Bill Clancy on the bad judging of Pacquiao-Bradley and how to avoid controversial decisions

I recently had the chance to speak with respected boxing referee, Bill Clancy. Bill has been in the sport for over two decades and has been the third man in the ring with the likes of Shawn Porter, Manny Pacquiao and Mike Tyson. In this interview, Clancy speaks about some of the problems with today’s referees and what he feels is the cause of those issues. Bill Clancy also talks about the very controversial match between Danny Green and Markus Beyer. Here is what Bill Clancy had to say.

Robert Brown: Bill can you tell me about some of the issues that boxing has today with referees and judges coming up?

Bill Clancy: The problem that I see is, you get an awful lot of wannabe’s out there that watch referees on TV and they think, “Oh that’s easy, I can do that.” Unfortunately, you go and take a written test and depending on what state you live in, there’s a possibility you could get licensed as a referee having no background whatsoever — or very limited background — and because of political connections and so forth, you actually move up through the ranks.

I’ve seen guys get put in situations to referee that they had no business even being selected to do. That’s where some scrutiny comes in. The other side of it is, some of us referees just don’t take the game serious enough and we’re nonchalant in our duties. You get the right person in power, you’re politically connected, therefore you get assignments and you have problems. I think we have way too many officials, if you want to know the God honest truth.

Robert Brown: Can a referee go in to a fight with preconceived judgments about a fight?

Bill Clancy: If you’re at the top and you’re a world class referee, you better know what you’re getting involved in before you get in that ring. You better know a little bit about both guys.

You better know what you’re getting involved with before you get in there. But at the same time, when you go in that dressing room an hour or two before the fight and you do final instructions, you already know in the back of your mind who you’re going in with, and you kind of know their history. That’s where you take control and that’s where you let those fighters know, “Here’s how I’m gonna officiate this fight.”

You make it very, very clear what you’re gonna do, so that when you get in that situation and it’s live and stuff starts happening, they’ve already been told what you expect from them, and your actions better follow what you told them in the dressing room.

Robert Brown: In an ideal world do you think we should dispense of the commission system and go with a federal body?

Bill Clancy: I’m speaking strictly from the perspective of me being an American citizen living in the United States, and I’m just gonna say it like it is; our government can’t run anything right. We got screwed up situations here, they can’t run anything and now they’re trying to run federal healthcare.

I think if the Federal government got involved in boxing, it would get worse, in my opinion. I think we have fine commissions, especially where you have the big major fights. Lets go back to the Pacquiao fight; Duane Ford — who is an outstanding world class judge, he’s got over 140 world title fights under his belt. He’s been a member of the commission in Nevada, his reputation is stellar. He’s done a hell of a job throughout his career. In my opinion and my opinion only, I didn’t agree with his score.

If you look at the three judges that were assigned to that fight, they were extremely experienced judges. If you look at their history of scoring, I don’t think you’ll find one or two fights where there’s been a problem.

Robert Brown: I want to ask you about the Danny Green-Markus Beyer fight, can you talk us through the circumstances and what led up to the DQ?

Bill Clancy: I want to go on record as saying I have nothing but the utmost respect for Danny Green and Jeff Fenech. I consider them friends of mine and I believe if you ask them, they would consider themselves my friends as well. Having said that, I didn’t care who won that fight.

I went over there as a neutral referee. I was obviously in the champions home country, Danny was very inexperienced — only had 17 fights at the time, going into that fight. Markus Beyer was a very tough guy.

Let’s talk about the fight. I clearly let both guys know what my expectations were in the dressing room. Danny Green and Jeff were concerned about me, they were assured by an international match maker who came to my defense and said, “You will get a fair shake with referee Bill Clancy, even though the fight’s in Germany, you’re gonna get a fair shake.”

They were worried going into Germany that they were gonna get a bad outing. With that being said, Danny Green is beating this guy pillar to post, had him cut up, has him literally defeated using legal tactics. I’m gonna ask you, why in God’s name would you drop your gloves in the fifth round and lunge your head into an already badly cut eye that you damaged with your fists legally?

I made a mistake, I will admit, I took two points before I got the doctors opinion. I already knew the fight was over. There was no way that fight was gonna continue, that cut was hideous. It was bad already, but after he landed an intentional headbutt on an already very damaged eye, he painted himself into a disqualification situation. I didn’t paint him into that.

I did screw up and I apologize for the mistake, my mistake was in my referee mechanics. Ultimately I disqualified Danny Green because of the actions he took against Markus Beyer. He had the fight won, all he had to do was keep fighting clean and legal and he would have been the world champion. It was a terrible situation. I had a terrible time, I had my life threatened, my family was threatened. I don’t know even now if I went to Australia that I’d be a safe man. I didn’t do anything wrong, I did my job as a referee.

I want to thank Bill Clancy for taking the time to do an interview with me and I wish him the best in the future.