Pinoy judge in welter duel

A Filipino judge will sit on the panel with Larry Hazzard, Jr. and Steve Weisfeld in scoring the unification welterweight title fight between IBF champion Errol Spence and WBC ruler Shawn Porter at the Staples Center in Los Angeles this morning (Manila time).

It’s a prestigious assignment for Quezon native Rey Danseco who migrated to the US in 2012 and has now worked in at least 40 world championship fights involving marquee stars like Canelo Alvarez, Jorge Arce, Jhonny Gonzalez, Khalid Yafai, Bernard Hopkins, Danny Garcia, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., Leo Sta. Cruz and Abner Mares.

A judge since 2004, Danseco has traveled all over the world for boxing. Among his stops were several towns in Mexico, including Acapulco, Suzhou (China), Liverpool, Honolulu, Tokyo and Osaka, San Francisco, Jeddah, Moscow, Montreal, several towns in Thailand, Victoria (Australia), Edinburgh, Oakland, El Paso, San Antonio, Chicago, Los Angeles and Deadwood in South Dakota.

Danseco, 46, said an assignment he’ll never forget was in 2011 when Hopkins became the oldest fighter to win a world title at 46, outpointing Jean Pascal for the WBC lightheavyweight crown in Montreal. He also scored the WBA/WBC superwelterweight unification title fight between Alvarez and Austin Trout in San Antonio in 2013 and the WBC middleweight championship bout between Chavez, Jr. and Andy Lee in El Paso in 2012.

For his outstanding work, Danseco was named WBC Judge of the Year in 2012 and Judge of the Year at the Elorde Awards Night for three straight years up to 2012. A journalism major and mass communications graduate of Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Danseco said the critical qualifications of a boxing judge are credibility, integrity, impartiality, fairness, pride and no fear in making the right decision in scoring a fight.

“A boxing judge must be knowledgeable because a fighter’s life and career are on the line whenever he fights and that’s why there must be justice in every scoresheet,” said Danseco. “Whenever I judge a fight, I always think I’m a Filipino. Like Sen. Manny Pacquiao, I try to do my best to bring honor to my family and country. Whether it’s a big or small fight, I’ll never let down my countrymen. It is for our country that I do my work as a boxing judge. It’s my small contribution to honor our country.”

Danseco added: “Para sa Pilipinas na ako’y patuloy na nagmamahal sa sports. Patuloy kong itinutuloy yung nasimulan ni Sonny Padilla na bigyan ng karangalan ang ating bansa sa larangan ng pagiging ring official.”

It’s Danseco’s third assignment at the Staples Center after Sta. Cruz against Mares and Garcia against Guerrero. Spence, 29, and Porter, 31, will slug it out to unify the IBF and WBC welterweight titles. There’s a strong possibility that Pacquiao, who holds the super WBA 147-pound belt, may take on the winner sometime in the future.

MP Promotions head Sean Gibbons will be at ringside for the fight. He said he picks Spence, a 10-1 favorite, to win by decision and preserve his unblemished record. “The senator could eventually fight the winner,” said Gibbons. “Senator Manny is looking at lots of options. WBO champion Terence Crawford is out there begging and he’s getting desperate because he can’t land a big fight.” Someone tweeted that “all these young 147-pounders (are) looking to cash their 0 in for the Pacquiao paycheck just like (Keith) Thurman did.”

Thurman was unbeaten when he faced Pacquiao and lost his 0 last July. Spence has a 25-0 record, with 21 KOs and the southpaw is coming off a resounding win on points over Mikey Garcia last March. Porter, a former Pacquiao sparmate, checks in with a 30-2-1 record, including 17 KOs. He’s won his last four outings since losing a decision to Thurman in 2016. Three of those four bouts went the distance, the last a split decision over Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas. Porter’s other loss was to Kell Brook and the draw was with Julio Diaz. Spence is known as The Truth while Porter is called Showtime. Referee for the fight is Jack Reiss who worked the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury heavyweight title fight in Los Angeles last December. He was also the referee in Porter’s recent win over Ugas.