I was struck by the way
Grantland's Rafe Bartolomew expressed his disbelief at the recent split
decision that gave Timothy Bradley Jr. the WBO welterweight title
belt over Manny Pacquiao. He called it 'boxing's worst robbery at a
major fight' since the Pernell Whittaker-Julio Cesar Chavez 'draw' in
1993. That unusual 'majority draw' (two judges called it even, the
third gave the fight to Sweet Pea, who doesn't then get a 1-0-2 split
decision) was indeed unusual, but it wasn't even the worse decision
of Whittaker's career. That one came on another split decision five
years earlier. I remember it well because it happened on my birthday,
and I was there in the ring.
It was March 1988,
in a dingy arena named for the great Marcel Cerdan, in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.Whitaker, whose pro record stood at 15-0, was fighting Jose Luis
Ramirez, like Chavez a Mexican, for the World Boxing Council
lightweight title which Ramirez had won after Hector 'Macho' Camacho
had vacated it. I was there working for ABC Sports and we were
broadcasting the fight back to America. It wasn't the most relaxing
birthday—dealing with boxing promoters was never easy and the
French brothers who were promoting this fight were particularly
slippery whenever I had issues to iron out. Simply getting the crew
out to the arena from the hotel in central Paris was a task: traffic
on the Periphrique tied them up, while I used the metro to make sure I was there early. But in those days you didn't suggest
to ABC Sports producers that they travel by subway.
The fight was totally
one-sided. Whitaker dominated early, then appeared to settle into
counter-punching, because, as we learned later, he had broken his
hand in round four. But although Ramirez continued to come forward
throughout the 12 rounds, he rarely landed any punches of
consequences, while Whitaker picked his shots and connected. I had
Pea up 8 rounds to 4 when the bell sounded.
What happened next was
different. After the bell, I got into the ring; my job would be to
get the interview for our announcer Don Chevrier. I went over to the
ropes, above where the judges' scorecards were being totalled, and
began reading them upside down. I looked up with an expression of
disbelief as I realised Whitaker was behind on two cards, and caught
the eye of Jose Sulaiman, the Mexican boss of the WBC, who looked at
me impassively.
Then I turned to
Whitaker's corner and looked at Lou Duva, his manager, from whose
Main Events company ABC had acquired the fight. Lou was built like a
white-haired fire hydrant with a face that looked like it had battered
all the other fire hydrants into submission. Lou was a former boxer
who'd used the profits from a trucking business to open his own gym,
which grew into Main Events when they started managing Leon Spinks.
Lou didn't waste much time with bullshit, and when I shook my head at
him he knew what was going on. He climbed into the ring, and even
before the announcement was made, he was yelling over the ropes at
Sulemain. Then the split decision came, with English judge Harry
Gibbs (a referee back in London) scoring it 117-113 for Whitaker,
judge Newton Campos 118-113 for Ramirez, and judge Louis Michel
116-115, also for Ramirez.
I'd seen bad decisions
before. Some I assumed had been foregone conclusions. Part of my job
as Director of Programming in Europe for ABC involved sometimes going to
matches in London, to watch fighters whom British promoters might be
touting. Sometimes I went just out of my own curiosity. Many
times these young fighters would be facing some older tomato-can,
flown in from a great distance, usually Latin America, for the
express purpose of getting beaten. And if the can were to outbox the
hometown hero, well, he would inevitably lose a decision, rendered by
the referee alone (who was sometimes that same Harry Gibbs), by a
scant half-point, and have his arm raised afterwards for applause as
a 'gallant loser'. In Ireland I had a promoter offer to 'speed up'
the two remaining fights on the card before the one we were doing
live back to the States; there aren't too many legit ways you can
speed up a six-round fight. The nature of the business, however,
means you shrug it off, and wait for the moments of courage and high
drama the fighters themselves provide.
I spent the rest of my birthday commiserating in a hotel bar with various people from Main
Event, ABC, and some press. The famed Irish scribe Harry
Mullan, from London's Boxing News, would later write that the decision 'was generally considered
to be a disgrace'. Our opinions that night were more Lou Duvaesque. I
would have my real birthday party the next day, a Sunday lunch with friends
at La Ferme Ste. Genevieve, where in those days they did
old-fashioned escargots and confit du canard. When I told them about
the robbery I'd witnessed the night before they just laughed,
surprised I could take it so seriously. 'You haven't been at ringside and seen what goes through those guys' eyes,' I replied. 'They deserve better'.
Pernell Whitaker went
on immediately to win the IBF lightweight title from Greg Haugen, and
then avenge himself over Ramirez with a unanimous decision in
Norfolk, Virginia that gave him the WBC belt as well. He won
seventeen fights in a row between that loss to Ramirez and the
excruciating draw with Chavez, and won titles at Welter and
Light-Middle before finally suffering his first 'real' loss to Oscar
DeLaHoya. How seriously should we take it? The Book Of Boxing Lists
has the Chavez fight as the tenth most controversial of all-time, and
the Ramirez as the ninth. That's pretty tough for just one fighter.
Take away those two bent decisions, and Whitaker gets recognised more
widely as one of the greatest fighters of his era, maybe of all time.Which is what he deserves.
Excellent column. Read it then rent every boxing movie made before Rocky. Brave athletes, shitty business.
ReplyDeleteNice piece, Mike.
ReplyDeleteExcellent boxing post -- "old-fashioned" excellent, the best kind.
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent piece Mike.
ReplyDeleteHarry Mullan was Irish. As his brother, I'd appreciate a correction! - Ciaran O Maolain
ReplyDelete