Open Scoring Doesn’t Deserve Fighting Chance

Let’s hope the book is closed on open scoring.

Instead, one promoter, Dan Goossen, would like to open a school for boxing officials.

Resurrected in the ugly wake of the controversial draw in last month’s Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight, open scoring in last week’s fight card in Washington pointed out flaws in the system.

On the surface, open scoring might seem like a good idea. Many who clearly saw Lewis beat Holyfield were stunned when the scorecards were revealed at the end, showing one judge, Eugenia Williams, had Holyfield the winner, and another, Larry O’Connell, scored the fight even. Somehow, went the thinking, if the judges’ decisions could be monitored round by round, faulty scoring could be detected.

And then what?

If people didn’t like the way Williams scored the fifth round, for example, a round she gave to Holyfield although Lewis was clearly dominant, what would have been done about it if open scoring had been in effect?

Would Williams’ job have been taken away from her in mid-fight? Who would make that determination?

Would she have been influenced by the boos of those who favored Lewis and started giving him more rounds? Is that what boxing wants?

How much integrity would basketball have if an official took the crowd into consideration before ruling on a collision under the basket?

Two instances on the Saturday night card illustrate the problems with open scoring:

* In one fight, Mark Johnson, fighting Ratanachai Vorapin for the vacant International Boxing Federation junior-bantamweight title, knew he was well ahead after eight rounds thanks to the ring announcer, who read the scores to the crowd.

In the ninth round, Johnson was guilty of a low blow, which cost him a point.

Was it intentional?

“I knew open scoring was going to hurt,” he said. “Once you know you’re winning, you might get a little sloppy.”

Or, in some cases, a little dirty.

Why not weaken your opponent with a low blow if you know the worst that happen is that you’ll lose a point from a commanding lead?

* Johnson and Sharmba Mitchell, who was defending his World Boxing Assn., super-lightweight title against Reggie Green, acknowledged that they stayed away from their opponents at the end of their bouts because they knew from the open scorecards it would take a knockout to beat them.

“Why should I go out there and take any chances?” Johnson said. “If I’d have gotten into a war after the eighth round, I could have been hurt and maybe lost the fight.”

Said Mitchell: “I played it safe at the end.”

Goossen says open scoring misses the point.

“It’s not resolving the problem,” he said. “The problem we have is competence and honesty. [Promoter] Bob Arum likes to say that open scoring would allow us to see the crime committed. We don’t want to see the crime at all.

“The question is, how do we get honest officials? What we need is a school for officials like they have in other sports. You could get someone like a Mills Lane or an Arthur Mercante to run it. Don’t tell me that people like that, who have been respected referees, wouldn’t come down hard on an official if they were doing something wrong.

“In pro football, errors by officials have prevented teams from going to the playoffs. But you do not hear one fan yelling, ‘Fix.’ If an umpire calls a player out at home plate, the team may question his judgment, but not whether he’s cheating. We need that level of respect for the officials in our sport.”

GETTING CLOSE

Arum hopes to nail down an Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad fight this week. The match, between the two fighters generally considered the best welterweights in the world, would be Sept. 18 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay hotel.

Trinidad had been the holdup because he had been demanding a $15-million purse. This week, he came down to $12 million and said he might go as low as $10 million.

Arum, who had been offering $8 million, says he’d go up to $10 million, which would appear to seal the deal.

“Unless [Don] King comes up with some big amount he wants,” said Arum of his chief rival, who serves as Trinidad’s promoter.

Arum said he would consider cutting King in for a percentage of the revenue after the pay-per-view total exceeds 1 million homes, but it is highly questionable whether the number of buyers would reach that figure.

Arum estimates that the total pot for the fight will be about $23 million to $24 million.

Since De La Hoya will serve as co-promoter of the bout with Arum, as was the case in De La Hoya’s last fight, his guaranteed purse figure is not an issue. His money will come from a set percentage of the revenue generated.

If Trinidad doesn’t sign up, De La Hoya will give Ike Quartey, whom he beat in February, a rematch on the September date.

QUICK JAB

Carlos Bojorquez (8-1-3, six knockouts) will fight a 10-round bout against Joani Cervantes (10-13-2, three knockouts) for the state junior-middleweight title in the main event at the Irvine Marriott on Thursday. First fight starts at 8 p.m.