By Boxing Bob Newman

Saturday morning’s opening session of the NABF 50th annual convention saw a new twist on a ring official’s seminar. Led by world class referee Jack Reiss, the session was uniquely conducted with Reiss assembling a panel of world class referees on the dais.

The panel was comprised of Jay Nady, Vic Drakulich, Mike Griffin, Tony Weeks, Russell Mora, Robert Byrd, Bill Clancy, Charlie Fitch, Harvey Dock. Also, bringing a fighter’s perspective to the referee’s job was WBC Continental America’s lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez.

Several video scenarios were played, depicting odd or seemingly unprecedented occurrences in the ring. The panel was then asked, in certain cases, an individual ref was tabbed, to chime in.
Refs voiced their opinions, citing the rules and their own interpretation of said rule, pertaining to that specific situation. The gathering of delegates weren’t allowed to chime in during the session as comments were limited to the panel.

After a one hour lunch break, two simultaneous seminars took place. Duane Ford presided over the judges seminar, while Jay Nady conducted the referees seminar & certification.

Ford began focusing on statistics which show that the last two rounds of a twelve round fight show the greatest disparity in judges’ scores. One stat showed a 46% disagreement between judges in those two rounds. Distractions are key in Ford’s opinion to the disparity in scoring.
Refraining from distractions such as social media is paramount according to Ford. “If you want to be a fan, be a fan. If you want to be an official, then act like an official, prepare like an official, study like an official.” Bringing significant others to the fights, worrying about public perception if you as a judge are in the minority on the final score of a fight.

Being the “minority” was the focal point of the judging exercise which occurred next. Very experienced judges, tabbed as “facilitators” were assigned to groups of 4 to 5 judges at a table. Rounds were watched on video, crowd noise only, then scored. In nearly every case, at least one member per table had a score that differed from the rest, aka a minority score. Each facilitator then reported the results in an open forum format and brief discussions were held explaining the scores.

Both seminars were official ABC certification seminars and any ring official at either seminar needing recertification or first time certification, was offered the exam.

Tonight there will be a hot dog and ice cream social and the Bivol-Chilemba and Kovalev-Alvarez light heavyweight title fights will be shown.