LAS VEGAS – A week after he scored the George Kambosos Jr.-Maxi Hughes fight a draw, David Sutherland will be one the three judges seated ringside for perhaps the most historically significant boxing match of 2023.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission unanimously approved Oklahoma’s Sutherland as a judge for the Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford fight at its monthly meeting Tuesday morning. The NSAC also voted unanimously to assign Nevada veteran Tim Cheatham and experienced New Jersey judge Steve Weisfeld to work their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
New Jersey-based referee Harvey Dock drew the assignment to officiate Spence-Crawford. Dock, Cheatham and Sutherland all worked the most recent high-profile fight in Las Vegas, Devin Haney’s narrow win versus Vasiliy Lomachenko on May 20 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Cheatham and Weisfeld regularly judge pay-per-view-level bouts in “The Fight Capital of the World.”
Sutherland previously worked several significant fights in Las Vegas in recent years, but his 114-114 score of Kambosos-Hughes drew negative attention. The two other judges – Josef Mason (117-111) and Gerald Ritter (115-113) – controversially scored Australia’s Kambosos the winner of nine and seven rounds, respectively, on Saturday night at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Members of ESPN’s broadcast team and countless frustrated fans heavily criticized the outcome of a 12-round lightweight fight England’s Hughes appeared to win.
Two months earlier, Sutherland scored Haney a 115-113 winner of what was a very competitive 12-round, 135-pound title fight against Lomachenko. Cheatham credited Haney with a 115-113 victory over Lomachenko as well.
Dave Moretti, another longtime Nevada-based judge, saw Haney as a 116-112 winner against Lomachenko. The 78-year-old Moretti’s final scorecard for Haney-Lomachenko – coupled with him scoring the second round of the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia fight 10-10 – seemingly eliminated him from the pool of potential judges for Crawford-Spence.
Davis dropped Garcia in the second round April 22 at T-Mobile Arena, but Moretti didn’t credit the strong southpaw for winning it. Baltimore’s Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) eventually sent Garcia to the canvas again in the seventh round, when he beat Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) by knockout.
Egis Klimas, Lomachenko’s manager, revealed during their post-fight press conference that he objected to Moretti’s inclusion in the pool of available judges a few weeks before their ESPN Pay-Per-View bout. The NSAC nevertheless assigned Moretti to Lomachenko’s shot at Haney’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO lightweight titles.
Crawford, 35, and Spence, 33, will fight for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title and Spence’s IBF, WBA and WBC belts. Unless their fight results in a draw or no-contest, Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, or Spence (28-0, 22 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, will be crowned boxing’s first undisputed 147-pound champion of the four-belt era.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.