- Duane Ford, Chairman WBC Ring Officials Committee and Ms. Oksana Semenishina, WBC International Secretary as well as Chairperson WBC India organised a seminar for 40 Indian Boxing Judges of the Indian Boxing Council on 31 Aug 2021.
The World Boxing Council today conducted an online seminar on the finer points of Judging in Professional Boxing for the Ring Officials of the Indian Boxing Council (IBC).
Legendary Boxing Judge Duane Ford is a name familiar with hard-core boxing fans around the world. He has been a judge since the 1970’s and has judged over 2000 Professional Boxing Fights including 150 World Titles. He takes pride in the fact that he has always judged honestly and has never been swayed by managers, promoters, television, or anyone else in boxing.
Coming on the heels of the formation of the WBC India Committee, this seminar was attended by 40 Ring officials from the Indian Boxing Council and the emphasis of the clinic was to introduce the Indian officials to world class practices in Judging & Scoring a Professional Boxing Championship bout.
While, all of the attendees have been involved with Professional Boxing Ring Officiating with the Indian Boxing Council, a chosen few who have been involved as ring officials in the last 6 years are being trained to perform duties of Referees & Judges in WBC Championship fights to be held in India in the coming months.
The attendees were initially taken through the basics of Judging a professional bout and further practical scoring sessions of bouts through fight videos at various stages of a round were also carried out.
During one of the videos, Mr. Ford impressed upon the audience the nuances of judging a close bout. He said
“Any normal boxing judge can probably give a 10:9 score to identify who is the winner of a round, but to decide whether the round is scored as Close, Moderate or Decisive it takes a world class ring officials to do be able to do so”.
Mr. Ford in addition to being the Chairman of the WBC Ring Officials Committee is also the President of the North American Boxing Federation (NABF). In an interview to “Boxing Noir” in January 2020, on being quizzed about the role of a Regional/ National sanctioning body like NABF he had this to say –
“Our job is to seek out the best prospects of the day and to help bring them to the next level and get them noticed by the larger sanctioning bodies.”
Brig. PKM Raja, President, Indian Boxing Council said, “I would like to thank World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman, for having approved this Ring Officials Clinic. This is the 2nd such clinic in the last 6 months. We are extremely privileged to have revered global boxing personalities like Mr. Duane Ford, Ms. Oksana Semenishina & Mr. Kevin Noone in supporting the growth of the sport of Professional Boxing as well as the entire ecosystem in India.”
In terms of popularity and participation, Pro Boxing continues to grow rapidly in the country. Since the lockdown was eased in September 2020, India has hosted close to 20 events – and this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the WBC.
Adding to India’s increasing links to the World Boxing Council, we will see the vacant WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental Super Welter Weight title contested on September 3rd at the Crowne Plaza in Greater Noida at the Punch Boxing Series – 7th edition being promoted by Arif Khan & Sport Oodles. The event will see WBC India Rank 1 Sagar Narwat challenge Rahul Kumar, for the Title.
