Livescore
Neither Oleksandr Usyk nor Tyson Fury took an active role in assessing the judging pool for their immediate rematch Saturday night at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Both fighters instead assigned the detail-oriented chore of eliminating unacceptable potential judges to their teams.
But Usyk’s handlers, however vehemently they might’ve protested, almost allowed one ominous judge to be approved by the Middle Eastern Professional Boxing commission (MEPB).
As first reported by Uncrowned on Thursday night, ESPN broadcaster/judge Fernando Barbosa was removed from judging trio for Usyk-Fury 2 just two days out from the massive championship bout. Depending on who you believe, Barbosa was either too sick to travel to Riyadh to judge Usyk-Fury 2 or someone sensible stepped in and ensured he was replaced. New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld, widely regarded as one of the most consistent, busy judges in boxing, traveled to Riyadh on Thursday to instead fill in for Barbosa and sit ringside across from Chicago’s Patrick Morley and Puerto Rico’s Gerardo Martinez on Saturday night.
Another judge, Panama’s Ignacio Robles, was also flown to Riyadh on Thursday as a possible substitute for Barbosa. Robles is less proven in championship matches than Weisfeld, but he was also considered an acceptable alternative for Team Usyk to Barbosa.
The MEPB, which is regulating the main event for the Saudi government, did not respond to Uncrowned’s request Friday for comment regarding the Usyk-Fury judging panel. The British Boxing Board of Control has regulated the entire Usyk-Fury undercard, but the MEPB is again handling Usyk-Fury because Fury is from England and Usyk’s team demanded neutral regulation of their first fight and their rematch.
Regardless, while we should all be thankful for Weisfeld replacing Barbosa, we shouldn’t ignore the frustrating fact that Miami’s Barbosa was initially approved to score a bout as expensive and historically significant as this heavyweight championship rematch between Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) and Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs). That type of brazen behavior epitomizes everything that is wrong with boxing.
Only in this fragmented mess of a sport would a broadcaster for one of ESPN’s Spanish-language channels, ESPN KnockOut, even be considered to assist in determining the outcome of a historically impactful contest in which one of its participants, Fury, is co-promoted by a company, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., that has an exclusive content deal with ESPN. Barbosa is also the Senior Vice President of Distribution and Production for Disney Latin America, where he’s responsible for acquiring rights fee for boxing programming throughout Latin America. ESPN is owned by Disney.
Imagine if in two months we found out they’ve named ESPN’s Mark Kriegel as one of the three judges for the light heavyweight championship rematch in which Top Rank’s Artur Beterbiev will defend his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and WBO belts against Dmitry Bivol? If this scenario sounds ludicrous in advance of their fight on Feb. 22 in Riyadh, it is similar to what was almost allowed to happen with Usyk-Fury 2.
The difference, of course, is that hardcore boxing fans — and even some casual consumers of this sport — are more familiar with Kriegel than Barbosa because ESPN’s English-language platform is watched by many more viewers in the United States and elsewhere than ESPN KnockOut, and also that Barbosa sparingly serves as a ringside judge a few times a year while Kriegel does not.
Barbosa performs a comparable function for ESPN KnockOut broadcasts, though. As an analyst, Barbosa most recently worked the network’s telecast of the Emanuel Navarrete vs. Oscar Valdez junior lightweight championship rematch on December 7 at Footprint Center in Phoenix.
Two weeks later, he was nearly entrusted, rather ridiculously, to score one of the most important fights in boxing history, one-half of which is financially linked to Barbosa’s employer. This in no way suggests Barbosa wouldn’t have been capable of scoring Usyk-Fury fairly, nor am I questioning his integrity. He doesn’t have a history of submitting suspect scorecards. There isn’t any evidence, either, that indicates Barbosa has any relationship whatsoever with Fury.
This is about optics. This is about perception trumping reality. If Barbosa had served as a judge for Usyk-Fury 2, as was initially proposed and agreed upon until Thursday night, it could’ve led to potentially catastrophic consequences in the event of a controversial result. Having an ESPN broadcaster moonlight as an official judge is a complete conflict of interests that simply shouldn’t be allowed, especially for a bout involving a Top Rank star.
The last thing this besmirched sport would’ve needed is yet another avoidable reason for a completely skeptical public to cast doubt on the legitimacy of its outcomes — particularly five weeks removed from the detrimental debacle that was Jake Paul-Mike Tyson.
The worldwide audience for Usyk-Fury 2 will be immeasurably smaller than that of Paul-Tyson, but those who do pay $39.99 to watch it in the United States, and lesser sums elsewhere, should be able to do so without wondering whether the event is on the up and up.
They should have more confidence in the result now that Weisfeld has replaced Barbosa, who rarely judges title fights at the top level. Barbosa scored Blair Cobbs a 96-93 winner over Adrien Broner in the most recent noteworthy fight he judged, six months ago in Miami. Usyk-Fury 2, potentially the biggest heavyweight fight of a generation, would’ve been just Barbosa’s second judging assignment since June.
Whatever anyone thinks of Weisfeld, he is an attorney by trade, not an active member of the boxing media, and extremely experienced in elite-level fights.
Again, there was nothing knowingly nefarious about Barbosa’s appointment. Why, though, would the MEPB have given rightfully mistrustful customers more ammunition to point to an ESPN broadcaster’s scorecard, no matter how accurate or inaccurate it might’ve been, when the MEPB could’ve just as easily assigned one of the hundreds of other qualified judges throughout the world?
Well, I’m glad you asked. Enter the WBC, just to make matters messier.
In full title unification fights, the four most recognized sanctioning organizations oftentimes are allowed to choose one official apiece by the overseeing regulatory agency. Usyk gave up his IBF belt after he defeated Fury in the spring, thus their rematch will be contested for only the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBO belts.
The WBO submitted two of its preferred officials — referee Roberto Ramirez and Morley. The MEPB approved Martinez for the WBA. And Barbosa? He was recommended by the WBC.
This could’ve been especially problematic because, in addition to Barbosa’s broadcasting gig, Fury is a former WBC champion who has an overtly cozy relationship with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman.
As with Barbosa, this shouldn’t suggest Sulaiman or Fury have done anything to jeopardize the integrity of Usyk-Fury 2. It does, however, come together to paint a potentially devastating portrait had disaster struck on Saturday, and demonstrate a corrected, albeit laughable, lack of common sense among those in some of boxing’s most powerful positions.
Sanctioning bodies have quite frankly browbeaten and scammed their way into having entirely too much influence in boxing, so much that the thought of ever crowning one champion in each of its 17 divisions is an utterly unrealistic goal as we prepare to enter 2025. As discouraging as that might be to those who want what’s healthiest for the boxing business and its ever-fading fan base, something should be done about self-serving sanctioning bosses bullying their way into impacting outcomes when scoring boxing is difficult enough even for those who aren’t walking, talking conflicts of interests.
For the purposes of Usyk-Fury 2, at least, we thankfully avoided placing unnecessary, undeniable pressure on a conflicted judge who never even should’ve been licensed.
Even if it came at the last second and at the expense of a well-timed illness.
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