Mr. T
30-06-2003, 02:46 PM
Judges, judges, judges!
What are we going to do with our Victorian kickboxing judges who are consistently showing that they do not know how to judge, or are being influenced by outside factors when giving their decision. In recent times, we have seen some atrocious judging decisions. Most apparent of these bodge decisions is the Head Hunter vs. Themlakis debacle which saw a broken armed warrior being cheated out of the win which, he had unquestionably won. As voiced by Themlakis, his opposing trainer Paul Fiefield and the crowd, it was clear that the judges had taken something Themlakis had trained, broken his arm and induced extreme self discipline on away form him. He had earned the right to be called the better fighter and victor over the head hunter.
It was a more recent fight though that the judging panel captured my amazement and utter dismay. I recently watched John Scida's latest promotion. Of particular interest was the John Purcell Parry Nicolau fight as I had known John from a young age. Parry is a very fierce and hard hitting man and illustrated this to the crowd and John. John though, in my opinion, foiled almost 85% of all Nicolau's shots with leg checks and a very very very tight guard while sending back copious amounts of kicks and punches. As kicks are said to be scored higher than punches, John had shown he would be clearly in front with a far greater use of his legs and the crisp infiltration of Nicolau's guard with punches. Summed up by the referee’s reaction of surprise and shock as I watched him collect the cards from the judges, a score of 45-50 45-50 49-48 was passed down.
I may be speaking to those of a little bias, but to visit Purcell's dressing room after the fight gave me a new insight in to the element of "robbing" a fighter of everything he has bled, sweated and trained for. As an element of relief was present in John, a feeling of despair was also shown as he and others such as Themlakis questioned why they even bothered putting themselves through almost self torture to be ready for their fights. The corner was absolutely irate as John showed he had not a scratch upon him. One corner man even telling that Paul Fifield had yet again acknowledged that his boy was not the victor.
Not to take anything away from the Head Hunter or Parry Nicolau who are scary SOB's and damn good fighters. My point is not to overturn judging decisions or even say they should be reversed. My point is that judges need to be consistent in their judging, move away from boxing judging and follow the protocol of Kickboxing judging. Read their rules before each event so atrocious scores such as 45-50 are never seen again. The erratic and un-policed nature of Victorian Kickboxing judges and their very often crazy decisions is yet another road block for Australian Kickboxing and Muay Thai's development and growth. This is a problem that must be addressed by Victoria's governing martial arts body. May be a system such as the Olympics should be introduced which is extremely fair as judges press a button when a point is scored and if two or three do not press the button within a certain time, the point will not be awarded.
To all at this forum, I would love to hear some feed back on this topic especially the opinions of fighters and media personalities and Kickboxing guru's such as Michael Schiavello.
What are we going to do with our Victorian kickboxing judges who are consistently showing that they do not know how to judge, or are being influenced by outside factors when giving their decision. In recent times, we have seen some atrocious judging decisions. Most apparent of these bodge decisions is the Head Hunter vs. Themlakis debacle which saw a broken armed warrior being cheated out of the win which, he had unquestionably won. As voiced by Themlakis, his opposing trainer Paul Fiefield and the crowd, it was clear that the judges had taken something Themlakis had trained, broken his arm and induced extreme self discipline on away form him. He had earned the right to be called the better fighter and victor over the head hunter.
It was a more recent fight though that the judging panel captured my amazement and utter dismay. I recently watched John Scida's latest promotion. Of particular interest was the John Purcell Parry Nicolau fight as I had known John from a young age. Parry is a very fierce and hard hitting man and illustrated this to the crowd and John. John though, in my opinion, foiled almost 85% of all Nicolau's shots with leg checks and a very very very tight guard while sending back copious amounts of kicks and punches. As kicks are said to be scored higher than punches, John had shown he would be clearly in front with a far greater use of his legs and the crisp infiltration of Nicolau's guard with punches. Summed up by the referee’s reaction of surprise and shock as I watched him collect the cards from the judges, a score of 45-50 45-50 49-48 was passed down.
I may be speaking to those of a little bias, but to visit Purcell's dressing room after the fight gave me a new insight in to the element of "robbing" a fighter of everything he has bled, sweated and trained for. As an element of relief was present in John, a feeling of despair was also shown as he and others such as Themlakis questioned why they even bothered putting themselves through almost self torture to be ready for their fights. The corner was absolutely irate as John showed he had not a scratch upon him. One corner man even telling that Paul Fifield had yet again acknowledged that his boy was not the victor.
Not to take anything away from the Head Hunter or Parry Nicolau who are scary SOB's and damn good fighters. My point is not to overturn judging decisions or even say they should be reversed. My point is that judges need to be consistent in their judging, move away from boxing judging and follow the protocol of Kickboxing judging. Read their rules before each event so atrocious scores such as 45-50 are never seen again. The erratic and un-policed nature of Victorian Kickboxing judges and their very often crazy decisions is yet another road block for Australian Kickboxing and Muay Thai's development and growth. This is a problem that must be addressed by Victoria's governing martial arts body. May be a system such as the Olympics should be introduced which is extremely fair as judges press a button when a point is scored and if two or three do not press the button within a certain time, the point will not be awarded.
To all at this forum, I would love to hear some feed back on this topic especially the opinions of fighters and media personalities and Kickboxing guru's such as Michael Schiavello.