UNWRITTEN RULE IN BOXING?

By Rick Folstad

     Did you see it? It was there for 12 busy rounds, draped across the sloping
shoulders of featherweight Manuel Medina on Saturday night, dragging him down,
robbing him of a fight and a night that both should have been his.
      It’s not really visible, but you can’t miss it. It pops its ugly head up every time a
well-known fighter takes on a not-so-well-known fighter.
     The record book will say Johnny Tapia beat Medina, but the book is wrong. Even
Tapia had to blink a few times when they told him he won. But he was the favorite son, and damn, that’s worth five extra points on anyone’s scorecard.
    I had to agree with Larry Merchant when he talked about umpires giving future
hall-of-famers a smaller strike zone, about Michael Jordan being allowed to take an extra step. Hey, they’re special. They should be treated special.
    Unfortunately, that’s the way some judges seem to think.
    That favoritism showed itself  in Las Vegas a week earlier, gnawing on the skull of
Luis Castillo, whispering into his ear that he couldn’t win, couldn’t beat Floyd
Mayweather, that he entered the ring already six points down.
             Everyone knows Mayweather. The petulance. The bravado. The gifts. The family name and tradition. Who the hell is Luis Castillo and what ever gave him the idea he could come into town and beat Pretty Boy?
     Mayweather may have won on the scorecards, but anyone who ever spent a few
rounds with the gloves on, knows Castillo should have held onto the belt. Put another
way, who would you rather have climbed into the ring against, Castillo or Mayweather?
   Then, just when you figure it was a fluke - a bad night for the judges -  Medina loses to Tapia in another one of those knee-slapping decisions.
     It’s not racial discrimination. It’s not that blatant. It’s the kind of discrimination
weak-minded people - ringside judges, mostly - don’t recognize even when it’s sitting in their lap. I blame the poor judging on favoritism because the alternative really bothers me.
      So until we find judges who can put away their prejudices, we should introduce a
handicapping system to the fight game, make it a  “level playing field,’’ as everyone seems to call it now.
    Here’s how the system works: If one guy is a well-know American fighter and the other guy is, say, a mailman from Tijuana, the guy from Tijuana automatically gets two extra points on all scorecards before the opening bell. If the American fighter is also well-liked, we give the Tijuana guy an additional point. If the American fighter has spent time in prison, has more than three tattoos and is being indicted on domestic assault charges, the Tijuana fighter gets an additional five points.
    Finally, if the Tijuana fighter knocks the American fighter down twice in any round, he is guaranteed at least a draw in that round on all scorecards.
     Funny. I’d still pick the popular American to win. I’d like to say it’s because of
American pride, but the sad truth is, it’s just the opposite.