57th Mayor's Cup Boxing marred by bad refereeing?

The opinion of this event is solely FightBah blog's own view. Reader's discretion advised.

The 57th Mayor's Cup Boxing competition was held at the Dewan Masyarat Kota Kinabalu from the 21st to the 24th July 2011.

I have seen the Mayor's Cup Boxing event before, and from last year's experience I got to experience 1st hand, certain questionable refereeing & judging by SABA (Sabah Amateur Boxing Association) that resulted in chair throwing and an almost riot in the hall. Read about last year's controversy here.

Having hoped that this year's refereeing and judging would be better, I'm sad to say... this year was no different...



In sports, while it is common for judges and referees to make unpopular decisions, there is an obvious distinction between "What the crowd doesn't know" and "THAT is obviously NOT RIGHT". Clear favoritism to certain fighters and  inconsistent refereeing are the obvious in this year's event.

On the 1st day, the crowd got to see some "brawling" action; while generally it was entertaining to see wild swinging hands in the early fights, most fights ended to the more skilled and disciplined boxers. This is still a sport, not a bar fight.

However many incidents happen during day 1 & day 2, where even the "common crowd" knows that... ... ... "Wait a minute, how come he  can get away with that?" or "Is the referee even paying attention to what is going on here?".

Some incidents worth mentioning:

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During a Nabawan vs Keningau fight, the obvious winner and 1 sided match was coming from the Keningau fighter, both fighters lasted the whole 3 rounds. Yet during the judging call. Team Nabawan was given the win. This immediately drew the wrath of the crowd and the whole hall Booed. A quick "correction announcement" was immediately made. An innocent mistake from the judges? Ok, maybe it was... we'll let it slide since they rectify the problem

***
There was a match where a Ranau representative dislocated his arm during the bout and a clear display of discomfort in his face. The refree did not stop the match and the fight went on. The Ranau fighter went on and again threw a few hard crosses, each time ending with him backing off HOLDING his arm in pain, and to the eyes of the whole crowd could see a bone-like bulge sticking out from his shoulder. The bout went on. To this I ask if the referee wanted to see the Ranau fighter losing with a dislocated arm AND being KOed by his opponent?

Luck would have it that the Ranau fighter won the fight via points, but this got the crowd wondering how come the fight was not stopped? This should have been a TKO for the Ranau fighter. Safety of the fighter was 1 question, or is it possible that the referee DID NOT SEE this?

***
A match between a Kota Belud fighter and a Sandakan fighter. Wild swings were thrown from both sides and many missed. But out of no where, an 8 count was given to the obviously "still standing tall" Kota Belud fighter. Later on the 2 boxers got into a slug fest again, both exchanging and suddenly the ref cuts in to declare the Kota Belud fighter loss via TKO? A TKO is when 1 fighter is NOT RESPONDING either staying in turtle position or is NOT FIGHTING BACK OR DEFENDING HIMSELF INTELLIGENTLY. The Kota Belud fighter and the crowd, puzzled and upset.




***
Another match where a Kota Kinabalu fighter was doing more grappling than boxing, hugging to majority of the match. Referee for some reason did not call for the fighters to break IMMEDIATELY, did not stop "dirty boxing" by the fighters & did not give warning for continuous & deliberate hugging. In fact the referee was seen turning his back to these hugging and took a few seconds to turn around and THEN decides to break them. This match in particular for 3 days made everyone question the standard and quality of the refereeing. It has become a crowd inside joke that whenever this fighter turns up, we would be watching a "Mayor's Cup side event: Bromance".

(a video is on the way).



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Luckily despite all these questionable standards of refereeing, the final day would see that only the "truly skilled" are to win.

The winning teams of each category were:


Team Tawau won GOLD; Team Keningau won SILVER at 46kg category

Team Tawau won GOLD; Team Sandakan won SILVER at 49kg category

Team Keningau won GOLD; Team Tuaran won SILVER at 52kg category

Team Keningau won GOLD; Team Tuaran won SILVER at 56kg category

Team Sandakan won GOLD; Team Tawau won SILVER at 60kg category

Team Sandakan won GOLD; Team Nabawan won SILVER at 64kg category

Team Tawau won GOLD; Team Kota Kinabalu won SILVER at 69kg category

Team Tawau won GOLD; Team Tambunan won SILVER at 75kg category

Team Kota Kinabalu won GOLD; Team Tawau won SILVER at 80kg category

The Overall Winnner of the 57th Mayor's Cup Boxing Competition: TEAM TAWAU. 

While we are extremely happy that in the end only the truely talented boxers got the win, we hope that in the future better refereeing standards should be adopted. Too many inconsistent refereeing has plagued an other wise great event.  

To all the winners of the 57th Mayor's Cup Boxing competition, I salute you.