DEEP STORY ON BAD CALLS PROVED DEADLY
San Francisco, CA– Having run across Belinda Laracuente’s name on Facebook yesterday, the first thing that came to mind was her being robbed vs. Christy Martin underneath the Tito Trinidad-David Reid WBA 154 lb. title tilt in an outdoor arena at Caesars Palace in March 2000. This comes after Australia’s Jeff Fenech had came up in conversation, another victim of a blatant robbery when his 12 rounder with Azumah Nelson under Mike Tyson-Razor Ruddock II in June 1991 was called a draw!
RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF BEING A ROBBERY VICTIM!
We know that when one gets ripped off in a prizefight, there is no Police department you can run too, no matter how obvious the call, and 99.98 % of the time a bad decision goes unchanged. What athletic commissions and sanctioning bodies do when this happens and there is some outrage among the public is they go into “damage control” mode and usually call for a rematch.
BOXING POWERBROKERS DON’T REALIZE OR CARE
What the powers that be don’t realize, take into consideration, or even care about, (I like the last one) is that a fighter may only have it on that one given night! Take the aforementioned Fenech, a three division champ from Australia, truth be told he beat Azumah “The Professor” Nelson over 12 rounds in ‘91. In other words, there was no question who had won after 36 minutes of fighting.
FENECH ON “RING TALK” TWO HOURS LATER!
I’ll never forget how dejected Fenech was when interviewed shortly after being heisted by Miguel Donate’s 116-112 (8-4 in rounds) score for Nelson, and Dave Moretti’s fence sitting at 114-114. Jerry “Got It Right” Roth’s score for Fenech was 115-113, but to me that was a couple of points short for the Aussie who had mauled and out punched Nelson throughout.
DECISION COST FENECH HIS BOXING LIFE
It should be noted that according to his BoxRec.com record, Mr. Donate NEVER worked another fight after this debacle. Dave Moretti’s even score was as I said was off. That being the case, the damage done by Donate and Moretti to the psyche of Fenech was “terminal” as far as the fighter in Fenech was concerned. Death was imminent.
REMATCH HAD ARTHUR MERCANTE SR. AS REFEREE
A mandated by the WBC rematch took place about a year later in Australia. Fenech was never in the fight! Having not convincingly won a round, Fenech was stopped in eight by Nelson. As I said, the undeserved draw was actually a bullet through the head of the fighter Jeff Fenech.
CAME BACK A COUPLE OF TIMES
On a positive note, Fenech, 46, is considered a world-class trainer and an icon of Australian sports. Still to this day that fight haunts Jeff to an extent for it took away his prime. As a side note, Fenech and Nelson would fight one last time in 2008 with Jeff winning a razor thin majority decision in a nostalgia match in Australia.
PUERTO RICAN WINS LOTTERY & LOSES TICKET!
Belinda Laracuente is a Puerto Rican fighter who was matched with the Golden Boy of female boxing Christy Martin (38-2-2) three months into this 21st century. Martin, with Don King giving her a giant push became incredibly hot as she rode the coattails of both Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez on Showtime and PPV.
MARTIN GETS BAD CALL FROM TWO FEMALE JURISTS
From the first bell, Belinda was the aggressor as she took the fight to Martin. At the end of eight rounds, everybody around me was of the opinion that this then 21-year-old upstart had just beaten Martin. To me, the 77-75 scores of Patricia Jarman and Carol Castellano for Martin were simply not based on the eight rounds of boxing I had watched. The third judge, Dave “Again On The Fence” Moretti, he had things even at 76-76.
SCORES COST BELINDA “WINNING LOTTERY” TICKET!
Having beat the biggest star in female boxing and not getting the call proved to be fatal to the career of Belinda Laracuente. Entering the ring that night at 17-3, Belinda would end up going 7-22-2 since the Martin rip-off. A decade and three months later and Belinda’s record is now 24-25-3 with 9 KOs.
JUDGES DON’T LOSE SLEEP, BUT THEY SHOULD!
Having known many boxing officials in my time, I can’t remember a “bad call” affecting a judge post-fight. Don’t recall any judges needing therapy for their damaging someones life, but yet here are two instances in which judges had two lives in their hands and for all intents and purposes they took away their chance to make at least one huge payday.
INSTEAD OF QUEEN’S CROWN, RICAN CHICK GETS CLOWNED!
Instead of being the flag bearer of female boxing, Belinda Laracuente became an “opponent” that travels from town to town losing to the hometown gal. The bottom line is that whether or not she was defying long odds, Ms. Laracuente deserved to become a hot commodity in what was a sizzling sport (female boxing) at the time.
JUST TWO INSTANCES OF MANY
The damage done by the fact that neither Fenech nor Belinda Laracuente got the call has probably been put in a manner that you have have never before seen or imagined. This is why we need competent judges who are put under a microscope just like NFL officials.
BAD JUDGES NEED MORE THAN TOUGH TALK
If you screw up once, you’re put on notice. Do it again, and you’re incompetent or crooked, either way you need to be put on the shelf, and not in the next big title fight that hits town! For maybe now those of you can see how powerful you are as a judge in that you hold not just the outcome of an athletic contest, but more importantly you have someones life and future in your hands.
Pedro Fernandez