| Fight
Fax is the official recordkeeper of boxing as named by the Association
of Boxing Commissioners. Promoters and matchmakers can call
to have updated official records of any fighter faxed within
minutes. Fight Fax also publishes the weekly list of suspended
fighters and the massive "Boxing Record Book" (which
comes out every March) containing complete records of active
boxers. Fightnews recently visited Fight Fax Headquarters and
spoke with Fight Fax President Anibal Miramontes.
FightFax
is considered to be the official record keeper for the Association
of Boxing Commissions isn't it?
Yes. That's correct...we only take commission reports,
we don't take (reports from the) news or fans or promoters or
matchmakers. Only official reports.
Is
that just for the United States? Or do you also have accurate
records for South America, Eastern Europe and all over?
Well, South America is sent to me by a person working
directly with the commission so they are official records. They
have suspensions and weights. The British results, the Italian,
the French, Denmark, Finland, Austria...they're all official,
they come from the commissions. Germany too, they send me suspensions
to put in the Internet. Obviously Canada, a big part of Mexico
and there are some places that it's very hard to have any official
contacts, so I have very reliable people, and sometimes I check
with two or three different sources to be sure that it's official.
Russia I have official results, the Ukraine, too. I would say
that 80% of the results that we put there are official.
How
long does it take for a result to be added to the official record
after a fight is over?
I would say no more than 48 hours. In the case of the
United States, whoever fought on Friday I will never have the
result later than Tuesday. And in Europe, most of the fights
happen during the weekend, I have the results by email on Sunday.
From Japan I have it the same day. No more than 48 hours.
Besides
doing the records, you also do the suspension list right?
Right. The suspension list is huge. It's an humungous
amount of work, and more than anything it's the responsibility
to be sure you put everyone in there to try to protect the fighters.
We have three suspension lists. We have the 'boxers suspension
list' where you have boxers from all over the world. We started
the 'contact sport suspension list,' and all the commissions
that supervise contact sports send me the results and I put
the guys on the suspension. And then we have the miscellaneous
ones, promoters, managers, people other than fighters who are
involved in boxing.
How
often do you see suspended fighters fighting?
You know what? Not too much. I think that the commissions
have been great. They check the records, they check the suspension
lists, they have access to the suspension list. They have been
very, very good. I hardly remember this year, maybe it happened
a couple of times. But, you don't see it anymore. The same way
you don't see ringers. What we call 'ringers' a guy that comes
with a fake name. When the Federal government decided to use
an ID card and FightFax provided the number and we put into
the computer a Social Security search, so now it's almost impossible.
The commissions are doing a great job.
There's
one fighter that comes to mind, Verdell Smith, what happened
with him?
What happened with Verdell Smith was that he used to fight back
in the time that in some of the states where he was fighting
there were no commissions. There were a group of fighters and
they used to fight under different names. And whoever was doing
that was very good because Phill (Marder) and I thought, 'OK
we have this guy already.' Then all of a sudden the same name
he was using showed up for somebody else. But Phill, he was
the original owner of FightFax, he started an investigation
with all these people who were fighting back in that time and
I would say that we have a 99.9% a good record for Verdell Smith
and Craig Houk. And Shaun Gibbons, he gave us a big hand and
I think Verdell Smith for the first time last year made the
book because we're sure we know all these fighters who used
different names. We just had it separated and we're like 99.9%
sure we have it right. Tough job.
Which
active fighter has the most fights on his record?
Reggie Strickland. Reggie won two fights this year
by KO.. He's hot this year. Reggie fought in this show I just
received and he lost so now he has 63 wins, 252 losses and 15
draws and he has two or three no decisions. He's amazing. In
the next book, for the first time I'm going to have a lot of
fighters with over 100 fights. Chavez is going to make the book
again, Buck Smith is going to make the book again, he fought
in Tijuana, you have Reggie, you have Peter Buckley from England,
over 100 losses, and Jorge Castro from Argentina, over 100 wins,
so there are going to be over 4 or 5 or 6 people with over 100
fights in the book.
How
many active pro boxers are there?
I don't exactly know how many fighters there are. That's
a question I'm often asked. I really don't know, but I don't
think there are as many fighters [as five years ago]. And I
think if you compare the amount of shows everywhere five years
ago with the shows we have today, the amount of TV dates in
(compared to) the ones you have today it seems that boxing is
a little on the downside. Just a little, you know. It will go
up again. I don't think it's as bad as what people think it
is. I was reading Lou DiBella, he's a person I respect enormously.
I know he knows the game very well, but I think I need to disagree
with him that boxing is really, really dead, but I know now
ESPN, because they pulled the amount of money they paid the
promoter, there are going to be difficulties but it isn't ...I
don't think it's as good as Gary Shaw says it is, another guy
I respect enormously, and I have the pleasure to know both guys,
so I don't think it's as good as Gary says, but I don't think
it's as bad as Lou says. I think it's inbetween. Obviously I'm
not a promoter so they see it in a different way.
Besides
fighters you also have records for the officials.
That was my idea. That wasn't Phill's. I think it's
great because not only the commissions request the records but
the promoters too. I have a lot of promoters when they have
one of their guys fighting for a title, they want to know what
the judges did, but it's pretty funny, they are even scouting
the judges! When I was judging I never took it personal. I never
find out but maybe somebody said 'I don't want Anibal to be
the judge.' Everyone is trying to have a little edge. It's in
any sport, not only in boxing. But that's a good section, it's
a section that I like, and I think it's become very, very important.
More important than the records sometimes. The only problem
is I'm the only one that does the input here. I'm the only one
that puts the results and the judges [records]. It's like a
15 hour-a-day job.
Before
FightFax you were a world class boxing judge.
I hope so.
How
many world title fights did you do?
Four or five and I have around 20 international fights.
I worked WBC International, I worked NABF, South American titles,
I worked some world titles and NABA titles. And I went to some
places I wouldn't recommend anyone. We had a fight in Burkina
Faso in Africa in a soccer stadium and that was kind of scary.
I would like to get back to judging. It was something I enjoyed
and FightFax took so much time from me, I needed to stop judging,
but I really would like to go back.
What
do you think of the judging today?
I think that it's normal for anyone today to criticize
an official. For the last two or three years everyone criticizes
officials. Now if a fight is one or two points different, the
guy got robbed. So it looks like the close fights don't exist
anymore. Morales-Barrera, two very close fights. One time they
give it to one, next time they give it to the other one. Everyone
that loses says he got robbed. How can you get robbed with one
point difference? Or two points difference? De La Hoya-Mosely,
I watched it on TV. It was a close fight. I don't think that
he got robbed.
But
today everyone criticizes. Anyone that has a website or a mike
in their hands can go on and criticize the referees and the
judges. I think that there are excellent officials and I think
that, like anything in life, there are people that aren't good.
I don't believe in crooked officials. People always say officials
are paid off. When I was an official and when I was on the ratings
committee, nobody ever offered me anything. I never heard anything
like that. I never saw anything like that.
I
think there are good officials, very good, so-so, and incompetent.
The problem is the good officials today have a bad rap. I don't
watch too much boxing on TV because I don't appreciate the people
who work for TV. I think some of the people have their own agenda
and they protect the promoter or the fighter or the official
they like and they attack the other one without any concern.
Laurence
Cole and I are very good friends. When I watched the Barrera-Pacquiao
fight, he was the official and I called him to tell him what
I thought about his job. Well, apparently he made a mistake
in the first round, it was ruled a knockdown, but it really
wasn't and people criticized him for that. But people don't
say that they know it wasn't a knockdown because they watched
it in slow motion on TV. They forget that part. They just tell
you he made a mistake. If you think about it, a referee has
half-a-second to make a decision. So when he made the decision,
he made it. That's it.
I
respect referees more than anyone. It's the toughest job in
the world of boxing. I really think that there's not a question
about honest judges or crooked judges, I think it's a question
of good judges and bad ones. And again, close fights. For me,
a two point difference is a close fight. You know it could go
either way, and people today don't try to understand that.
When
are official records going to be available on the web?
I've been working on it for a long time. My major concern
is security and that was a major concern on the suspension list.
Phill was never friendly with the idea of going onto the internet.
I'm working on it, two or three people I know very well are
working on it. I'll be there. I need to be there because you
need to show yourself on the Internet.
What
are some of the most interesting experiences you had while running
FightFax?
There's not too much excitement here because everyday
is putting in records and records...but I think one of the most
interesting things is even today there are people who fax me
fake records or email me fake records without thinking that
today's technology makes it easy to check. I think that the
best one I had was a guy from South America. He sent me a newpaper
report from his fighter and I made calls to this country to
the commission and nobody knew anything. I found out two months
after that the guy went to a newspaper and he paid them to report
a fake fight for his guy to fight for a title. I still have
it in the file from five or six years ago. That was bizarre.
Phill and I couldn't believe it, the guy went through all that.
Are
there fights going on every day somewhere?
I would say, yes, everyday. In fact, for example, in
Japan they fight Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays', here now
they started to have Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays,
Sundays, so seven days a week. Look at today, I've already been
putting in results and I know tomorrow I'll put the ones from
tonight if the commission sends it to me.
What
is Fight Fax founder Phill Marder doing these days?
He's happily retired. He writes a little for boxing programs.
He's doing very well. Without him, I couldn't be here. He worked
around me. I had little kids and he didn't care how many hours
I worked. He and his wife, Paula, they're the best. And they're
happy...when Fight Fax started, we were working together, but
I was working for him. He was working on FightFax for a long
time, then he bought the business and became independent. He
is a great guy.
Can
you imagine what boxing would be like without FightFax?
You know what? The truth is I think it would be tough
without FightFax. Not only for the accuracy of the records but
also with the suspension list, the ID cards and I think more
than anything the relations that everyone has with me. I think
that I have a good relationship with every promoter, matchmaker,
commissioner, officials. I have great friends and they will
be too many to mention but everywhere in this sport, fighters,
officials, boxers, promoters, there're all great people. I get
upset when they say about boxing 'they're all crooks.' It's
not true. You have good and bad people. I've been lucky. I haven't
seen a bad one yet.
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If
you need official records, call Fight Fax at 856-396-0533
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