World Boxing News can reveal a previous instance of the WBC using eight judges for a title fight, as six were sought for Fury vs Usyk.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman remains hopeful of an agreement for six officials to score the undisputed heavyweight title bout on May 18. Sulaiman tried to explain his reasoning for a new judging system.
“Boxing is one of the very few sports that defines the winner through subjective appreciation of the officials, named judges.
“In our sport, three judges score the actions, which is done round after round. In essence, each round is an entirely different fight from the other. Unlike diving or gymnastics, boxers have no idea what the judges have scored.
“The boxing judge has an unenviable job, as they are seldom recognized until there is a controversial decision. Then, they can be pointed out as corrupt, blind, incompetent, and even criminal when it is thought they performed inadequately.
“The difference between a judge’s scoring and everyone else’s scores has a significant amount of variables, which, in the end, could make the difference in opinions.”
WBN spoke to Sulaiman’s WBO counterpart, Paco Valcarcel, on the matter. Valcarcel was firmly against having six judges.
“The topic has been discussed amongst the sanctioning organizations. I do not believe the proposal would add anything to the sport of boxing because judges must be competent, and three of them are enough,” Valcarcel exclusively told World Boxing News. He added: “No, I will not agree.”
However, WBN can reveal that the WBC tested eight judges for the Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Luke Campbell fight in England four years ago.
At the time, WBC chiefs outlined a vision where five judges secretly scored the bout. They then revealed the totals to see if they matched the three ringside officials.
Calling it their ‘Live Evaluation Program,’ the WBC wanted to have scores ratified in real-time rather than waiting for any controversy. This is to evaluate the official’s performances after the fact.
They said: “It is also a proactive tool to keep year-round training and evaluation. The WBC feels that this new approach is superior to traditional evaluations. They are conducted live and independent of media or popular opinions of the fight officials’ performance.
“This new program utilizes volunteer WBC officials, watching the fight live on television. It serves as a direct comparison and evaluation of their ringside counterparts using an online WBC application.
“Judge evaluators watch the fight with the sound muted and enter a score after each round,” they added.
Eight judges for Lomachenko vs Campbell
Following Lomachenko’s dominant win, scores aligned between all eight from 117-110 to 119-108. The WBC then declared the WBC Live Evaluation Program a success.
“The results indicate very little variation round by round across the eight judges. There has been very good feedback as well with regards to the final scores not reflecting the greatness of the fight, and several rounds were, in fact, labeled as ‘close.’ The WBC Live Evaluation Program is just one part of a new, innovative, Comprehensive Official Training and Evaluation Program.
“A special presentation is being prepared and scheduled in which we will formally introduce this system to the media very shortly.”
That ‘presentation’ is yet to formally materialize into anything more than Sulaiman wanting six judges as Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk collide for all the heavyweight titles.
Unfortunately for Sulaiman, not many names at the top end of the sport agree a chance of that magnitude is needed.
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