By Eóin Kennedy
Too familiar a tale, too well worn a path. We’ve all been here before, there was nothing to see here, no reason to scream and shout, not that anyone would listen if you did. What happened is what usually happens in boxing. What was supposed to happen. The guy that promoter and network wanted to win the fight won. Did he land more punches? No. Did he win more rounds than his opponent? No. Did he score anyone knockdowns? Nope, none. Then how come Arnold Barboza Jr. was announced as the winner against Sean McComb last weekend in Brooklyn, New York? Because that’s what Golden Boy Promotions wanted, and what DAZN wanted too. So, in boxing terms, that’s what was supposed to happen, and the judges took care of the rest.
Sean McComb was given little to no chance in the build up to last week’s fight with Barboza, but the Northern Irishman turned up to Brooklyn completely switched on and with a game plan that was able to take his fancied opponent out of his rhythm. McComb’s seemingly basic one-two combinations were enough to have Barboza eating leather for plenty of the ten-round contest, and when his name was read aloud instead of McComb’s as the split-decision winner, I think he was as aware as everyone else in the Barclay’s Center that the wrong man won the fight.
The problem is that robberies like this one are happening all too frequently in boxing, and we hear the declarations from pundits after every fight that an overhaul of the judging system needs to be carried out, but nothing ever gets done. Fighters like McComb continually chose to dedicate their lives to a viscous sport in the hope of getting out financially secure and find their dreams trampled upon by the judges who already know before a punch has been thrown which fighter is supposed to win and which is supposed to lose.
Hall of Fame commentator and trainer, and legend of the sport of boxing, Teddy Atlas, covered the horrendous judging of the Barboza-McComb fight on his excellent podcast; ‘The Fight with Teddy Atlas’, and once again he was adamant that these judges are just outright corrupt. Atlas spoke about his theory on ‘The Anatomy of a Fixed Fight’, where the three judges’ scorecards vary in such a way that it is possible to trick the viewer’s mind into thinking that it just watched a close fight, when they really haven’t. Atlas explains two judges will give a reasonably wide scorecard, split either way between the two fighters, and the remaining judge will give a closer scorecard leaning to the fighter that the promotion and network want to win. That’s what happened with Barboza vs McComb last week in New York. The judges did what they were supposed to do and Barboza progresses to the title and financial opportunities that should be McComb’s. That’s boxing.