Boxing promoter Ben Shalom and Sky’s Head of Boxing Adam Smith are working on a proposal to develop a rating system in the sport.
The British Boxing Control Board recently announced that experienced referee and judge Ian John-Lewis has been demoted from star A star to class A. The Board’s decision was made following an investigation. on his controversial 114-111 scorecard backing Josh Taylor against JackCatterall in their undisputed ultralight world title bout on February 26.
The aftermath of the fight swept through boxing and even resulted in the Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, having to write a letter of complaint to the police.
While the fight was a Top promotion, Ben Shalom and Boxxer were heavily involved in the event that was streamed live on Sky Sports. Shalom was commended for his candid remarks shortly after the Glasgow performance and is now looking to minimize future mistakes in evaluation with a proposal he and Smith will take to the BBBofC.
Shalom told Boxing Social’s Ryan Elliott: “I think that’s the good thing about how they deal with Ian John-Lewis.
“I don’t know exactly how long that is or what that means. I think the bigger picture, and this is why I get annoyed with any kind of comment directed at Josh Taylor, [is] this isn’t even about Taylor-Catterall. This is about rating and British boxing and how can it be developed and how
that could be more transparent and how we can reduce mistakes.
“People must have a desire to minimize mistakes. You see it in other sports. Look, there’s still a lot of work to be done. We are currently working on developing a review system, transparency, public scoring, technical solutions, maybe even a judge in editing sets or whatever but there
must be a conversation now. There is very little guidance on how to judge a match and there is a need to be more transparent about that and qualification, qualification back to the judges and the like.
“We are working hard with Adam Smith and John Wischusen, who work for us, to try to come up with a proposal that we can put to the Board and ask Sky for support. If we don’t use this momentum now, it will continue to last.
“We have seen it again [with] Scorecards for the Sandy Ryan fight and even the Marc Leach fight. We need to try and minimize mistakes. We’ve got a well known case of Catterall and Taylor and we’re going to use that as best we can to develop something towards the board. Robert Smith
(Secretary of the Board of Directors) said he would be open to ideas and he would almost welcome them. So maybe it’s down to the promoter and broadcaster that can help and give something and I hope we’ll make strides with it. “
