Scoring error hands boxer loss

When Derrick Harmon and the 1,000 or so fans who saw his April 3 fight with Greg Wright at the New Frontier left the hotel that night, everyone believed the outcome was a draw.

That was the announced result of the 10-round light heavyweight bout that featured Harmon, a Las Vegas resident and the top-ranked contender at 175 pounds according to the World Boxing Council.

Within hours, however, a mistake in the scoring was uncovered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. And Harmon, who went into the fight with a glittering 16-0 record, was told two days later that he had, in actuality, lost a split decision to Wright.

The error came to public light Monday.

"This is a mistake that shouldn't have happened, but it did," said NSAC executive director Marc Ratner. "It's a horrible thing to have happen, but there was no way we could ignore it once we discovered the mistake had been made.

"Calling Derrick that Monday was the toughest call to a fighter I ever had to make."

Harmon took the news surprisingly well.

"First of all, I have the highest respect for Marc Ratner," he said. "I was disappointed, true enough. But I knew he made the decision he did because he's fair.

"He had to make the right decision and I respect him for it."

The error came about when one of the judges, Paul Smith, scored the first round of the fight even, although the NSAC scorekeeper at ringside wrote it down as 10-9 for Harmon. When Smith's score was corrected, Wright came out with a split-decision victory.

The mistake, however, would not have been noticed had Ratner not conducted his usual post-fight critique with his officials.

"It was 11 o'clock and the fights were all over," Ratner said. "Paul Smith mentioned that it was a tough fight to judge and he said 'I couldn't tell who won the first round, so I called it even.'

"I said to him, 'That's not possible, Paul, because my tally sheet says you scored it 10-9 for Harmon.' So we went back and looked at what he had turned in and, sure enough, he had scored the round even."

The loss may knock Harmon out of the WBC's No. 1 position and out of a mandatory title fight with the organization's champion, Roy Jones. (Jones, incidentally, will have his June 5 fight with IBF champion Reggie Johnson at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas formally announced Thursday in New York City. The WBC may yet strip Jones of his title for his failure to defend against the organization's "interim" champion, Graciano Rocchigiani. The topic was due to be addressed this week at a meeting in Mexico City.)

"He's probably not going to still be ranked No. 1," Harmon's manager, Arnie Rosenthal, said from his New York office in regard to the impact of the loss on his man's standing with the WBC. "That loss was far more significant than the draw would have been. Let's just say it turns out that wasn't a very good night for Derrick."

Harmon is taking it in stride, however.

"If that loss makes me a better fighter down the road, I'll take it," he said. "Things happen for a reason and you have to take the bitter with the sweet.

"What I've got to do is move on and learn from what happened. The next time I get in a fight with a guy who's running like Wright was, I've got to go after him more than I did when we fought."

The victory revises Wright's record to 15-5-2.

It also serves as an example of what can happen in a moment of carelessness.

"I've seen mistakes made in adding the scores properly, but this is the first time I've seen one that was the result of mis-recording," Ratner said. "The thing is, if Paul hadn't said anything, we never would have noticed it.

"But we'll use this is a learning thing. I can pretty much guarantee this is a mistake that will never happen again."

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