Robert Morales, a highly respected Los Angeles boxing writer, opened his column Monday morning following Saturday night’s tough fight between Antonio Tarver and Glenoffe Johnson with the statement that nearly all of the veteran boxing writers on press row had Antonio Tarver winning his fight against “The Road Warrior” Glen Johnson.  The New York Daily News and the Associated Press both had Tarver 115-112.  All three HBO commentators plus their scorekeeper Harold Lederman, all had Antonio Tarver winning the contest.  When asked, Roy Jones was quick to reply that in his estimation, Tarver had won.  The scores of the two judges favoring Johnson I’m told, outraged Harold Lederman, who has been scoring all of the fights on HBO for quite a few years.  I would like to think that someone as highly qualified as Roy Jones Jr. would know who won a fight.  Like a lot of the horrendous bad decisions we have been plagued with over the past few years, absolutely nothing has or will be done about it.
 

          A lot of people I have long respected in boxing all agreed that Antonio Tarver did indeed come out on the wrong end of the twelve round decision.  It was a very good fight; Johnson fought a lot better than I thought he was capable of.  I had the same identical score as Judge Marty Denkin…116-112.  I watched and scored the fight twice; I came away with the same score.  I can live with 115-113 for Tarver; a round may have been closer than it appeared, one round, that’s it.  I scored it the way I did because I’ve been in there; I know what the trained eye looks for.  Johnson missed a lot of punches; Tarver landed a lot of punches.  According to the CompuBox numbers, Antonio Tarver threw 853 total punches, connecting on 296 of them; Glenoffe Johnson threw 796 total punches, connecting on 217 punches.  Tarver also had a big edge in power punches 220-140.  In essence, Tarver, combining total and power punches, landed 159 more times than did Johnson…still he lost in the eyes of two judges, Chuck Giampa and Melvina Lathan.  How in the world can a fighter be so effective in hitting his opponent 159 times more than he is hit and lose?  Just think about getting hit 159 times and you get the picture.
 

          Melvina and Chucky Baby gave the 11^th and 12^th rounds to Johnson, Marty and I both gave them to Tarver.  Antonio won a little more of the early part of the 11^th, even hurting Johnson.  Antonio went to the canvas on a slip, except for a strong finish in the last 30 seconds by Glen; it’s hard to erase what Tarver had already accomplished earlier in the round.  Again in the 12^th round, Tarver had a huge first minute and 50 seconds, he had Johnson visibly hurt on a couple of occasions.  Tarver staggered across the ring late in the round when Johnson stepped on his foot.  Melvina and Chucky obviously thought the slip in the previous round by Antonio and the stepping on his foot were from blows thrown by Johnson and probably scored it as such.
 

Giampa has been involved in a few questionable scoring dandies of his own during his career, as far as Melvina Lathan is concerned, unless she has been a fighter, referee or a trainer, what qualifies her to judge a major boxing match?  Does Melvina know what to look for during the infighting, aggressiveness, missed shots, arm punches or glove shots or anything technical, unless she has experienced the heat of battle for herself?  To my way of thinking, if it’s not “Baby Doll” Reilly, Lucia Ryker, Laila Ali or Gwen Adair, who was the first woman to referee a world title fight among countless other fights, doing the scoring, don’t talk to me about a woman who doesn’t know the intricacies that go on inside a ring, scoring a fight. 
 

It infringes on my intelligence to see two guys give it their all, only to leave it in the hands of someone not qualified to score a major fight.  Melvina goes home to whatever she goes home to, while a fighter, who the majority of the people who saw the fight thought won, goes home the victim of two incompetent judges.  We all say something has to be done, but nothing ever comes of it.  Why is it that when judges hand in their scorecards they are not held accountable for the way they scored a fight?  How is it that no one is allowed to publicly ask them why they scored a certain round the way they did, or ask them to break down a highly controversial round that they scored for a particular fighter when the majority of people in attendance or watching the fight saw it the other way?   

I have long wondered why retired fighters who have retained their faculties are not selected to judge fights.  Ex-world class fighters or even ex-champions would give an accurate account of a fight, guys like Sean O’Grady, Bobby Czyz, Carlos Palomino or Genero Hernandez to name just a few.  They have all done boxing commentary and they have been excellent in doing it, why not judging?  Like Roy Jones Jr., they know what to look for, they have been in the trenches, when all is said and done, they would know who the rightful winner is.  The same pertains to referees; they are in the ring with the fighters.  Viewing a fight up close and personal, they too, know what to look for…who is getting the better of it, who is getting the worst of it.  They see things that an inept judge would fail to see and yet, these particular judges are called on to judge fights time and time again.  I just wish that commissions would weed out the lousy judges who have bad track records and stick to the good judges who have proven over the years that they capable of scoring fights fair and square.  The fight fans deserve an honest accounting.
 

As far as I’m concerned, Marty Denkin’s score of 116-112 was on the money.  To reiterate, I had the same score.  Marty Denkin performance record as a judge over the years is a fine one.  His credentials speak for themselves: He has refereed and judged one hundred and sixty-nine title fights, Marty Denkin has been doing this for thirty-three years.  His score compared to the other two illustrates my point.  When it comes to refereeing or judging a fight…there are none better than Hall of Fame inductee Marty Denkin. 
 

Marty and I are only human; we could have conceivably been off a point, but no more.  Antonio Tarver won the fight at the Staples Center last Saturday night…case closed.

I have a very good friend who enjoys betting on the fights; Saturday night he lost a great deal of money on a fight he should have collected on.  Some might say he shouldn’t gamble…I say, it’s his money; he should have at least received a fair shake.  I wrote last week that there was no way Antonio Tarver would get beat by Glen Johnson, nothing has changed to make me feel any different, Johnson may have had his hand raised, but he sure as hell didn’t win the fight.
 

There were a few things that bothered me before the fight that led me to believe that Antonio Tarver did not prepare himself mentally or physically the way he should have for the fight.  First off, at the last press conference, he made reference to the media of his desire to fight the James Toney’s of the world; he wanted to entice Bernard Hopkins to move up in weight to fight him.  These things are a no-no.  I feel Antonio did not give Johnson the respect he deserved and it damn near cost him.  A fighter must solely concentrate on his opponent, if not, he may get caught with his pants down.  I give Johnson all the credit in the world, he prepared hard and it showed.  He came to fight and took it to Tarver from the opening bell.  I truly believe that Antonio Tarver went into the ring Saturday night overconfident and looking ahead to other big fights, had he not been able to call on his superior ability to save him, Glenoffe would have been the legit winner without question.   The way Antonio took off  the 10^th round, tells me he didn’t prepare properly for a dangerous fight.  I hope this fight teaches Antonio Tarver a valuable lesson he will never forget…  I’m sure it will. 

There will be a rematch, and under the circumstances, there should be.  Knowing what a tough fight he was in, Antonio now knows what he must do to prepare for the next one.  Antonio Tarver, in the best condition of his life and giving full respect to Glenoffe Johnson, who more than earned it, will win the rematch decisively, Melvina Lathan or Chuck Giampa will not do it him again.
 

Being that he hurt Johnson on several occasions, Antonio may even stop him the next time around, taking it out of the judge’s hands completely.  In his only other two losses, Antonio, in the rematches, avenged them both by knockout.  Put simply, Antonio Tarver is the bigger, more powerful, more talented fighter.  Make no mistake about it…the rematch will be a fight worth watching.
 

While on the subject of Saturday night’s fight, I ran into Dan Goossen, his beautiful wife and their two good-looking boys at church the following Sunday.  Being that Dan, Glenoffe Johnson’s promoter, and along with Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing Promotions in association with Goossen Tudor Promotions, put on the Staples Center fight card, I asked Dan who was responsible for putting former WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Julio “Down by the Schoolyard” Gonzalez and David Telesco in the walkout fight.  Explaining to Dan that that Julio, being an LA hero to a lot of Hispanics, didn’t deserve to be the fight after the main event.  A lot of the boxing media left after the Tarver-Johnson fight to attend the post fight press conference.  Quite a few fans also left.  It wasn’t that long ago that Julio beat the longtime, undefeated WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Dariusz Michalczewski, and Julio did it in Dariusz’s own backyard of Hamburg, Germany.  Julio has also beaten Glenoffe Johnson, yes, the same Glenoffe Johnson who he had to follow.  It would seem only right to let the fight fans see Julio and Telesco fight in the semi main event so they could compare how Julio would fare if he won and fought the winner of Tarver and Johnson.  Julio of course, did just that by stopping the hard-hitting East Coast fighter in the eighth round.  Cut and dry, Julio “Down by the Schoolyard” Gonzalez deserved to be in the semi-main event, he also deserves to fight the winner of the Tarver-Johnson rematch.
 

So who did they put in the semi fight?  Tavis Simms and Carlos Bojorquez!  Please!  I mean no disrespect to either fighter, but really, a former champion who may still fight the winner of the Tarver-Johnson rematch, fights in the walkout fight?  Dan agreed with me, he said that DeGuardia changed the card at the last minute.  Being that Star Boxing Promotions controlled most of the card because they had Antonio Tarver under a promotional contract and he was the bigger name, Big Joe had the last say.  Dan told me when the rematch rolls around, it will be he who holds the big cards.  Dan now has the winner and recognized champion, he will not only get the bigger slice of the pie, but if the fight is held in Los Angeles where it should be, Dan will give the fight fans want they want.  Dan Goossen has his pulse on boxing in LA.  You can bet Dan will know how to put a lot more boxing fans in the seats of the Staples Center.
 

A NEW WORLD TITLE FOR LOS ANGELES

On January 3, one of our young men gets a much deserved and awaited chance at a world title.  Jose “El Angeleno” Navarro will go against WBC Super Flyweight Champion Katsushigi Kawashima at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan.  Ringside LA had both Jose and Panchito Bojado in studio for two hours when they were just getting started.  Don’t worry about Panchito; he too will be a champion.  Like our other young guys who won world titles, Julio Gonzalez and “Mighty” Mike Anchondo, Jose will join them as champions when he beats the tough Japanese titleholder in his own backyard. 
 

A young man I am very high on trains Jose…his name is Frankie Rivera.  Frankie is one of the best young trainers in boxing; he will one day get the recognition he so deserves.  Like the great trainer Joe Goossen, who is finally getting the attention he has so long deserved, Frankie Rivera is about to get his just dues.  He will have his young warrior ready to win his first title, Frankie has brought young Jose along at the right clip, he has improved tremendously every fight, Jose Navarro will bring the title home to Los Angeles, he is primed and ready to be LA’s next big star.  Jose Navarro is our guy!!!
 

We here at Ringside LA would like to take this time to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!