Title Fight Could End in a Legal Slugfest

If you thought last Saturday’s Frankie Duarte-Albert Davila bantamweight title fight was bloody, wait for the rematch.

Not the one in the ring. The one in the courts.

The Forum fight, for Duarte’s North American Boxing Federation title, was stopped in the 10th round of a scheduled 12-rounder because of a deep cut over Davila’s left eye.

Davila had complained that the cut was caused by a Duarte head butt, but referee Lou Filippo, failing to see a butt, awarded the decision to Duarte, who fights out of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood.

All three ringside judges, when later polled, revealed they’d seen several accidental butts by Duarte. Marty Denkin, Assistant Executive Officer of the State Athletic Commission and the NABF representative at the fight, has now recommended that the decision be overturned.

That announcement has caused people on both sides to make charges and countercharges.

Was there a cut over Davila’s eye before the butt? Did the butt happen in the first round as one judge claims? Or was it in the fourth round? Or the seventh?

Forget it. It doesn’t matter which came first, the cut or the butt. It doesn’t matter which round the butt occurred in.

California rules are very clear. If a fighter cannot continue because of a cut, and if a head butt either caused, or worsened, that injury, then the injured fighter is given the victory if the bout went at least one round and the injured man was ahead at the time the fight was stopped.

No argument there.

There was a butt in the opinion of all three judges. It either caused the deep cut over Davila’s left eye, or made an earlier cut worse. And Davila was ahead on all three score cards going into the 10th round.

The argument revolves around Title IV, Rule 340 of the State Athletic Commission rule book. It reads: “If the referee sees or , if after a consultation with the judges, determines the boxer is unintentionally butted in a bout so that he cannot continue, the referee shall ... “

The rule goes on to list the options in the case of an accidental butt. What’s important here are the words “after a consultation with the judges.� Does that mean that Filippo was obligated to consult with the judges after Davila claimed he had been butted? Or does that mean he merely had the option to consult with them if he had any doubts in his own mind?

“You will not find this in any other area of the rule book,� Denkin said. “There is no provision, for example, for a referee to consult judges on a low blow. If he doesn’t see one, that’s it.

“But in the case of a head butt, this was put in to allow the referee to consult with the judges. While it doesn’t specifically say in the rules that he must consult with the judges, the policy, procedure and practice in the state of California is such and that augments the rule. Everybody knows our procedure.�

Naturally, Duarte’s side has another opinion. Dan Goossen, Duarte’s manager, has designated his brother Mike, an attorney, to be the family spokesman.

“They’d better read their own rules,� said Mike Goossen of the state athletic commissioners. “Consulting with the judges is not mandatory according to the words in the rule book. It’s discretionary. That’s the buzzword here. The rule does not compel the referee to go to the judges every time there is a charge of a head butt. If that was the case, the ref would be at the mercy of the corner men.

“Denkin talks about procedures being violated. The fact is, Filippo never acknowledged the charge of a butt at the time. End of discussion. Denkin can talk all he wants about policy, but policy is not the same thing as the law.�

The next round of this battle will be fought on July 17, the date of the next State Athletic Commission hearing. The eight state athletic commissioners will listen to Denkin’s recommendation, give Mike Goossen or any other Duarte representative a chance to speak and then rule.

If they are not satisfied with ruling, the Duarte camp, Goossen said, will next go to the civil courts to seek an injunction that would prevent their fighter from losing his title.

“I wish those legal minds of the Goossens that are coming out of woodwork,� Denkin said, “would remember that dark night when the rules protected Duarte in his fight with Jose Torres.�

Denkin was referring to a Reseda Country Club fight last year in which Duarte, badly cut early in the fight, was allowed to continue and finally stopped Torres in the ninth round. Duarte went on to get a World Boxing Assn. title shot in February against Bernardo Pinango but lost a controversial 15-round decision.

There is no controversy about what happened in the ring this time. Davila was winning the fight. He lost only because of an illegal head butt. He deserved the victory. No ifs ands or butts about it.

But that is no longer the point. It is now a legal matter.

The question is, was the referee required to consult with the judges? When Robert Parish decked Bill Laimbeer in the NBA playoffs with blows that rivaled anything Duarte or Davila threw, nothing was done because the officials on the court didn’t see what happened. Practically everybody else in Boston Garden and a national viewing audience did. An official sitting court side did. But nobody asked him.

Lou Filippo didn’t ask anybody, either. He should have asked the ringside judges. But did he have to?

The judge who finally decides that question might well be wearing a black robe.