One D.C. judge's crazy scorecard at Luis Ortiz-Tony Thompson fight being investigated
Last Saturday's scheduled 12-round heavyweight fight between Luis Ortiz and Tony Thompson at the D.C. Armory in Washington ended in a sixth-round knockout by the powerful, undefeated Cuban Ortiz, as expected.
But if it had been a closer fight and perhaps gone the distance, much more attention would have been paid to the judges' scorecards. If so, some hard-to-fathom scoring would have had to be explained on the inexplicable card of D.C. judge Lloyd Scaife, scoring that could have negatively impacted Ortiz.
A look at Scaife's puzzling scorecard has raised some media accusations of homerism, since Thompson is from D.C.
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Scaife scored the first round 10-9 for Ortiz, even though he knocked Thompson down, which is generally scored a 10-8 round unless the person who was knocked down was clearly winning the round before the knockdown, in which case it could be 10-9. That was not the case here.
In the third round, Ortiz knocked the 44-year-old Thompson down again, and incredibly, Scaife gave the round to Thompson 10-9. That scoring defies explanation. There could be other reasons beyond homerism. Scaife could have just had a bad night or mistakenly inverted the scores.
Overall, through five rounds, Scaife had Ortiz ahead 48-47, while the other two judges, Tammye Jenkins and Paul Wallace, both had Ortiz winning 50-43.
On Thursday, the D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission released a statement to Paste BN Sports that read:
The District of Columbia Boxing and Wrestling Commission is aware of a judging issue related to the Ortiz-Thompson fight on March 5, 2016 at the DC Armory. The Commission takes such matters very seriously, is in the process of reviewing the specifics, and will share additional information with interested parties as soon as the review is completed.
New D.C. Boxing Commission chairman Adam Weers attended the fight, but said Thursday the commission needed to discuss the matter first, and had no comment.
The D.C. commission next meets on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, at which time Scaife's scorecard is expected to be discussed.
Scaife could not be reached for comment.
(Photo: Luis Ortiz waits as Tony Thompson is counted out. Credit: Getty Images)