Boxing Commissions Need to Be Serious Before Being Taken Seriously

Maybe Jon Schorle was having a bad day that led to his bad night. Whatever it was, the Texas referee had a bag full of faux pas on March 24 during the James Kirkland vs. Carlos Molina junior middleweight fight in Houston.

It figures.

The Texas State Athletic Commission is, well, let’s put it bluntly: a running joke. Dick Cole is the head of the commission there and in a blatant, in-your-face exercise in nepotism, Dickie likes to give his son, Laurence, all the prime fights to referee.

It was Laurence Cole that oversaw the main event March 24 between Danny Garcia and fading legend Erik Morales.

Laurence Cole is a semi-competent referee, though he rarely gets any prime gigs out of Texas. His resume reads Texas, Texas, Texas, with a few Tokyo, Japans slipped in. The Texas commission is what is wrong with boxing. It’s unbalanced and inconsistent, and a reason why boxing is so unbalanced and inconsistent.

Some states have commissions—like Pennsylvania, run by Greg Sirb, and Nevada, where Keith Kizer does a first-rate job as executive director—that are solvent, respectable organizations that demand to be taken seriously. Sirb and Kizer make sure fights in their states are officiated by proficient people who know what they’re doing.

Schorle is a Texas regular, apparently. He completely botched the Kirkland-Molina fight, missing the constant holding Molina was doing, the missed the knockdown punch Molina threw and the miserable ending, when Molina was disqualified when a member of his corner entered the ring before the 10th round ended and Molina was receiving a knockdown count by Schorle.

When two fighters enter a ring, it’s serious business. It doesn’t matter if the fight is a four-rounder before a few hundred in a club, or a Las Vegas main event before a sold-out arena. It should be taken seriously by serious people, not by also-rans who want to give their buddies a favor.

It doesn’t work that way in the NFL when it comes to officiating games, does it? It doesn’t work that way in the NBA or in Major League Baseball, does it? Some refs may be better than others in those major sports, but the falloff is not a precipitous drop. The foremost difference is we’re talking about life and death each time two fighters step into a ring.

It’s really that simple.

Fights need to be regulated by serious people that take their jobs seriously. Many state commissions aren’t taken seriously by the state officials that appoint their heads. Consequently, inconsistency is prevalent throughout.

Schorle’s performance in the Kirkland-Molina fight should have come under review. He missed so many things, the fight began to unravel—and he lost control. Yet, the following week—back in San Antonio, Texas—he was back in the ring overseeing Kelly Pavlik’s comeback against Aaron Jaco.

Dick Cole needed to take a good, long hard look at how Schorle handled a fight on that huge stage. He didn’t; he gave Schorle another plum assignment.

Again, maybe he was having a bad day that led to his bad night. And maybe, overall, Schorle is a quality referee. But he should have undergone some scrutiny for the way he handled—well, mishandled—the Kirkland-Molina fight.

A strong state commission would have done that. Texas didn’t.