By Boxing Bob Newman

Day 2 of the NABF Executive Committee meeting got up and running at 9:30 a.m., PST at the Westin Hotel in San Diego.

NABF/WBC ratings chairman Tommy Ashy opened with his report on the ratings. Ashy recapped the 17 divisions which the NABF rates. The ratings are compiled at the end of each month to coincide with the release of the WBC ratings. “The NABF is the only regional body that produces monthly ratings. The NABF works with all promoters to make their title fights. Duane Ford has been a great supporter of the ratings committee and sanctioning NABF title fights,” said Ashy. Activity in Canada and Mexico, as well as the United States has been growing.

Deborah Hawkins reported on the NABF female division. “It’s been difficult to entice female fighters into an NABF fight because fighters who are 3-0, are getting offered ‘world’ title fights with other sanctioning bodies. We let the female fighters know that an NABF title is a strong path to a WBC title, but if they can run straight into a different ‘world’ title fight, they go for it.” Hawkins went on to reassure that the NABF female division will continue to grow and prosper.

Former referee Vic Drakulich started the referee portion of the ring officials in delivering the report on “Pre-Fight instructions in the dressing room.” There is a concerted effort to clarify, streamline and consolidate pre-fight instructions within the WBC and the NABF. In addition to the actual spoken pre-fight instructions, the report contained photos depicting hand gestures, much like one would see used by refs and umpires in American Football to signal that a certain infraction is being called on a fighter. These hand gestures would be of use with international fighters who don’t speak English or the same language as the referee.

Referee Jay Nady discussed a study involving how referees can observe or recognize possible brain injuries manifesting themselves during a fight in the ring. In the case of a knockdown or when a fighter is taking punishment, the ref can use certain tools to assess the fighter’s cognitive status- raising a right or left hand, stepping laterally to the left or right. These actions by the fighter require the use of more quadrants of the brain than simply walking forward.

While these amendments aren’t final yet, when they are ratified, the goal is to have them instituted within the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) rules & regulations.

Mauricio Sulaiman displayed an ‘Injury Guideline’ poster, put out by WBC Medical Director Dr. Paul Wallace. It is a simple guideline on how to deal with various training injuries- whether or not to use cold or heat for example, before eventually seeking the help of a physician. The poster will be translated into foreign languages and distributed internationally.

A WBC Scoring Criteria pocket reminder was handed out prior to the judges report. Duane Ford began by explaining the concept of scoring variations ‘Close’ (10-9), ‘Moderate’ (10-9), ‘Decisive’ (10-9) and ‘Extreme Decisive’ (10-8). To define more clearly:
Close: When one boxer has won the round narrowly by a couple of punches.
Moderate: When one boxer wins a round clearly, by more than a couple of punches.
Decisive: When one boxer wins a round by a large margin, winning convincingly when punches are compared.
Extreme Decisive: When one boxer has won the round by total domination and significantly outscored their opponent. The winning boxer dominated and staggered the other boxer in extreme fashion.

Scoring exercises were then conducted by judge Tim Cheatham using a prospective new score card where boxes denoting Close, Moderate, Decisive and Extreme Decisive were available to be checked, in addition to the actual scoring boxes. Those boxes are used after the fight, perhaps in post fight meetings with the ring officials and the commission to explain why a certain round was scored the way a specific judge scored it.

Judge Chris Migliore discussed the concept of survey technology to compile statistics on other scoring exercises, to see where a judge’s mindset is regarding why they scored a round the way they did.

David Sutherland covered the concept of remote scoring, started during the early stages of the pandemic. A series of fights with Top Rank on ESPN were judged, separately from the actual ringside judges, as an educational tool. The raw audio, without television commentary was heard by the remote judges and the camera view as opposed to a judges view, was used during the scoring exercises.

Kevin Scott introduced the actual scoring website, which is used by the remote judges- essentially an interactive web-based scorecard. There is a Judge’s view and an Admin view. There are nine teams thus far, combining a blend of refs, mix of skill level, foreign (outside North America) and new judges. There is an event selection criteria of WBC sanctioned events, National TV event, Broadcast station. Goals are to do this weekly, schedule every 6-8 weeks and open scoring events. Tracking of judges assignments is also done to assure equal number of assignments.

The remote judges’ scores are then submitted and compared to each others in the remote exercise, the ringside judges and is then compiled for overall comparison.

Judge Barry Lindenman, a professional number cruncher in real life, presented various statistics: 9 months of activity (Dec. 2020 – Aug. 2021), 79 WBC officials selected, 9 teams, 51 officials have actually participated, over 100 fights have been scored remotely and over 600 rounds have been scored remotely.

With that, as well as closing words from both NABF president Duane Ford and NABF vice president and WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, the executive committee meeting of the NABF came to an official close. Everyone gathered for a group photo and then grabbed some lunch and prepared for tonight’s baseball game between the hometown Padres and defending world series champs the Los Angeles Dodgers, just a 15 minute walk away. The NABF contingent will enjoy a rooftop barbecue along with the game. Here’s looking forward to a pandemic-free, full NABF convention in n 2022!