Mailbag: Texas judges make another questionable decision, enabling Kirkland to beat Molina

The atrocities that went on in the ring in Houston on Saturday in the opener of an HBO doubleheader, when James Kirkland defeated Carlos Molina by disqualification, have already been well-documented.

Molina was frequently holding throughout the fight, but referee Jon Schorle did little to stop it. That pales in comparison to what happened at the end of the fight when Molina, seemingly far ahead on the cards, was knocked down in the waning seconds of the 10th round.

The bell rang during Schorle's count, which it should not have done. That prompted a Molina cornerman to enter the ring and that led to a sequence in which Molina wound up being disqualified. If it were an isolated mistake, it would be unfortunate but understandable.

But the episode continued a troubling trend with the way cards are managed in Texas. On Feb. 16, despite a contract weight of 172, Shawn Estrada weighed in at 196 for his Feb. 17 fight with Terrance Woods. Texas somehow allowed the fight to proceed despite a guy missing weight by 24 pounds.

On Feb. 18, virtually everyone but the judges felt Gabriel Campillo had beaten Tavoris Cloud in their light heavyweight title fight. The outrageously bad decision went to Cloud. That continues a trend of bad judging in Texas – Gale Van Hoy had Kirkland up five rounds to four in a fight Kirkland was losing badly by his own admission – and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

Scoring is subjective and I usually defend judges, but the scores on some of the fights in Texas (Juan Diaz over Paulie Malignaggi, Cloud over Campillo, Van Hoy's score in the Kirkland-Molina fight) raise troubling questions.

Hopefully, it's just incompetence, but I'm beginning to fear it's something worse. I hope I'm wrong, but whatever the case, things need to change for the better, and quickly, in Texas.

• Former 140- and 147-pound world champion Zab Judah looked great in demolishing Vernon Paris on Saturday. Judah, though, is one of the world's great frontrunners. He's a major talent, but he cracks whenever he's faced with pressure, as he did in fights against Kostya Tszyu, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Joshua Clottey and others.

• For a guy who talked as much as he did, Paris looked like a rank amateur. It seemed like he had no plan, failed to make adjustments and was intimidated by Judah's hand speed and power. He's far better than he looked Saturday, but that was one major-league egg he laid, and in his biggest fight.

• Erik Morales says he'll fight once more, a so-called farewell bout in his native Tijuana, Mexico, in the aftermath of his loss Saturday to Danny Garcia. Morales sadly will get hurt if he keeps fighting.

• Diego Magdaleno was impressive Friday in his win over Fernando Beltran. He's going to make noise at super featherweight.

• Hopefully, the major television networks will not hold the disqualification loss to Kirkland against Molina. He fought admirably and deserves another appearance on HBO or Showtime.

Boxing should adopt an MMA philosophy

I'm interested on your take on something. I am a lifelong boxing fan and have followed mixed martial arts since UFC 1. I have a full grasp of the rules, concepts and disciplines as well as the differing styles of both sports and have competed informally in both. That said, it seems like when the board battles between MMA and boxing disciples get rolling. it comes down to records. Daniel Tosh on Comedy Central recently went so far as to say that if Manny Pacquiao had Randy Couture's record (19-11) he would be a dishwasher at PF Chang's. While I certainly understand the premise of the argument, it seems slanted in favor of the padded and polished records of boxers who may not see a stern test for their first 20 or so fights as opposed to MMA guys who, upon showing their chops in the minors, are immediately thrown to the wolves and expected to not only perform at a high level but continuously test themselves against the best possible matchups. Maybe boxing could learn a thing or two from this philosophy.

Jake Young
Indianapolis

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with boxing that a little tweaking couldn't fix, as I wrote in December in a two-part look at the state of the sport. The biggest thing that would help would be for the major world sanctioning bodies – the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization – to recognize and rank the other organization's champions. As an example, at the conclusion of Showtime's Super Six tournament last year, it was pretty obvious that Andre Ward is the best 168-pounder in the world. He holds the WBA and WBC titles. But where is he ranked in the IBF or the WBO? I'll tell you: He's not. The IBF recognizes Lucian Bute as its champion; the WBO has Robert Stieglitz. Neither of them are ranked by the WBA and WBC. If each organization ranked the 10 best guys, period, we'd have many better fights than we do now and fighters wouldn't be getting stripped so often. Then, you'd have Top 3 or Top 5 guys constantly fighting for titles.

Morales never fought Marquez

In your column on Erik Morales, you mentioned that he had, in his long and heralded career, fought everyone of note. Wrong. He never fought Juan Manuel Marquez. What a fight that would be! Why haven't these two Mexican greats and future Hall of Famers ever met?

Michael Rubin
Fairfax, Calif.

I agree it would have been a tremendous match had they fought at or near their primes. Now, I'm afraid that Marquez would destroy Morales. The reason they hadn't met was that Marquez hadn't connected with the American audience until later and Morales had more attractive fights to make financially. He pursued the trilogy with Marco Antonio Barrera, then later went to a trilogy with Pacquiao. Had Marquez agreed to the rematch with Pacquiao in 2004 instead of declining it and going on to fights with Orlando Salido and Chris John, it's likely he would have met Morales in the 2005-2006 time frame.

Rankings reward the wrong guys

Kevin, I just labored through another set of boxing rankings with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao sitting at the top. I cannot be the only one tired of two guys who work once a year and cherry-pick their opponents being ranked as the best in the world. I don't argue that Mayweather isn't the most skilled boxer in the game, but when are the boxing sports writers going to acknowledge the fighters who actually put the work in and fight real fights? Andre Ward has spent the better part of three years taking on the best fighters in his weight class. For my money, he is the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Furthermore, if the panel started penalizing Manny and Floyd for their light schedules and questionable opponents, then we might actually get the "two best fighters in the world" to take some real fights, perhaps even against each other! Keep up the great work.

Josh Aldin
Los Angeles

Josh, I voted for Ward third in our recent pound-for-pound poll and, as I wrote last year, I believe he'll be the next No. 1 fighter not named Mayweather or Pacquiao. I am as big of a proponent of Ward's skills as there is in the media. That said, your statement overstates his position and understates that of Mayweather and Pacquiao. Yes, Ward fought a lot of guys in the Super Six. But in the last three years, he's also fought Henry Buchanan, Edison Miranda and Shelby Pudwill. They were all set-up gimmes. Mayweather and Pacquiao fought no one of that ilk. You could blame Pacquiao for fighting Shane Mosley after Mayweather destroyed him, because it was clear at that point that Mosley was finished. But in the last three years, Mayweather has fought Marquez, who is ranked in the pound-for-pound on every list imaginable; Mosley, who at the time was regarded as a major threat; and Victor Ortiz, who was a world champion coming off of a Fight of the Year-type match. Pacquiao in the last three years fought Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Mosley and Marquez. We all wanted to see him fight Mayweather, but there are no Pudwills on that list. The point is, they deserve to be ranked at the top and they are.

A Mayweather-Martinez fight may be boring

Kevin, do you think a Sergio Martinez-Floyd Mayweather fight would be overly defensive and boring? Also, I think Timothy Bradley has an excellent chance to defeat Manny Pacquiao on June 9. What do you think? Thanks

Raymond DiCenso
Montoursville, Pa.

Raymond, I think a Mayweather-Martinez fight would be fascinating. The fight would be a risk, because Martinez is unquestionably a bigger guy and has knocked out full-fledged middleweights. As Mayweather has aged, he hasn't circled as much and has fought more offensively. It wouldn't be a Morales-Barrera fight, for sure, but I think it would be good. As for Pacquiao-Bradley, I do give Bradley a chance to win, though I think Pacman deserves to be the favorite. The biggest concern from Bradley's standpoint is whether he hits hard enough to make Pacquiao respect him and whether he has the chin to take Pacquiao's power that will come from the inevitable exchange that takes place.

Will Mayweather get credit if he beats Martinez

Assuming Mayweather-Pacquiao never happens, if Mayweather fights and convincingly beats Sergio Martinez, I think that would be enough to quiet any of Mayweather's naysayers and without question cement Mayweather as the greatest fighter of this generation. As for Pacman, I don't see any such opportunities (except for Mayweather) to improve his current status. What do you think? Moving to the big men, I think the best possible fight that can be made right now in the heavyweight division would be Tomasz Adamek-Alexander Povetkin. Why isn't anybody clamoring to make this fight? Povetkin is a little bigger, Adamek is a little more skilled, but I think it would make for a very intriguing matchup. Neither is a great fighter, but I think it would be a very competitive fight. It's probably the only remaining heavyweight matchup I would be interested in. What's your take?

S.
Pasadena, Calif.

If Mayweather and Pacquiao don't fight and Mayweather beats Sergio Martinez, I think it would cinch the mythical title of best of his generation, without doubt. I've felt since 2000 that Mayweather is the best fighter in the world, but guys have to prove it in the ring. That said, if Floyd remains unbeaten and adds Cotto and Martinez to his list of scalps, how could you not recognize him as such? As for the heavyweights, I think there are some other good matches. I'd love to see Adamek fight Marco Huck and David Haye. Despite Haye's bomb against Wladimir Klitschko, I still think he can make an interesting fight with Vitali Klitschko. And I'm really interested to see Bryant Jennings move up. He looked very good in whipping an admittedly over-the-hill Sergei Liakhovich on Saturday. If Seth Mitchell wins his next fight, a Mitchell-Jennings fight would be interesting.

"Everyone was scared of Don, [including former heavyweight champions] Larry Holmes and Muhammad Ali. I said to [King], 'What? They're scared of you?' I used to whack him – pow! When I look at him now, he looks like a pathetic old man … nothing but creepy. He reminds me of someone that the devil is finished with.'' – Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, to USA Today's Jon Saraceno, about promoter Don King.

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