If World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman has his way, there will be six judges scoring the May 18 undisputed heavyweight title fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.
“What we saw last week in Saudi Arabia was another example of how fragile officiating worldwide continues to be,” Sulaiman told BoxingScene Thursday.
Sulaiman was referring mostly to his organization’s featherweight champion Rey Vargas retaining his belt over Nick Ball by split draw despite Ball scoring knockdowns in the eighth and 11th rounds.
Vargas’ boxing advantage in the early rounds convinced judge Massimo Barrovecchio that the Mexico product won, 114-112, but judge Jon Baelim had the bout 116-110 for Ball. Judge Rey Danseco scored it 113-113.
“We saw one judge have it one way big and another judge having the other guy winning,” Sulaiman bemoaned. “Controversy like that in the Fury-Usyk fight will kill boxing.”
So Sulaiman said he has distributed an emergency petition to the WBO, WBA and IBF, Fury and Usyk and their promoters asking them to institute a six-judge panel for their championship bout in Saudi Arabia.
The theory is that an abundance of judges will minimize the effect of a bad scorecard or two.
The pitch is viewed as a longshot to be embraced, and even Sulaiman conceded his past suggestions on the matter have been met with “lots of resistance.”
Yet, he’s hopeful that introducing the six-judge panel on a “major, major fight” will set things in motion for the system to continue from there on in boxing.
“Fights, especially those at this highest level, deserve this and so I’m putting forward this proposal now to all sanctioning bodies, promoters and fighters,” Sulaiman said.
He said all parties involved must approve the six-judge panel for it to be implemented on fight night. Sulaiman said two judges would be placed on each side of the ring where broadcasters are not seated.
“It has to be something we all agree on,” Sulaiman said.
He has yet to receive a formal response on his request from either WBC champion Fury or Usyk, who previously stood as a WBC champion when he was the undisputed cruiserweight champion.