Mendoza: When will refs and judges end their folly?

Monday, February 6, 2012

A BOXER, his hands down, and not looking at his foe got knocked out.

Who knocked him out?

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

His foe, who else?

That was the case in the last fight of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Mayweather hit Victor Ortiz with back-to-back shots to the face and Ortiz lost by knockout.

But, of course.

That’s what naturally happens to a boxer facing a boxer equipped with the most twisted mind in boxing.

And take this: Referee Joe Cortez wasn’t looking when Mayweather delivered the most infamous pair of shots ever thrown in boxing.

When Cortez saw Ortiz down on the floor, Cortez, without seeing the knockout punch, waved Ortiz out of the fight with the speed of sound.

Just like that.

Before this, Manny Pacquiao was viciously battering Antonio Margarito but the referee didn’t lift a finger to stop the carnage.

I’ve never seen a sadist disguised as a referee.

After Pacquiao received the nod of all three judges, I saw Margarito being whisked away badly wounded, his battered face bleeding; he was breathing heavily through his maimed mouth.

Referees can be that cruel, you know.

Or is it incompetence?

Now, how about the judges?

In 2004, Pacquiao lost to Juan Manuel Marquez because one judge admitted after the fight that he erred in his scores.

In Round 1, he gave Pacquiao a 10-7 score, keying up a draw that robbed Pacquiao of a sure win.

“I should have written a 10-6 score for Pacquiao,” the judge said. “Sorry.”

In boxing, or in many other disciplines, results can not be altered as a rule.

Last Sunday, one judge in the fight between Nonito Donaire Jr. and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. saw Vazquez the winner.

It wasn’t only a mistake. It was virtually a lie. It is even garbage.

While it’s true that Donaire won despite Ruben Garcia’s highly-suspect 115-112 verdict giving Vazquez the fight, it is quite an abomination that the sport still harbors judges like Garcia.

His 115-112 result was way off the mark of the identical 117-110 scores of both Garcia’s fellow judges Levi Martinez and Don Trella awarding the fight to Pacquiao.

About time the sport got rid of rotten judges and referees as well.

So ordered, your honor?

(alsol47@yahoo.com)