), not just a fighter moving forward wildly. A judge must discern the difference.Ring generalship: This refers to controlling the pace, position and style of the fight. It is a very subtle factor that can be interpreted differently by judges.Defence: A boxer\u2019s ability to avoid punches is also a scoring component, but fans and judges sometimes undervalue defensive skill.Subjectivity of criteria: While judges use established criteria, the interpretation of these criteria is subjective. Vantage point: Judges are seated at different sides of the ring, giving them unique, sometimes obstructed, views of the action.Concentration: A judge must maintain intense, undivided concentration for the entire fight, a mentally demanding task for 12 rounds.Distraction: Unlike commentators or fans, judges must score silently and without distraction (no talking, no looking at phones, etc.) to ensure accuracy.<\/p>\n
The 10-point must system: This system requires a winner for each round (usually 10-9) unless it\u2019s a clear draw (10-10) or involves knockdowns\/fouls (10-8, 10-7, etc.). <\/p>\n
The need to pick a winner in a very close round, even by a slender margin, can lead to score variations across the three judges. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, judging a boxing match requires significant experience, integrity, and deep knowledge of the sport\u2019s nuances to accurately apply the subjective scoring criteria under pressure.<\/p>\n
Sowetan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howard Goldberg says it\u2019s time for Boxing SA to toughen up on ring officials because the standard of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,174129,174128,174130,85],"class_list":["post-305385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-sa","tag-goldberg","tag-howard-goldberg-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}