Above Image (courtesy of www.amishbabymachine.com)
As I mentioned back in April, at OTBR we are going to chart through the year the performance of major sports in the world (mostly North American) to see who will win the 2015 brass whistle for poor officiating. After all, sometimes the REFS -DO MAKE YOUR TEAM LOSE. If you are not aware I am the final prosecutor, judge, and —JURY!
Still in 1st Place – NCAA BASKETBALL
You will have to click on the April archives to the first article in order to find out why. Plus, I am not picking on College Hoops, I love them , but they got it wrong way too much.
2nd Place – TIED – NFL & PROFESSIONAL BOXING
We are waiting to see what happens in this debacle called “Deflategate” between Tom Brady and Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner. Regardless of the outcome a huge chunk of the overall fan base will be crying foul. Does Goodell have the stinking proof or not? We are waiting.
Due to the Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao boxing match in Las Vegas, boxing has an excellent chance of continuing their dynasty of poor officiating and a low level of integrity with results we often believe are scripted. They have pulled into a 2nd place tie with the NFL. If you watch the fight over and over as I did, pause and rewind, pause and rewind then, you know that Pacquiao won with 1 and a half arms. Yes, something funny brewed in the kitchen with that match.
If you disagree I beg you to comment below.
Unlike most readers, I have experience in boxing and martial arts (albeit it is not as a professional, but I know the rules and my body has dished out and absorbed blows-including one time after a sparring session where I asked my shifu if that one time he really rang my bell, if it was a punch or kick, he grinned and said it was both!) . I know you are not allowed to excessively hold or clinch onto an opponent and hit him in the boxing ring, (If you do, you are supposed to lose points. Of course those rules are left to the opinion of the referee. Hmm’, Mayweather got the referee he wanted (Kenny Bayless ) and broke those rules routinely without losing points. The three judges could have recognized this and reflected it on the scorecards, but nope.
Here are some things I saw in the fight: Pacquiao was blocking a lot of those Mayweather counters, dipping and ducking under more than was given credit for and to average people who don’t pause and re-watch, they may look like they scored and landed. Mayweather’s movement was extremely impressive at times, but in hind sight he created an illusion as he always does. Mayweather was also given credit for blocking some shots with his ribs and chin. NO-those are cleanly landing shots by Pacquiao.
Compubox could not have got it more wrong, I contend they either are incompetent or they scripted the statistics. They had Mayweather landing 34 % punches thrown and Pacquiao at 18.8%. They could not have got it more inaccurate. I had it at Pacquiao landing 30 % and Mayweather landing 20 % percent on punches thrown, but my technology isn’t as accurate and I count punches that squarely arrive on the shoulder, because they do HURT later and add up.
For a while Boxingnews24.com, had a post [mysteriously no longer comes up in searches}, boasting they have a much more accurate technology access than average dudes like me and they scored it Pacquiao landing 23% and Mayweather landing only 15% of all punches.
If you take the time to review the rules and fairly tally violations and pause and rewind, you can only conclude that Pacquiao earned a solid victory and he is right to complain. Yet, there is simply too much money for Las Vegas and Floyd Mayweather Jr. not to win bouts. If he stays undefeated his next bout is worth more as he goes for 50-0 and he always takes care of Vegas by keeping his fights there. I suspect back and forth, winks and nods.
Now, let’s not forget on the other side of the coin, that hordes of sports betting enthusiasts are furious with Manny because he didn’t tell anyone about his shoulder injury. While I disagree with their idiotic logic and lawsuit, face it that’s scores of folks questioning the integrity of the sport.
Sure most fights do not seem to be so fixed, and we will have to wait to see whether other big fights, come out looking legit. The recent Timothy Bradley versus Jessie Vargas match was scored pretty accurately, and Bradley was taking Vargas out to the woodshed, but the ending was questionable as Vargas mounted a serious comeback in the final round and had Bradley in serious danger, only to have the referee get “confused” and end the fight about 10 seconds too soon. How many passes are we supposed to give boxing. However, many matches to go for Boxing to change their position.
4th Place – NBA
While there were a few blown calls here and there, I actually think the officiating was surprisingly solid overall. That’s why they fell in the rankings. There actually is a great chance of other sports knocking the NBA out of the rankings later this year.
Again, if you are interested in reading the first installment (by me of course) of the poor officiating sports-power rankings series check out the April archives.
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