Santa Cruz: Maybe the judges were influenced by the crowd

By Boxing News - 07/31/2016 - Comments

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(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME) By Scott Gilfoid: WBA featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (32-1-1, 18 KOs) thinks that the judges may have been influenced by the crowd last night with their scoring of the fight between him and Carl Frampton (23-0, 14 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. I could certainly see where the judges would be influenced by all cheering for Frampton, because I thought the same thing last night until I got smart and turned down the volume on my television. With the sound off, I saw Santa Cruz winning almost round of the fight except for three. But I had the luxury of turning down my TV.

The judges didn’t have that ability, which is why boxing needs to make changes to the sport where judges are put in sound proof booths where they can’t hear the cheering for the fighters. At the same time, the judges should only have vision of the actual ring and not the audience, because they might be influenced by the fans jumping up and down for a fighter during the fights.

I think the judges need to be in sound proof booths with blinders that close off the audience and only lets the judges see the fighters inside the ring. The kind of blinders that horses wear when pulling wagons would be ideal for the judges to keep their vision only on the fighters. I’m just saying. The sport needs to be changed pronto.

The judges gave the 29-year-old visiting Frampton the victory by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114. Despite Frampton being the visiting fighter from Northern Ireland, he was getting all the applause from the fans.

Santa Cruz feels that the judges heard the cheering from the pro-Frampton audience and opted to score the fight for Frampton because of that.

”I thought it was close when I was in there throwing. Maybe the judges were hearing the crowd and thought that every little punch was scoring,” said Santa Cruz after the fight.

I don’t know if the judges were influenced by the applause that Frampton was getting for every punch he threw, but I do know that Santa Cruz wasn’t getting much appreciation for each and every shot he threw. That was the part I didn’t understand. Of course, the fight was staged in New York where many of Frampton’s fans live. That was an error of judgment on Santa Cruz’s part in ever agreeing to take the fight in that city. By agreeing to fight in New York, Santa Cruz was giving Frampton a huge advantage, because it was like he was fighting at home.

I agree with fellow Boxing News 24 writer Dan Ambrose in his opinion on the fight. I thought Santa Cruz had done enough to get the win last night. I thought the fight could be scored as a draw if the judges gave every close round to Frampton, but definitely not a win for him. He didn’t do enough to earn a win over Santa Cruz last night.

Frampton was pretty much done for the night after round five. I had Santa Cruz sweeping the last seven rounds easy with his pressure, higher work rate and harder landing shots. Frampton’s body language in the last seven rounds was a fighter that was A. tired B. not willing to engage C. just looking to spoil.

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“The crowd was cheering, and I think the judges saw that. Maybe, without that, we would have had a draw or maybe a decision,” said Santa Cruz.

It’s quite possible that the judges were influenced by the crowd support for Frampton. I’m just saying. Judges are only human. When they hear a mess of screaming for one particular fighter all night long for 12 rounds, it’s got to be hard for them not to give round after round to that fighter. I mean, look at the scores from two of the judges. They gave Frampton the win by nine rounds to three and eight rounds to four. How in the heck can you watch the fight last night and not give Santa Cruz at least six round? By scoring the fight the way that the judges did last night, they likely saw Santa Cruz winning none of the first six rounds, and either three or four of the last six rounds. That’s not the way I saw it. I had Santa Cruz winning three out of the first six rounds, and then the last six rounds. Of course, I was able to turn down the volume on my television to drown out the cheering for Frampton, so I saw nothing but what actually happened inside the ring last night. From what I saw, I really couldn’t give Frampton more than three rounds at best.

You can make an argument that Santa Cruz was royally robbed last night, but like I said, he was really asking for it when he decided to give Frampton the advantage by agreeing to fight in New York. That was a very, very dumb move on Santa Cruz’s part. Yeah, he’s an American, but his fans in New York. I know this is probably hard for non-Americans to understand, because in their countries the fans always support the home fighter. The U.S is so huge and such a melting pot of fans from other parts of the world that it makes it possible to fight in places like New York where the fans support the foreign fighter rather than the home fighter. It would have been different if Santa Cruz had fought Frampton in Los Angeles, California, Texas or Las Vegas, Nevada.

Like I said, it was a dumb move on Santa Cruz’s part to agree to fight Frampton in New York. Unless the money was just so incredibly high for him that he couldn’t resist, it was not a good move. If I was Santa Cruz, I would have turned down the idea of fighting in New York straightaway. Heck, Santa Cruz might as well have agreed to fight Frampton in Belfast, Northern Ireland and gotten even more cash, because he clearly found himself as the visiting fighter last night rather than Frampton.