New Jersey Judges Suspended After Williams' Controversial Win over Lara

Yahoo.com's Kevin Iole reported Wednesday that the three judges who officiated the Paul Williams vs. Erislandy Lara bout have been suspended by the New Jersey Athletic Control Board.

Judges Al Bennett, Hilton Whitaker and Don Givens were suspended for scoring a majority-decision victory for Williams in a fight most ringside observers thought Lara had won.

Bennett had it scored a draw at 114-114 while Whitaker had it 115-114 and Givens scored it 116-114, both for the former welterweight champion.

HBO's ringside commentator, Harold Lederman, had Lara winning, 117-111.

Williams (40-2) kept up a steady work rate throughout the 10-round bout and threw over 500 more punches than his opponent. Lara (15-1-1) landed more and appeared to hurt Williams on several occasions. Because of the subjective scoring of the bout, New Jersey officials didn't find it necessary to overturn the decision.

The CompuBox punch stats showed Williams landing 200 out of 1,047 punches. Lara landed 224 of 530.

HBO commentator and former pound-for-pound star Roy Jones Jr. was concerned with the condition of Williams as he took repeated left hands to the head—a punch that knocked Williams out in his second bout with Sergio Martinez.

NJSACB commissioner Aaron M. Davis was "unsatisfied with the scoring of the contest" according to an official statement released this week.

“This agency has placed all three judges on indefinite suspension,” Davis stated. “Further, all three judges will be required to undergo additional training prior to their return to professional boxing judging."

Judge Givens had never scored a major televised bout while Whitaker and Bennett had one or two notable bouts. Whitaker scored last year's Zab Judah-Lucas Matthysse bout for Judah, who won by split-decision. Many had thought Matthysse did enough to win that fight as well.

“Any contestant who enters a ring or cage in our state deserves the best officiating that we can provide," Davis said in the statement. "While we do not mean to diminish Mr. Williams’ competitive spirit and exciting style, we feel that we did not provide our best officiating on July 9...

“The NJSACB does not have the legal authority, under these circumstances, to invalidate the official result. This is due to the fact that all scoring is a matter of subjective judgment. In a similar fashion, we cannot mandate a rematch. However, our opinion is that a rematch may be warranted.”