Calls for judging age cap following welterweight SD disaster in Los Angeles

[Ruthless-RKO]

Calls for judging age cap following welterweight SD disaster in Los Angeles

Serious questions have been raised again regarding the state of American judging following a shocking welterweight card on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

Lou Moret, a veteran of over 700 bouts, posted an unbelievable and highly unfathomable tally for the Yordenis Ugas vs Abel Ramos clash.

Saying that – the 115-113 totals handed in by Edward Hernandez Sr and Zachary Young were only slightly better in the fact that they gave the correct winner the rightful victory.

In the results round-up handed to WBN by Premier Boxing Champions, one line certainly said it best.

“After the feel out first round, Ugas landed 10 jabs or more in the next 11 rounds, according to CompuBox. In total, Ugas threw a career-high 504 jabs, landing 160, also a career-high.”



Therefore, how on earth Ramos was given five rounds with two judges and EIGHT with Moret is nigh on impossible to determine.

Ramos at best won two a slight share of three rounds. So how Moret came up with 117-111 in his favor is anyone’s guess.

At the age of 76, the first realization was maybe it’s time for Moret to call it a day.

Of late, a portion of Moret’s major cards has also been more than questionable.

In April 2019, Joshua Franco defeated Oscar Negrete via split decision. Two officials gave it to Franco 97-93 and 96-94, but Moret saw it the other way a massive 98-92 for Franco.

Just five days earlier it was a similar story for Jorge Cota vs Jeison Rosario. Two for Rosario at 97-93 and 96-94. But for Moret, he was having none of it – scoring 97-93 for Cota.

Maybe it was just a few bad days at the office for Moret over the last eighteen months? – Or maybe we need some sort of re-test for senior judges once they pass a certain age.

Some on social media were calling for a possible age cap or retirement.



One comment took things a little further than that.

“Everyone make sure to email the California State Athletic Commission letting them know that Dr. Lou Moret should be fired for his atrocious scorecard! Lou is either incompetent or corrupt,” said the irate Tweeter.

WELTERWEIGHT WINNER

Ugas himself was more philosophical than that and was just happy the right man won.

“I set a goal when I was a child back in Cuba to become a welterweight world champion and I accomplished that goal tonight,” said Ugas.

“I’m so grateful to everyone who helped me along the way.

“Ramos was a very tough opponent and I knew it was not going to be easy, but I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip away.”

He added later: "Thank God, my team, my family, and all my fans for this great night. Thanks, Abel for being a great competitor."

“I have lost three close and divided decisions in Los Angeles. You can already imagine why. My first win in Los Angeles. It has been very difficult to compete here.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Whys is he not retired at 76??

[lazboy]

Whys is he not retired at 76??

Because...it’s a dream job.

[Enlightened-One]

To be fair, there’s a small minority of incompetent judges officiating throughout the globe that are a variety of ages.

Similarly, sometimes even fairly decent judges suffer from an occasional bad day at the office, regardless their age.

Here are several examples of dodgy scorecards from judges that are a variety of ages:

• Leonard-Hagler: 118 – 110 to Leonard
• De La Hoya-Whitaker: 116 – 110 to De La Hoya
• De La Hoya-Sturm: 115 – 113 to De La Hoya
• De La Hoya-Trinidad: 115 – 113 to Trinidad
• De La Hoya-Mosley II: 116 – 112 to Mosley
• Mayweather Jr.-Castillo: 116 – 111 to Mayweather Jr.
• Mayweather Jr.-Judah: 119 – 109 to Mayweather Jr.
• Mayweather Jr.-Maidana: 117 - 111 to Mayweather Jr.
• Mayweather Jr.-Cotto: 118 - 110 to Mayweather Jr.
• Mayweather Jr.-Canelo: 114 - 114 to both fighters
• Canelo-Lara: 117 – 111 to Canelo
• Canelo-Cotto: 119 – 109 to Canelo
• Canelo-Golovkin I: 118 – 110 to Canelo
• Tyson-Douglas: 87 – 86 to Tyson

I don’t believe citing an individual isolated incident of incompetent judging should be regarded as compelling evidence to impose a universal age limit for people allowed to judge bouts.

Similarly, it's unrealistic to expect every elderly person to be as competent at judging bouts as the late Harold Lederman was when he used to provide the unofficial scorecards for HBO.

There’s clearly a spectrum of competence that exists regardless of age (with Lou Moret and Harold Lederman at opposing ends).

And finally, no competently minded individual should cite CompuBox stats as the sole justification to undermine the official scorecards. The only purpose they serve is to highlight an element of the narrative of the fight. Punch stats are only one piece of the proverbial jigsaw puzzle.

People shouldn’t focus on the age of a judge. Instead, we should ensure they’re adequately trained and their performances monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure they consistently apply the same set of universally-agreed scoring criteria for each and every bout they work on.

[Perseus]

I haven't seen the fight in question.
Did the fighters spend a lot of time on the ropes during the fight?

[DrDuke]

Ramos won no more than 2 rounds, which were 3 and 12, where he wobbled Ugas in the closing moments. All scorecards suck. Moret's card sucks criminally.

[Ruthless-RKO]

These judges understand that they can ruin a boxers career.. It's in their hand.. literally.. everytime they put a 10 and a 9 on that scoresheet.

[squiggy]

I don't see any evidence that the age of the judges explains bad scorecards.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I don't see any evidence that the age of the judges explains bad scorecards.

Neither have I.. most were probably using it as an excuse.. but really.. he’s been in the game a long time hasn’t he.

It’s kinda like Robert Byrd. Man needs to retire too.. has no control in the ring.

Made an absolute fück up on the Briedis-Glowacki fight.

[squiggy]

Yeah, Briedis-Glowacki pissed me off.
Ugas is the kind of guy who's just gonna face his share of uphill battles. I remember saying when he fought Porter, "let's see, this fight is in the U.S., one guy is named Shawn Porter and the other is named Yordenis Ugas. Porter wins on the cards as long as he finishes on his feet."

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

Whys is he not retired at 76??

- Why should he retire when one on one, Lou'd have your candy melting inside a minute?

He last reffed 22 fights in 2018 on top of judging, so he ain't yo Granpappy 76.

Ageism ain't the answer any more than Canobbio and his Compu-stupid comments are. Scoring been controversial from time immemorial, and the current padded out 10 point must an extension of the old Carney shell game to fleece the rubes using 3 judges instead of 3 shells.

115-113 x 2 and 117-111 read like a basketball score when actually only 36 combined points are deducted in a typical woeful Ugh fight. Ugh 4 point advantage trumped by Ramos 6 points in a typical baseball 6-4 game score, but for boxing the points are divided unevenly by 3, so now your boy Ugh has a 2-1 advantage, yet youre still squallin'?

Not wishing to watch such a dirty dishwater fight as this, basically the judges gave Ugh all the even rds and Lou preferred Ramos in those rds.

Boxing could easily clean up their scoring to make it easier to score and follow, but that defeats their overriding purpose of the non transparency of smoke and mirrors for illicit gaming purpose which is where the suits make a their $.

Now, what was you squallin' about again?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Whys is he not retired at 76??

- Why should he retire when one on one, Lou'd have your candy melting inside a minute?

He last reffed 22 fights in 2018 on top of judging, so he ain't yo Granpappy 76.

Ageism ain't the answer any more than Canobbio and his Compu-stupid comments are. Scoring been controversial from time immemorial, and the current padded out 10 point must an extension of the old Carney shell game to fleece the rubes using 3 judges instead of 3 shells.

115-113 x 2 and 117-111 read like a basketball score when actually only 36 combined points are deducted in a typical woeful Ugh fight. Ugh 4 point advantage trumped by Ramos 6 points in a typical baseball 6-4 game score, but for boxing the points are divided unevenly by 3, so now your boy Ugh has a 2-1 advantage, yet youre still squallin'?

Not wishing to watch such a dirty dishwater fight as this, basically the judges gave Ugh all the even rds and Lou preferred Ramos in those rds.

Boxing could easily clean up their scoring to make it easier to score and follow, but that defeats their overriding purpose of the non transparency of smoke and mirrors for illicit gaming purpose which is where the suits make a their $.

Now, what was you squallin' about again?

Sounds like he’s ur granpappy?

I’m not saying he should retire. Why hasn’t he? You’d think at 76, most people would think to take it easy..

Also, fück the basketball comparisons. this is boxing.

now your boy Ugh has a 2-1 advantage, yet youre still squallin'?

He ain’t my boy.. couldn’t give a toss about who won this fight. With me it’s always, ‘May the best man win.’

Clearly hit one of ur nerves.

[jujigatame]

The magnitude of how bad Moret's card was can really not be overstated. If you look at EO's list of bad scorecards, most are really only off by 2-3 rounds. Moret found 9 rounds to give to Ramos when Ugas won every single damn round, and only a couple were even remotely close. The dude is a Magoo and it's time for him to retire.

That said, scrutiny should be given to the other judges too. There is no way in hell Ramos won 5 rounds and the fact that the fight was that close to being a draw or loss for Ugas is disturbing. Bad judges can ruin careers.