On Tuesday, World Boxing Association (WBA) President Gilberto Jesus Mendoza held a meeting with the local press to talk about judges and controversial decisions. He spoke about how to evaluate a fight as well as how to evaluate the judges.

Mendoza began explaining the criteria to score a fight, keeping in mind: effectiveness, attack, defense, technique and sportsmanship, taking into account the positive elements of the round, such as, clean and strong punches, effective punches, skillful and intelligent defense of the boxer, aggressiveness, and his ability and courage.

However, the WBA leader explained that there are no more than 10 controversial fights in all WBA sanctioned bout since 2012.

“This is an example that our officials are consistent in their scoring,” said Mendoza.

He added that in the United States, the judges are appointed by the local commissions according to the Muhammad Ali Safety Act, and all the boxing organizations have little participation in the subject. Although he said that organizations are in communication to take a stance and make their voices heard.

“In all our fights, especially those that we consider to be close are evaluated by our International Officials Committee judges and we study each judge consistency to know if he/she had a ‘bad night’ or if he/she has failed on several occasions.” He also added, “We also have a procedure to sanction our officials should it be necessary. First it is verbal, then in writing and, later, if it is deemed necessary, there is a procedure to sanction the official. Depending on the offense, a warning is chosen, but throughout the procedure, we are bound to do it pedagogically to educate rather than punish”.

Mendoza also spoke about the role of the press and he thinks that before judging a fight as controversial we should analyze if the fight was really controversial, because a close fight that has a different result than the way TV commentators see it is not necessarily a controversial fight.

“The WBA is working to improve its performance through the officials’ seminar, and reduce errors as much as possible in our fights, and keep on evaluating every bout sanctioned by our organization,” stated Mendoza.