Judge Javier Alvarez VS HBO: Spotlight On Commentators VS Judges

Judge Javier Alvarez somehow found a scorecard with 115-112 for Vanes Martirosyan when Martirosyan and Demetrius Andrade squared off for a chance to win a vacant major world title on HBO live boxing, back in November. I don't know how, but now that some time has passed from this match, I thought I would spotlight this in case of future matches with Javier Alvarez judging. Cheers to HBO for deriding his card. Anybody can see a fight differently, but not that differently. I saw no valid total that can be turned in for a Martirosyan win and do fully support HBO's team in this one.

Perhaps Martirosyan was more in the fight than given credit for. If you said that, I wouldn't argue. If you said it was closer than HBO's commentators made out to be? Fine. Not an invalid statement, to me, considering that Kellerman didn't even seem to like Steve Weisfeld giving Martirosyan three rounds. Vanes hung tough and made it awkward as he normally does. Maybe some of the rounds were close enough that you couldn't argue much Martirosyan edging them when HBO's commentators didn't see it that way. Fine. Maybe some. But to see a card turned in where Martirosyan actually won? A card reflecting that he somehow got the better of this fight by any scoring method? I really hate to pick on judges and they have to turn in a highly contentious card that I can't see a competent, uncorrupted judge turn in for me to draw attention to it. But here is one.

I have recently reviewed the fight from my DVR and it was just as bad a scorecard in my mind as I found it that night, late last year. Some folks looking this one up on boxrec may see the scores and that Andrade was knocked down in the first and assume it was one of those matches where a knockdown can make all the scoring difference, like a Cotto/Clottey type score. It wasn't that. I would never write off a judge completely after even a card I find this bad. Not for one night of bad judging. But it's a red flag and I want to spotlight this because if it becomes a pattern, we, to protect our sport, need to take action and tell the boxing establishment that we will not stand for a judge that develops such a pattern (C. J. Ross) and take action like turning our backs on watching these matches live and hit channels in the pocket by lowering the ratings we give them if they air fights with judges we know have a pattern of bad cards, be those cards bad via corruption or ineptitude or severe bias of some kind.

So, IN CASE Javier Alvarez develops into a judge with a pattern of this, let's draw attention to it. If you spot a fight that he's judging that I haven't seen or taken notice of, where he has turned in another score like this, please, by all means, comment on this page and tell me what to look for and I'll try to locate it and view for myself to see if I agree it needs attention. Here is the talk of the scores as the HBO crew goes off on Judge Javier Alvarez:


Max Kellerman: "What a stinking score card, that fifteen/twelve for Martirosyan-and that better be a m- that better be a misprint-a misread."
(Kellerman seems fairly flustered)

Jim Lampley: "Otherwise you'd have to wonder what fight that judge was watching."

Kellerman: "What's the name of that judge who gave the fifteen/twelve scorecard?

Steve Weisfeld: "Javier Alvarez."

Kellerman: "And what did you say about him, Steve?"

Weisfeld: "I said he doesn't have tremendous judging experience."

Kellerman: "Yeah, or eye sight, apparently."

Lampley: "Javier Alvarez, in scoring the fight 115-112 for Martirosyan, scored the first five rounds of the fight, all for Vanes Martirosyan. I mean, that's-that's pure blindness. I'm sorry. It's embarrassing to us and to the sport when a score card like that turns up in a situation like this. . . Final Compubox numbers for the benefit of the blind judge who scored this for Vanes Martirosyan. . ."

Lampley: "Mondo Bizarro. A very, very strange score card."



Also of note: Please notice that Javier Alvarez was assigned the Keith Thurman VS Jesus Soto Karass match the following month! Awful! So, we have one black mark/red flag for Javier Alvarez. Let's hope that this is an anomaly and he turns out to be a better judge than this would indicate.



Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing



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Spotlight on a robbery: Lance Whitaker VS Andrey Fedosov

Recently, I had the chance to catch up on a past fight of interest. Last week, I watched NBC Sports' live presentation with hot, American prospect Bryant "By-By" Jennings taking on cool but rugged prospect from Russia, Andrey Fedosov.  Two good, young heavyweights, duking it out on a good card that I didn't have to pay extra to watch. Good stuff. After a couple close rounds, Bryant laid down the very long arm of the law (big reach on Bryant) with his right uppercut/left hook combination and did enough damage to Fedosov's eye to cause a surprise stoppage by retirement in the corner. A good performance for Mr. Jennings, yet again. But I read many boxing forums and have been seeing a gross underrating of a tough, inside-fighting puncher in Mr. Fedosov, whose career as a prospect really cooled off after a "loss" to an aged Lance Whitaker. Now, no disrespect to Mr. Whitaker, but when people see that a prospect drops one to an older Whitaker, one whose career had really been on the decline, people tend to dismiss the fighter on the losing end with good reason, if they've not seen the action involved.

I've been reading about how Fedosov wasn't much because, hey, he lost to an old Lance Whitaker! I've read that Jennings did not have an impressive showing, considering that his opponent had this "hiccup" in his career. Did Fedosov lose by the famed "one punch can change everything" method? No, it was by decision! Fedosov is just not that good, I read. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Fedosov may not be a "world beater". That's fine to say that. I don't think so either. But I found a nice, perfectly clear copy of this Whitaker match, which I hadn't seen before. And I watched it thoroughly, much to my chagrin. I watched it with baffled disgust, round after round, as I tried to reconcile what I was seeing, the reality of it, with the scorecards I'd read on Boxrec.com. What a nightmare for Mr. Fedosov. What an abuse of honest, hardworking fighters, what actually happened that night, on June 12, almost three years exactly before clashing with Jennings, 2010, in Hollywood, California.

I've seen a lot of robberies in boxing - decades' worth, in fact. This fight ended in one of the worst I've ever seen. I've always been hesitant to call a fight a robbery. I don't call close fights robberies. A lot of fans make that mistake. This, however, was an unmistakable robbery to any person who understands the action they're watching. I had this fight scored 11 rounds to 1 for Andrey Fedosov. Let me repeat that. I scored ELEVEN of TWELVE rounds for Andrey Fedosov. Furthermore, the one round I scored for Whitaker, that was a close round. And though it doesn't say so, currently, on Boxrec, Fedosov scored a knockdown in the fifth round, via big left hook.

So, the first five rounds included a knockdown and were all very, very clear for Fedosov. By the first round you could give Whitaker, the sixth, which I gave him, there's already the equivalent of a half-a-fight lead in scoring for Fedosov. I don't think the crowd is always right, but I will say that the crowd began to audibly shout "Bull-shit! Bull-shit! Bull-shit!" after the cards were read. Make no mistake. This fight was not competitive. The commentators seem to think "pushing out a jab" with consistency when it's not hitting anything but air or gloves is ample reason to call it competitive, but I have eyes. So, I will not. Whitaker lightly pushed his glove out to touch Fedosov's gloves (or just air in front of Fedosov) all through the fight, and seemed to actually get credit for throwing a punch and scoring with it when he did so. Many of these weren't even thrown punches, let alone landed ones. Lightly pushing out your glove is not punching. Touching a glove that way is certainly not a scoring blow either. Any judge who was even slightly competent would see that. This was an insane decision. If this had been two big names, with two big fan bases, you could see a riot from these cards at the billed "Pandemonium at the Palladium".

I'm sick to my stomach after watching this match. Fedosov's career was derailed by this, a brazen robbery. There was no way this was a Whitaker victory. There was no way this was a draw. There is no card of any quality whatsoever that can come up with anything other than a wide Fedosov victory. Yet, Judges Marty Denkin and Raul Caiz Junior somehow came up with a win for Whitaker. Judge Tom Taylor seemingly didn't elect to drink from the same trough leading up to the match, bless him, with his 115-112 card for Fedosov. Not by any stretch should it have been close. This was an easy fight to score, ladies and gentlemen. I haven't seen every Andrey Fedosov fight. I don't know what his record should be. But I do know he didn't lose to Lance Whitaker.

If you get a chance to watch this match and you think I'm exaggerating, please watch that fight. It's out there to find, if you're interested. Fedosov dominated Whitaker and Jennings just beat a very solid man in the tough Russian. Credit to Fedosov for his poise against the giant Whitaker and continuing his career without letting it dishearten him into retirement that he was blatantly cheated and credit to Bryant Jennings for getting the 'W' this last weekend. Jennings is a genuinely class professional and I would love to see Fedosov in there on American television once more against someone like Vyacheslav Glazkov. NBC Sports, please have these men back on the air. Or ESPN, Friday Night Fights, Magomed Abdusalamov and Andrey Fedosov, a killer clash for the fans is there for the taking.


Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing



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