WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman wants additional judges and video replay for the May 18th fight between heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk for their undisputed championship at the Kingdom Arena in in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Instead of three judges, Sulaiman wants five, along with video replay.
Had those things been in effect for Fury and Usyk’s last fights, they likely would have both lost, and we’d have Francis Ngannou fighting Daniel Dubois. Some fans would argue that bad scoring and a blown call by a referee resulted in Fury and Usyk receiving victories they shouldn’t have.
WBC champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) won a questionable 10-round decision last October against Francis Ngannou that the boxing world thought he lost. For his part, Usyk was dropped in the fifth round last August by Daniel Dubois but was saved when the referee ruled it was a low blow.
If there had been a replay, it would have shown that Dubois hit Usyk with a beltline shot, which should have resulted in him being given credit for a knockout.
More Eyes on the Fight: Increased Judges
“Controversy in a fight of this magnitude would be unacceptable,” said WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to Sky Sports. “We have found through fights done in this system that the more officials that score a fight, the less possibility of a wrong decision.
“Anybody can have a bad night. If you have one judge have a bad night and the two others get it correct, you still save the fight. You have two judges with a difficult fight and then one round can shift the whole result.
“If you have more officials, then the possibility of a wrong score goes to a minimum. That’s the only intention to make sure there’s no controversy.”
It’s possible that Sulaiman will get resistance on his ideas because it’s a dramatic change, and it would alter the sport, preventing as many controversial decisions, which oftentimes work in the favor of the A-side fighters.
Would the promoters of the popular fighters balk at the idea of adding replay and additional judges? It could be.
Video Replay: A Tool for Fair Play
Sulaiman wants the video replay technology for the Fury-Usyk fight, hoping that it could be a useful tool for receiving an event that could affect the outcome.
