Ten Worst Boxing Moments of 2013

Ten Worst Boxing Moments of 2013
Mark E. Ortega
December 20, 2013

Although many consider 2013 to have been a banner year for boxing, it wasn't always smooth sailing. The sport suffered from its fair share of scandal and controversy, not to mention in a few cases just some poor judgment and bad taste. Here I count down the ten worst moments the sport dealt with in 2013.


10. Castle Chalice's commentary in Luis Collazo vs. Alan Sanchez (Sept. 1, 2013)



We've all suffered through some bad color commentary throughout the years with the number of low budget boxing programs that have aired. Perhaps the worst offense of all-time took place in 2013, as little known Castle Chalice stumbled through a Fox Sports 1 Monday Night Fights broadcast headlined by Luis Collazo against Alan Sanchez.

Chalice made numerous errors, most notably referring to Fairfield, Calif.'s Sanchez as "Hernandez" over and over again. Paulie Malignaggi, a usually great commentator in his own right, for some reason neglected to correct his colleague whenever he slipped up, which happened more than a dozen times.

If I were Chalice, I'd avoid ever having to watch the tape of this broadcast again, even if to learn from his mistakes. Eight rounds into a fight and not knowing one of the main event fighters' last names is just inexcusable. It did add some hilarity to things that the guy's name is in fact Castle Chalice.

9. Chuck Giampa's RING Magazine pound-for-pound list

Former boxing judge Chuck Giampa has tried his hand at a number of different assignments since leaving judging behind. That included a one-off stint as a Showtime contributor, where he failed miserably in taking you inside the mind of a judge. He has since found work for RING Magazine as their Ratings Chairman, and his ratings have been met with much criticism, even by The RING's staff themselves.

Golden Boy Promotions fighters like Saul Alvarez and Adrien Broner were handed unfair ratings that the Ratings Advisory Panel flat out disagreed with. Abner Mares saw his ranking reach #5 after beating Daniel Ponce de Leon in May, a travesty of a ranking. After beating Nonito Donaire, Guillermo Rigondeaux didn't enter the Top 10 despite names like Robert Guerrero and Broner being above him unfairly. The Ratings Advisory Panel tried reasoning, usually to no avail.

The pound-for-pound rankings were the butt of a joke for much of the year, not that pound-for-pound is something that should be taken too seriously to begin with.

8. Shane Mosley gets "stopped" by Anthony Mundine in (hopefully) final fight

It was saddening to see a once great "Sugar" Shane Mosley go to Australia and have his back give out on him, allowing the much maligned Anthony Mundine to be able to boast that he was the first to stop the durable future Hall of Famer. The fight was postponed due to promotional issues the previous month, but was made for November when Mundine's people came up with the necessaries to move forward.

Mosley looked solid in beating Pablo Cesar Cano in Mexico earlier in the year, but against Mundine, his body just shut down on him completely. Here is hoping that Mosley is able to walk away from the sport in order to keep from his post-prime being remembered the way it is for Roy Jones Jr., who unfortunately continues to fight on.

7. Rapid decline of referee Steve Smoger's skills



New Jersey based referee Steve Smoger has long been a fan favorite, and until recently, regarded as one of the best active referees in boxing.

That changed this year as Smoger's skills and intuition seemed to take a nosedive. It wasn't a consistently bad year for Smoger, but it began and ended with a couple of terrible situations. For one, he allowed Gabriel Rosado to take a pounding beyond what was necessary at the hands of Gennady Golovkin in January. There was also a weird instance where he shoved Karo Murat in his fight against Bernard Hopkins, which went beyond what was necessary.

Then there was the most recent failure. In a war between James Kirkland and Glen Tapia, Smoger allowed the twenty something Tapia to take a bad beating. That was one thing, but when it came time to stop the fight, Smoger stopped the fight in a half-assed manner, allowing the morally bankrupt fighter to land a couple disgusting sucker shots as Tapia saw Smoger jumping in. It looked as though Smoger was going for his "hug the fighter close" signature move, but the theatrics allowed for the very much defenseless Tapia to take what could have been life-altering shots unnecessarily.

Smoger has been a great referee, particularly when it came to the enjoyment of the fans, but it is about time for him to consider hang them up.

6. The circus surrounding Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Bryan Vera before and after

Boxing isn't fair. It sometimes boils down to being a battle between the haves and the have-nots. In this case, Chavez Jr. was the former while Vera was the latter. Chavez Jr. was the prima donna with the famous name that could get away with just about anything and his enablers would allow it. This was a fight that was set at a number of different weights, delayed, and then Chavez Jr. couldn't even make the new 168-pound limit.

With Vera playing the B-side, his only option was to extract some more money out of the situation, which he was able to do in order to put himself at more of a risk physically. Chavez Jr. was a full-fledged light heavyweight or larger when he stepped into the ring, and Vera outfought him despite the massive size disadvantage.

In the end, Vera got screwed again. The scores read unanimously in favor of Chavez Jr., who was the only one who felt he won the fight. The two are set to rematch, but these kinds of things are what make boxing look silly sometimes.

5. Officiating in September

The previously mentioned Chavez-Vera bout took place at the end of September, one of the worst months for the sport's officiating in sometime. Of the 59 media scores collected, nobody award the fight to Chavez Jr.

The month began with Raymundo Beltran getting badly jobbed on the scorecards against Ricky Burns in the UK. Of the 44 press members polled by Bobby Hunter, all 44 felt that Beltran won the fight.

A week later, the sport had the most spotlight it had seen in years as Floyd Mayweather Jr. met Saul Alvarez in a record-breaking blockbuster bout in Las Vegas. Even with the sport under a microscope, it was unable to get things in order as CJ Ross somehow scored the lopsided fight 114-114, a draw.

Ross is famous for being one of the judges who scored last June's fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley in favor of Bradley, one of the most discriminated decisions in recent memory. Nevada State Athletic Commission head Keith Kizer went ahead with her as a judge, and she failed miserably, giving the commission more negative publicity. Ross subsequently "took a break from boxing"; we can only hope it is a permanent vacation.

4. Boxing journalism in November



Boxing is often referred to as the red light district of sports. That can be applied to the media members that regularly cover the sport as well. November featured some of the worst offenses.

At Andre Ward against Edwin Rodriguez, one accredited member of the ringside media was seen carrying one of the champion's belts into the ring, which is an absolute joke. A ridiculously high number of ringside media also in attendance didn't file any stories related to the fight at all, leaving one wondering exactly what barrier of entry is required these days to get a press pass.

A week later, Manny Pacquiao took on Brandon Rios in Macau. During fight week, a melee occurred in which Freddie Roach and members of Robert Garcia's clan got into a heated, at times physical scrap. The media in attendance turned on their cameras and seemed to try telling only one side of the story. Roach was labeled a racist by Elie Seckbach, who was very offended by what Roach had to say, specifically using the term "Jew". Seckbach voiced no issue with Ariza using homosexual slurs towards Roach or also mocking his Parkinson's, which doesn't lend to him being an unbiased reporter.

To end the week was one of the most hilarious and shock-inducing things I've witnessed from a member of the media. Maxboxing.com's Radio Rahim pandered to Top Rank in a special edition video, speaking as though he was giving a state of the union address.

It was one thing to thank Top Rank for giving them the right kind of access, but to thank them for the lodging and meals was just too much over the top. Rahim called it the best promotion he'd ever been apart of, but it couldn't be due to the quality of the actually card, but instead the accommodations. It's a pretty laugh-inducing video.

3. The Adrien Broner-Paul Malignaggi promotion



It began with a grotesquely misogynistic press conference during the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero fight week, and things just snowballed from there.

I felt appalled as both fighters discussed some mutual acquaintance named Jessica, a girl both fighters had, as Jim Lampley referred to on The Fight Game, had "sexual calisthenics" with. The type of talk they went back and forth with was literally the worst way I've ever seen a fight promoted. Even worse was that the big wigs at Showtime and with Golden Boy Promotions just sat and laughed along with it all, despite the fact there were a number of women in the room that were horrified by what was going on.

This girl Jessica got her fifteen minutes of fame, which was all she was after. It was especially disappointing to see out of Malignaggi, who was lured into it but should have known better given his position as a broadcaster with Showtime. With all the bullshit that Broner has pulled, especially as of late, you've come to expect this kind of immaturity from him.

Here's hoping this was a first and last in boxing.

2. PEDs

A number of fighters have tested positive for a banned substance under various different testing protocols. VADA, USADA, and a new Nevada State Athletic Commission testing have come into play to go along with the regular commission testing. Canada has implemented testing for the first time as well, though it was written by a college dropout boxing writer with ties to VADA former unpaid consultant Victor Conte.

Brandon Rios tested positive following his loss to Manny Pacquiao last month. J'Leon Love tested positive after a win over Gabriel Rosado in May. Certain fighters like Andre Ward have been heavily scrutinized by some for not participating in extra drug testing. There are still too many questions and ambiguity regarding the best way to test for PEDs, but at least the problem is being dealt with in some way rather than not at all.

Even the testing companies have been under scrutiny. The way in which samples are collected have been questioned. That Victor Conte and Angel Heredia were such a hot topic for boxing in 2013 speaks just to how much of a problem PEDs are these days. And it is only going to continue to get worse.

1. In-ring tragedies

Francisco Leal lost his life at age 26, though the tragedy could have been prevented.

Boxing dealt with far too many tragedies as a result of what took place in the ring in 2013. Some felt as though they could have been prevented whereas others seemed to be more of a freak occurrence.

Mexican gatekeeeper Francisco Leal sadly met his end at the young age of 26 as he died three days following a fight against Raul Hirales in Mexico in October. In a loss last year against Evgeny Gradovich, Leal was stretchered out of the ring. It would be the last time Leal fought in the United States, fighting out of Mexico where it was a lot easier to get in the ring without passing a series of tests.

Leal's sad situation felt like it could have been avoided. In the case of heavyweight Magomed Abdusalamov, it felt more of a freak thing. The previously undefeated Abdusalamov went against Mike Perez in an HBO co-feature in November in what was an entertaining fight. Magomed had no previous issues in other fights, but suffered a facial injury early in the fight that he complained about but pressed on gamely. The signs weren't there as much in this fight as Magomed always attempted to rally back. As the fight wore on and became less competitive, you could argue that it should have been stopped, sure. But it wasn't quite the case of a Leal who had many signs pointing to him not being right for the ring. Magomed luckily went to the hospital and was put into a medically induced coma that he just emerged from recently. It is a long road to recovery for him, but at least he escaped the ring with his life.

A number of other ring tragedies occurred in 2013. Jose Carmona suffered a traumatic brain injury against Jorge Arce in Mexico. While all this occurs, it makes you wonder why guys like Roy Jones Jr. and others continue to fight when they are so far beyond their good years.


Click here to read about 2013's Rookie of the Year....


Mark E. Ortega can be reached via e-mail or followed via Twitter.