Criticism of SA ring officials destructive – Ramagole

Constant criticism against South African ring officials, especially judges, for questionable scoring of boxing matches, does not sit well with Lehlohonolo Ramagole.

Ramagole and other BSA provincial managers train these individuals in their respective provinces.

Harshness from fans through social media platforms and media is sometimes overboard. 

"The level of criticism is destructive," said Ramagole, who agreed some ring officials in other parts of the world have also made some errors in the scoring but they don't get abused like it is happening here.

Last weekend, two judges – Alan Krebs from America and Mexican Juan Carlos – provided scores of 95-94 and 96-93 respectively in favour of Tyson Fury, which were dubious.

Their colleague from Canada, Ed Garner, scored the same fight 95-94 for Francis Ngannou. Fury won the supposed walkover 10-rounder by a questionable split points decision.

Ngannou from Cameroon, who is based in France, did enough to win his first professional boxing match against vastly experienced and accomplished WBC heavyweight champion in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.

Fury's experience from 34 fights with no loss did not help him against a former cage fighter who had no amateur boxing background.

Fury survived a third-round knockdown and did his best, which was not convincing in the eyes of many people in the boxing space.

Ngannou, who was trained by Mike Tyson, said: "This was my first boxing match. At first, I was a little nervous. This is a new sport that I never did. Now I know I can do this sh*t. So, get ready!”

In another tournament in Mexico, veteran judge Nicolas Hidalgo from Venezuela's score read 110-99 in favour of Mexican Eduardo Hernandez against American WBC junior-lightweight champion O'Shaquie Forster going into the 11th round.

Hidalgo's colleague, Ed Pearson, also voted for Hernandez by 107-102 while Jorge Gorini had Foster up by 106-103. Forster did himself a great favour by stopping Hernandez in the 12th round.

No harsh criticism was levelled against these judges, but had these dubious decisions been made here, suggestions like banning them would have dominated media platforms.

"We all make mistakes and we welcome criticism but also remember to give credit where it is due," pleaded Ramagole.