Boxing Perspective: Behind The Curve On Replay

A week ago in Tampa Bay, the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez hit a home run that might not have been. As the ball sliced left towards foul territory, umpires, players, managers and fans all angled for the best look at the ball to judge whether or not the towering shot would be ruled a home run or a very long strike.

In the past, this would have been their only moment to rule on what the shot was. It was declared a home run immediately, and almost as soon as umpire Greg Gibson gave the home run signal, the call was argued by nearly everyone on the Tampa Bay side. In the past, this would have gone on for several minutes, the umpires would have huddled to talk, a manager would be ejected and nothing would change.

However, since the implementation of replay in baseball, Gibson was able to go behind home plate, look at replays on a television monitor and in just 2 minutes 30 seconds, the call was confirmed. Issue over, case closed. It was the first such instance of replay being used in the over 100 year history of the MLB.

A similar instance played out last month in Washington D.C. Anthony Thompson, making his long awaited comeback after over a year off, faced off with Baltimore’s Ishmail Arvin. After a slow start, Thompson took control of the bout in the second round and kept his foot on the gas. He scored on the inside with power blows and never let up. When the final blows were tallied, Thompson was shown to have outlanded Arvin 2 to 1.

However, in the third round Thompson suffered a gash over his left eye. At the time, referee Malik Waleed did not see what caused the cut. This is understandable, Thompson did most of his work on the inside while Arvin was attempting to move in and out and it occurred in a flash, making it difficult to see exactly what happened.

While Waleed didn’t catch what happened, ESPN cameras did. They clearly showed that the cut was caused by an accidental headbutt, which would mean that in the event of a stoppage after the fourth round, the fight would go to the scorecards where Thompson was seemingly well ahead. Yet when the fight was stopped in between rounds in the sixth, the confusion ensued.

When the doctor stopped the fight due to the nature of the cut, the Thompson corner started celebrating assuming that the fight would go to scorecards and he would get his long awaited comeback victory. Yet since the cause of the cut was never determined, officials had a dilemma on their hands. As commission members poured into the ring to figure out what just happened, referee Waleed made his way over to the television commentators, Joe Tessitore and Shannon Briggs to take a look at the replay. What he saw was a headbutt and then seconds later, blood with no punches in between.

Commission members then pressed him on what his ruling was and in front of national TV cameras, he explained that he didn’t see what caused the cut initially, but that replays showed it was caused by a headbutt. Now, this should have been the end of it. A judgement had been made and the referee was confident in that judgement, that the wound above Thompson’s left eye was indeed caused by a cut. Yet somehow, there was still an issue.

Commission members continued to huddle up, and then made their way over to the monitors where they saw for themselves just what occurred. As Tessitore and Briggs walked them through the replays, there was no dispute in anyone’s mind, the cut was caused by a headbutt.

However, an otherwise solid commission created a whole new problem for themselves. As if they were in one of the high courts of Washington, commission members on hand ruled that the replay was not admissible. They discussed the issue for several more minutes before finally announcing the decision, a full 15 minutes after the fight was stopped. Thompson listened in horror as he was handed his second loss in as many bouts. Unlike in Tampa Bay on Wednesday night, the people in charge got it wrong, dead wrong.

Thompson and his team filed a protest early this week, how that will turn out is unknown. Yet this wasn’t an isolated incident. Early in August, Zab Judah and Joshua’s Clottey’s bout went to the scorecards even though it was clear that the cut Judah suffered was caused by a punch. Clottey didn’t pay for the error with a loss, but the decision was wrong nonetheless.

Welterweight sharpshooter Delvin Rodriguez was initially robbed of a win versus Keenan Collins after a referee said that a headbutt caused the cut to Collins, not punches. The commission later reversed that ruling. Early in the year, Andre Ward was given a TKO of Rubin Williams despite it being a headbutt that caused the cut that forced the stoppage.

The burden for these decisions shouldn’t fall on the referee who are often out of position and distracted from seeing what causes a cut. The technology is there for replay, and this is one instance where it can be put to good use in boxing. Only New Jersey has replay for such calls. Nearly every other sports league has instant replay for judgement calls. Replay has been a resounding success in tennis for line shots, in hockey for disputed goals and will almost surely be an asset to baseball.

Yet boxing remains behind the curve, on this and many other issues. Even if replay is implemented internationally tomorrow, it’s no consolation for Anthony Thompson who suffered a potentially career crippling loss as a result of incompetence at the top of the sport. Until it is implemented, boxing fans are left to wonder who the next fighter to be robbed by a broken system is.