Mauricio Sulaiman Hammers Davis Garcia Round Two Scoring

Forgive my inability to move on, friends. But I’m still fixated a tiny bit on the scoring of Davis Garcia round two. So I was happy to see WBC boxing boss Mauricio Sulaiman address the matter on Tuesday.

You recall that Davis put Garcia down with a left hand. Ryan had tried to land his left hook, four times in a span of six seconds.

And Tank picked up on the pattern, and made him miss and pay.

Tank’s left hand counter put Ryan on his butt. No flash knockdown, though maybe some interpreted it that way, because Ryan bounced right up.

I will say it again, that is scored a 10-8 for the person who scored the knockdown the vast, vast majority of the time. Nope, it’s not mandated, a judge can decide that the way Garcia performed apart from being dropped earned him better than a two-point deficit. Dave Moretti thought that what Ryan did in that round earned him an even round, scoring it 10-10. That’s a straight up whiff, a decision he should disavow.

In Davis Garcia round two, Steve Weisfeld and Tim Cheatham scored it 10-9 for Gervonta. They, in other words, felt that what Ryan did when not being knocked down was so impressive, Tank didn’t deserve the extra edge a knockdown usually conveys.

Yep, you know where I stand on the matter.

WBC boss Mauricio Sulaiman weighed in, taking issue with the scorecards in round 2 of #DavisGarcia

Check out what WBC boss Mauricio Sulaiman said about that sequence and the judges’ rendering of the round:

“Ryan had a marvelous first round and dominated the second, until Gervonta landed a jab to the jaw, sending the young star to the canvas,” Sulaiman said. “I am concerned to see the true criteria of scoring being lost in judges, even when scoring had no bearing in the end result. I can’t simply understand how such knockdown had scores of 10-9 twice and 10-10 in one judge. There are three types of knockdowns, the flash one which comes by circumstance, quick punch, balance issues or else in which the downed boxer was not hurt at all; the solid knockdown in which the punch was a solid blow which inflicted clear damage to the fighter who went down in a dominating fashion, and then the knockout blow in which normally the referees does not event count. A knockdown must be considered similar to a homerun in baseball, a goal in soccer, a touchdown in football, etc. It is extraordinary action which must be recognized in the scores when it is a solid one.”

I’m with Mauricio regarding Davis Garcia round two scoring. I made that clear in this column (excerpt below):

I wonder, how often has Dave Moretti done this before? He got Davis Garcia round two REALLY WRONG

There are standards judges are supposed to adhere to.

The Association of Boxing Commissions lays out some rules and scenarios which we can check out, to inform our thinking on the round 2 scorecards.

See that? “Normally.”

To me, a judge is trying to be too clever when they don’t give the two point margin in a round in which they scored a knockdown.

Check out this ABC hypothetical…This is apparently what Dave Moretti saw in round 2, with Ryan Garcia being “Boxer A”

Yes, you can argue this is a dead horse, it didn’t matter ultimately. But the state of professional boxing judging is pretty woeful. Usually Cheatham and Weisfeld get it right, but not in that instance. And Dave Moretti really got it wrong. Let’s make sure we don’t see more occasions like this, with judges being “too clever” for their own good.