World Boxing Championships : 2 Protests Filed; Bent Scores Upset

For seven days, the best amateur boxing competition since the 1982 World Championships at Munich, West Germany, had been entertaining tiny but appreciative crowds at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center.

Somehow, you knew it couldn’t last.

On the eighth day, the judges and referees took over.

In yet another incident on a long, tiresome list of judge-referee decisions in international amateur boxing, the officials in the red blazers at ringside allowed a Cuban heavyweight, Felix Savon, to win a bout on what may have been a flagrant low blow.

Savon was handily beating Ecuador’s Luis Castillo in the second round when he decked Castillo directly in front of the press section. Savon came out of a low crouch with a vicious right uppercut that landed with such impact that a crack could be heard at ringside when Savon’s glove seemingly hit Castillo’s protective fiberglass cup.

While Castillo lay in agony, unable to continue, referee Vladimir Gordienko of the Soviet Union indicated that a low blow had been struck by the Cuban and seemed to begin the process of disqualifying Savon. But Sid Ashton of New Zealand, the chief of the judges’ and referees’ commission of the International Amateur Boxing Assn., ordered the referee to ask the five ringside judges if a low blow had indeed occurred. Amid 15 minutes of confusion, the judges couldn’t agree, and Savon, unbelievably to ringsiders, was declared the winner. Ecuador filed a protest.

The protest committee, after viewing a videotape of the bout, reported that it was inconclusive whether the punch was low. Castillo was to be further examined by a tournament doctor late Wednesday night to determine if an injury had occurred.

Another protest was filed Wednesday by the Nigerians. Bantamweight Hakeem Anifowoshe, a Nigerian who is a high school junior in Las Vegas, lost a 5-0 decision to the Soviet Union’s Yuri Alexandrov, but the Nigerians claimed that Alexandrov had a ring on his finger during the bout. A juror reportedly noticed the ring, a wedding band, when Soviet Coach Artem Lavrov pulled off Alexandrov’s gloves after the third round.

Nigerian Coach Doc Broadus, an American who once trained George Foreman and other pros, filed the protest, which is also pending.

Ralph Lopez Jr., an American working in the tournament gloving area, said afterward: “I check everyone’s (gauze) wrappings and sign them. I’m 100% certain Alexandrov didn’t have a ring on when I signed his wrappings.”

Almost buried in Wednesday’s controversies were six more Cuban victories--that is, pending a final ruling on Savon’s bout. If Ecuador loses its appeal, Cuba, now 28-1 for the tournament, will have placed 11 of its 12 boxers in Friday’s semifinals.

The Americans were 4 for 4 Wednesday, one of the wins a major upset. U.S. heavyweight Michael Bent of Cambria Heights, N.Y., shocked the Soviet Union’s Alexander Yagubkin, rated No. 1 in the world and the heavyweight champion at the 1982 World Championships. Bent won a 5-0 decision.

Yagubkin was regarded as one of the sport’s outstanding defensive stylists, but Bent was connecting with jabs and short right hands from the first round on. Still, it seemed close at the finish, and while Bent nearly broke the world high-jump record when the decision was announced, the Soviet delegation was angered.

When Bent won the U.S. Amateur heavyweight title in April, he had said: “All I want is that Russian again.”

Yagubkin beat Bent badly at the World Cup at Seoul last November.

But what got the crowd on it feet was a rousing performance by light-heavyweight Loren Ross, who, in the tournament’s 184th bout, engaged the Soviet Union’s Nurmagomed Shanavazov in the tournament’s best slugfest yet.

Ross, who won, 5-0, traded bombs for three rounds with Shanavazov, bringing the crowd to its feet for the tournament’s first “USA! USA!” chants. Ross took a standing eight-count in the first round and appeared to be on the verge of being knocked out. But he recuperated and actually had the Soviet boxer staggering through most of the third round. Shanavazov needed two standing eight-counts.

Afterward, the 21-year-old Ft. Hood, Tex., soldier said: “After the second round, Pat Nappi and Ken Adams (U.S. coaches) told me in the corner that if I wanted it, I had three minutes. He hit me some shots. But I want to be a champ, and not just an American champ--a world champ.”

U.S. welterweight Ken Gould got a 4-1 decision when the judges were overturned by their jury on Gould’s bout with France’s Laurent Boudouani. The judges called it 3-2 for the Frenchman, but the jury went 4-1 for Gould. On all 3-2 judges’ scores, jurors’ cards are also tallied. If the jurors vote 4-1 or 5-0 the other way, the judges are overruled.

Featherweight Kelcie Banks reached the semifinals with a 5-0 decision over Canada’s Bill Downey.

The United States enters the semifinals with six boxers still in contention and a 14-6 record. The Soviet Union is 16-7, with five in the semifinals.