BBBofC Clears Terry O’Connor Of Wrongdoing With New Video Evidence
We’ve all seen the pictures and videos where UK judge Terry O’Connor was seemingly caught using his phone while he had the duty of scoring Lewis Ritson versus Miguel Vazquez, and we were hoping to hear some good news of it.
The British Boxing Board of Control has issued the following statement regarding the occurrence with O’Connor on October 17, 2020: Via Michael Benson
“British Boxing Board of Control Judge Mr. Terry O’Connor appeared before the Stewards of the Board to discuss his performance at the tournament held on 17th October 2020 at the East of England Showground Arena, Peterborough.
“Allegations made on social media and the print media as to Mr. O’Connor using a mobile telephone or similar handheld device were considered.
“Following extensive consideration of footage and Mr. O’Connor’s evidence supplied, the Stewards are satisfied that Mr. O’Connor was not in position of any telephone or handheld device whilst carrying out his duties as a Judge in the contest between Lewis Ritson and Miguel Vazquez and his scoring of said bout was not affected in any way.
“In addition, Mr. O’Connor’s scoring of the bout was considered and whilst judging a contest is subjective and following Mr. O’Connor’s explanation of how he scored the bout, the Stewards are satisfied that Mr. O’Connor’s final score reflected his own opinion of the contest.”
It turns out, O’Connor wasn’t on his phone after all. After closely watching the tape, it appears to be his scorecard that he was holding. The way he was holding it, with his thumb held up, and looking at the still picture, it does look exactly like he’s holding a phone, but this was proven untrue.
Nonetheless, this still isn’t good news. There are no repercussions. Though he wasn’t using his phone, he still couldn’t have been paying too much attention to the fight, or he’s just incredibly biased, one or the other.
O’Connor’s 117-111 scorecard for Ritson was just as bad as Julie Lederman scoring Teofimo Lopez versus Vasyl Lomachenko 119-109 for Lopez. Ritson ultimately defeated Vazquez via split decision, but it wasn’t just at all.
No one watching at home scored the fight for Ritson, just about everyone aside from O’Connor and Michael Alexander, who scored the bout 115-113 for Ritson, scored it for Vazquez.
115-113 is a much better scorecard, but it’s still not right. It’s not an opinion, when you have an eye for this, you know who the rightful winner is.
Judges are trained and paid to have an eye for this kind of thing, but it gets messed up all across combat sports. Mixed martial arts is pretty bad with unfavorable decisions as well, but unfortunately, boxing is a completely different level of corruption.
With the scorecard O’Connor handed in, you can tell, it’s possible he had the totals before the fight even started. As long as it went all twelve rounds, he knew who he was scoring it for.
It’s unfortunate, combat sports, and especially boxing aren’t going to get any better as far as this goes, at least not any time soon. O’Connor was proven to be innocent for what he was accused of, but even so, he shouldn’t just be let off the hook for his scorecard.
Neither should Alexander, neither should Lederman, and neither should Steve Weisfeld, who scored Lopez versus Lomachenko 117-111 for Lopez, which was also far too wide of a score.
Something needs to be done so these athletes careers aren’t ruined because of uneducated and/or biased officials. They shouldn’t have to finish the fight to get a sure victory, unless of course it is a close bout.
What first step needs to be taken in order to fix this long standing issue?
