GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Referee Abraham Pacheco is being criticized for allowing Valentin Leon to endure seven knockdowns Tuesday night.
Boxing referee The Hawaii state boxing commission will investigate charges that veteran referee Abraham Pacheco's officiating endangered the fighters' safety in Brian Viloria's technical knockout of Valentin Leon on Tuesday.
put in a corner
The state commission will
investigate, but the veteran
official stands by his callsBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.com"I am collecting comments pro and con and will call a meeting and look into it," commission interim executive officer June Kamioka said yesterday. "I am definitely going to look into it. (Officials) might get a little irritated at me, but I want to do something."
Gary Gittelsohn, Viloria's manager, said that Viloria will not fight in front of his hometown fans in the future if Pacheco is the referee.
"I would like certain assurances from the commission that Pacheco will not be an official on any card I am involved in," Gittelsohn said yesterday. "I saw enough of him last night to last a lifetime. I can't allow Brian to place himself in danger like that."
Pacheco, 62, responded by citing his record. He has refereed many high-profile fights in Honolulu the past 25 years, and 35 world title fights, he said. He also questioned Gittelsohn's motive.
"I think he's a fool," Pacheco said. "Let's put it this way. He's trying to market Brian and he probably wanted the fight to be stopped in the third round and make Brian's market value higher. He probably thought it was going to be an easy fight.
"I got no problem," Pacheco added. "I'll talk to the commission."
Gittelsohn saw Leon hit the canvas -- sometimes legitimately, sometimes with just a knee to get himself out of trouble -- seven times in eight rounds. With the outcome of the fight an afterthought, Gittelsohn says he began to be concerned for Leon's safety.
And he wasn't alone.
Ringside physician Wayne Ki Fook Lee climbed onto the ring apron in the middle of the seventh round to check on Leon but was ordered to his seat by Pacheco.
"I was worried about him," Lee said. "He kept getting knocked down, and I didn't know what purpose that would have served because I didn't think he could have won anyway. But Abe (Pacheco) is 'the man' and knows the rules better than I. It turned out for the best anyway, Abe stopped it in the next round."
Gittelsohn also said Pacheco failed to wipe off Leon's gloves after each knockdown (dirty gloves can cause serious damage to eyes), signaled the end of the fight and then had the boxers continue, and caused Eric Alexander to take more punishment than necessary in the previous bout.
Gittelsohn also found fault with the state's boxing leadership.
"I don't understand the function of the commission here in Hawaii," Gittelsohn said. "The referee was so badly out of his element that it infringed on the fighters' safety."
Former commissioner Mike Machado said yesterday Pacheco is "the best Hawaii has to offer," and current vice chairman Eiichi Jumawan said Pacheco, who was licensed for the first time in 1976, did a "credible job" in difficult circumstances.
"We can understand Gittelsohn's feelings. With time, who is going to say what will happen anyway? They may want to bring their own referee in," Jumawan said.
Joe Cortez has officiated 156 championship bouts and is widely recognized as an authority on the subject. He was at ringside and said Pacheco did a solid job but was sorely lacking in basic mechanics when he used the wrong hand signal in the fourth round.
Viloria rocked Leon in that round, causing Leon to fall. Pacheco signaled the fight was over, but meant to signal that Leon slipped and would not be charged with being knocked down. Viloria, thinking the fight was over, commenced celebrating but was greeted with a pop in the mouth when he tried to give a congratulatory hug to Leon.
Pacheco said he signaled correctly.
"You cross your arms over your head to signal the end of the fight," he said. "I crossed my arms below my waist, which means a slip. Gittelsohn should stick to managing fighters. He doesn't know the rules."
"Overall the officiating was pretty good," Cortez said. "I don't like to be critical of any official, but he gave the wrong signal and caused a lot of confusion. He made a call that was inappropriate, and it could have turned dangerous. He is lucky the corners didn't jump into the ring, because that would have been dangerous."
Kamioka contacted Cortez about holding seminars for her officials via the Internet at Cortez's Web site.
"I want to make it an educational thing, to make the sport safer for Hawaii," Cortez said. "I'm willing to come here or whatever it takes. I don't want to bash the official, we are brothers. Just offer constructive criticism so that we can get better. Bad officiating anywhere makes all of us look bad."
Cortez said Viloria's fight probably should have been stopped earlier and the state should give doctors like Lee the power to enter the ring at any time.
"A fighter who goes down more than three or four times is clearly outclassed." Cortez said. "If he doesn't have a chance, the corner should stop the fight, but if he doesn't, the referee should make the tough call."
Leon's manager, Augustin Tapia, said yesterday his man was on the verge of winning when the fight was stopped and said Lee and Pacheco protected Viloria from a knockout -- a claim clearly based on bravado considering the seven knockdowns.
"Valentin Leon is a warrior, and I admire him for that," Gittelsohn said. "But when the corner is braver than the fighter, it is a recipe for disaster. The job of a commission is not to give free tickets to the fight, it is to ensure the safety of the fighters."
Viloria agrees with Gittelsohn.
"Gary has every right to be mad," Viloria said. "He was just looking after me and Leon. It is a hard job and it showed by how incompetent the officiating was. It was not much like a boxing match at all, it was horrible and I had to take it into my own hands to end it."
World Boxing Council
