1107 S. 5th Avenue
PMB #251
Yuma, AZ 85364
Phone: (928) 919-0346
Fax: (928) 342-6202
Email:
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Yuma County Youth Boxing Association 1107 S. 5th Avenue PMB #251 Yuma, AZ 85364 Phone: (928) 919-0346 Fax: (928) 342-6202 Email: |
ARIZONA ASSOCIATION LBC-48 GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE: You may file a grievance, but under USA Boxing rules a judge's decision cannot be reversed; it's a judgement call and it has to stand. The National Office will accept your grievance for review and will have to reject it on those grounds. But you are welcome to try. Boxing is a very emotional sport. For obvious reasons, we don't allow the coaches in the corner or the family of the boxer to decide who won the bout because they are too emotionally involved to be objective. Judges are usually in a better position to decide a bout because they generally don't have any connection with either boxer. Of course this is not always true. There is no such thing as a completely neutral judge and it can be very difficult to be objective when a boxer or his style is known and admired by the judge. Our shows consist mainly of family and friends and even judges have friends. We are always short of judges, especially at the local show level, we could use your help as an official if you think you can be fair, and are that rare judge with no friends or relatives connected with the sport. This is not professional boxing. The judges don't get paid, and they have to pay for their own uniforms and attend official's clinics at their own expense. It's hard enough to get them to come to local shows as is. Having every decision scrutinized by angry parents and coaches would reduce their ranks to just a few brave souls who probably like to fight more than judge. In pro boxing there are fewer questionable decisions because about half of the fights are planned mismatches. When one fighter has a 12-0 record and the other is 6-6, it isn't too hard too figure out who is supposed to win. Because we have mostly competitive matches in amateur boxing our boxers' records tend to be more like baseball and football were an excellent team has won 75% of their games and a good team has won about 50% of them. Last year Richard Jones, Registration Chairman LBC-33, saw 1400 bouts and checked the scorecards for all of them. The vast majority of them were fair decisions. As a coach Mr. Jones contested a decisions several times only to find out when he reviewed the tape that he was either dead wrong or it was too close to call. His advice is to settle down, don't do anything rash. Then get a tape of the bout and sit down and carefully count scoring punches on a round by round basis. Amateur judging is basically punch count - a good jab counts the same as a stiff right hand that merits an eight count. If you still think your boxer won then do what one of our past LBC presidents used to do and give the kid a first place trophy (most gyms have a few left over from previous shows). But tell him that if he gets a gift in the form of a decision later on, then he has to give the trophy back. It will all balance out in the long run. And if he turns pro they'll just adjust his amateur record to whatever sounds good anyway. Prepared by Richard Jones Registration Chairman LBC-33 |
