Gauteng boxing trainer Benny Pailman and his charge, Jeff “911″ Magagane, are enraged by what they described as ”robbery" by two of the three boxing judges in East London on Sunday evening.
Magagane lost to Bongani “King Killer” Fule by a split points decision after 10 rounds in the featherweight division.
Two judges scored the non-title fight 94-97 (a three-point margin) and 96-95 (a point apart) for Fule, while their colleague scored the same bout 97-95 (a two-point margin) for Magagane.
Fule retained his unblemished slate of eight wins from as many boxing matches, and victory confirmed him as the mandatory challenger to SA champ, Lindelani Sibisi.
On the other hand, Magagane suffered his seventh defeat against 16 wins and two draws.
The loss will affect his rating, where he is currently in the No 4 spot.
“We were robbed, plain and simple,” said Pailman, who manned Magagane’s corner for the first time since they teamed up in August.
“We won seven rounds out of 10 – but two judges scored the fight in favour of Fule.
“I am so upset. I suspected something was fishy when it took forever for the tournament supervisor to give out the verdict to the ring announcer.”
Judges hand in their scores to the fight supervisor at the end of each round.
Done right, the process should not take long for the fight supervisor to give out the verdict to the ring announcer.
Tournament supervisors in development, provincial and SA title fights are Boxing SA managers in their respective provinces.
Fight supervisors in internal and world title fights are appointed by relevant sanctioning bodies – the IBO, WBA, WBO, WBC, IBF, ABU and WBF.
”All these questionable and, in fact, terrible things that happen in boxing are bad for the sport,“ said Pailman.
All these questionable and, in fact, terrible things that happen in boxing are bad for the sport
— Benny Pailman, boxing trainer
“What makes it even worse is that Boxing SA does nothing when it comes to decisions being questioned unless a trainer, manager or promoter complains formally with Boxing SA.”
Almost R2000 must be paid to Boxing SA upfront, and once the sanctioning committee is satisfied and feels that particular bout should be reviewed, it gives its decision to the office of the director of operations, which then updates the CEO on the matter.
Neutral judges are then appointed to review the fight. Where that process is conducted and how it is done remains a mystery.
It’s a meaningless process because its ruling can’t change the initial outcome, and nothing happens to officials whose scoring led to a fight being reviewed.
“This thing is bad for the sport and terrible for boxers,” said Pailman.
“Boxing SA must do something about judges who perform poorly because their acts are detrimental to boxers’ future.
“Ring officials are getting too comfortable because they know that nothing will happen to them.”
Magagane said, “I am hurting. After taking that boy to school for eight rounds, I get treated like this.
“We make sacrifices as fighters; [we] go to the gym every day without failure, put in hard work for fights, and some people who don’t respect their work come in for a few hours and hurt us just like this.
“If I was weak-minded, trust me, I would be announcing my retirement from boxing.
“You know these two judges (known to the writer) robbed me in front of BSA COO (Mandla Ntlanganiso); that shows how much disrespect they have.”
No attempts were made by this writer to speak to the two judges because ring officials are prohibited by Boxing SA from speaking to the media.
The 10-rounder between Fule and Magagane took place at the Guild Theatre in East London.
It headlined the tournament that was organised by promoter Mzi Booi of Kay Promotions.
Sowetan
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