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Gennady Golovkin calls out Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez: 'Let's go fight'
Lance PugmireContact Reporter
Gennady Golovkin’s knockout power makes even a Saturday date against little-known Dominic Wade a possible sellout at the Forum and an HBO main event, but it causes great difficulty in bringing him the fights he wants most.
As the unbeaten World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation middleweight champion closed preparations for Wade at Golovkin’s Big Bear training camp, he cast an eye toward a possible future bout against World Boxing Council middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and expressed concerns over the vibe he’s hearing.
With Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones intrigued by the idea of bringing a fall fight between Golovkin and Alvarez to Cowboys Stadium, Alvarez and his camp have mentioned stumbling blocks like the idea that “Canelo’s not a true middleweight,” that negotiations could be tricky – things typically said to maneuver for a delay.
Explaining the Floyd Mayweather Jr. loss three years ago was one thing – there was a major experience disadvantage – but if Golovkin destroys Alvarez as some expect, the “Canelo” brand may take years to recover.
“Anything is possible. Right now, [Alvarez] has a fight with Amir Khan and he’s concentrating on that. We’ll make a decision after the fight,” said Eric Gomez, a Golden Boy Promotions executive. “Gennady’s not the first guy to try and goad Canelo into a fight and he’s not going to be the last. That doesn’t make fights. If he thinks insulting him will make the fight, he’s mistaken. Will the fight happen? It’s going to happen. It’s a matter of when. And we’ll make the fight when we feel it’s the best time."
“Whether that’s after the Khan fight is to be determined.”
Golovkin, 34, says he’s not concerned with the thoughts of careful career timing that promoters consider. The Kazakhstan fighter says Alvarez has a tradition rooted in the legacy of his home country’s warriors to uphold here, to demand the bout that fight fans know he’s obligated to take.
“Fighting Amir Khan, then maybe [welterweight Manny] Pacquiao … hey, listen, Canelo, I have double the championship belts [at middleweight],” Golovkin said. “Make the fight with me. It’s a good fight for us. Not an easy fight. Everyone understands that. But then next … you can bring on Manny or Floyd [Mayweather]. For me, it’s about who’s the best? Who’s No. 1 in the division? That’s what’s No. 1 to me."
“Second is money.”
Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) said he’s striving to unify the middleweight division. England’s Billy Joe Saunders holds the World Boxing Organization belt, but his recent disinterest could force Golovkin to take on new WBO super-middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez in the fall should Alvarez and Saunders go elsewhere.
The Mexico-based WBC has ruled Alvarez has 15 days after his expected victory over Khan to begin negotiations with Golovkin or the belt will be stripped and given to Golovkin. That was the same case after Alvarez-Cotto, but Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler, and Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya struck a deal to extend the arrangement.
“Canelo says he’s the middleweight champion. Middleweight is my best weight,” Golovkin said. “Everybody says Canelo’s this great champion. I saw his last fight. Cotto’s not a real middleweight. Great champion, not a middleweight.”
Gomez said he’s convinced Alvarez is not yet a true middleweight, given that his 30-day weigh-in figure is more in line with that of a 154-pound fighter.
“Canelo is not a middleweight … if Gennady really wants to make the fight, maybe we can talk about some catch-weight where Gennady comes down [in weight] and Canelo goes up, but he’s truly a 154-pounder,” Gomez said. “If Canelo is giving up weight, Gennady should, too.”
Said Golovkin: “I’m a middleweight. So let’s settle who’s the best middleweight. Canelo? He’s a big idol … is he really a junior-middleweight? Come on, guys. Let’s fight. You don’t want the fight, I understand, you’re 100% a businessman. So go fight Manny Pacquiao. But I wait, I’ve been waiting … let’s go fight.”
Gennady Golovkin calls out Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez: 'Let's go fight'
If second is money...why did you take a step aside fee previously?
He is throwing some
shots at Canelo though
Lance PugmireContact Reporter
Gennady Golovkin’s knockout power makes even a Saturday date against little-known Dominic Wade a possible sellout at the Forum and an HBO main event, but it causes great difficulty in bringing him the fights he wants most.
As the unbeaten World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation middleweight champion closed preparations for Wade at Golovkin’s Big Bear training camp, he cast an eye toward a possible future bout against World Boxing Council middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and expressed concerns over the vibe he’s hearing.
With Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones intrigued by the idea of bringing a fall fight between Golovkin and Alvarez to Cowboys Stadium, Alvarez and his camp have mentioned stumbling blocks like the idea that “Canelo’s not a true middleweight,” that negotiations could be tricky – things typically said to maneuver for a delay.
Explaining the Floyd Mayweather Jr. loss three years ago was one thing – there was a major experience disadvantage – but if Golovkin destroys Alvarez as some expect, the “Canelo” brand may take years to recover.
“Anything is possible. Right now, [Alvarez] has a fight with Amir Khan and he’s concentrating on that. We’ll make a decision after the fight,” said Eric Gomez, a Golden Boy Promotions executive. “Gennady’s not the first guy to try and goad Canelo into a fight and he’s not going to be the last. That doesn’t make fights. If he thinks insulting him will make the fight, he’s mistaken. Will the fight happen? It’s going to happen. It’s a matter of when. And we’ll make the fight when we feel it’s the best time."
“Whether that’s after the Khan fight is to be determined.”
Golovkin, 34, says he’s not concerned with the thoughts of careful career timing that promoters consider. The Kazakhstan fighter says Alvarez has a tradition rooted in the legacy of his home country’s warriors to uphold here, to demand the bout that fight fans know he’s obligated to take.
“Fighting Amir Khan, then maybe [welterweight Manny] Pacquiao … hey, listen, Canelo, I have double the championship belts [at middleweight],” Golovkin said. “Make the fight with me. It’s a good fight for us. Not an easy fight. Everyone understands that. But then next … you can bring on Manny or Floyd [Mayweather]. For me, it’s about who’s the best? Who’s No. 1 in the division? That’s what’s No. 1 to me."
“Second is money.”
Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) said he’s striving to unify the middleweight division. England’s Billy Joe Saunders holds the World Boxing Organization belt, but his recent disinterest could force Golovkin to take on new WBO super-middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez in the fall should Alvarez and Saunders go elsewhere.
The Mexico-based WBC has ruled Alvarez has 15 days after his expected victory over Khan to begin negotiations with Golovkin or the belt will be stripped and given to Golovkin. That was the same case after Alvarez-Cotto, but Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler, and Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya struck a deal to extend the arrangement.
“Canelo says he’s the middleweight champion. Middleweight is my best weight,” Golovkin said. “Everybody says Canelo’s this great champion. I saw his last fight. Cotto’s not a real middleweight. Great champion, not a middleweight.”
Gomez said he’s convinced Alvarez is not yet a true middleweight, given that his 30-day weigh-in figure is more in line with that of a 154-pound fighter.
“Canelo is not a middleweight … if Gennady really wants to make the fight, maybe we can talk about some catch-weight where Gennady comes down [in weight] and Canelo goes up, but he’s truly a 154-pounder,” Gomez said. “If Canelo is giving up weight, Gennady should, too.”
Said Golovkin: “I’m a middleweight. So let’s settle who’s the best middleweight. Canelo? He’s a big idol … is he really a junior-middleweight? Come on, guys. Let’s fight. You don’t want the fight, I understand, you’re 100% a businessman. So go fight Manny Pacquiao. But I wait, I’ve been waiting … let’s go fight.”
Gennady Golovkin calls out Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez: 'Let's go fight'
If second is money...why did you take a step aside fee previously?
He is throwing some
shots at Canelo though
GREENandYELLOW
2x...and defending
I may be wrong, but I think the step aside was just a bonus. The WBC was going to push through the Canelo-Cotto fight, but by getting GGG to sign off on it made it legit and by the book.Gennady Golovkin calls out Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez: 'Let's go fight'
Lance PugmireContact Reporter
Gennady Golovkin’s knockout power makes even a Saturday date against little-known Dominic Wade a possible sellout at the Forum and an HBO main event, but it causes great difficulty in bringing him the fights he wants most.
As the unbeaten World Boxing Assn. and International Boxing Federation middleweight champion closed preparations for Wade at Golovkin’s Big Bear training camp, he cast an eye toward a possible future bout against World Boxing Council middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and expressed concerns over the vibe he’s hearing.
With Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones intrigued by the idea of bringing a fall fight between Golovkin and Alvarez to Cowboys Stadium, Alvarez and his camp have mentioned stumbling blocks like the idea that “Canelo’s not a true middleweight,” that negotiations could be tricky – things typically said to maneuver for a delay.
Explaining the Floyd Mayweather Jr. loss three years ago was one thing – there was a major experience disadvantage – but if Golovkin destroys Alvarez as some expect, the “Canelo” brand may take years to recover.
“Anything is possible. Right now, [Alvarez] has a fight with Amir Khan and he’s concentrating on that. We’ll make a decision after the fight,” said Eric Gomez, a Golden Boy Promotions executive. “Gennady’s not the first guy to try and goad Canelo into a fight and he’s not going to be the last. That doesn’t make fights. If he thinks insulting him will make the fight, he’s mistaken. Will the fight happen? It’s going to happen. It’s a matter of when. And we’ll make the fight when we feel it’s the best time."
“Whether that’s after the Khan fight is to be determined.”
Golovkin, 34, says he’s not concerned with the thoughts of careful career timing that promoters consider. The Kazakhstan fighter says Alvarez has a tradition rooted in the legacy of his home country’s warriors to uphold here, to demand the bout that fight fans know he’s obligated to take.
“Fighting Amir Khan, then maybe [welterweight Manny] Pacquiao … hey, listen, Canelo, I have double the championship belts [at middleweight],” Golovkin said. “Make the fight with me. It’s a good fight for us. Not an easy fight. Everyone understands that. But then next … you can bring on Manny or Floyd [Mayweather]. For me, it’s about who’s the best? Who’s No. 1 in the division? That’s what’s No. 1 to me."
“Second is money.”
Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) said he’s striving to unify the middleweight division. England’s Billy Joe Saunders holds the World Boxing Organization belt, but his recent disinterest could force Golovkin to take on new WBO super-middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez in the fall should Alvarez and Saunders go elsewhere.
The Mexico-based WBC has ruled Alvarez has 15 days after his expected victory over Khan to begin negotiations with Golovkin or the belt will be stripped and given to Golovkin. That was the same case after Alvarez-Cotto, but Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler, and Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya struck a deal to extend the arrangement.
“Canelo says he’s the middleweight champion. Middleweight is my best weight,” Golovkin said. “Everybody says Canelo’s this great champion. I saw his last fight. Cotto’s not a real middleweight. Great champion, not a middleweight.”
Gomez said he’s convinced Alvarez is not yet a true middleweight, given that his 30-day weigh-in figure is more in line with that of a 154-pound fighter.
“Canelo is not a middleweight … if Gennady really wants to make the fight, maybe we can talk about some catch-weight where Gennady comes down [in weight] and Canelo goes up, but he’s truly a 154-pounder,” Gomez said. “If Canelo is giving up weight, Gennady should, too.”
Said Golovkin: “I’m a middleweight. So let’s settle who’s the best middleweight. Canelo? He’s a big idol … is he really a junior-middleweight? Come on, guys. Let’s fight. You don’t want the fight, I understand, you’re 100% a businessman. So go fight Manny Pacquiao. But I wait, I’ve been waiting … let’s go fight.”
Gennady Golovkin calls out Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez: 'Let's go fight'
If second is money...why did you take a step aside fee previously?
He is throwing some
Plus, I think GGG's trying to do everything he can to get Canelo in the ring, without giving up too much bargaining power. I don't think GGG has ever gone against saying Canelo isn't the bigger draw. He know that he is, but he rightly doesn't want to concede everything to Canelo. You are one of the brehs here who I think knows the fine line GGG has to walk. He has to get Canelo to fight him, without conceding everything to put himself at a disadvantage; plus he also has to rely on the WBC to enforce its own rules and get Canelo to take him as a mandatory, but at the same time give Canelo enough space so he doesn't drop the belt and walk away.
Black_Jesus
Superstar
I want this fight
Errol really doesn't though.. just running his mouth about the senator AFTER he retired.. When before, he couldn't even pick Floyd to win over Pacquiao
Last edited:
GREENandYELLOW
2x...and defending
Interesting article on the judge who scored the Ortiz-Thompson fight 48-47 for Ortiz at the time of stoppage:
'Fighting Words' - How One Scorecard Ended Judge Lloyd Scaife's Career - Boxing News
'Fighting Words' - How One Scorecard Ended Judge Lloyd Scaife's Career
by David P. Greisman
The problem, Lloyd Scaife soon recognized, is that he hadn’t initially realized there was a problem. And at that moment, barely minutes after the fight he’d been scoring from ringside was over, so too was the career of the 85-year-old boxing judge.
Scaife had scored fights on occasion for more than 30 years, first for amateur boxers and then with the pros. He worked in Washington, D.C., which rarely got boxing matches of national significance, which meant his name was known locally but otherwise wasn’t recognizable even to those who follow the sport closely.
That all changed on March 5, 2016, at the D.C. Armory, an arena just a short drive from his home in Northeast Washington. For the final bout of that night, a bout that aired on HBO in front of an average of 740,000 viewers, he turned in a scorecard that raised eyebrows and brought allegations of bias and corruption.
The city’s athletic commission conducted an investigation and said earlier this month that it was neither. Instead, the commission described Scaife’s scoring for the heavyweight bout between Luis Ortiz and Tony Thompson as the result of “human error.”
To some, that phrasing may imply incompetence. Yet Scaife’s retirement from judging has come because of what he and a longtime friend believe is the real reason for what happened.
“I’m thinking I might be feeling a little senility or something coming on,” Scaife said last week in an exclusive interview with this writer. He sat in his basement, near a wall that exhibited a variety of boxing memories.
There was a plaque from then-Mayor Marion Barry for the first annual Mayor’s Cup Invitational Amateur Boxing Tournament in 1985. There was an award received from the commission in 2012, recognizing 25 years of service. There were numerous framed certificates received for completing regular training as an official. And there were several credentials granting him access to ringside, including the one he wore the evening of Ortiz-Thompson.
He’d gotten ready for that assignment the same way he always did — by getting into his uniform at home. Except this time it was different. And like the scores he turned in during the main event, he didn’t realize something had gone awry until being informed of it afterward.
“I have a lady who lives with me. I told her what happened [during Ortiz-Thompson], and she told me it took me almost an hour to tie my tie before,” Scaife said. “Hey, I’ve been tying my tie since I was 15, 16 years old and never had no problem.”
Scaife also was assigned the first two fights of the show: light heavyweight prospect Todd Unthank-May’s six-round unanimous decision over Alexander Johnson and lightweight prospect Damon Allen’s unanimous decision over Daniel Perales.
His score for Allen vs. Perales was the same as his two official counterparts at ringside: a 60-54 shutout for Allen. His score for Unthank-May vs. Johnson was 58-55, while the other judges had it 59-55 and 59-53.
There was only one round in which he was in the minority, as the only judge to give Johnson the sixth. Scoring is subjective, based on four criteria but otherwise dependent on what a judge sees — or thinks he sees — from his seat and what that judge thinks about, well, what he thinks he saw. This writer arrived to the venue too late to see Unthank-May vs. Johnson and cannot opine on Scaife’s scoring for that round.
However, it was notable in hindsight to see that Scaife had scored Round 3, in which Unthank-May knocked Johnson down for the second time in the bout, as a 10-9 round for Unthank-May instead of the 10-8 round that judge Wayne Smith had, docking Johnson one point for losing the round and another point for the knockdown. Then again, even that 10-9 from Scaife isn’t as strange on the surface as the even 10-10 score turned it by judge Manuel Vincens.
This scoring otherwise went unnoticed. That wouldn’t be the case after Ortiz-Thompson.
The main event ended in the sixth round with a knockout for Ortiz. The scores didn’t matter. But as copies of the commission’s combined score sheet were passed around press row, writers took notice of a few things.
The two other judges had Ortiz ahead 50-43 after five rounds. Scaife had Ortiz barely in the lead at 48-47. And it wasn’t just that the judge had found two rounds to give to Thompson. In the first round, a round in which Ortiz knocked Thompson down, Scaife had it a 10-9 round for Ortiz while the other two judges had it the customary 10-8. That wasn’t as bad as the third, in which Ortiz knocked Thompson down as the round was coming to a close. The other two judges had it 10-8 for Ortiz. Scaife had it 10-9 — for Thompson. He also was the lone judge to give Thompson the fifth round.
“I would be very confident that in this instance it’s nothing less than corruption,” wrote a commenter on one boxing website.
“If you fight a DC fighter in his hometown, you will get screwed by a corrupt judge like Scaife, a corrupt ref, or both,” wrote a commenter on another boxing website.
It’s understandable why boxing fans and observers would come to that conclusion, or at least have that suspicion. A pile of papers in Scaife’s basement included four articles a friend had printed out for him, all mentioning his name and the controversy over his scoring.
“People are going to think whatever they want to think,” Scaife said. “I was a good judge. I was a bum judge.”
He knows his scores were wrong. He didn’t remember giving Thompson a round, though, until the chief judge pulled him aside afterward.
“She asked me about it, and wow, I didn’t know what to say,” Scaife said. “I don’t know what happened. I know what happened. I know I did it. I know my writing. I know that he [Thompson] did not win a round, but yet I had him winning a round. I was surprised when she showed it to me.”
He soon learned that he’d made other mistakes on the scoring slips, which are provided to the judges ahead of time for them to fill out during the bouts. These were different than the ones he’d worked with in the past, which allowed the judge to write in the color of the corner and the score for that corresponding fighter in empty boxes. These new slips had “Red Corner” and “Blue Corner” printed ahead of time in boxes, and at one point earlier in the night he’d written the scores atop that text instead of in their proper empty box, he said.
He wonders why no one caught that error early on. He wonders why the referee for Ortiz-Thompson didn’t question him after collecting the scorecards for the rounds in question. He wonders why no one from the commission straightened him out. He thinks back to the third round, in which Thompson was doing decently until the knockdown.
“I was going to give him the round until the end,” he said. “I must’ve had that on my mind real strong.”
He also knows that he is the one at fault, even if it wasn’t at all his intention. While the commission’s investigation was underway, Scaife was already drafting a resignation letter.
“I messed up the whole thing,” he said to this writer at one point.
“I got out of it so it would never happen again,” he said later. “If I did it one time, I would do it again, because when I was doing it I didn’t think I was wrong. I couldn’t blame nobody for that. I’m the one who did the whole thing. … I didn’t mean to do it, but I did it.”
Scaife acknowledged that he’d had memory issues before, though there were no incidents that he could recall along the lines of what happened with the scorecards and his tie that day. He’d visited a doctor five or six years ago, he said, and was told he remembered as much as other people do. Still, he’d hoped his forgetfulness wouldn’t affect his judging.
It did.
It’s difficult to review Scaife’s entire judging career. BoxRec.com, an online database of boxing matches, lists 88 bouts that Scaife scored from ringside. That list is incomplete. The bouts it does list don’t always include the judges’ scores, both in fights that went the distance and those that ended early. That’s a level of minutiae impossible to attain so many years after the fact and with so many bouts going on worldwide. And there’s no website currently compiling round-by-round scoring breakdowns, though various score sheets have been posted online for notable fights in recent years.
But even those who closely follow boxing in Washington, D.C., hadn’t noticed anything to give them cause to speak of Scaife in the way that some writers and fans describe other, more famous judges.
“He was usually very consistent as a judge, this one situation notwithstanding,” said Gary “Digital” Williams, the writer for Fightnews.com who chronicles fights in D.C., Maryland and Virginia on his “Boxing Along the Beltway” blog. “That’s why it was kind of surprising having the score he did on March 5.”
Scaife has been friends for about 25 years with Henry “Discombobulating” Jones, a fixture as a ring announcer in the D.C. area. Jones recalled one other instance in which Scaife had a highly questionable scorecard, though even then there were extenuating circumstances.
“He had scored it incorrectly, and I asked him about it later, and it seemed like he might’ve gotten the participants confused,” Jones said. “Now I did point out to him that they both were wearing the same color trunks, which is a major problem, they were the same ethnicity and their body size was similar. He wasn’t really able to differentiate between the two.
“That was the only time I had seen that prior to now,” Jones said. “We’re talking about four years ago. Other than that he’s been quite competent. … I know good and well that he’s not what’d be called a ‘homer’. Over the years he’s scored against hometown fighters, and justifiably so. He’s been above board on everything.”
He had noticed Scaife’s faculties slipping, though.
“I’ve been playing chess with him for 25 years. For the first 18 years or so I couldn’t touch him. I couldn’t beat him at all,” Jones said. “The last few years I’ve been kind of dominating. I’ve seen the decline. He’s not as mentally acute as he used to be. I continue to play with him because it still motivates him mentally.”
Scaife still loves the sweet science. He was an amateur heavyweight boxer when he was a teenager in Bakersfield, California, prior to his time serving in the Air Force in Korea in the 1950s. Work wasn’t going well in California and so he came to D.C., where he had relatives. He’s been in the same house since 1962 and points to the improvements he made over the years. He owned a moving company for more than three decades and retired from that in 1996. He continued to judge over the past 20 years.
“I truly loved what I was doing,” he said. “I’ve been crazy about boxing. My love for boxing grew more and more as I got into it.”
Televisions played sports channels simultaneously on two floors of the home. He still looks for the fights. Boxing has come back to D.C. since the night of Ortiz-Thompson. He opted against going to the April 1 show featuring Adrien Broner against Ashley Theophane.
“I don’t like him [Broner] as a boxer, and I didn’t — my coworkers, I didn’t want to be around them,” he said. “They know I wouldn’t do anything like that [score a fight in a certain way due to bias or corruption], but I did not feel right.”
He’s certain he’ll return. But he has other things to think about: his life as it is going to be now, his girlfriend, and the ongoing challenge of how to make ends meet between his bills and his limited income from Social Security.
Despite all that, Scaife wasn’t hesitant in discussing the night that ended his career as a boxing judge. He wanted people to know the truth, even if it’s still something he’s trying to understand.
“He’s come to grips with it,” Jones said. “He’s taken ownership of it. He voluntarily stepped down. That tells a lot about his character. He didn’t want people to have the wrong impression that there was something clandestine going on. He didn’t want to impact negatively on the sport he loved.”
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Interesting we always hear about corruption, but never incompetence. Just like NFL/NBA referees, boxing provides us with no information on how they evaluate or discipline their own employees. Unlike most other sports, boxing judges are responsible for determining the outcome as they are the point system, there is no player produced point system a la football, basketball, soccer, etc (except if a knockout occurs).
I feel sad reading the story about an elderly man who loves boxing losing his faculties...but shouldn't the commission itself question whether someone who is 85 should be in charge of judging (determining) the outcome of a fight?
'Fighting Words' - How One Scorecard Ended Judge Lloyd Scaife's Career - Boxing News
'Fighting Words' - How One Scorecard Ended Judge Lloyd Scaife's Career
by David P. Greisman
The problem, Lloyd Scaife soon recognized, is that he hadn’t initially realized there was a problem. And at that moment, barely minutes after the fight he’d been scoring from ringside was over, so too was the career of the 85-year-old boxing judge.
Scaife had scored fights on occasion for more than 30 years, first for amateur boxers and then with the pros. He worked in Washington, D.C., which rarely got boxing matches of national significance, which meant his name was known locally but otherwise wasn’t recognizable even to those who follow the sport closely.
That all changed on March 5, 2016, at the D.C. Armory, an arena just a short drive from his home in Northeast Washington. For the final bout of that night, a bout that aired on HBO in front of an average of 740,000 viewers, he turned in a scorecard that raised eyebrows and brought allegations of bias and corruption.
The city’s athletic commission conducted an investigation and said earlier this month that it was neither. Instead, the commission described Scaife’s scoring for the heavyweight bout between Luis Ortiz and Tony Thompson as the result of “human error.”
To some, that phrasing may imply incompetence. Yet Scaife’s retirement from judging has come because of what he and a longtime friend believe is the real reason for what happened.
“I’m thinking I might be feeling a little senility or something coming on,” Scaife said last week in an exclusive interview with this writer. He sat in his basement, near a wall that exhibited a variety of boxing memories.
There was a plaque from then-Mayor Marion Barry for the first annual Mayor’s Cup Invitational Amateur Boxing Tournament in 1985. There was an award received from the commission in 2012, recognizing 25 years of service. There were numerous framed certificates received for completing regular training as an official. And there were several credentials granting him access to ringside, including the one he wore the evening of Ortiz-Thompson.
He’d gotten ready for that assignment the same way he always did — by getting into his uniform at home. Except this time it was different. And like the scores he turned in during the main event, he didn’t realize something had gone awry until being informed of it afterward.
“I have a lady who lives with me. I told her what happened [during Ortiz-Thompson], and she told me it took me almost an hour to tie my tie before,” Scaife said. “Hey, I’ve been tying my tie since I was 15, 16 years old and never had no problem.”
Scaife also was assigned the first two fights of the show: light heavyweight prospect Todd Unthank-May’s six-round unanimous decision over Alexander Johnson and lightweight prospect Damon Allen’s unanimous decision over Daniel Perales.
His score for Allen vs. Perales was the same as his two official counterparts at ringside: a 60-54 shutout for Allen. His score for Unthank-May vs. Johnson was 58-55, while the other judges had it 59-55 and 59-53.
There was only one round in which he was in the minority, as the only judge to give Johnson the sixth. Scoring is subjective, based on four criteria but otherwise dependent on what a judge sees — or thinks he sees — from his seat and what that judge thinks about, well, what he thinks he saw. This writer arrived to the venue too late to see Unthank-May vs. Johnson and cannot opine on Scaife’s scoring for that round.
However, it was notable in hindsight to see that Scaife had scored Round 3, in which Unthank-May knocked Johnson down for the second time in the bout, as a 10-9 round for Unthank-May instead of the 10-8 round that judge Wayne Smith had, docking Johnson one point for losing the round and another point for the knockdown. Then again, even that 10-9 from Scaife isn’t as strange on the surface as the even 10-10 score turned it by judge Manuel Vincens.
This scoring otherwise went unnoticed. That wouldn’t be the case after Ortiz-Thompson.
The main event ended in the sixth round with a knockout for Ortiz. The scores didn’t matter. But as copies of the commission’s combined score sheet were passed around press row, writers took notice of a few things.
The two other judges had Ortiz ahead 50-43 after five rounds. Scaife had Ortiz barely in the lead at 48-47. And it wasn’t just that the judge had found two rounds to give to Thompson. In the first round, a round in which Ortiz knocked Thompson down, Scaife had it a 10-9 round for Ortiz while the other two judges had it the customary 10-8. That wasn’t as bad as the third, in which Ortiz knocked Thompson down as the round was coming to a close. The other two judges had it 10-8 for Ortiz. Scaife had it 10-9 — for Thompson. He also was the lone judge to give Thompson the fifth round.
“I would be very confident that in this instance it’s nothing less than corruption,” wrote a commenter on one boxing website.
“If you fight a DC fighter in his hometown, you will get screwed by a corrupt judge like Scaife, a corrupt ref, or both,” wrote a commenter on another boxing website.
It’s understandable why boxing fans and observers would come to that conclusion, or at least have that suspicion. A pile of papers in Scaife’s basement included four articles a friend had printed out for him, all mentioning his name and the controversy over his scoring.
“People are going to think whatever they want to think,” Scaife said. “I was a good judge. I was a bum judge.”
He knows his scores were wrong. He didn’t remember giving Thompson a round, though, until the chief judge pulled him aside afterward.
“She asked me about it, and wow, I didn’t know what to say,” Scaife said. “I don’t know what happened. I know what happened. I know I did it. I know my writing. I know that he [Thompson] did not win a round, but yet I had him winning a round. I was surprised when she showed it to me.”
He soon learned that he’d made other mistakes on the scoring slips, which are provided to the judges ahead of time for them to fill out during the bouts. These were different than the ones he’d worked with in the past, which allowed the judge to write in the color of the corner and the score for that corresponding fighter in empty boxes. These new slips had “Red Corner” and “Blue Corner” printed ahead of time in boxes, and at one point earlier in the night he’d written the scores atop that text instead of in their proper empty box, he said.
He wonders why no one caught that error early on. He wonders why the referee for Ortiz-Thompson didn’t question him after collecting the scorecards for the rounds in question. He wonders why no one from the commission straightened him out. He thinks back to the third round, in which Thompson was doing decently until the knockdown.
“I was going to give him the round until the end,” he said. “I must’ve had that on my mind real strong.”
He also knows that he is the one at fault, even if it wasn’t at all his intention. While the commission’s investigation was underway, Scaife was already drafting a resignation letter.
“I messed up the whole thing,” he said to this writer at one point.
“I got out of it so it would never happen again,” he said later. “If I did it one time, I would do it again, because when I was doing it I didn’t think I was wrong. I couldn’t blame nobody for that. I’m the one who did the whole thing. … I didn’t mean to do it, but I did it.”
Scaife acknowledged that he’d had memory issues before, though there were no incidents that he could recall along the lines of what happened with the scorecards and his tie that day. He’d visited a doctor five or six years ago, he said, and was told he remembered as much as other people do. Still, he’d hoped his forgetfulness wouldn’t affect his judging.
It did.
It’s difficult to review Scaife’s entire judging career. BoxRec.com, an online database of boxing matches, lists 88 bouts that Scaife scored from ringside. That list is incomplete. The bouts it does list don’t always include the judges’ scores, both in fights that went the distance and those that ended early. That’s a level of minutiae impossible to attain so many years after the fact and with so many bouts going on worldwide. And there’s no website currently compiling round-by-round scoring breakdowns, though various score sheets have been posted online for notable fights in recent years.
But even those who closely follow boxing in Washington, D.C., hadn’t noticed anything to give them cause to speak of Scaife in the way that some writers and fans describe other, more famous judges.
“He was usually very consistent as a judge, this one situation notwithstanding,” said Gary “Digital” Williams, the writer for Fightnews.com who chronicles fights in D.C., Maryland and Virginia on his “Boxing Along the Beltway” blog. “That’s why it was kind of surprising having the score he did on March 5.”
Scaife has been friends for about 25 years with Henry “Discombobulating” Jones, a fixture as a ring announcer in the D.C. area. Jones recalled one other instance in which Scaife had a highly questionable scorecard, though even then there were extenuating circumstances.
“He had scored it incorrectly, and I asked him about it later, and it seemed like he might’ve gotten the participants confused,” Jones said. “Now I did point out to him that they both were wearing the same color trunks, which is a major problem, they were the same ethnicity and their body size was similar. He wasn’t really able to differentiate between the two.
“That was the only time I had seen that prior to now,” Jones said. “We’re talking about four years ago. Other than that he’s been quite competent. … I know good and well that he’s not what’d be called a ‘homer’. Over the years he’s scored against hometown fighters, and justifiably so. He’s been above board on everything.”
He had noticed Scaife’s faculties slipping, though.
“I’ve been playing chess with him for 25 years. For the first 18 years or so I couldn’t touch him. I couldn’t beat him at all,” Jones said. “The last few years I’ve been kind of dominating. I’ve seen the decline. He’s not as mentally acute as he used to be. I continue to play with him because it still motivates him mentally.”
Scaife still loves the sweet science. He was an amateur heavyweight boxer when he was a teenager in Bakersfield, California, prior to his time serving in the Air Force in Korea in the 1950s. Work wasn’t going well in California and so he came to D.C., where he had relatives. He’s been in the same house since 1962 and points to the improvements he made over the years. He owned a moving company for more than three decades and retired from that in 1996. He continued to judge over the past 20 years.
“I truly loved what I was doing,” he said. “I’ve been crazy about boxing. My love for boxing grew more and more as I got into it.”
Televisions played sports channels simultaneously on two floors of the home. He still looks for the fights. Boxing has come back to D.C. since the night of Ortiz-Thompson. He opted against going to the April 1 show featuring Adrien Broner against Ashley Theophane.
“I don’t like him [Broner] as a boxer, and I didn’t — my coworkers, I didn’t want to be around them,” he said. “They know I wouldn’t do anything like that [score a fight in a certain way due to bias or corruption], but I did not feel right.”
He’s certain he’ll return. But he has other things to think about: his life as it is going to be now, his girlfriend, and the ongoing challenge of how to make ends meet between his bills and his limited income from Social Security.
Despite all that, Scaife wasn’t hesitant in discussing the night that ended his career as a boxing judge. He wanted people to know the truth, even if it’s still something he’s trying to understand.
“He’s come to grips with it,” Jones said. “He’s taken ownership of it. He voluntarily stepped down. That tells a lot about his character. He didn’t want people to have the wrong impression that there was something clandestine going on. He didn’t want to impact negatively on the sport he loved.”
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Interesting we always hear about corruption, but never incompetence. Just like NFL/NBA referees, boxing provides us with no information on how they evaluate or discipline their own employees. Unlike most other sports, boxing judges are responsible for determining the outcome as they are the point system, there is no player produced point system a la football, basketball, soccer, etc (except if a knockout occurs).
I feel sad reading the story about an elderly man who loves boxing losing his faculties...but shouldn't the commission itself question whether someone who is 85 should be in charge of judging (determining) the outcome of a fight?
HARLEM AL
Your broad loves me.....
The Truth and Young Makaveli
I saw him fight in person. And this was when he was younger.
Kids a fukking problem
HARLEM AL
Your broad loves me.....
Amare's Right Hook
Southeast World Champion
Maidana is better at cutting off the ring than Pac is. You can only run for so long.
Axum Ezana
Driving in the fast lane
Looks like Spence is going full heel mode
Talking shyt on Pacquiao; calling out Brook, wanting either Swift, Sammy Vasquez, or winner of Thurman/Porter; talking shyt about Thurman's lack of a resume
The blatant disrespect for Guerrero
Amare's Right Hook
Southeast World Champion
malbaker86
Gators
seemorecizzy
Superstar
spencer gonna be a problem for years to come